69-80 SB Chevy 350

[JohnnyReb]

Also. On your 73 the gas tank is diffrent than the 87 TBI. I think but you might want to recheck, the filler lines are diffrent. I believe yours has a smaller filler tube. Not a big deal but something to make sure of. Other than that I THINK the tanks are the same as far as size and shape. Don't even think of trying to but a TPI set-up piece by piece of eBay or swap meets. Way too much little crap that will cost you a fortune. I've bought several wrecked L98 equipped cars for a few hundred bucks. The last one was a T-boned 89 Z28 I scarfed for $500. You will want a complete donor car so you can scarf the computer and harness. You also need a complete detailed wiring schematic for both vehicles. If you use yuor old engine you need to set up the oil pressure switch and sending unit up with a T like they did with the vette engines and drill/tap for the knock sensor. Its pretty easy to switch to TPI for less than a grand including the cost of a new fuel system. Your best bet would be to find a wreck with a automatic so you can use the OD tranny. Boneyard a cross member and OD gear pointer. If you want to keep your headers and exhaust just use a weld in bung, they cost a whole $7.00. I have had trouble getting the oxygen sensor to heat up with the bung welded into the collector on truck heads. Its a little far down line. I ended up going to a 3 wire heated sensor. I'll quit rambling but if you decide to go this route I can help with any problems you may have.

[nixtux]

I think a o-ring might have blown on the truck. An observation from changing the plugs. I'm going to test the compression Monday. I'm hoping for a head gasket but I wont be too sad if it's an o-ring.

In any event I've been pricing out some motors to swap in. Then rebuild the one that's in there and do everything right unlike the guy who did it before.

I'll re-read through the former two posts when I loose this hangover. Seem interesting.

[Juglenaut]

In my opinion a Vortec swap may be better suited or even a 5.7L EFI engine swap. A vortec swap may be a challenge if you want a TH400 and not a 4L80E.

I wouldn't really bother with carb'ed If I had 3k I would look for a donor.

[nixtux]

A 5.3L Vortec wouldn't be a bad motor. And they have some decent supercharger kits for them. Those thing haul ass.

Though I'm considering selling the old truck. It was a fun project but I'm not really a truck person. I get way too uneasy driving in the city with it. It's rather scary to think a 30MPH hit to any of these cars would likely take a head off. Then to think most the roads are 50-70MPH when you're getting from one part of the city to another ... it's even scarier.

A friend of mine may be interested in it so I'll probably put it down. if he doesn't want it I'm selling it.

I haven't tested the compression yet; it's been below 0 and or snowing so I'm hoping once it snows good it'll warm up in a few days --- week tops and I can give it once over. I'm seriously thinking the o-ring is fine. One of the spark plug wires was bad that I just bought ... I switch it out but I haven't ran the trunk yet. I want to test the compression first to ensure everything is smooth first. I'm not a big fan of working when it's -10F outside. So it was a quick once over on the wires and I noticed the head portion to the distributer was 'jacked' and didn't snap in. So I put the old wire back in which is a perfectly good wire it only has 3,000 miles on it.

I read somewhere that on a rebuilt you should change wires and plugs every 3,000 miles for the first 10k so that's why I changed the boat.

[Talontwoswords]

Hey, sorry to hijack topic, but do you know of a good modern carb for a (don't laugh) 1977 inline chevy 250 six cylinder with a crappy integral intake manifold? I can't really find anything "modern" to replace the crappy 1 barrel rochester carb. I would like a modern two barrel one that would bolt onto the manifold. Thanks!

What we always do, is scrap the quadra-jet and put on a #1406 Edelbrock carb with a electric choke.

Its MUCH CHEAPER then going EFI.

Also scrap the points and drop in a later HEI ignition.

WATCH AND SEE THE DIFFERENCE JUST THOSE ITEMS MAKE.

If you need those Items I can give you a deal on a whole package to wake that engine up so it runs better, starts great, more power, etc. and with that carb under NORMAL driving conditions you will see a MPG gain.

We specialize in restoring/building classic cars and have many, many years of experience.

This is one example of a 58' Buick limited that we have been 4 years on.

We still have TONS of work to do on it, the engine if far from done.

[Juglenaut]

250 Cid VinD O.h.v. ????