[SLR_65]

Hi Guys,

I'm still reading through this entire thread, but I thought I'd take a break and outline a project I'm thinking about taking on.

I have two trucks -

A 1974 C-10. It's just an old beater but I love it. It's not pretty but I like that - I can haul anything and not worry about scratching the box! It was an old farm truck before I bought it on an auction. I bought it when my oldest son was 15 (he's now 22) and we spent a year fixing it up (it had sat for 8 years as the farmer had retired and pretty much just abandoned it in a shed). It has a 350 in it, the numbers say it's a four bolt main though we've never had the pan off, and it has 010 020 cast in the block in the timing chain area so it should be a high nickel block. Fixing it up was great fun, we put new heads on it (it had a burnt valve ('74 was the last year for regular gas heads)), an Edelbrock Performer cam and intake, a Mallory HEI distributor, rebuilt the quadrajet, and a few other things. It ran well and actually didn't do too bad on mileage after the cam change. unfortunately it's an old truck and it's developed a really nasty noise down deep so I'm afraid it's spun a bearing or something.

The other one is a 1989 Chevy 1500 with a 305 TBI in it. It also has a 700R4 transmission that has about 4,000 miles on a rebuild in it. This was my father's truck and I inherited it after he passed away. It was a decent enough truck too - I don't do any heavy hauling or anything so the 305 was just fine. Unfortunately I let my middle son drive it to work right after he turned 16 and on the way home he had a pop from McDonalds (he worked there) and it fell over so he reached to grab it and pulled the wheel while he reached . . . and ran right into the back of a parked truck! Unfortunately it's not worth fixing - it'll need a new front clip and some frame straightening and we just had liability on it so insurance isn't paying to fix it and I'm not inclined to want to spend as much as it needs out of pocket. I was able to get the sheet metal out of the way enough to see if it would start and it does start and run fine, the fan isn't bent or anything.

Sooooo, I have an old truck that needs an engine and I have a newer truck that has an engine but is totaled otherwise. My thoughts are to combine the two to get a truck back running. I thought about just rebuilding the 350 in the old truck but I hate to just toss the good engine/tranny/fuel injection from the newer truck and, some day, I'd like to do a t-bucket roadster and the 350/th350 could work well in that. My next thought was to just toss the tbi and use an Edelbrock carb conversion manifold, strip the newer engine down to a long block and install all the pulleys and accessories off the old 350 on to it and then just bolt it up to the th350 and go. I think the only real mod beyond the intake and carb would be to use an electric fuel pump as it seems to me the newer block doesn't have provisions for a mechanical fuel pump (I'll have to hop out to the shed we have it stored in to confirm though). It'd be pretty straight forward I think, but I kinda like serptentine belts and I kinda like throttle body injection and . . . I literally have ALL the parts! I just can't see tossing them! Soooo, I'm in the process of doing some research (I bought the Jags That Run book and have been surfing the net a good bit) trying to talk myself into this project . . . maybe you guys can help with that! ;->

Some random notes so far:

Transmission:
*) I should be able to use the 700r4 tranny.
*) The column linkage on my '74 will work, just the gear indicator will be off?
*) I will probably have to cut the drive shaft? There are several articles on the net on driveshaft shortening, it looks doable.
*) I may need to build or adapt a tranny crossmember.
*) The donor truck is an '89 so the DRAC is part of the instrument panel so I will need to replace it with a separate unit, or is the DRAC separable from the instrument panel?
*) If I can salvage the original DRAC the books says it's programmable - is that easy to do? I think the gear ratios and tire sizes are different between the two trucks. If I can't use or can't reprogram the original one then I'll need to get a DRAC that matches the gear ratio/tire size of the truck it's going into.
*) The Jags that Run manual says all TBI engines thru '92 used a two pulse VSS but on the next page they say that all Chevy trucks with rear wheel anti-lock brakes 1989 and newer use the 40 pulse per driveshaft revolution sensor and I'm sure the donor truck has rear abs brakes.
*) The older truck has a cable driven speedometer so I will need to accomdate that.
*) Jags That Run carries a reluctor ring sleeve assembly that allows for cable drive speedometer gears and a 40 pulse reluctor ring. In addition to this assembly I will need a modified tail house that allows for the relocated 40 pulse sensor. Both items will run $130 delivered.
*) Where is the park neutral switch at? On the transmission or up in the steering column gear indicator?

Wiring:
*) I would like to save some bucks and use the original harness. I'm comfortable with control / sensor wiring and troubleshooting as I do it in my job all the time.

*) After market harnesses are expensive, but the MegaSquirt people have an interesting option - they make do it yourself wire kits for less than $100 and the wires actually have the sensor designation stamped on them (it's just the wire though, no connectors). This would be nice, but the wire colors don't match the stock GM wire colors and I think there's value in maintaining the stock wiring colors so I'm back to trying to salvage my harness.

*) I have a laser printer and they make laser print outdoor labels so I'm thinking I'll just print labels and use them to tag the harness connectors.

Fuel System:
*) I don't know if an '87 fuel tank would work in my '74 truck as they are slightly different body styles and the tanks have different part numbers in the LMC truck catalog (I'm sure that's because of the baffles and stuff, but my older truck is also a different part number than the later '82 -'86 carbureted trucks). I can get a used '87 tank for $65 at the local junk yard (minus fuel pump, darn it!) though.

*) If I can use the '87 fuel tank the fuel pumps are expensive and it's a pain to change them when they go out, so I'm thinking an external pump set up would be better? External pump would entail two pumps and a small reservoir, but all in all I think it would be slightly cheaper and easier to work on in the future.

*) Update, it appears the fuel pump in the '89 could be used in an '87 tank - LMC truck says part number 32-4048 works on '87-'89 models! Though external pumps would be easier to service, if you don't habitually run the tank low in tank pumps usually last quite a while and not having to buy a pump/sending unit combined with a $65 junk yard tank is the cheapest option.

*) Is the fuel gauge sending unit compatible with the gauge in the '74 truck?

Cooling System:
*) I bought the Jags That Run Fuel Injection manual - they had a point I hadn't considered, is the fan, shroud, etc. going to be properly placed to provide adequate cooling? My thoughts are yes, or with a few tweaks it could be made to work correctly. Worse comes to worse I revert back to the old separate pullys, fan, shroud, etc. so this shouldn't be a big issue, just something to keep in mind while it's coming together.

All in all, this looks doable. It's not "easy", but it's not hard either. No real fabrication work, more just getting parts that work and switching them out.

I'd be interested in any and all comments, suggestions, ideas, whatever - I'd really like to make this a smooth going project if I decide to take it on.

Back to reading the thread . . .

Steve