Chevy3100's 1970 GMC 3/4 Ton

[chevy3100]

Well, I bought this a couple of months ago as it was going to be my new daily driver I was going to sell my Caddy CTS as I had a new job that didn't require a 4 seater car, and I could get away with having an old pickup (much more character than a new one). Anyhow, the new job didn't work out, but now I have both the CTS and finally got this truck ready to roll.

In all honesty, the truck didn't need much work. I bought it relatively cheap (for this area anyhow) from a kid who had done a bunch of work to it, then proceeded to have the oil line to the cooler blow off on the freeway on his way to get it smog checked.... Needless to say, he had moved between doing work at this time from his parents house to a condo where he was not allowed to work on the truck. I guess it sat for a few months, and he finally had put it on craigslist as a parts truck. Being as it was close to me and I always liked the 67-72 GM Trucks, I figured I'd take a look. Ended up towing it home that day with my little guy since we decided it was a keeper. The PO had replaced all of the tires, brakes, master cylinder, mirrors, marker lights, exhaust and a few other things to get it through provincial safety inspection (he had brought it up from Washington state). He only got about 400km on it before blowing the thing up....

Since it is a 3/4 ton with leafs, it's not worth a ton, but I got it for $3200 and now with a quick engine swap, some paint on a few things and a couple of new parts (gaskets, engine mounts, etc) it is running and driving. I just need to do a little tuning on the carb to get it through the driving portion of our smogger tests.

Here is the truck when I brought it home:


Getting the engine ready to pull:


Donor engine truck - 1987 Blazer 4x4 that had a 350 in it hooked up to a 5 spd. I just wanted the engine, the guy offered to deliver the truck to me and pick up the carcass when I was done pulling it -


10lbs of %&#$ in a 5lb bag....


It's a lot easier to pull an engine when you get to use a sawzall and sledgehammer to remove the body work. I was thinking it was going to be a pain to unbolt the trans, but I didn't want to have to dropped the t-case out either, so on a whim I through a jack under the body of the blazer and jacked up, took about 2 seconds to break off all of the body mounts and get the body lifted about 8" off the chassis, made for plenty of clearance.

[chevy3100]

Got the ol' truck prepped and pulled the engine out -


My little helper making sure I don't lose any lugnuts -


Engine is out - I should probably clean and paint this, but the weather was the craps, so it just got pressure washed


Little guy had to get in to check it out - his mom was really happy that he was wearing a brand new hoodie when he was helping ;D


Old engine on the ground, my engine hoist operator was quite proud of himself.....


Bonus points for anyone who notices what doesn't look right in this picture.....


Engine from the blazer has a fresh coat of paint on it, little man is excited as always ;D


Engine from the Blazer is now installed, I painted the valvecovers that were on the truck when I got it as well as the intake that was on the blazer. I had an old short style Edelbrock aluminum water pump sitting in the garage, so I threw that on for good measure as well. Had to build a new engine wiring harness as the previous one was totally hacked.


Truck as it sits now:





All told after selling the old canopy and a few spare parts from having both engines lying around, I'm into it for about $4200. I know everyone down south would think thats way high, but trucks like this around here are bloody expensive, even with crappy paint and a bunch of dents (no rust though - just piss poor finish work)

New engine is just a late 80's truck engine with a Performer intake, Edelbrock carb, Proform distributor, Hedman headers, Edelbrock valve covers, trans is a TH350, exhaust is dual 2 1/2" Flowmasters.

Truck is a 3/4 Ton leafer with air overloads. Lets just say she's a bouncy ride.

Next in line would be lowering, but I think I better get a job first :P

[chevy3100]

So I sold the heads off the engine the truck came with, figured since the little man just turned 4 it was time he learned how to tear down an engine

I backed off the head bolts and he spun them out, he managed to get the oil pan and timing cover off with just me helping line up the wrench though - he was very proud of himself as I was of him!

[eagleuh1]

Cool, It's always good to have help. You wanna sell me that one roller or is it already sold? Really nice truck. Mines a 3/4 leaf truck as well. Gotta have a long bed for real work. He needs a pair of coveralls to keep you out of hot water.

[chevy3100]

Originally Posted by eagleuh1

Cool, It's always good to have help. You wanna sell me that one roller or is it already sold? Really nice truck. Mines a 3/4 leaf truck as well. Gotta have a long bed for real work. He needs a pair of coveralls to keep you out of hot water.

haha - yes the one roller is gone....
He does need some coveralls, I've been in trouble a few times for him wrecking clothse....