parts from a '97?!?!?!

[1968CHEVYC10]

ok my brother hit a deer in his '97 burban and totaled it, so now I'm looking at using it as a parts truck, basically I need to know what all is compatible with my 68 C10, I've thought about swapping engines but i think that'd be way over my head and I kinda like the old 350 anyway. so some stuff I was thinking was the sway bar, I know alot of people use a sway bar out of a 73-87 so I'm not sure if it'd fit? also power steering? would this even work? I'm guessing I'd have to get different brackets, but would the steering box even work anyway? and lastly power brakes?, I honestly have no idea if this would work, anything else yall can think of that would work in my truck would be appreciated! thanks yall!

[petey-pablo]

That must have been a Big deer to have totaled a 97 burban. Pictures are always nice to see do you have any of the dammaged Burban?

[1968CHEVYC10]

here's a pic, he had already rearended somebody and then somebody backed into it with a trailer hitch so the bumper was already bent in and only about an inch from the radiator, so it didn't take much to do some damage. it may not be officially totaled but the things got 220,000 miles on it so its almost not worth fixing, and my brother's been looking for a new truck anyway.

[1968CHEVYC10]

oh and yeah we grow our deer big, down here in Texas

[2tons of fun]

you would probably hate the better mpg, hp and smoother operation of a efi motor anyhow.





whats his phone ####

[mbgmike]

Originally Posted by 1968CHEVYC10

oh and yeah we grow our deer big, down here in Texas

I never saw a big deer here in Texas

[WIDESIDE72]

IMO, there are a few choices:
1. Complete engine/ trans swap. But, instead of putting this actual engine and trans in your truck, use them as cores to swap for a rebuilt engine and trans. You don't want to go through the trouble of swapping in a tired drivetrain.

2. Swap the front serpentine accessory drive. Of all of the parts you mentioned, it is about the only thing that is readily easily swappable. You will need a hose shop to make hoses or put new hoses on your lines if you do this. This will give you a Delphi AC comressor that is MADE to run on R134, unlike other compressors that ae Adapted from the original design of running on R12. If you already have PS on your truck, you should be able to take the fitting out of the back of your pump and put it in the 97 pump to avoid having a custom PS pump pressure hose made. Put a new tensioner pulley and belt on it and it will go for another 200k miles, without ever having to tighten a belt or re mount a thrown V-belt

3.Also, short of swapping in the whole engine/ trans, you should pull the Vortec heads, have them rebuilt (around $200) buy a hybrid Vortec carb intake (as cheap as $100 used) for a nice 20-40 hp upgrade over your stock motor. I recenlty swapped a 99 Vortec 350 into a 93 truck and used the TBI from the 93, using a hybrid Vortec to TBI intake. You could go this route as well as TBI is easier to swap to, and only has 1 O2 sensor. YOu will give up a little power, though. you should be able to sell all of the Vortec Port injection parts and but the TBI parts from a salvage yard and come out $$$ ahead.

4. The 4L60E overdrive would be nice, but too much of a PITA, IMO, since it has to be computer controlled. It can be done, but costs $$$ for a stand alone computer to run the trans and interface the electronic speedo. It would be a better idea to sell the 4L60E and buy a 700R4 (basically the same trans w/o electronic control.

[1968CHEVYC10]

Originally Posted by 2tons of fun

you would probably hate the better mpg, hp and smoother operation of a efi motor anyhow.





whats his phone ####

yeah lol I told myself I'd probably change my mind after I get this thing on the road and start putting gas in it.

I don't think he wants his phone number put out on the web but if you tell me what your interested in I'll ask him and maybe yall could work up a deal.

[1968CHEVYC10]

Originally Posted by WIDESIDE72

IMO, there are a few choices:
1. Complete engine/ trans swap. But, instead of putting this actual engine and trans in your truck, use them as cores to swap for a rebuilt engine and trans. You don't want to go through the trouble of swapping in a tired drivetrain.

2. Swap the front serpentine accessory drive. Of all of the parts you mentioned, it is about the only thing that is readily easily swappable. You will need a hose shop to make hoses or put new hoses on your lines if you do this. This will give you a Delphi AC comressor that is MADE to run on R134, unlike other compressors that ae Adapted from the original design of running on R12. If you already have PS on your truck, you should be able to take the fitting out of the back of your pump and put it in the 97 pump to avoid having a custom PS pump pressure hose made. Put a new tensioner pulley and belt on it and it will go for another 200k miles, without ever having to tighten a belt or re mount a thrown V-belt

3.Also, short of swapping in the whole engine/ trans, you should pull the Vortec heads, have them rebuilt (around $200) buy a hybrid Vortec carb intake (as cheap as $100 used) for a nice 20-40 hp upgrade over your stock motor. I recenlty swapped a 99 Vortec 350 into a 93 truck and used the TBI from the 93, using a hybrid Vortec to TBI intake. You could go this route as well as TBI is easier to swap to, and only has 1 O2 sensor. YOu will give up a little power, though. you should be able to sell all of the Vortec Port injection parts and but the TBI parts from a salvage yard and come out $$$ ahead.

4. The 4L60E overdrive would be nice, but too much of a PITA, IMO, since it has to be computer controlled. It can be done, but costs $$$ for a stand alone computer to run the trans and interface the electronic speedo. It would be a better idea to sell the 4L60E and buy a 700R4 (basically the same trans w/o electronic control.

well first of all thanks for all the info, about the engine and tranny, I'm kinda wanting to keep it stock and I also like having a manual tranny like its got now, swapping heads like you mentioned is probably a good idea but most likely out of my skill level and budget haha. what can I say I'm still in highschool with no job, and no truck yet to get me to one lol. about the power steering, I have manual steering in my truck right now, so my question was could I just swap everything out of the '97?
again thanks for your time!

