Just advice please

Some of you guys have a odd way of looking at things. It's a 79 one ton dually with a dump bed and manual transmission even if it needed a motor I'd still do he literally wants a junky G6 for a solid clean square body. Its nothing to do with buyer seller business it's passion for what it is. I'm not going after a daily driver. Its Something I can build on and modify with my boys and maybe pass down and that's priceless. However Im making the trade either way I want it. He still has all the original parts and I can have them as well. I wasn't asking for any opinions about what it is or if it was worth it cuz to me it is. I just wanted advice as far as what to look at before I drive it and the potential of making it worse if I have to drive it home like it is.... anything beyond that is worthless to me. We made arrangements for next Tuesday to trade. I agree with gtx63 I definitely plan on limping it home if I can't solve the issue on site I already have a SBC out back to swap it out worse case scenario. I just went and bought extra oil just in case and new intake gaskets with silicone I'm just gonna pop it off and redo it while I'm there and that'll give me a good idea of what's going on in there I'm gonna pack my tool bags for anything I need to do. And have a friend with a strap and truck. She's coming home with me IDC if I have to to strap it. Im leaning towards it being a lighter issue and I feel like between having the old parts resealing the intake checking the valve train and timing Im confident I'll find the issue and be able to drive it home fully operational and if not that's fine too. I appreciate all your guys insight and will be using it for reference when I go there as well as posting pictures and what's going on with it. Hopefully it'll be me driving it and not tow strapping it.

Bring that puppy home and keep us posted as to how it all works out.

You asked for advice. You got advice. If you had your heart set on trading all along, you should have just did it and then posted up a thread on how you acquired it, and now you need to replace this or that, etc.

That said, go get the damned truck, drop off your junk g6, and let's see the new build thread where you tear into this c30 dump bed.

Being a rancher, I like that dump bed. Could put a good load of hay on it, and not have to manually unload....

When dealing with someone else's repairs, I always like to get the parts they removed or replaced, if available. You can usually do some diagnosis from the parts they removed. Plus, many times, you end up with some perfectly good extra parts to either use yourself, or sell for $ to put back into your truck.

jaydubb350 said:

Hi my name is Justin I'm new to the forum thanks for having me here. Right now I am just looking for some advice I recently found a 1979 c30 dually manual trans with a dump bed Vortec block vortec heads carbureted intake HEI distributor with an Edelbrock and is solid and very clean by the way. The post that I found said that it had the top end redone but now has no power. So I drove over there with the car that he wants for the truck which is a 09 G6 I definitely want to trade cuz why not that's a great deal. The truck started great the carburetor and choke operated perfectly and idled fine a side of there's a bad misfire and smoke rolling into the cab that smelled like burnt oil. He told me that the guy he had working on it said that there was a cracked head so he went out and bought some vortec heads lifters push rods and roller rockers that the mechanic couldn't get them to fit right for whatever reason. so the guy bought another set of heads lifters pushrods and rockers which apparently worked but when he driving home couldn't get it over 50 and it didn't have enough power to make it over a overpass but didn't have that issue before hand and he doesn't know anything else about it besides it's leaking oil from the back of the intake where it should of been permatex. I didn't want to mess with anything trying to find out what's wrong at his house cuz I'm on a tether i was limited on my out time. So the advice I want to get is after checking the obvious plugs, wires, distributor timing what could be going wrong with it that would not make it okay to drive 30 mins home as I do not have a way to tow it. At that point I would be worried about mechanical I don't know what was touched or done correctly. I'm hoping it's something simple or even stupid like crossed spark wires. I want to get it back to go back through it for my peace of mind and to fix the problem but not at the risk of ruining it. Any advice would be great thank you.

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I always look at worse case scenario and price in a new short block engine. If the swap still makes sense, grab it. If not, walk.

Kheughens said:

I always look at worse case scenario and price in a new short block engine. If the swap still makes sense, grab it. If not, walk.

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I don't think you read the whole thread. He is set on getting it. Probably already has it. And hasn't posted anything else. We either lost him, or he is head deep in repairs

Alright....sorry it took me a couple of days to report I've been busy on it. Well I had to limp the truck home it took me like 2 hours and a gallon of oil. Before I left with it I checked under the valve covers and nothing was out of place and it did have self aligning rockers. It had a serious loss of power couldn't get it over 40 and hot boxed the hell out of it with burning oil coming from the intake leak. I stopped over and over to put more oil in it. I noticed the more I tried accelerating it would loose more momentum I let off a bit and it picked up slightly. One of the times I stopped I checked the wires. One and three were mixed up it helped a little but not much.
After getting it home first thing I checked was rocker movement they all were operating right when I rolled the motor so I tore everything down to re seal the intake and the guy that did it put those POS valley gaskets on it and the back was hanging out off the valley so new gaskets cleaned it up sealed it with a bead of rtv after inspecting the lifters and pushrods. The HEI distributor is brand new I bought two new fuel filters to put one before the pump and after the old was full of all sorts of **** so I opened the top of the carb and of course there was a bunch in there so I cleaned and blew out all the ports and put it on. Topped the oil off and started it. Started right up I moved the distributor from where I had marked it and gained more rpm so I still need to get it timed, I still hear a misfire. I gave it some gas and the engine started shaking pretty good which seems like a dead cylinder. I noticed the PVC valve keeps popping out and I have tapping coming from the passenger side and can really hear it with the PVC out. Touching the valve covers it feels the strongest over number four I pulled the plug and the gap seems to large and it's black its not a dry sooty look and it's not real wet and oily. So it's got me thinking it needs new plugs and a valve adjustment. I'm gonna pull the rest of the plugs and mark them to see what they collectively look like. Get new ones check the valves for lash over each cylinder while they are out. I can't find my damn gap tool I'm sure I will after buying another one. I'll put pictures up if the plugs. Just wanted some opinions.

Right off rip I noticed a mismatch plug and bank two is running way rich. Probably need new wires as well a few of them are wet with gas. I also took the liberty of taking a few extra photos (for the critics) of the frame that still has black paint on it all the way back to the hitch and the solid floors rockers and cab corners. The hydro boost and brake system works flawlessly as well as the suspension and steering. Nothing needs to be done to this truck besides it's runnability issue which is completely well worth figuring out. If you disagree I respect your opinion but politely keep it to yourself.

The other pictures

DoubleDingo said:

You asked for advice. You got advice. If you had your heart set on trading all along, you should have just did it and then posted up a thread on how you acquired it, and now you need to replace this or that, etc.

That said, go get the damned truck, drop off your junk g6, and let's see the new build thread where you tear into this c30 dump bed.

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Yes advice as to what to watch for before I drive it. Not advice as to weather to do it or not or worrying about other people's services to the truck my heart was set on it I made the thread set on it I didn't ask for any advice on if I should do it or not I wasn't wrong in why I made the post.

Glad you got it and have corrected some things. I suggest starting a new thread for this truck with a copy and paste of your post #23 and beyond as the start, and post up pics as you go so we can see what you're seeing.

Compression check, tune up, oil change, flush cooling system, change anything you can think of that isn't working properly and that hasn't already been changed. The pvc popping out sounds like blowby to me

jaydubb350 said:

Yes advice as to what to watch for before I drive it. Not advice as to weather to do it or not or worrying about other people's services to the truck my heart was set on it I made the thread set on it I didn't ask for any advice on if I should do it or not I wasn't wrong in why I made the post.

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We're past that.

Don't run iridium plugs. I made that mistake.

DoubleDingo said:

We're past that.

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I was just responding