Radar's 85 GMC shorty

[radar1]

Hello all. I've been lurking around for some time, trying to gain knowledge for what I had in mind. So after getting educated with what works, and what doesn't, here is my list of parts. Bell Tech 3 inch drop spindles, McGaugys rear flip kit, CalTrac traction bars. That about wraps up the suspension upgrades. I am also in the process of swapping out the engine and transmission. I am replacing the tired 305, with more cubes. 454 of them. pulled the 454 out of a 76 1 ton dully that came in at the salvage yard, about 3 years ago. That's how long I've been waiting for the stars and the planets to come into alignment so I could put this thing together. I was amazed after pulling the valve covers how clean the inside of the engine was. I pulled a spark plug and checked it out with my buddies fiber optic camera. I could still see the .030 in the pistons. They also appeared to be flat tops. I believe that the motor had been recently gone thru, as clean as everything appears. Now there are several firsts on this project for me. Never driven anything with a big block, always seemed to be a small block guy, and never had anything with headers. These are just a couple of things new for me. I cant wait to hear it run. For the motor I chose a Comp Cams XE-268H cam kit, Eldelbrock performer intake manifold, and Hedman Elite headers. The for now is to run the Quadra jet for the carb. And I am going to run this through a 700R4. My rear end in the truck is out of a 91 suburban with 3:42 gears and a gov-lock. Now I know I have several weak links in the set up, trans and rear end, most likely. Especially after I install the CalTracs. Any way got started installing the motor this weekend, so here are some pictures.