[MTCK]

The company I work for was recently bought out and it appears that our work vehicles for personal use are on the way out. My wife is in grad school so the last thing I need is another payment. Logic would say go buy a $500 beater with a heater and suck it up for two years until we have two incomes again.... but.... I would much rather drive around my 77 K10 and could actually take that to a construction site, haul some survey gear etc.

I bought the truck as a backup rig / camping / weekend cruiser / hunting rig and it is already pretty mechanically sound. The previous owner did a half assed restoration on it - lots of repop pannels, not great fit and finish, new floor pans screwed over the old ones... stuff like that. Mechanically it is pretty sweet though. Dealership installed (like 3k!) GM goodwrench 4-bolt 350 about 3 years ago, new clutch, brakes, hubs, ball joints and tie rod ends, new 32" BFG all terrains, stock suspension, new wheels. It has 3.08 gears, open diffs front and rear, and the usual SM465 / 205 combo. I put mobil 1 synthetic in all of the gear boxes and it doesn't leak or use a drop of oil.

Upgrades I have made include some thick aluminum valve covers to stop leaks, rebuilt the quadrajet, rebuilt the dizzy, edelbrock performer intake, autometer gauges, new stereo, painless dual battery isolator, new battery cables all around, second battery, hedman elite headers, dual 2.5" with h-pipe to 50 series flowmasters, fixed the dome / dash lights, and replaced the master cylinder.

There area few things I would need to replace / upgrade if I was going to drive this every day. The junk in the back would need a permanent home in a tool box. The carb is still not 100% despite my best efforts. There is a float sticking or something and it occasionally DUMPS fuel into the motor. I had it happen on a cruise back from the woods and it was scary how fast the fuel gauge was moving. That trip would have about paid for a new carb in fuel alone. The seatbelts always lock the lap belt and ratchet in - not a huge deal but a major distraction on long drives on our crappy roads up here. The previous owner removed a lot of the ductwork from under the dash. No matter what position you put the selector on it just sort of burbles out of everywhere. this is something I'm going to have to fix to drive the truck when it's -40 in the winter. The PS pump is starting to get a little weak and protests often. The rest of the steering is in good shape. The carb would need to go if I am going to drive the truck year round and get decent mileage. We have 150 degrees of temperature swing here and I don't want to be under the hood every few weeks getting it tuned just right.

I am on the fence when it comes to the fuel injection. I've been looking at the holley projection two injector system and the commander 950 four injection system. I'd like an O2 sensor to run it closed loop and tuneability for the timing would be nice also. Some day I'd like to put a 383 in this truck with a little more pop and I think the commander system would support that type of expansion. A few months ago I bought a 91 suburban with a blown tranny and 120k on the clock with the intention of rebuilding the engine / transmission / tcase and dropping it in my 83 but that is too much work for right now. I think the suburban may just provide its serpentine system and HVAC controls to the 77 to help make it my driver. The TBI swap from the burban is also more than I want to bite off now since I don't have an EGR, electronic speed sensor / speedo or fuel injection tanks on the truck.

So what do you think? Does anybody have experience with either of the holley systems? I'm hoping for 12 MPG in mixed driving and think that should be attainable with either system. Has anybody messed with swapping HVAC parts between the newer and older square bodies? I haven't had a chance to look at the suburban too closely but will I have any issues with swapping over the accesories? I'll post up a few pictures on the next post. Thanks in advance for any input.