Well... Good news is in the air!!!
Motor is A-OK! Had another friend come over this weekend to take a look at the truck. Head gaskets seem to be fine. We ran the truck for about 20 minutes or so, and the exhaust cleared up. There was some moisture that was coming out of the exhaust, but to the touch, it was just condensation with no smell to it!! Took it for a quick spin down the street and back. Ran just fine!
Now, I did have to jump start it. Seems that the move from Texas to Oklahoma drained the battery.
Also, going to pull the radiator out of it to take care of the leak. My friend that came over has another one that was out of a 70's Camaro that we're going to size up and see if it will fit. If it does, he said I could have it. If it won't fit, then I have a shop right down the street from work that I'll take it to get it fixed. While I'm doing that, I'm going to put in a new thermostat, and a new temp sensor. The current one is not reading and I'm not sure if it's the sensor, or the gauges. I'd like to hook up the factory oil pressure and temp gauges, but not sure how to do that. Not even sure why they were swapped for aftermarket in the first place. Is there an easy way to tell if the factory gauges will still work? If they don't, can I put an aftermarket gauge in the same location?
After that, I'm going to redo the fuel line. Here's a picture of what I'm messing with (left side of picture). For some reason, this truck has 2 fuel pumps - 1 under the cab on the passenger side, and 1 on the passenger fender well (barely visible in the picture). Whoever did this just made a fireball waiting to happen. There are about 6 different connections between the frame and the carburetor. My thoughts are to remove the fuel pump in the engine compartment, and run new fuel lines up to the carb. I just need to figure out how to snake the line up from the front/left side of the motor so that I can stay away from the headers. I'm going to change out the filter for a better one at the same time.
I'm also debating on pulling the Holley carb off of our 73 F100 and putting it on this truck. It's a new Holley 600cfm that's attached to a Edlebrock Performer, so fitment shouldn't be a problem. The choke is not working on this Edlebrock carb, and I know my new Holley carb is set up and ready to go. I'm going to change out the intake and the filter at the same time with something else, as well as re-run some vacuum lines. My PCV valve is hooked up to the carb directly... think I'm going to run it into the breather instead. It seamed to be pulling a LOT of vacuum the way it's currently hooked up. Plus, there is some blow by that was coming out of the PCV connection.
Thoughts on any of that?
Still haven't had the chance to finish my doors - I have all the parts, just not enough time.
