Burnt valve 350...fix or swap to 383, 454, 6bt?

[78C10BigTen]

The truck is a 4wd, the biggest change was the exhaust, we made a new system with more diameter. The old exhaust was too small for a big block and position of the manifolds is different.
New hoses for the cooling system and a new hi torque starter because the flexplate on the big block was different and the old starter had seen better days.
I guess 1 day of work with beer and looking at our work included.
And 1 day for the exhaust system.

I was jut curious as ive pondered the same swap in my 78 but mines 2wd. My exhaust wouldnt be bad im already 3" all the way out.

 

[Warkmeister]

As a personal note, I wanted to close up this post with what I actually ended up doing. It’s only more than a year later . My dad had a ‘97 vortec 350 that I robbed the heads off of. They cleaned up well, and I bolted them on with new gaskets and an edelbrock vortec intake. Fired it up for the first time last night and it sounds great. This is the temporary fix, as we just need a working truck around the house and we sold our tundra for a suburban. The big plan is to eventually put the 89 12 valve Cummins i bought into it. At least there’s only one useless truck on our property now instead of two.

 

[dsteelejr]

I lived in the SF Bay Area until I was 29, then moved to Wyoming where there is no smog check. I thought if you run a diesel in California you had to have a state certified shop verify that it was a diesel because people were reporting their vehicles as diesel fueled so they could (illegally) avoid smog check and register their cars with modified gas engines that wouldn't pass smog. Or is Fresno area not a smog check area?

To put my two cents in: I'd say go with the 454. Keep it simple and easy. I have a 454 in my square that was desmogged before I got it. I run the SM465 and 4.10 gears. Its all stock except for an Edelbrock AVS2 650 cfm carb and open element air cleaner. Runs great, lots of power even for being wore out and I suspect it has burnt valves. The SM465 is not a fast shifting tranny, so don't expect to be doing speed shifts, but there is a trade off. It is a tough tranny and considered bullet proof. With 4.10 gears and stock tire sizes I'm usually in top gear around 25 MPH unless I'm under load. Once I'm in top gear I can floor it and the secondaries open up it really takes off. Hauls ass for an old beater truck.

 

[t44e6]

Tear the 350 down and inspect everything, refresh as necessary. Redo the heads. Bolt a low pressure belt driven supercharger kit on it. But first, move.