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  1. MikeB

    Would you use new old maintenance parts/carb kits?

    I've bought NOS parts from Autozone and Rock Auto. All were in beat-up boxes, and some had light surface rust, but they were functionally perfect. And made in the USA by Moog, Wagner, etc! Also got lots of gaskets from Rock Auto, including Fel-Pro brand, for small block water pump, t-stat...
  2. MikeB

    Pulling the 1986 5.7 Broken Cam

    Man, that bottom end was effing nasty! I've never seen anything that bad. Did see a six once that had totally trashed main bearings. It still ran, but you could hear a rumble that sounded like a bag of rocks!
  3. MikeB

    Stock lower end smog pistons with 781 heads

    If you do use studs, remember that they have virtually zero torque on them, so be sure to use ARP thread sealant to keep coolant from leaking past. Also, run an old tap or thread chaser through all the holes, regardless of whether you use bolts or studs. One more thing: I don't know about...
  4. MikeB

    Would you bore this 350 again or scrap it?

    I agree. Back in the early 2000s, I worked Saturdays at a shop that specialized in 383s. Wasn't uncommon to see later model 1-piece main seal blocks clean up at +.010 or less, but the boss always liked to take them out to around .029, and then power hone to .031. The extra .001 was for a...
  5. MikeB

    Could I use larger tires on my truck without having to tamper with anything

    With taller tires your speedometer will read low. Might want to google "TH350 speedometer gear chart" (or whatever trans you have) to determine what you need. More than likely you can get away with a new "driven" gear, which is easy to change. There are several smart phone apps that will tell...
  6. MikeB

    Small block... buick? Oldsmobile? PONTIAC?

    Just FYI, there is "Unicase" version of the TH350 that works with BOP and Chevy. I have one in my truck, but I don't know what it originally came from. Everything behind the "bellhousing" is the same as a regular Chevy TH350.
  7. MikeB

    Thinks shes gunna blow!

    Glad you got the problem fixed. Much better for it to be external than internal! Since you are concerned about spelling, the Google Chrome web browser has "spell check" which can be enabled in "settings". It checks spelling as you're typing and lets you add words and abbreviation to a...
  8. MikeB

    Ford guy here lol

    Welcome to Chevy Truck Land! Nice old basic truck you have there.:cheers: As for Fords, my last daily drivers were a 2011 F150 and now a 2016 Mustang GT. Both were/have been rock solid reliable. On the other hand my wife's new 2014 Acadia, which we had hoped to keep for 7-8 years, probably...
  9. MikeB

    Why so hard to search air compressors by CFM? Cubic Feet Per Minute

    Go here and select "two-stage" or "single-stage" at the the top, and then search by phase, brand, or CFM. https://www.aircompressorsdirect.com/
  10. MikeB

    Start digging around or buy a complete harness???

    A problem you might have is poor connections at the firewall plugs. Not much you can do about that. I cleaned mine with contact cleaner and a burnishing tool, but I still had intermittent issues. I ended up using a very nice generic GM kit from AAW (American Autowire), but there is NO WAY I'd...
  11. MikeB

    bearings instead of bushings front control arms

    I'm not sure how you'd engineer a modification to accept some type of bearings.??? Neither the control arms or shafts are machined for bearings/races. It would take lots of machining and possibly welding and fabrication. And for what benefit? I highly recommend name brand poly bushings, like...
  12. MikeB

    Tailgate pivot hinge

    Yes. I never really dug into the problem before getting involved in this thread. Ended up taking less time to fix it than to determine what I needed to do.:rolleyes:
  13. MikeB

    Tailgate pivot hinge

    As you can see here, the open slot on the pressed-in tailgate " cup" was out of whack by 60 degrees or so. Below: I was actually able to remove the bracket w/o removing the bumper! Then I held the bracket in the vise and rotated the cup to the proper position. It was very tight, but somehow...
  14. MikeB

    Tailgate pivot hinge

    Found the problem. The slotted cup on passenger side of my tailgate must have rotated. It should be oriented like in the picture below. So, like someone above said, it should lift up and off the oval shaped bed cup when the tailgate is dropped 30-45 degrees from vertical.
  15. MikeB

    Tailgate pivot hinge

    I'd sure like to see a picture of the side with the slot in the cup. Do you pull the tailgate up and out when it's at 45 degrees? Here's what mine looks like. As you can see, it has to move down another 30 degrees or more before it will drop out. Maybe the cup or trunnion has rotated...
  16. MikeB

    Min Starters not all created equal

    I've had the same mid-90s 5.7L permanent magnet starter on 3 different vehicles now. (Removed it from the first two when I went with 168-tooth flexplate and flywheel.) Bought it on eBay for $40-something around 12-15 years ago. Still works great, which surprises the heck out of me since it was...
  17. MikeB

    Tailgate pivot hinge

    On my 82, quick removal only works if you don't have a bumper installed. :( That's because the tailgate must drop around 30-45 degrees below level before the slot in the "cup" will slide out of the body-mounted trunnion on the passenger side. Here's a parts diagram...
  18. MikeB

    Razor blade and paint thinner to remove sticker

  19. MikeB

    New engine quirks

    I can tell you that zero degrees advance was a band-aid to reduce emissions, just like using "ported" vacuum for spark advance. Coupling those band-aids with a super lean fuel mixture typically meant stumbling on acceleration, detonation (from the lean mixture), and poor fuel economy. As...
  20. MikeB

    Headlights quit

    This is an oldie but a goodie post about an 86 GMC Caballero with column-mounted headlight and dimmer switches: A dimmer switch on a GM product is a switch that switches your headlights from lo to hi. It is near the ign sw. on the column. The power goes from that to the headlights either hi or...
  21. MikeB

    Rebuild and sell or part out?

    I don't think you'll find much interest in a 305, so I wouldn't spend any money on it. If you can honestly tell a buyer that it ran OK, then you might get $150 for it, and that's a big maybe. I've seen guys give them away just to get them out of the garage! You might also consider selling the...
  22. MikeB

    Adhesives

    No surprise that JB Weld won the contest. I had a buddy use it in an emergency to patch a broken cast metal A/C compressor bracket. He had planned to buy a new bracket, but never got around to it. After a few years, he traded in the car with the patched bracket still intact! On another note...
  23. MikeB

    Adding convertor (s). Yes, I said adding.

    I'm no emissions expert here, but will cats have a shorter life if the A/F ratio is overly rich due to not having feedback from an O2 sensor? Then again, I don't think the auto manufacturers had any feedback when they started using cats back in the mid-1970s. The idea was to convert as much...
  24. MikeB

    Second PCV with carb "T" or to intake manifold?

    No, no no! The PCV valve is only partially open under low vacuum, high load conditions. it's only fully open (in the middle of its travel range) under moderate vacuum, medium load conditions. With no valve, what you have is a constant large vacuum leak!
  25. MikeB

    Dipstick tube installation tricks

    I recently installed a new ProForm dipstick housing (with locking dipstick) on my 82 C10's TH350 without removing anything. All I had to do was hold a 2x4 edgewise on top of the tube and tap it with a hammer. Mine came with a rubber bushing, unlike factory models that were metal on metal and...

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