Billy Jack 1986 Chevy C10 Project

[TechBill]

The 1986 Chevy C10 long bed was my first full size truck and I had it for a very long time.

The radiator sprung a leak back in 2008 while I was visiting a friend in another state. I was too busy at the time to fix it so my friend told me I was welcome to store it on his land until I am ready to fix it to drive it back home.

About 6 years ago, my friend had to go out of state and someone managed to sneak into his backyard and stole both doors, hood, tailgate, brake light covers and horn button without alerting any of my friend's neighbors during the nighttime. Sneaky bastards!

It been sitting exposed to the weather elements until I find time to bring it back since I already had purchase newer full size truck and I didn't need this truck at the time. Now I have more time so I am itching to bring it back to life again.

The C10 project being........

[TechBill]

The moving day...

I was going to rent a trailer then drive 5 hours to where my truck was to load it up and bring it back home.but I though at first I would see how much it would cost to hire someone off the internet to bring it to me.

So I googled and found a auto transport site where I entered my information and several transport business would bid on bring my truck to me. For the next two days, my inbox was filling up with offers to bring my truck over. I picked one company and they only charged me 250 to bring my truck to me which was 5 hours away about 235 miles.

I think it was a good deal because it was cold out and I can stay home in my nice warm house. They met my friend at his house and all my friend did was pointed them the truck to pick up. They brought the truck to me on the next morning.

My friend send me the photos of the truck being loaded on the transport trailer.

[TechBill]

i reserved some post to go back after I shifted through my photos but look like there a time limited to be able to go back and edit your posts. So ignore all the empty thread above.

The next day ....

The C10 truck arrived to my home and now sitting in my garage .... With the hood stolen, the vines was able to grow up from ground through my engine compartment. My friend mentioned to me that he had to clip all the vines underneath and on top of the truck before they could pull it from its resting place to the trailer.

[TechBill]

Breaking down .....

First thing I did was to remove all the vines as much I could. It attached itself to everywhere and on everthing!! It was a major pain in the rear trying to peel the vines from each wires and vacuum hose without breaking it.

I removed the air cover .... uh oh I didn't think water could get into the carburetor all those year or I would had told my friend to cover it with something. Oh well lesson learned. Look like water been getting in through the air filter wing nut.

Then I removed the carb thinking that where water stopped at. Nope nope it went all the way to the intake manifold .... ugh .... Now I gotta pull that intake manifold hoping that where water stopped at and did not go any further into the heads or cylinders.

[TechBill]

It turning out to be a bigger project than I thought it would. At first I was going to fix the radiator then drain gas and oil to put fresh ones in.

Next to add those doors and hood which I got off the Craigslist. I got a good deal too on them. I pay like only $210.00 for two doors, hood, brake light cover, horn button, and hinges.

And drive off into the sunset ...

The doors came off of a burb so it got power windows and locks which will be a nice upgrade over my stolen doors. I plan to add keyless remote entry with engine cut off module.

The hood have two holes where there used to be a hood ornament at and the doors have trims. My C10 did not either have hood ornament and trims so I am going to find someone locally to weld the holes shut and grind it smooth. Also it is covered with surface rust which I will need someone locally to blast it off.

[TechBill]

Here the carb out of the truck .....

[TechBill]

I have broken down my carburetor to see how bad it is. I am thinking maybe it salvageable after all but I won't know until I build my own soda blaster and start blasting away all those craps.

The bottom won't open and seem to be fused shut so I am letting it soak in WD40 over night hopefully it will free it up.

Here some photos of the broken down carb.

[TechBill]

Anyone here use some type of blaster to clean carb before? I read up on the net that baking soda blasting is safe for carb and very effective at cleaning it.

Everyone welcome to post in this project thread and share thoughts, feedback, inputs, or just about anything

I started a thread about building a baking soda blaster at

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=728791

so if you have build a blaster, please chime in that thread and share with all of us what did you use to build one!

Thank you

[TechBill]

Originally Posted by TechBill

Anyone here use some type of blaster to clean carb before? I read up on the net that baking soda blasting is safe for carb and very effective at cleaning it.

Everyone welcome to post in this project thread and share thoughts, feedback, inputs, or just about anything

I started a thread about building a baking soda blaster at

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=728791

so if you have build a blaster, please chime in that thread and share with all of us what did you use to build one!

Thank you

After researching about Soda Blasting, I don't think I will invest time and money into it since it would require a powerful compressor like the ones you see at construction sites to have a steady flow.

