Hey guys,
I stumbled upon this forum looking for information for my current project. It's a 1968 C10 with a 250 CID and 3 on the tree. It actually is tuned up and runs REALLY good in the dependability department; but, I have a hard time leaving things alone.
I stumbled upon a 1975 C20 for the engine and transmission. It has a 454/TH400 combo that I was able to drive/compression test/inspect prior to purchasing and pulling the engine. The truck was originally a SBC car per the VIN but it was swapped out in the 90's per the owner who had the conversion done. The block is 361959 and the heads are 336781. The only visible change I could see was an Edelbrock aluminum intake. It still wore the Quadrajet and cast exhaust manifolds.
My goals for the truck are 98% street and would sacrifice large numbers for reliability and a little lump to the exhaust tone. I want to be able to throw the wife the keys without having to explain a bunch of the trucks quirks first. Also, I'm going for a stock/restored look in the truck and would like to keep the stock exhaust manifolds. I have a huge cowl induction style/rubber gasket type air cleaner set up lying around so if I swap out the carburetor it would be pretty much hidden.
Here is where my fork in the road is: Dropping in the 454 as it is would be a huge improvement over the 6 cylinder. I realize all these systems work together so I was looking at the highway RPM's of the TH400 with the 3.37:1 gears in the truck and realized with a 28 inch tall tire I didn't like where it was. Switching to a higher gear (numerically lower) such as a 3.08:1 was better but required switching the carrier which was ok because I need a posi. I also though about tracking down a 2.76:1 set of gears and posi but that proved to be much harder to do.
So I decided to purchase a 1993 700r4 to get the overdrive benefits and ensure it was wired to lock up the torque converter. Initially I though I would match the torque converter to the cam but realized if I kept the 3.73 gears and only install a posi a high stall converter wouldn't lock up because the RPM's would be too low. So I'm leaning towards keeping the stock converter.
The next issue is with all the weight in the front end I would like to get a set of reasonably priced aluminum heads to help out a little. This seems like a huge can of worms. I couldn't find a lot of examples of people keeping the dished pistons and low compression. There was the 454 RV test Hot Rod did where they added a $3,500 top end kit and made a lot of power. But aside from that, most of the information I've found is flat top/decked set ups or domed pistons. This adds a lot of cost for machine work and tear down versus slapping a top end kit on it.
One of the issues with the C10 is, I'm sure traction will be an issue. In my case it doesn't make sense to try and build a 750 ft.lbs monster if I can't use it on the street. I'm running a 245/45 tire so I'll be traction limited.
Then of course there is cam selection with the relatively small cubes and very low compression. I'm pretty lost on this because the more I read and research the less I know.
I did commit a Grumpy sin and purchase a 750 vacuum secondary ultra street avenger carb that I'm hoping I can make work (factory refurb deal). I couldn't use the Quadrajet because I was planning on running the Bowler TV cable set up with the 700R4 and they didn't support the stock carb. I've read some negative issues with the BowTie Overdrive kit and don't want to chance burning up the transmission while I'm trying to learn how to set it up.
What does this group recommend to get to my goals? Throw a very small cam in the stock motor, aluminum heads with stock bottom end, 3 speed vs 4 speed. I'm on a tight budget from the boss and she's losing her patience with this project before I even started the engine swap!
I stumbled upon this forum looking for information for my current project. It's a 1968 C10 with a 250 CID and 3 on the tree. It actually is tuned up and runs REALLY good in the dependability department; but, I have a hard time leaving things alone.
I stumbled upon a 1975 C20 for the engine and transmission. It has a 454/TH400 combo that I was able to drive/compression test/inspect prior to purchasing and pulling the engine. The truck was originally a SBC car per the VIN but it was swapped out in the 90's per the owner who had the conversion done. The block is 361959 and the heads are 336781. The only visible change I could see was an Edelbrock aluminum intake. It still wore the Quadrajet and cast exhaust manifolds.
My goals for the truck are 98% street and would sacrifice large numbers for reliability and a little lump to the exhaust tone. I want to be able to throw the wife the keys without having to explain a bunch of the trucks quirks first. Also, I'm going for a stock/restored look in the truck and would like to keep the stock exhaust manifolds. I have a huge cowl induction style/rubber gasket type air cleaner set up lying around so if I swap out the carburetor it would be pretty much hidden.
Here is where my fork in the road is: Dropping in the 454 as it is would be a huge improvement over the 6 cylinder. I realize all these systems work together so I was looking at the highway RPM's of the TH400 with the 3.37:1 gears in the truck and realized with a 28 inch tall tire I didn't like where it was. Switching to a higher gear (numerically lower) such as a 3.08:1 was better but required switching the carrier which was ok because I need a posi. I also though about tracking down a 2.76:1 set of gears and posi but that proved to be much harder to do.
So I decided to purchase a 1993 700r4 to get the overdrive benefits and ensure it was wired to lock up the torque converter. Initially I though I would match the torque converter to the cam but realized if I kept the 3.73 gears and only install a posi a high stall converter wouldn't lock up because the RPM's would be too low. So I'm leaning towards keeping the stock converter.
The next issue is with all the weight in the front end I would like to get a set of reasonably priced aluminum heads to help out a little. This seems like a huge can of worms. I couldn't find a lot of examples of people keeping the dished pistons and low compression. There was the 454 RV test Hot Rod did where they added a $3,500 top end kit and made a lot of power. But aside from that, most of the information I've found is flat top/decked set ups or domed pistons. This adds a lot of cost for machine work and tear down versus slapping a top end kit on it.
One of the issues with the C10 is, I'm sure traction will be an issue. In my case it doesn't make sense to try and build a 750 ft.lbs monster if I can't use it on the street. I'm running a 245/45 tire so I'll be traction limited.
Then of course there is cam selection with the relatively small cubes and very low compression. I'm pretty lost on this because the more I read and research the less I know.
I did commit a Grumpy sin and purchase a 750 vacuum secondary ultra street avenger carb that I'm hoping I can make work (factory refurb deal). I couldn't use the Quadrajet because I was planning on running the Bowler TV cable set up with the 700R4 and they didn't support the stock carb. I've read some negative issues with the BowTie Overdrive kit and don't want to chance burning up the transmission while I'm trying to learn how to set it up.
What does this group recommend to get to my goals? Throw a very small cam in the stock motor, aluminum heads with stock bottom end, 3 speed vs 4 speed. I'm on a tight budget from the boss and she's losing her patience with this project before I even started the engine swap!
