I just realized I left out some information on my new truck, I traded my Jeep I have had for 16 years. The truck came with a "rebuilt" 327 and a 4 speed. On my first out of state trip from East TN to SC I ran it through the gears with a friend riding showing off a little, it just shut down. when I tried to start it there was no compression on a few cylinders and would not start. After towing it back to my friends house we discovered the timing chain broke. I tore it down and replaced the timing chain and still had no compression on one cylinder so the motor had to come out.
So I had my wife come get me for long silent ride home. The following weekend I drove my Z71 back and put her on the trailer for the long haul back to my house in TN. When I pull the motor down I found a lifter came apart and forced the exhaust valve into the piston and broke the timing chain. I looks as if someone did a cheap rebuilt kit on the 327, and the heads were junk as well, they did not even match. So I had the new 383 stroker wrapped in plastic on the bench that was planned for my truck build, so Game ON! I spent the next several months ordering parts and planting some new power under the hood, and I ran directly into my next hurdle. This motor was a 99 truck block 4 bolt main with a 1 piece seal, so it has a after market 400 crank in it. and so I ordered a billet flywheel and new clutch as the engine was built for my Z28 with an turbo 350. Well...as soon as I drove it I felt a pretty good vibration that got worse the higher the RPM\. Yep you guessed it...I had my hot rod motor balanced so now I needed to balance my flywheel and that presented the next problem, if I didn’t want to tear down my engine I would need to find a machine shop that would match balance my new flywheel with the auto flywheel that was balanced with the motor. So I found a machine shop that could take my auto flywheel and match balance the manual flywheel. The problem was he needed a after market 400 crank like the one in my truck, he said I would have to wait on him to either have a customer bring one in for work or find one to use. Well that took just over a year....talk about a time killer, all together it took my truck out of commission for nearly 2 years, so now I am just enjoying driving it to some shows and weekend duties when I come home on the weekends. I am fixing the small things that I can work on for a day or two and then drive it some more. I am in the process of planning out a new 30x60 shop this coming spring I hope, and then with a good place to work I will get busy with my truck putting the chop top cab on and upgrading the suspension and paint. But for now I am planning on driving to the Pigeon Forge Rod Run in the spring, I hope to make the Hot Rod Power Tour in June and as many other shows as possible. Just enjoying my truck on the road any chance I get.