1974 stepside "the burg"

[travh123]

Hello everyone! been around this forum for a little while and am finding it very informative and helpful. I recently was injured at work so i had some time off to start digging into my truck like ive been wanting to for a long while.

this is my truck. 1974 stepside, 2wd, stock 350. its lowered a little. i bought the truck last summer, the previous owner had put a little work into the interior which was the main thing that sold me on the truck. also i live on the coast and it was an alberta truck so there was little to no rust on anything which is extremely hard to find around here.




ok so here is the best picture i had of the engine bay before i started, i wasnt really aware i was going to be making my own thread so bear with my early pics


so since i was injured and off work i decided i would rebuild my leaky 350
heres the engine/tranny once i pulled it out, sorry about the limited amount of pics of the steps



it leaked a little oil as you can see



divorced and all mounted up on the stand, i rented a hot water pressure washer to take care of some of the exterior grease and oil buildup. it cut through like butter.


got the intake off and there was a little bit of baked on build up



took the valve covers off and noticed one of these umbrella guys was broken off and sitting at the bottom of the spring




heres a nifty little way of keeping your rocker assembly/pushrods organized, just drilled some holes on an old peice of 6x6 cedar




and just some more random pics of my tear down


bit of a rough cylinder

intake valves had bad seals so there is quite a bit of build, pretty much all the valves were as bad or worse then this



didnt have any fancy rubber tubing to put on the rod threads when i was pulling the pistons. so i rigged up these ones made out of napkin and masking tape, worked like a charm 




my dads neatly organized garage



so thats basically where im at as of today i dropped my heads and crank off at the machine shop earlier this week and they were ready today. dont have any pics of the work but i got a valve job and had to get new seats put in all the exhaust ports, and got the heads resurfaced. as for my crank they had to regrind the mains and just polished the piston journals. ill get pictures of it all tmrw
i ordered new valve covers because the ones on it were warped as shoot. i also picked up a new cam and lifters from the machine shop which was substantially cheaper and will be here in 1 or 2 days where as at lordco it would take 2 weeks or more cuz they have to order straight from comp in the u.s.

so this is my first time doing anything like this really, the only other build i have done really is the jeep you can partially see in one of the first pics, but didnt touch the engine in that one. i will most certainly run into some things that will stump me which is partially why im posting, so all you knowledgable folk out there can help me out . there are some peoples build on here that blow my frickin mind and obviously some of you guys know your way around a chevy haha. so thanks for any help in advance. im going to try and take more pictures of my steps now that i know im making a thread. anyways sorry for the long-winded first post

[bake74]

     First off welcome to the site.  I have to say the best way to learn is jump in and start, and looks like you have done that step.  I am partial to 74's, as mine is a step side 74 only a k10 that I am building from the ground up.  It is a slow process but I do it to enjoy it so it will take some time.
     I like your jeep, I have built jeeps for years and wheeled them all over the country.  You will find some great info here on this site, so keep up the good work and keep up informed of your build.  Good luck and may you be able to recover quickly so you can go back to work.

[travh123]

didnt get too much done today, but did some little things, honed the cylinders, and sand blasted a few peices. my cam and valve covers showed up which was nice, they only took one day.

heres my heads and crank back from the shop





heres my old covers idk if you can tell from the pictures but they are pretty dang warped and would hardly contain oil



and heres my brand spankin new set, nothing special just there to get the job done.



some of the lobes were kind of rounded on my old stock cam so i figured why not and picked up this one





heres the parts that i sand blasted, the timing case, and oil pan i used a wire wheel on.






here are some pics of the cylinder hone, honestly im not really too sure how it went but they dont look to me like they are shiny or glazed anymore mayb someone can speculateon the junky pics

before




after




also heres some pics of my interior. decently clean but nothing fancy



thats it for today just figured i toss you guys a few more pics cuz i always like the posts with lots of pics

[bake74]

     Yes we like pics, those cylinders look Ok for a reg build, you are not building a 1000 hp engine I assume.  Your interior looks better than mine does now (mine does not have one  ).
     Keep up the good work and the pics.

[travh123]

ye im just going for mainly stock the only real upgrade i have is the thumpr cam and new springs and lifters, and gunna get some headers. the only thing im slightly worried about on the hone is that there isnt really this cross hatch that everything keeps telling me there should be?

[nucknoel89]

Nice stuff.  Where in BC are you?  I'm in Abbotsford.  Welcome to the site!

[jaredts]

You have to make the cross hatch by the speed you feed through the bore.  A bottle brush hone is supposed to be more forgiving than the stone type.  If you fire it up without something close to a 60 degree crosshatch you'll likely have a smoking engine right off the bat.  Have you checked the size of the bores after honing to make sure you're gonna get away with just a hone?

[travh123]

@nucknoel89 i live on the island. i went over the bores a little more because some of them were still looking a little glazed when i looked at the mwhen they were all clean the next day and i went a little quicker up and down and now there is a little more resemblence to a cross hatch. i took my block to the machine shop when i took my heads and crank in and they put a mic to the bores and said i would be fine with just a hone. ill post more pics later today

[travh123]

ok so heres what i did today, after i thoroughly cleaned my block with soap and water then pressure washed and then blew it dry with a leaf blower and compressed air, this is what it looks like.



i put the upper main bearings in and threw some sealer on the rear main, laying a small bead in the little lip corner then smearing some on the rest of the flat surface as well as smearing some on the cap




then i put the rear main cap on and torqued it and made sure the crank could still spin easily, then did so with each cap after

all lubed up



then i went to work on my pistons, there was a lot of build up on them so it took a while this is how they turned out

before


and after




so tmrw i hope to get the bearing on the rods and all the pistons ringed and mayb get them in depending on how long i wana get at it.

also i have realized that my valve covers i bought only have two holes and i heard somewhere that you can just use one for a breather and the other for the pvc valve then just remove the pvc when i want to put oil in. is this a viable solution or should i look into something else?

[gto109]

I just remove the breather on mine.  You will be fine either way.  Keep the pictures coming I like lots of pictures as well.

[HAULIN IT]

I guess we can assume your not on worker's comp? 

[travh123]

heeeeck no

[bake74]

I just remove the breather on mine.  You will be fine either way.  Keep the pictures coming I like lots of pictures as well.

     I do this also as to not wear out the gasket for the PCV valve, it is important to have a good seal on the PCV.

[travh123]

ok i'll do that then, thanks guys

[74GMC]

Let me take a wild guess, are you from the Courtenay Comox area, I remember seeing that truck when I used to live there.

Nice looking truck!