[Just-in-credible]

Well...nothing like bringing an ancient thread back from the dead. I decided that this year will be a big year for rebuilding all sorts of things on the truck, so i wanted to document my progress. Economically, things up here in Alberta have been a little slow since the big oil crash in 2015, so the truck took a back seat to things like my mortgage. I'm back on my feet these days, so that means truck upgrades!

I did however have a shelf full of parts kicking around from the days when i had more money, and no time. which worked quite conveniently for the last year or so when I had LOTS of time, and no money. I will try to go through the list of updates that I have done since my last post, and get writing up the list of new stuff that i have been working on lately.

First of all, I installed the Dual Sync distributor to work with the fast 2.0 system. I have to say that I was quite intimidated by this installation. I was used to stabbing a distributor in, turning it a bit, and calling it good. Diving into all of the individual specs of each function of your distributor was a bit intimidating at first, but it wasn't near as bad as I had thought it would be. And it really improved the overall system function. It is really neat to watch how the EFI system uses timing to help with things like idle and warm up. It always tells you what your advance is doing, so it is neat to watch it as you cruise down the highway or as you get into the throttle.

I had a set of the Hotchkis anti squat brackets, and i installed them as well. Overall, it was a pretty straight forward installation. It took an anfternoon to get the old rivets out, and the new brackets in. I didn't get much driving time in before the snow started flying, so I will have a better update on that part once the snow melts, and i can drive it.

So what is planned for this year? Well I just bought a new set of 18" american racing torque thrust wheels, wrapped in Nitto 555 G 2 tires. I wanted to try something stickier than the cooper cobra's. I hope i will see a difference. I got 9" wide for the fronts, and 10" wide for the rears. I think the fronts are 5" back spacing, and the rear was 5.75". I should get them in the next week or so, When i get them installed, I will update how they fit. Between stickier rubber, and the anti squat brackets, I'm interested to se if it made much difference in how it hooks up.

The next upgrade is installing a trutrac in the rear. To be honest, I got sick and tired of the clunk and bang from the powertrax. It was supposed to smooth out or get quieter, but after 4 years of driving, it never did, and i got tired of people asking if my rear end just blew up every time i was in a parking lot. So truetrac it is! I pulled the rear end the other day, and dropped it off at the gear centre.

Next step is upgrading to a 4L60E. I never could get and keep the 700R4 working properly. I got the bowtie overdrives kit, and i would set up the TV cable per the instructions, and it would work great for a while. But i kept having issues with the TV bracket bending. It just took a little tweak to that bracket, and the transmission wouldn't shift properly. So i bought myself the EZ TCU, and I'm getting a 4L60E rebuilt. I really like the adjust-ability of all aspects of those TCU's. I'll update how it all comes together as I go.

So that is the immediate plan. I have a new intake manifold that i may put on, and I might try my hand at porting my edelbrock heads.


I want to fix my brake system as well. I put captain fab's rear disc kit on, which functions great, but I don't think i have the proportioning set properly at all. I did put a disc disc proportioning valve in, but when I pulled the rear end out, i noticed a considerable amount of wear on the rear pads, and I've noticed that the rear wants to come around in a panic brake situation. So once i get the new wheels and tires on, I'm thinking of putting an adjustable proportioning valve in to dial the rear back a bit.

I also have a 509 casting bare 400 block that I'm trying to decide what to do with, so if there are any 400 sbc experts lurking around on here, feel free to give me advice. I had an inkling to do a 3.875 stroker with AFR heads. but at the same time, I've also heard that a plain jane 406 will be plenty torquey enough for a 100% street machine, so who knows how that will end up.