Over 25 Years Later, Finally My 71 C-10 Truck Build

[Ol Blue K20]

Nice, you're making a lot of progress!

[Low Elco]

Can't wait to see the new motor!

[Dieselwrencher]

It's nuts lifters are that far out. Actually it's all nuts. Glad to hear you have it so far along though. Nice score on the coyote! I'll keep my eye out for a 6 speed for you.

[Mike Bradbury]

So what was it that ruined the engine? sounds like you just tore it all down but I did not see what the official diagnosis was. Was it a crack or a bent push rod or what?

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by Mike Bradbury

So what was it that ruined the engine? sounds like you just tore it all down but I did not see what the official diagnosis was. Was it a crack or a bent push rod or what?

Didn't tear anything down yet. Only removed the valve covers during testing. It still runs. Idles just fine but put a load on it and sounds like crap. Once I swap in the new engine I'll try and find the root cause. My best guess is head gasket. Or cracked valve seat. One of the heads for sure had a previous crack repair.

Still waiting for heads and cam/lifters to get shipped. Maybe this week. Not holding my breath though. I think the rod and main bearings were supposed to get delivered today so Mike can assemble the short block, minus the cam of course.

[hgs_notes]

Been waiting a while for these. Continuing to wait for the cam/lifters. No telling how long that will be. These are the promaxx 200 I originally wanted. Set up for hyd roller cam. They sure are pretty!

Here's a review of them...
https://youtu.be/Wr-VYVAbOP4

As for the transmission, I'm looking for a local builder to go through the 200-4R I've got. I've chatted with a couple people so far.

[Low Elco]

Oooooooo.....

[Ol Blue K20]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Oooooooo.....

X2!!!

[Dieselwrencher]

Those heads do look nice. I was looking at building a 6.0 for my 71 Camaro and about shat myself when I saw how bad the prices on parts have jumped. It'll have to like the 5.3 that's currently in it.

[Mike Bradbury]

Nice! Yeah the supply chain issues sure are frustrating.

[hgs_notes]

It's been awhile and not a ton of progress. Mainly waiting for parts delivery. After contacting Jegs for the nth time, and howards cams directly, it looked like I was still weeks away from delivery. So I dug into the interwebs some more and found lifters at Competition Products in stock. They also showed the cam I'm waiting for as in stock. So I emailed them to confirm and asked if they would sell me those parts for the same price as the kit, which they didn't have in stock. Turns out the cam was NOT in stock but they had the same one with a 112 LSA instead of the 110. I can live with that. And they didn't come down all the way on price but did give me about $50 off, which was nice. They didn't have to. I probably would have got it anyway just because they actually HAD IT IN STOCK! It cost a bit more than my Jegs order but at least I finally have it.

The only parts left to buy is push rods, which will need to be measured for. Hopefully those will be in stock.

So the short block will be assembled soon and painted chevy orange. The transmission was dropped off today to get rebuilt. I was a little leary of the guy, not that he seemed sketchy or anything. I just didn't really know his experience background. Finding local transmission guys that want to mess with a 200-4R isn't exactly easy. But we visited quite a bit today and he used to have his own auto shop for awhile but sold it and works as a mechanic foreman for UPS. He is a hot rodder and does mechanical work on the side. He has a twin turbo LS swapped RX7 with over 1200 HP and a trailblazer that is also turboed and makes over 1100 HP. He also has a 79 K20 he's working on. He recently did build a 2004R for a guy to put behind a big block that the guy is happy with. He'll tear mine down and make sure it's a good core and hopefully he can get the parts.

That's the status of the apparatus. Fingers crossed that parts aren't a problem and it's a good core. IDK if I'll get it done in May like I was hoping for but it's not like I have a shortage of toys around here to play with.

One pic from yesterday, cam bearings installed.

[hgs_notes]

Crankshaft is in. And it's got a touch of paint on it.

[hgs_notes]

The short block is together!

[hgs_notes]

Transmission guy is working on it. Good news is parts are available, in stock. He sent a pick of the direct drum, which I think is driven off the sun shell. It has some tooth wear that he's going to try and file out. Might work depending on what the allowed tolerance is. Since it's not wore through the entire tooth engagement it probably has something to do with the bad thrust washer.

Looking like I could have the engine and tranny done before the end of May, with installation shortly after.

[Low Elco]

Great Progress! What's the final engine size?

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Great Progress! What's the final engine size?

385ish

[Mike Bradbury]

I met a guy over the weekend who was attempting to build a stroker through Jegs and had the same delays as you did, they made excuses of supply chain issues and he felt stuck because they had already sent him a bunch of small parts off of the order but the big ticket items like the block were still MIA. He finally got fed up with the run around after three months and asked them to give him a return ticket and sent it all back. He called Summit and they had exactly what he needed on the shelf and sent it out that week. He had it on his door step by that Friday and installed it in time for Goodguys San Diego.

