First engine swap: ‘85 454 into ‘79 C10

[DirtyDYT]

DirtyDYT,

I read threw the entire thread! Nice job on the budget build if there is such a thing "as budget" Lol..... I especially appreciated the score on the heads your 454 came with and I'm guessing the cam likely isn't stock either!

Again nice build and I enjoyed reading through your thread. I wish you the best in your future ventures with your truck


Tracy

Thanks Tracy... I gave up on the budget once I started throwing power steering mounts and pumps at it until one finally worked. I think I’m $3200ish into the truck and related costs as of driving it home from the exhaust shop. I will go back and calculate it though... now I’m curious and the whiskey is not helping my memory lol.

It sounds like the engine has a mild cam. It drives like it too. I have not put my foot into it at all but I can’t wait to. The trans is about .5L over full. I don’t want to push it until I pump the extra back out. My use of a front mount trans cooler means the trans probably won’t warm up to temp consistently until some time mid spring because Ohio.

That last connector is for an electric choke

Thanks! If you can believe it, I actually figured that out myself! The choke on the Quadrajet works great. I actually forgot I hooked it up until the truck tried to “idle” away from me much like my old El Camino did in the cold.

The and engine and carb are both super healthy. There was next to no sludge given its age and the truck it was in. Just a bunch of sand on it. As a result of its good health, it actually runs great during the winter but the truck does not have a cab heater. The irony!

Some other things to note: the front end has never been level. Well... turns out the passenger side has a 2” drop spindle and the driver side is stock. What the actual fuhhhh?

 

[bucket]

Was the last owner a really heavy guy? Maybe it was so the truck sat level with the driver on board.

Or maybe it was to compensate for a worn bench seat? When they get bad enough, it can feel like you're sliding right off the end, lol.

 

[DirtyDYT]

I guess all that can be said is that the truck is being used for truck things. It makes my son giggle when I burp the gas pedal and makes me laugh when I floor it (driving solo.)

Several upgrades, updates and whatnot have happened. I’ll try to summarize them here.

I’ve put in that Spectra CU730 radiator after I found out that I was f’n up bad. I had run low on coolant due to a split hose and it was running hot. I didn’t put in a temp gauge because I was in a hurry and don’t usually not notice that an engine is overheating. But I didn’t... thankfully this engine is a resilient f’er and kept on going strong. Changing the radiator was not the real fix-replacing the leaky heater hose was.

I also had a shop do the front brakes, a bleed, alignment, and they tuned it a bit. Once I got it back it ran well enough that I would eventually figure out that the timing was so far advanced because it was so hard to start it. Idle was super choppy in a bad way. I didn’t hear any ping on 93 under the noise of true dual off brand flowmaster clones but it hauled f’k’n ass. 1st gear somehow legged out at 60 mph in the 5k range and felt like I was getting a good 240-250rwhp. I ended up having to take some timing out and it feels more like 200 rwhp with a shift near 3.8kish at 45ish. I didn’t use a timing light, just my ears and experience. Now it just drives like a truck with a big block.

The problem with the (mini) starter was that it was barely able to turn over the engine. Why? The excessive timing. It took me a good while to figure that out. Cranking the engine too often with too much timing either broke a tooth off the flex plate or it needed shimmed in the first place and the starter has now either chewed itself and/or the flex plate up a bit. Either way it’s a PITA to start because the starter disengages after 1/2-1 crankshaft rotation. Then randomly cranks for like 10 rotations before breaking free again. I’ll be addressing this soon because it’s the last issue to this being a reliable work beater/cruising truck. I think it’ll end up flat towing my recently turbocharged street legal sand rail pretty often if I can just get the damn thing sorted.

Future plans... if I can find turbo manifolds and a pair of turbos for super cheap it is 100% getting turbocharged. Same goes for a cheap wet nitrous setup in the 150-250 range. Basically, this truck has just been a lot of me goofing off and will probably continue to be just that.

Was the last owner a really heavy guy? Maybe it was so the truck sat level with the driver on board.

Funny! But no, shop says it was bent. Caveat was they also couldn’t quite point to where or figure out how exactly he did it. Previous owner was a 17 year old who to quote his stepdad “ruined a good truck in 2 days.” That’s all the time it took him to blow a 350 and damage the passenger side suspension with his antics. He made a bunch of promises and didn’t deliver. What can I say...