[Longhorn Man]

keep the engine. You can pull it out of the burb and learn as you go. Its real easy. If there is something bolted to the engine, and hooked to the truck, then it needs removed. Someone who is mechanicly inclined can do it first time in a weekend no problem.
The late model 5.7 is a million times better than you old 350. 220k is nothing to them, but most old school 350s are dead well before that. We see thesse engines go 300 to 450,000 miles without being opened up with the exception of the intake gaskets getting replaced.
You could also part that thing out and make a small fortune, then buy the power brakes that will fit your truck properly.

[WIDESIDE72]

As far as I know, the steering box from the 97 won't fit 67-72 trucks. You need to find one from 73 to 80 or so. (grab the sway bar and brackets off of 73-87 truck while ther if your truck doesnt already have one as these will fit your truck as well.) Boxes up to 87 will physically bolt up, but have metric connectors on the pressure hose. It can still be done, but it gets a little more complicated. Is your truck a small V8 or other? Does your truck still have the factory short water ppump and accessory drives, or has it been changed to a later long water pump?

[WIDESIDE72]

Originally Posted by Longhorn Man

220k is nothing to them, but most old school 350s are dead well before that. We see thesse engines go 300 to 450,000 miles without being opened up with the exception of the intake gaskets getting replaced.

Seriousy? Is this from personal experience or a theory? I did have to replace the intake gasets on all of my trucks.

Personally, I had a 97 1/2 ton with a Vortec 350 that I bought new. It was well taken care of, oil changed every 3k miles, tuneuos and other maintenance as required. I pulled a 16 ft car trailer maybe once every three or four months and I did a compression test and the readings were all over the place (rings were going out).

I sold it and bought a 99 old body style truck 1/2 ton with a Vortec 350 and 31k miles on it from an old man my dad knew that had never towed with it. It still had the plastic snap on cover where the trailer ball mounts, and no receiver hitch. I put the receiver hitch off the 97 on it and put another 100k on it. It got hot once and I put a new water pump on. I put another 15k or so on it and when it blew a head gasket. No warning, and I watch the guages like a hawk. As soon as I saw it getting hot, I pulled over. I fixed that and soon after, the cat converters had to be replaced (and four O2 sensors OUCH! ) I have since had a mechanic tell me that anytime one of these newer vehicles blows a head gasket, it eventually ruins the cats. I sold this truck at close to 200k as I was looking to cut my losses.

I decided I needed a bigger truck and a 4x4. I found a 93 GMC 3/4 ton 4x4 with a blown engine. I bought it figuring I would see if I could rebuild the original TBI 350 or build a roller cam motor. Soon after, I came acrsoss a wrecked 97 GMC 1/2 ton with a 350 Vortec with 62k miles. There was a stack of receipts from where the PO had had maintenance and oil changes done at their Chevy dealer or Jiffy Lube. I checked all the compression, and I foget off the top of my head what the exact readings were, but they were within 5-7 lbs of each other. I was able to start it, so I bought the whole truck, pulled the 350, checked the main and rod bearings with plasti guage, resealed it, put in a different cam, new timing set and oil pump, new head gaskets, and a hybrid intake to go from the Vortec eads to TBI. I put MAYBE 2k mile son it when it spun a main bearing.

By the way, you can serach my other posts and see pics of this truck/ project. I bought a rebuilt Vortec 350 short block and put all of the stuff from the other Vortec on it. It is almost back up and running.

My brother has a 97 Surburban with a Vortec 350 with nearly 300k miles on it. It will barely run. No compression...

The Vortec 350 is a good engine, but not the Holy Grail. 300-400k miles are the land of diesels only. Ask me about the 82 6.2 diesel Surburban that my family and I put nearly 400k miles on before I sold the engine to a friend who is STILL (!) running it in his pickup.

[WIDESIDE72]

My dad has an ALL STOCK 2001 2500HD regular cab with a Duramax and 268k miles on it, so we do get a lot of miels out of our trucks. My next truck will be a Duramax! (Or maybe a Duramax into a 72 3/4 ton 4x4.. hmmm...) I can pull his 18 ft car hauler with a 6k lbs tractor as fast as I can hold it on the road LOL. We were on I-35 coming back from Dallas with a tractor and I looked down and was going 78 mph. Kind of shocking, as I don't like going over 65 mph or so when towing.

[WIDESIDE72]

Parting the truck out is a definite money maker. I bought the wrecked truck mentioned above for $700, sold all the parts I could for over $2k total, sold the wreked parts to the salvage yard for around $200 and still kept the engine and trans. You just have to have the right place to part it out. Don't try iy in your driveway as you neighbors will be PISSED. I always TRY to get along with the neighbors. I have 5 acres with a pastre in back out of site that is my personal wrecking yard. LOL

[Longhorn Man]

I work in a diesel and fleet shop. I've seen quite a few Vortec 350s with 600k on them. Had one the guy had hoped to get a million miles out of, but it blew at 750ooo.
There's a lot of things that will shorten the life, overheating/blowing head gaskets is one of them, the main thing I've seen that shortens the life is if the intake gaskets leak into the engine and goes without notice. It's more common than you'd think. Not saying it's a real common issue, but it is somewhat common.