Upgrades

[Captkaos]

Thanks Jeff. How would one go about doing a write up on something?

Put together some pictures and details explaining what you did and the parts required and send them to either Jeff or I, or you can start a thread and put all the stuff there and with the pictures and I can link to it.

[123 pugsy]

But more importantly, I'm baffled why the 283/700R combo didn't work.

Can you give us more detail on both engines?

The 283 was a stock rebuild with .040" overbore. The problem lies in the fact that I'm an idiot some times making decisions. I talked to guys who said the 283 was a great little motor...blah..blah..blah... So i thought,why not. 1st why not was that I decided to go with 31" tires. The cars that these guys drove with the 283 had 26" tires and were probably 1000 lbs lighter.Even with the 3:40 gears, the 283 in a heavy LWB pickup is like a small weak person trying to ride a 10 speed bicycle up hill in tenth gear.I had to keep giving more and more throttle just to keep cruising.When giving it so much gas to keep going it would kick down a gear or two,so I drove it around in 3rd all the time. In 4th it felt like a Honda Civic climbing a hill. I dropped the 350 in and now it just cruises along fine without having to give it the gas more and less everytime there's a slight grade. The 350 has World Products S/R heads, an RV cam,edelbrock intake and carb. It gets about 2 MPG better milage and thats with a TH350 behind it.
The next step is to put the TPI unit on it and check the milage difference. I will be recording fuel consumption with every change. Then I will open up the 700r4, check it out and reinstall it. I will again check for milage and performance. Results should be quite interesting.

Hey Vile,Chris, boys.... anything else to add for the exact reasons why a small engine won't push a heavy truck?

[VileZambonie]

Well you pretty much summed it up. It's like trying to bust a lug nut loose with an air ratchet. It'll stall the ratchet because it can't create the required torque to cause the nut to actually move. An engine that doesn't produce a lot of power will require lots of throttle to get the required power to give it the push it needs.

You've seen most SUV's and trucks coming through with numerically higher final drive ratio's like 3.73:1 and 4.11:1 and 4 speed transmissions for years and this has actually improved fuel economy with relatively larger displacements.

Back in the 80's the mentality was reduce displacement, numerically lower final drives, and problematic engine management systems. You ended up with an underpowered gas pig.

A better power to weight ratio will result in better fuel economy.

[flyboy9994]

Dang it Pugsy... Sorry to hear about the motor/tranny.

I've been gone awhile so this is all new to me. I figured yours was one of the rare trucks that actually gets finished... NOT. Just goes to show you these project trucks are truly never done huh??

Anyway, your seat mods look awesome and a definite inspiration for sure. Let us know how that 350/350 is running. Hopefully one of these days soon I'll have my 350 crate motor and TCI Street Fighter trans in.

Time is a precious commodity indeed!!

[123 pugsy]

Dang it Pugsy... Sorry to hear about the motor/tranny.

I've been gone awhile so this is all new to me. I figured yours was one of the rare trucks that actually gets finished... NOT. Just goes to show you these project trucks are truly never done huh??

Anyway, your seat mods look awesome and a definite inspiration for sure. Let us know how that 350/350 is running. Hopefully one of these days soon I'll have my 350 crate motor and TCI Street Fighter trans in.

Time is a precious commodity indeed!!

Thanks Randy.
The 350 is running great.I rebuilt the tranny myself and its pulling good (knock on wood) still. Just gotta put the TPI on it and that's about it for this truck. Its been a real pleasure to drive since I changed the motor. In the future , I will  be doing only 350's or 383 strokers.Nothing else. No more "try to be different" baloney for me. I learned the hard way!