After several months of working on this truck, it was a mess when I bought her, I decided on 1 more major project.
Here is what has been done so far:
1) All new brakes, wheel cylinders-calipers-pads-shoes, 1 hose, EB still needs installation, all pieces missing, $100 fix.
2) Replaced rusted out headers and burned out glass packs with generic eBay SS headers and Thrush welded turbo mufflers, 2-1/2" to side exits, nice sound, quiet when needed.
3) High volume water pump and diesel fan clutch and fan blade.
3) When installing pump noticed rubber missing on balancer, installed performance balancer and new Cloyes double roller timing set while apart.
4) Chrome dress up including new chrome 120A alternator, chrome PS pump reservoir and pulley, aluminum brackets, Holley valve covers, chrome air cleaner .
5) Decided on installing trany cooler and new filter, that lead to rebuilding the TH350 when I found the sprag laying in the trany pan, installed chrome pan with drain plug at same time.
6) New Warn lockouts, then found spider gears blown in the Dana 44 and installed new spider gears which lead to all new Moog ball joints, 3.73 gears front and on corp 14 bolt rear.
7) New Moog steering linkages and monroe stabilizer, new performance sway bar bushings with greasable supports.
Vibration at 70 lead to 8. A newer NP203, previous owner unaware of the oil pump in this transfer case that requires you to use 4x4 at least once per month to avoid bearing failure, vibration nearly gone now. Picked up 2 NP203s, 1 had kit in it and a TH350 for $20.
9) New Dayton 4 leaf front springs to handle the plow better and a couple new spring mounts in rear to replace some nearly rusted off mounts.
10) New Wrangler 265/75-16s all around, old ones were weather checked and performed well, sold them for $100
11) Rebuilt rams and installed new hoses on plow, beefed up known weak points on plow frame to prevent future problems.
12) Various other items, Grant GT wheel, gauges, stereo, new locks, ANL fuse and power distribution panel, electrical upgrade since have plow and the 120A alternator, rebuilt a Q-jet and replaced one with bad throttle shaft, new HEI 60K clear dist.
*** Now to the latest project - The return of Vortec heads to my 880 block... ***
She has plenty of snort compared to my last truck, but seems a tad sluggish on hills etc, looked at induction setup, discovered someone placed vette heads onto my 880 vortec block so was hunting down some original 906 vortec heads.
Found a fair deal off CL for a bundle of parts, they were off a boat, a Mercury I/O with a vortec 350, guess until 2011 Mercury used the vortec engine in their 5.7L power plants, so if you are looking for heads, you may find some at the marina...
Package deal consisted of:
1 pair 906 heads, freshly pulled from running vortec engine, tested
1 395 cam-lifters-pushrods, that 395 cam is right between the truck cam and the hot cam with specs, many people recommending its use to gain peak torque around 3000 RPM which perfectly suits my needs and my gear ratio.
1 edelbrock performer EPS intake
1 marine vortec 2 BBL intake with rochester dual-jet carb, throttle linkage brackets, and spark arrestor air cleaner. [likely going to post on eBay]
Black center bolt valve covers and all the bolts.
All of that delivered for $500, a tad high, but hoping to recoup at least $100 on marine intake n carb.
He installed aluminum heads, huge cam, and hi-rise on his boat and his former 260HP motor is now on dyno at 425HP.
Planning on installing the heads-edelbrock intake-cam onto my 880 vortec block when it warms up outside, was going to run a Q-jet but found a used Holley 670 Avenger carb for $50 and bought a 1965 Ford 390 T-Bird 4 barrel heating plate, $15, that I will plumb with a vacuum controlled valve that will perform 2 purposes, adjust my interior heat to cab, and allow me to turn off flow to plate for summer driving, valve has bypass feature to circulate water through both hoses when closed.
Then bought kit with remaining components, the dogbone lifter guides, the spider hold down and the thrust plate, $80, and full gasket set $100, all from Summit.
Will pull pan, and at minimum, toss in new oil pump and some rod bearings at same time, who knows, maybe a re-ring, in for a penny...
Picked up a new true roller Cloyes timing set to match the roller cam that is being installed, might have 2k on old one by time I pull it, $25 after being owed some money back at Rock Auto.
Hoping to gain some more power from this truck, not have to step on gas so hard with proper cam and heads back on her, and possibly gain a few MPG out of the project. Will try the Q-jet if the mileage doesn't pick up, never had much luck with MPG and Holleys...
Likely sell the old 642 2.02 Vette heads, Holley valve covers, and edelbrock intake that I had for her, my original plan was just to install the edelbrock intake I picked up to dress her up some more, then read up on vortec heads and thought, have so much into her already, and I already have this 880 4 bolt vortec block with powder rods n special crank, might as well keep on truckin' and go for it...
Will install parts when the threat of snow is gone, and update on results, if this is of interest to anyone out there.
Those Ford plates will come in handy for anyone without the alternate intakes that have plumbing for a water crossover in colder climates...
With this project this ugly truck will surpass the 6k mark, will have to fix the minimal rust and give her a cammo paint job next...
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