New Old Truck

Cotton wrote: I'm curious to see what you decide on the od trans. I want to upgrade mine as well.

One of my friends did hte TKO-600 in his 69 Mustang with a Cleveland. Nice, light but accurate shift pattern. I think that's the direction I end up. I want to keep the mechanical clutch because I love the feel. All the "modern" trans swaps require going over to hydraulic.

What about an MY6 swap? Still a four speed, came with mechanical clutch control (why you want this, I do not understand, but I respect your stated interest in having it) and they should handle your stated power target pretty easily.

I wonder about building an L98 TPI motor for this thing. Some improved intake runners, a cam worth talking about, Megasquirt and headers... I know that Vortec heads are better but aluminum L98 heads should work quite well on a truck and with a little clean-up work can flow well enough to support 400hp.

I like the old schoolness of this thing and I'll likely stay either carb or carb-type standalone. To me, looks better under that hood.

As for the transmission, because it's an SM465. the shifter is waaaaayyyyyy up front (5-6" behind the bellhousing. So if I'm going to have to change shifter locations I want a few more gears in there. THe current gear spacing is terrible even with the 4.10 rear gears. You wind first to the moon, and second is damn near outta the torque curve. Wind that up and 3rd is almost outta the torque curve again. A 5-spd (with 5th as OD) gives me 2 more gears in there to keep the engine on boil a little easier.

When the engine does get rebuilt, I'll swap to a pair of aluminum heads and step up the cam for sure.

*EDIT: Even though I use them as 1st, 2nd and 3rd, it's actually 2-3-4 because first gear is only for moving your house.

In reply to Bobzilla:

All good points. To me, TPI looks pretty old school at this point as well, and doesn't have nearly as many issues with fuel distribution as a single carb on a V8. But I get the looks of a carb and traditional round air filter setup and how that's going to look "more right" than a big aluminum box like a TPI intake, or a plastic bundle of snakes like an LS, et cetera.

Your truck, good luck, will be watching this project.

In reply to pres589:

Besides.... I already did an L98 build! I think Cotton said it made 250 at the rear wheels and something ridiculous on the torques side, like 350 or something silly and no less than 300 anywhere on the curve. Still hated to be above 5k though. He was still having fuel issues so it may be better now. Love to see an update cough cough

What about mpfi with a 4bbl throttle body single plane setup? Seems like the best of all worlds.

Dusterbd13 wrote: What about mpfi with a 4bbl throttle body single plane setup? Seems like the best of all worlds.

that's a possibility. But we're looking a few years down the road at this point. Too many big ticket items that are a need first. Like suspension. Brakes. Wiring. Transmission. Seats.

WOOHOO! Wheels are at homne.

Bobzilla wrote: In reply to pres589: I already did an L98 build! I think Cotton said it made 250 at the rear wheels and something ridiculous on the torques side, like 350 or something silly and no less than 300 anywhere on the curve. Still hated to be above 5k though.

This piques my interest. Would work good for a project of mine. Is there a build thread somewhere? (I probably already read it...but you know...that's how these things go.)

Basically, I'm gathering all the info I can on torque-monster SBC builds. So I'm also highly curious what you put into the truck!

Like!

Not going to lie. It's sexy. I will be ordering some 2" spacers though. That will bring the wheel closer to the fenderwell and look right. Need to pull the rear cover and get the old shoes and backing plates off next.

Bobzilla wrote: In reply to pres589: Besides.... I already did an L98 build! I think Cotton said it made 250 at the rear wheels and something ridiculous on the torques side, like 350 or something silly and no less than 300 anywhere on the curve. Still hated to be above 5k though. He was still having fuel issues so it may be better now. Love to see an update *cough cough*

I ended up trading the vette, another truck I had, and some cash for my 55 Chevy two door wagon.

The vette was running great at the time. When I was tuning it I noticed the factory injectors were maxing out, so I installed larger ones and had it retuned and it really ran great. It's still local and I see it quite a bit, so it's still going strong.

I like those wheels.... 17's? What brand are they?

Ummm...... not sure? Something 8. I just got the 2" spacers put on. Measuring, I can clear this diammeter in a 9.5 up front and a 12 out back. If I got to 18 I can clear a 10 up front with this backspacing.

EDIT: Tracker 8. These things are really light for a 17x8.5

Also Level 8. Whatever...

So today I pulled and rebuilt the carb. Can't believe it works! Well, sorta. It idles at 1500 rpms. Hand over the primaries and it settles down to 600. Not sure where to go at this point. May need to call in some experts!

Vacuum leak. Probably missed a plug on the base plate.

I probably should have resealed the rear plug. The fronts are all accounted for.

Also, the secondaries now work. Before disassembly they couldn't move thy were some gummed up

One other thing.... someone has definitely been in this carb before. They cross threaded 2 of the butterfly bolts. When I pulled them they brought some of the threads out with them. ran a tap through them and all was good.

Did you check for shaft play after reassembly of the butterflies? Also, if you had it that far apart, the butterflies only fit properly one way. They'll physically fit 4 ways, but only one lets it like up in the venturi properly.

Holley carb, correct?

Edelbrock. They have the slots in the butterflies to get the proper adjustment. These were caked with god knows what to the point that they couldn't move in the venturi. There was a physical ridge inside there that I had to clean out. Everything now moves like it should, freely.

So Saturday I yanked the diff cover, pulled the axles and got the rear shoe backing plates off, replaced the axle seals and got the calipers and rotors mounted up. Still need to find a couple of sae to metric adapters to hook the brake lines to the hoses and figure out how I'm going to hook up the parking brake lines.

Anyone need GM 12-bolt 13" drums with hardware? the drums were darn near new and all the hardware and backing plates are in great shape. Seems a waste to trash them. Pics coming soon.