[hgs_notes]

Wow, 3 years since the last post. I guess I haven't been doing enough work on my truck. That's about to change. Last fall I was driving down the highway heading north and half way there the exhaust tone suddenly changed. Like it had a miss. At idle it sounded normal but give it a little load and throttle and yuck. So on a trailer and drag it home hoping I don't make it worse. I didn't really start trying to diagnose the problem until this summer. I was mainly working on the 79 crewcab.

Compression test was ok. Nothing obvious. Played with timing, checked spark on all cylinders, changed the cap and plugs, no change. Bought a leak down tester and checked it today. Not good. Could just be head gaskets but possibly something cracked. I've got 3 cylinders that are really bad and a couple that are marginal. Problems on both sides.

I have been collecting parts to build a 383 sbc. The local machinist had a set of used (not much) rods, pistons already balanced and ready for install. I talked to him about the crank I had, brought it in and had him balance the whole rotating assembly. I got a 4 bolt block that hasn't been bored. As long as it's not cracked or have a ton of bore taper it will be getting bored soon.

I would like to have a roller cam and maybe aluminum heads. I have a set of vortec heads ready to go but they are limited for valve lift unless we disassemble and cut the spring seats down, which might be what I do.

I've also got a 200-4R transmission to swap in but it needs to be gone through first. Direct swap for the TH350 and with a few upgrades it's plenty strong. I may end up swapping gears after. I went from 3.73 to a 3.08 since I didn't have OD. Will have to see how it performs. I don't race it so it's just a seat of the pants Dyno.

Hopefully ready to go next spring. My first love needs some attention.