Time for an Engine build

[Rusty Nail]

Wow! Hay look at him go with the pics!

Adding pics is made simple by mashing "go advanced" and molesting the paperclip.

You can use that in the future.

Well, one POSSIBLE future - from your point of view.....(I don't know tech stuff.)

[yt]8H3wUZMS4M0[/yt]

 

[Handy Andy]

bah, I knew there had to be an easier way!

 

[Handy Andy]

Spent some time today working on my build. Made a little progress. Another solid full day of work on it and it should be all ready. Gotta get my q-jet in the mail so it can be rebuilt. Will probably use the edelbrock that's on my current motor until I get the q-jet back. Waiting on a hydro dip kit to show up so I can dip the intake manifold. Once I get that done I will finish assembly and then I have to get the electrical for ,you new gauges done before I install the motor.

 

[vkh]

If you're gonna run a qjet on that manifold you're gonna need an adapter.

 

[Handy Andy]

Yup already got one delivered from summit hoping to get the intake dipped tomorrow and then mounted up Saturday. I go back to work Sunday morning so the engine swap will have to wait until Thursday.

 

[vkh]

Nice, looks like it'll be one hell of a motor. Just have mercy on those poor tires.

 

[Handy Andy]

Made a little bit of progress today. Yanked the old 350 out and dropped in the new 400. While I was pulling the 350 I realized the transmission fill tube was broke and only being held on by one of the bellhousing bolts. Gotta get one ordered. Back to work tomorrow night for a couple night shifts. Thinking Thursday I should get her up and running for the break in. Still gotta bolt up the headers and then mounted all the accessories on the front, but that should go decent I think. Also ended up replacing the steering gear box while I had the motor out.

 

[Rusty Nail]

Huh. That's pritty neet.

 

[Handy Andy]

Well the motor is in and broke in. Just gotta do some small things like the the plug wires all routed where and how I want them. Also going to have to make a bracket for my ac pump because the taller valve covers on the motor will not allow it to sit where it used to... whole I was doing the break in I climbed under the truck to look for leaks and found a giant crack in the bellhousing of my 700r4. Fricken joy... anyways, spent half the night online looking for a new transmission, decided to stick with a local shop. For about $1600 the guy is going to swap the case and rebuild the transmission so it will handle the power my motor is putting out. I was able to find them cheaper online, but the guy who owns this shop is a family friend and he does great work. We've used him for as long as I can remember and he has always treated us very well.

Also waiting on my carb to get back from Quadrajet Power as well.. did the break in with my old edelbrock and will run it with that until the qjet gets back.

 

[Handy Andy]

Worked on the truck some more yesterday. finished up all the major stuff in the engine compartment. Got the inner valve springs all put back in now that the break in is done. Just a little bit of Tidy up work to do under the hood now. I'm going to go along and replace all of the vacuum lines under the hood because halve of them are melted from what appears to be an engine fire during the early stages of life for this truck. There's a lot of stuff that's just capped off as well that I'm going to do away with. Got the transmission dropped and hauled into the repair shop to be rebuilt and swapped to a new case. Should be done by the end of the week or early into next week which is fine. I won't be able to work on it again until the middle of next week anyways. Also going to replace the output seal on the transfer case while it is out. It looked like it may have been leaking a bit so might as well replace it. Checked all the joints on my drive shafts and they all appear to be in excellent shape. Hopefully my next trip over to work on it will be the last!

 

[Handy Andy]

Welp, she's done for the most part. Finally drove it home today after changing the back brakes, replacing the steering wheel and the turn signal cancel cam. It's running decent for having a carb on it that sat for 8 years, but I think once the qjet gets back again and installed it will run great. When I pulled out of the local Flying J to begin my 60 mile drive home I stepped on her pretty good and she spun the tires through first and into second so it's definitely making a ton more power. The only thing that seems really odd to me is at 70 mph I'm turning about 2300rpms. I'm running 31.5" tires, 3.73 gears and a 700r4 transmission. I figured I should be around about 2000 when locked up but I'm actually at about 2300.

I ended up installing a fuel pressure regulator also because my fuel pump was putting out between 7 and 8 psi. After doing some research I found that edelbrock 1406 carbs are only supposed to have 6.5psi max and qjets like even less.

 

[74 Shortbed]

Actually it should be 1950, tach not accurate?..

 

[Handy Andy]

I think the tach is fairly accurate. I had a Bosch timing light hooked up to the truck when we were setting the timing and the rpms displayed on the light were pretty damned close to what was on my tach. I will say this, while I love my intellitronix dash, I don't love the fact that the tach goes in 100 rpm increments.

 

[Handy Andy]

well I figured out the RPM issue. Took the truck up to the transmission shop that built my transmission so I could have them verify that I had the TV cable set properly. Went for a spin with the owner of the shop and he said everything felt good as far as shifting goes but it wasn't going into lockup. Took it back home and a little bit of troubleshooting revealed that the brake switch was not working and also found that the vacuum line for the vacuum switch wasn't even hooked up to anything. Transmission guy said to go ahead and bypass it all so that whenever the transmission shifts into 4th it will be in lockup.

Got the qjet power carb on today and seems to be pretty good. Tightened up my aluminum intake and tomorrow I need to swap my plugs again and get the carb all tuned up and then I am done for a while.

Mamabear wants some work done in the yard and around the house so I spose I better get to it.

 

[Handy Andy]

Got the quadrajet fairly well tuned up. Advanced my timing to about 14 degrees and it really seems to like it there. Replaced my spark plug wire ends and the truck runs pretty well now. Just a couple fine tuning changes to make on the carb and i should be good to go. After I got it all running well I drove the truck back home about 60 miles. filled up when I left and right as I was pulling into the town I live in and worked out the math. 19 mpg is what it worked out to... I thought that was pretty damned good for having a big old topper on the back and about 700 pounds of stuff in the box... Next project on the red rocket is to wrap my headers and then maybe install some sort of home made resonator tubes to eliminate the drone from the exhaust at around 2000 rpms. Then I will get my rostra cruise control kit installed and then I'm probably done fiddling with the truck for a while. summers almost here and the walleye are biting. school will be done in a week and my boat is screaming my name!