[sfont66]

So... been a minute, I thought that this spring would be slow at work, and I could work on the truck, but I was wrong. We have been very busy, picked up a new contract so overtime and Saturdays. Less time for the C10 has meant a change in plans and expectations. Originally I had hoped to have the truck back together again for the Street Machine Nationals. That most likely won’t happen this year.
I had gathered parts and a flywheel that would have allowed me to use the old school Sm465 4 speed, the plan was to throw it back in with the stock 5.3 for the summer, and tear it apart again this winter and install a tremec T56 6 speed, and build up the engine some.
I even got to the point where I mated the old transmission to the 5.3 and mocked it up in the frame and was going to use the 5.3 truck exhaust manifolds for exhaust.... my wife kept saying, why are you going to do things twice??
After a few weeks she was making more sense than I was, so I relented and took a portion of her advice. I reluctantly agreed it was not possible to make it to the nationals this year with the C10, and that I should concentrate on next year and not spend money twice, like on parts , drive shafts, tuning, etc. but also on time and effort.
Here are a few pics of the engine and old school trans in the frame. It can be done, but using the old clutch linkage and Z bar would be more difficult to run exhaust, along with the old 4 speed transmission crossmember. The Ls swap headers hit the crossmember, so they were a no go. Stock truck exhaust manifolds work, but the Z Bar is in the way, so I would have to go with a hydraulic clutch to make them work.
So the thought of buying a hydraulic clutch actuator system, drive shaft, and exhaust, and running it only a summer , was just dumb.
More to come after this short break.....