1979 K10 Silverado

[mehunter1]

Wow, I have owned this truck for almost a year now and it has gained the name Beast.  This truck was very mistreated, except for much of the body.  The only major rust I have found is the driver side rocker panel and the floor pan on the passenger side.  It has a 350 4bbl with a 350 turbo tranny.  It was originally a full time 4X4 but has had the conversion to manual locking hubs.  I have been through the entire motor and have replaced every single gasket.  I recently went through and installed a edelbrock intake manifold.  While that was out I noticed that the distributor cap had seen better days...so replaced it and the rotor.  Since the installation of the new manifold I have had an issue getting it back in time to actually re-fire.  Found TDC so many times and still nothing.  Last nigth fought with it again and found it again, but now the battery does not have a cranking juice...so set it with jumper cables tonight.  I also did the conversion from hot air choke to electric choke.  I have posted one pic of the outside of the truck and one of the new stuff on the motor.  I will keep you all updated on the work.  I am planning a full off body restore in the next year or so.  Also eventually a brand new 383 stroker and new tranny.

[zieg85]

Are you sure you are not 180 degrees off?

[mehunter1]

I intially was 180 out.  Now I have found the compression stroke again on #1....blew my thumb off and rotor was pointing at number 1.... crank crank crank but my volts are dropping low and i tell it isn't getting enough juice now.  When I get home tonight I am going to hook it up with jumper cables and see if i can get it to fire.

[mehunter1]

Ok, well I messed with it some this weekend and was getting it to start for a few minutes and then die.  Had some awesome fire through the carb a few times too.. not.  Anyway here is the deal.  I had been going off the air pushing my thumb off the number 1 hole to find TDC.  A buddy of mine that is a mechanic said nope don't do that.  Move the dampner around to match the 0 mark on the timing tab...that should be true TDC.  So...tonight I will be trying to do that and see if I can get it to start and stay running.  So ready to get this thing back on the road and make sure I have no leaks with the new manifold.  Cold weather starts to come in next week....probably some winter precip by January so I need it to be drivable by that time.  Need to get some play time in before a full tear down and restore this summer.

[Captkaos]

The dampner is going to be correct twice for TDC, once for ignition and once for exhaust.  If the balancer outer ring has slipped the only way to find it is with a piston stop, or turning it over with a small screwdriver in the plug hold until you feel it go up.  (point screwdriver down).

[bake74]

or turning it over with a small screwdriver in the plug hold until you feel it go up.  (point screwdriver down).

     Funny you mentioned to point the screw driver down, someone asked me once how to find TDC over the phone, so I told them the screw driver trick.  Somehow he got it stuck in there when the piston came up and screwed up his piston and cylinder wall.
     The small details are what matters sometimes.

[mehunter1]

Well me and another guy got the timing issue fixed and now I am sucking air somewhere.  It fires right up but revs really high, jumps to around 2500-3500 rpm and then when it starts to fall it just falls flat and won't catch for a normal idle.  We sprayed some choke cleaner around the back of the carb and it seemed to level off before it died.  Well I put this new edeblrock intake on and had to put the plate to allow the q-jet to still work...so somewhere I pulling air around that like it isn't tight or didn't seal right.

[bake74]

     Check your gasket, sounds like you found at 1 place where it is sucking air.  Hopefully that is the only place.

[mehunter1]

Both gaskets on that stupid spacer were sucking air.  The one between it and the carb had blown out, so I put one of the super thick ones in there.  The one between it and the intake manifold was there but wasn't sealing good enough.  A little rtv on both sides and bam...no more air pulling through.  She fired right up and sat there and purred like a kitty.  Amazing!  I have one other issue but it is either a vacuum line to the tranny or one of my kids shifted the truck in 2 low....haven't had a chance to check since we just got a bunch of ice, but will be messing with it either today or by the weekend.

[bake74]

     Glad that was all that was wrong.  Kids, gotta love em, with all the tricks they play on ya.   

[mehunter1]

Alright guys I finally got it figured out.  I crawled underneath her on saturday and the vacuum line that connects to the tranny was not connected...connected it back.  I fired her up and drove around the block and she shifted just fine...VICTORY.  Wow she is driving great and has a lot of power with that new intake.  Now to get started on setting back for the off body restore.  I have started working up a build sheet of everything I will need.  Now to start working.  Here is a current pic of her after running around the block..

[Captkaos]

Glad you got it figured out.