When I checked on cost of buying re-manufactured Quadjet carbs compare to the cost of trying to salvage one I have now. I think the cost would be so close to each other that I am probably better off getting a re-manufactured one for my C10.

Also I been looking into maybe converting it to a TBI instead but I couldn't find much information about DIY conversion by grabbing TBI and ECM off junkyard 305 engines but I found a kit below

http://pfisys.com/products/complete-...5-5-0l-859-99/

But for that cost of a TBI kits, I am wondering if I could find a whole engine block with stock TBI and ECM that could drop in my truck without too much difficultly. I am not sure about the tranny if I have to get one that work with TBI too. I need to do more research on this one.

[TechBill]

Today I pulled out all spark plugs to see if there any rusts. I was getting excite when I start pulling one by one seeing no rust on it.

Until I pulled the last one #8 and behold there rust and water on the plug ...

Oh well look like it going to need a rebuild after all. I am going to try to turn the motor by hand tomorrow and see if it turns without binding then maybe do a compression test.

I am waiting to hear from my friend to see if I would damage it further trying to do a compression test in a cylinder with rust in it.

Since I found water on the plug which means that intake valve was open and the piston should be starting to go down so maybe it was at the near top stroke starting to go down and rust is only at the top part of the cylinder.

[TechBill]

It's going slow, 4 kids and a day job been keeping me busy but I been hitting craigslist daily hoping to find something. Either another 305 if this one not rebuildable or a donor truck / van with a TBI motor and ECM.

It's not easy to find anything around here in the Ozark mountain where every second vehicle is a pickup truck so parts are far and few down here.

[LT7A]

Sorry for all you are going through because of corrupt minded people who would come take those parts off of your truck while it was sitting. Glad that you got it home, and are having the patience to start putting it back together. I think that you'll be glad you did and in not much time at all you'll have a truck you can enjoy again. It's cool to see it being brought back to life, so keep us posted.

[daddyjeep]

Old school small blocks are pretty easy to find around here. I am surprised you are not coming up with anything. I have one in the corner of my shop if you are up for a road trip. Since you are looking at swapping the engine, why are you not looking for a 350? As far as a newer TBI goes, it should be pretty straight forward to integrate that to your truck. You should be able to find the wiring diagrams on line.

[MTCK]

Cool project. That carb is pretty tough looking! If you can find a TBI you won't regret it. Great little drivers and pretty simple.

[TechBill]

Somebody heard about my project and offered to sell me his '94 Chevy van which have a 350 and 700r4 tranny.

I am tempted but I got a question about 350 and the 700r4 over in this thread - http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=732032

[MTCK]

If the van is a 1994, it should have the 4l60e instead of the 700r4. Mechanically similar but the 4l60e is controlled by the pcm instead of mechanically. If you can test drive the van and it seems to run and shift well I wouldn't be scared of those miles. The junkyard motor I put in my v3500 temporarily supposedly had like 250k on it and only smoked a little on startup. Having had internal and external fuel pumps, I would plunk down for the '87 tanks sending units and pumps. External were loud and got hot by the exhaust. If you go the route of the TBI there is a really good swap thread on here.

[TechBill]

Originally Posted by MTCK

If the van is a 1994, it should have the 4l60e instead of the 700r4. Mechanically similar but the 4l60e is controlled by the pcm instead of mechanically. If you can test drive the van and it seems to run and shift well I wouldn't be scared of those miles. The junkyard motor I put in my v3500 temporarily supposedly had like 250k on it and only smoked a little on startup. Having had internal and external fuel pumps, I would plunk down for the '87 tanks sending units and pumps. External were loud and got hot by the exhaust. If you go the route of the TBI there is a really good swap thread on here.

I just Googled and you seem to be correct, I found a chart showing that '94 van have a 4L60E tranny. I am thinking that one benefit going with 4L60E is no tranny linkage and less vacuum hoses to deal with correct?

Would a '87 tank bolt right into a '86 truck. What about '94 PCM, would it need to control the fuel pump as well too?

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by TechBill

I just Googled and you seem to be correct, I found a chart showing that '94 van have a 4L60E tranny. I am thinking that one benefit going with 4L60E is no tranny linkage and less vacuum hoses to deal with correct?

Would a '87 tank bolt right into a '86 truck. What about '94 PCM, would it need to control the fuel pump as well too?

A 4l60e will still require trans shifter linkage & electrical lines to the trans.
87 tanks will swap right over to an 86.
I'll let someone else discuss the 94 PCM swap....