easiest motor swap?

[75_chevy]

hey got a 75 c10 with a 350 crate and 350 tranny. I'm only 18 and this is my dd but I would seriously like to do an Ls swap. or any motor swap that has plent of horsies. what would be the easiest swap? unfortunately I won't be able to afford a high performance motor for some time but I know I want to do it in the future. I want this truck to seriously haul ass.


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[Captkaos]

Let'st start with the obvious question of what is you budget?
Easiest is to put a SBC in there...

[75_chevy]

well to be honest when I get around to it money won't me an object because I will save up the money to do it. I'm willing to put in between 5 to 10 thousand into a motor


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[Captkaos]

I am lost.  You want to do an LS but you say you won't be able to afford a high performance motor.  But you then say money won't be an object.

Are we talking about now or in the future?

[75_chevy]

definitely in the future. you may be lost because I am lost and came here for direction. I don't need the best motor out but I want something that will make my truck quick. my motor is only pushin like 250hp and I want something way more ferocious. also I don't want to the swap when I'm in my 30's I just can't do it while I'm 18. maybe by age 19 or 20? depends on if I get a raise or not


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[75_chevy]

sorry dumb post just found a motor rated at 400hp for 3300 I'm probably gonna go with this guy


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[Irish_Alley]

yeah i was going to say yearone makes a 400+hp and 400+tq motors for 3k. but gearing would also help your take off but will hurt your mpgs

[bake74]

     It really depends on a couple of factors.  #1:  Do you want to just go fast and don't care about anything else.  #2:  Do you want to go fast and still care about MPG when your foot is not in the accelerator ?
     #1:  Throw in a big HP motor, install a shift kit in your trans to handle the power, and maybe change the rear end gears to match what you want the truck to do, and don't be surprised later on when your truck get's some where between 7 - 10 MPG.
     #2:  Do your home work on a LS or similar swap, which will take some effort and money to do it right, gain HP with the added benefit of somewhat better fuel economy when your foot is not buried in the pedal of course.

[75_chevy]

basically a stock 350 with headers and an edelbrock 1406 and I'm already getting about 7-10mpg, and it's slow. so if I can get it to go fast and still get around 8mpg I would be perfectly content. work is right down the street so not much of a commute.

as far as rear end gears I wanted to get a posi rear end so I could mess with the gearing around there I suppose. I have a 12bolt rear end right now, how is that compared to a 10bolt? do y'all know the gearing in there?


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[Greybeard]

Like they used to say...you wanna go fast? How much money ya got?

Your 350 is capable of quite a bit more than you are getting out of it. Headers don't do a lot until you work on getting air (and fuel) in. Just throwing a 4 barrel on an engine will normally get one of two things, poor gas mileage or a dog on the street (actually both is more normal).

Depending on how tired that engine is, there is plenty you could do in your driveway and even more if you had a garage. You have the engine basics (headers and carb) now you need good quality (and well thought out) parts in between. Did I mention well thought out parts? Anyway, just cause something works on Mikey's 85 Dodge Dart down the street doesn't mean it will work in a truck...even a two wheel drive truck.

The simple and easy start, although not in the correct order of assembly generally, is upgrade the distributor and wires. I don't mean an aftermarket cap and walmart brand wires, something along the lines of (but not necessarily of this brand, that choice would be up to you) an MSD body http://www.msdignition.com/product.aspx?id=5679&terms=85551 and good suppression wires http://www.msdignition.com/product.aspx?id=6497&terms=35659 with a stout coil http://www.msdignition.com/product.aspx?id=5003&terms=8202 these are only examples. That will wake it up some but it might not be too noticeable for now.

Then a new (well thought out) DUAL plane manifold (with two plenums) and while that is off throw in a good torquey cam (such as a strong four wheel drive type or off-road) and the drive system of your choice to make it work good (this where the well thought out part comes in REAL handy!). Don't forget, it's a truck not a Corvette, there is no real point in having a truck do 155 mph. It's prolly not safe anyway in a 40 year old truck. And as was mentioned, a good solid shift kit, and when that stops working good, a better torque converter.

Start with the easy stuff that can be done in a day or so. Pulling the distributor and replacing it is normally a twenty minute job for a professional. Two hours for a newbie (I'm assuming you are a mechanical newbie otherwise you wouldn't of made this post, if not, sorry). Just don't get in a hurry, take pictures of everything before taking it apart, then take some more at different angles and with various perspectives to make them crystal clear as to how things go back together. Especially wires and vacuum hoses. It ain't rocket science.

[75_chevy]

dang thanks for the post boss! I just put this new throttle cable/kickdown cable bracket and now I can actually get full throttle and my truck is actually scary fast now. i will definitely look in to the distributor and wires! I'm sure there's not much in swapping one out.. also I know
my wires are garbage ($30 summit wires) because two of them have already started sparking through the boot. I'll snag a new dist and wires after I pay my insurance and reg and get some money in my pocket!


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[75_chevy]

the motor isn't tired it's only got like 40k miles on it, what cam would u recommend if the heads and everything are all stock?


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[Irish_Alley]

theres nothing wrong with wires from the parts stores, dont get the cheap ones but you dont need msd for a stock/near stock spark

[Greybeard]

What ^^^he ^^^^said. Remember, an engine is a bunch of individual parts working TOGETHER. Well thought out. I didn't make it as clear as I should have...get these parts first...Or Dot  dot dot  before getting anything else, but have a plan first overall. Otherwise you are still just throwing money at it hoping everything works together. Buying a new distributor isn't going to net any major horsepower gains until your compression goes so high that a regular spark dies before igniting the mixture. That will prolly never happen on a street quality truck. YMMV. BUT, there is no harm done throwing this money at money it. Because it can't hurt performance no matter what. The spark plugs are the deciding factor in the entire ignition system, and for them to work perfectly the engine ground has be perfect, whether that's to the frame or straight to the battery. I prefer a straight battery ground from the block myself but YMMV. I personally never underestimate the ignition system for access to some easily obtained power, it's won't be a lot but ya never know. But there are a lot of sideroads to take to use an ignition successfully. Maybe these are outdated thoughts? Maybe other things will offer more power for less money. But ya can't overlook the cool factor with a nice shiny distributor sitting there with nice wires. BTW, those were suggestions not references, I was already on that site looking for the distributor I bought for mine and just clicked the wires to show as a reference to good wires that were not walmart wires. I run two coils on my Harley and that did wonders for it's drive ability with the huge cam I have in it.   

[Irish_Alley]

a little add on about grounds. we where just working on a 72 c10 with a 307, it was running like crap couple even spin tires in the snow. this was after a intake and carb change. pulled into the shop my buddys where working on putting in the turn singnal switch and i was under the hood just looking at things the battery cables been splice together then taped up. i thne saw it only had one ground from the motor to the battery then from motor to frame. i then saw the sheet metal ground from the battery just sitting there. cleaned it up put it on a sheet metal bolt and flipped on the choke. i then got real tired and went home, next day they said they found the problem. they said the choke was on then turned it off and it seamed like another truck. spinning tires and running much better, but i never told them what i did. so i then told them i turned the choke on so that wasnt the fix the fix was the battery ground. then i found out why i got tired real fast. we had the truck running in the shop with one door open but it wasnt enough cause a camper in another bay has its carbon dioxide detector start alarming. silly rednecks