Ya'll sure make it hard to get in here. I've been working at it since the 18th or so. I'm here now so all's well.
I have an unknown vintage early 70's swb 4-wheel drive. Unknown vintage because it has a state issued VIN number. The truck had been piece-mealed together before I took possession of it about ten years ago. When I got it it had a 454, t400, and 203 t-case. The engine had a bad knock which could not be diagnosed so it was pulled and sold and I built a 355 from scratch sourcing everything on the outside from salvage yards bit by bit. The insides where given a thorough balance, alignment, and all new guts except for the crank. I changed the tranny and t-case over to a sm465 and a 205 with a Centerforce metallic six puck roller cam clutch with a needle bearing pilot. The trany I got was free from a guy I met that one day while at work who had bought a van with it in it about 20 years prior but didn't want it after about 200 miles (or so he said) so it was removed and a t400 or something put in it's place in the van. So it sat for about twenty years until I spied it under some stuff in his company office. As a two-wheel drive tranny it was rather easy to convert the output shaft to fit the 205 adaptor sleeve.
The truck was not set up for a clutch so that had to all be fabricated (I am not a great fabricator BTW) and was especially difficult because the cab is a two wheel drive cab so it needed a 1" body lift instead of finding and cutting in a high hump to clear the top of the t-case. At that time the truck got almost everything new or good salvage for under the hood also. A new four core was installed, new battery trays, and new homemade wiring (nope not very professional looking), a new radiator bracket, many unused pulley systems (never believe for a moment that all 350's are created equal!), new plastic tanks etc.
The biggest problem is that after I got all the front of the drive train done I lost interest before I really got it on the street or in the mud (actually my boss was tired of it sitting in his shop). So now it's been hanging out behind the barn for about 6 or 8 years now. I am getting tired of it sitting so I am wanting to start on it again as soon as the weather warms up again. I hope.
I originally bought this to try and build a replica of a '78 GMC I owned back in 83-86 which was a beast off-road especially in deep water. It had a 6" lift and 39-15-15 Mickey-T Big Baja's on it. I expect the engine on that one after a roomy rebuilt it for me was making at least 350hp even though it felt like a LOT more with 4.10's. I shrapneled two 12 bolts (one was a four pinion) with it and finally ended up with a 14bolt FF and had the Gov-lock in it (which worked awesome BTW). The truck came with a D44 so no real worries there except the bolt pattern.
I spent a lot of time at Lesterville Mo, running the rivers back in those days. Five feet of water with an open six inch K&N was typically as deep as I could go and keep it running as long as I didn't have to stop. That was then, this is now. Things change. I have around $3500 tied up in machine work in this engine so I want to use it ....sometime.
I can't remember a lot of specifics about my engine but it has some good stuff in it too. In addition to the 4-bolt high nickle alloy block, balanced and magna-fluxed everything, it has at least this: 1.5 Scorpion roller rockers, TRW pistons (Can't remember the style), comp cams .510 lift cam (I'll need to pull out the cam card to remember exactly), World product torquer heads, mid-rise with a Holley Truck Avenger on top and Hooker strip headers using a stock HEI at the present but I have two or three spark boxes and coils (Jacobs, Holley and
) with an MSD street billet distributor waiting for a place under the hood which includes Blue Max 8.x wires and a nice loom for the wires. All bought at least six years ago and never used.
From what I've been reading here (While waiting to get approved) I see that most everything I have is old school to older school.
I haven't kept up with modern vehicle technology for older vehicles for the last six or seven years and it seems a lot has changed. I got sticker shock when I went and looked the price of a simple 6" lift kit.
REALLY!!??? I could buy a full 12" for these prices not long ago! Guess I'll have to source them on my own, name brands are just buying the name anyway.
My truck is not pretty, the engine is not pretty, mostly because it's a four-wheel drive and I grew up driving four-wheel drives off-road more than on-road so keeping something pretty was not part of my game. Keeping it running and useful for wherever I pointed it was the goal. I believe it still is. Function over form in my book at all (or most) times. That's not to say I can't have both however if possible. If something is both functional and bulletproof but still looks good, I'm all for it.
So that's my history and the history of my truck(s). I have never not owned a four wheel drive truck. But through them all, before and after, the 73- 80 body style is by far my favorite! I've owned scouts, scout II's, broncos, Fords, Dodges, cars, and motor cycles (I still have the same Harley Softail I bought new in 84), but my favorite's are still the 70's four wheel drive vehicles. It's just not a practical daily driver anymore at 10 miles to the gallon. Too bad.
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