I have not had those kind of issues from Jegs given that I have only ever ordered smaller parts at any one time. But reading your back log account reminded me of the conversation I had this weekend.

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by Mike Bradbury

I met a guy over the weekend who was attempting to build a stroker through Jegs and had the same delays as you did, they made excuses of supply chain issues and he felt stuck because they had already sent him a bunch of small parts off of the order but the big ticket items like the block were still MIA. He finally got fed up with the run around after three months and asked them to give him a return ticket and sent it all back. He called Summit and they had exactly what he needed on the shelf and sent it out that week. He had it on his door step by that Friday and installed it in time for Goodguys San Diego.

I have not had those kind of issues from Jegs given that I have only ever ordered smaller parts at any one time. But reading your back log account reminded me of the conversation I had this weekend.

I've had problems with parts from summit, jegs and rockauto. Even a tractor parts supply order for a tie rod had issues. Inner and outer tie rod ends with a connecting tube. The outer tie rod wouldn't fit in the tube. The shaft was machined 1/16" too fat. I asked them to measure the replacement part before sending, they did and found the whole batch was bad. There was another part number that would work if I cut some length off but I asked them to measure that before I ordered, figuring it was likely from the same manufacturer. Finally after a couple weeks of waiting they let me know it measured ok and I got the part delivered yesterday. It looks like it's right, I'll try and put it together here soon.

I'm not blaming jegs or summit, they are selling parts that they state are not in their stock and shipped by the manufacturer. Shipping dates are estimates. I didn't send anything back to them that was delivered, just canceled the remaining part of the orders and moved on. During the 2 months of waiting I was routinely looking for other sellers that actually had the parts in stock, checking ebay, etc. Nobody had them. Competition Products is one I've used in the past but must not have sucked up to google enough to get placement during my searches. I was scrolling my old bookmarks looking for options and finally found the cam and lifters that way.

It could be worse. Really glad these things I'm working on are not my daily or critical for my income.

[hgs_notes]

The engine is almost done. The heads are on. Push rods were delivered but had to either grind or replace the guideplates because I ended up ordering fatter push rods. Not because I felt it needed it, I don't, but it was what was available. Only cost a few bucks more. The test stand is ready. We are going to try out Mikes corvette side pipes on the test run. He wants to see how they sound, lol.

The transmission parts were mostly delivered the other day. Waiting for the machine shop to fix a couple things and then it can be reassembled. The next week is super busy so the soonest I can get up north to test out the engine is Memorial weekend. Hopefully that works out and the transmission gets done in the next week or 2, then SWAP TIME!!

[Ol Blue K20]

It sure is pretty!

[Low Elco]

Awesome news, hope it goes well!

[Dieselwrencher]

It's looking really nice. The parts unavailability currently is just mind boggling.

[hgs_notes]

Got my new engine fired up yesterday. It's the first completely new/rebuilt engine since around 1985 for this truck. We ran it through the Corvette side pipes he picked up for his car. It was surprisingly smooth. I say that because I thought it would sound a little more lopey. It's about 9.5-10:1 compression, hydraulic roller cam with .525 lift and around 269 duration. So not a big thumper but will make good reliable power. It has promaxx 200 aluminum heads that have good flow. It had up to 19" vacuum. Should have over 400 HP and plenty of torque. Hopefully the transmission will be ready soon. It will finally have overdrive! Can't wait to put some miles on this.

https://youtu.be/AsJtGjqlv30

[hgs_notes]

Started disconnecting everything from the old engine and transmission. Got a short list of things left to do and should be able to pull it out by the weekend. The transmission might get done tonight. I'm thinking about dropping the driveshaft off to get rebalanced but might wait until I install the new stuff to make sure I don't need to adjust the length. I know I need to do some cleaning in there. So many oil leaks! From the engine and transmission both. I should also try and do better routing of wires. Not going to throw it together quick just to get it done.

[OneOffStroker]

Engine looks great!

I feel ya on the parts shortage. I ordered wheels from Summit for my '72 back in June of last year. Said all were in stock, ready to ship. The fronts (18x8) got to me in about two days...but the rears (18x10) ended up being backordered until August. August became September, then November, then January, then May. I called every other wheel distributor that I could find that carried American Racing, but the 18x10 was sold out everywhere.

I had to buy two new 15" tires to run on the factory wheels just so I could move the truck from my shop to my house. I ran the 15s on the passenger side, and both 'fronts' on the driver's side.

Late February, I finally got my rear wheels...but of course I had to jam out to Europe to support NATO, so I still don't have them on my truck. Ugh.