Good ol general advice ^_^

[Bjj_junkie]

hello everyone! my first of probably many threads. i just bought a 72 stepside with a straight 6 250 and a 3 speed in it (I'm in the process of learning about the mechanics of cars so excuse my inexperience). the plan is to get this truck to restore with a few friends that know cars as fun project over the summer. unfortunately, we had a small family emergency that cost me most of the money i had aside for the project which left the original plan of getting a crate 350 far from happening. now this is the reason for the thread, my question is, should i find me an old 350 to restore or should i just work with the straight 6? the one thing i know i want for sure is to make the truck automatic. it would be a daily driver, not looking to race or anything and i would like it to sound good lol. at first i completely threw out the thought of keeping the 250 but after talking to a friend, its something I'm willing to look into now. id just like to hear some opinions from people that already have and work on these trucks. I'm not sure how or if its even possible to put a th350 on a 250. ill end it here before i scare most of you off with a huge paragraph lol. thanks for you time

[hugger6933]

Welcome to the site you will find lots of great people on here that care about trucks and people and are willing to help both. You most certainly can put a TH350 behind a 250 6 cyl motor and there is no shame in that. If you did indeed have your heart set on a small block 350 however, I say just wait it out and put one in when you can afford it that way you are starting with what you want instead of what you have. When a person builds a truck and gets part way through it and then feels like he has cut corners or needlessly made errors in the build process it will hamper the rest of the build taking away from the end result. I know family emergencies are bound to happen if you do have family hopefully all is good and everything is righted now and focus can once again turn towards the truck. there are things you can do to your truck before a motor change while waiting on a motor but if you had it in your plan I'd stay with it or else I feel you will be letting yourself down in the long run on this project, not that the 6 isn't a great motor. it is. Jim

[Bjj_junkie]

thanks a bunch Jim those are very kind and knowledgeable words. you're completely right, i build fish tanks and my last project took me almost a year to build and the one thing i skimped out on to save some cash made me so unhappy with the overall look i was going for that i had it changed just a month after the build and ended up losing money instead of saving. ill talk to my buddies and see what they suggest starting on. maybe suspension or interior

[RenoKeene]

Welcome from West Central Florida!
Got pics of your truck?

[slikside]

Just focus on what is necessary to have a running and reliable rig first, especially if money is tight. If you just do that, you can sock away whatever you can save so you can eventually get the motor/tranny combo you want.

I the 6 can be loved up a little, I would do that, and wait until you can get a 350 crate motor. Used motors are always a gamble, unless you know it's history (close friend, etc). And if you buy one to rebuild it, that will very likely cost you more than the crate motor, unless you know a machinist/rebuilder.

Speaking of crate motors, Jegs runs a special on e-bay once in a while. They have recently had GM Goodwrench's on their for about $1200 shipped to your door. Gonna be hard to beat that rebuilding one.

[Codez67Chevy]

You kid'n me the 250 is an awesome motor. I say work with what ya got. I have a 292 which is basically the same motor. They are both " Tall decks " but the 292 has a little more displacement. Look up Leo Santucci. He knows these motors inside and out and has written up books on how to get any kind of power out of any of the GM 6's. I'm going to build my 6. Mainly cuz I like to be different.

[alsriv2]

Originally Posted by slikside

Just focus on what is necessary to have a running and reliable rig first, especially if money is tight. If you just do that, you can sock away whatever you can save so you can eventually get the motor/tranny combo you want.

I the 6 can be loved up a little, I would do that, and wait until you can get a 350 crate motor. Used motors are always a gamble, unless you know it's history (close friend, etc). And if you buy one to rebuild it, that will very likely cost you more than the crate motor, unless you know a machinist/rebuilder.

Speaking of crate motors, Jegs runs a special on e-bay once in a while. They have recently had GM Goodwrench's on their for about $1200 shipped to your door. Gonna be hard to beat that rebuilding one.

I had a '72 GMC that had that same motor and transmission years ago. Fantastic combination. Not over the top, easy to drive rock steady dependable.
Like mentioned in other threads, make it safe and comfortable to drive as it is then take the time to plan for upgrades and such. You might find the 3 OTT a fun a different experience like I did and keep it! I have also had a 3 OTT with a 305 in front of it, but it was not as fun as the 6.

One thing for sure is the 3 OTT is a security feature as most thieves nowdays will be lost in trying to drive it.

Keep us posted and by the way we like pictures!

[hugger6933]

A couple of more things I would like to add. Make it safe not only for you and family but the others that you meet on the road. Nobody wants to get introduced to someone new on the hiway by exchanging insurance info. So make it safe to drive [stop and steer] that almost always means making it FUN to drive. No matter what power train it has or will have in the future if you keep the down time to a small amount of time that will keep the bad attitude away and if you can drive your truck you still will like your truck that is not always the case when it is sitting in the corner drawing dust. I have three of them and all three are getting frame-offs. I wish I would have kept one as a driver[ all three were when I bought them] but I go overboard sooo easy. One came in for a tune up, bam frame off! one came into the shop with a dent in the fender, Bam! short conversion small to big block and green to orange white orange white. The other just went down hill real quick cause I was crazy with ideas of what I wanted it to be. I own a body shop so having one stripped to frame rails then pick back up on it 6 months later don't bother me as it would others and not getting to drive them don't bother me as much either but I can see where it would. So hang in do what you can to keep it on the road then do small projects like the tilt on the weekends, oh you have oot trans so that will have to wait till you go auto. but there are plenty others. Jim

[davepl]

I hate to be today's post Nazi, but posts are MUCH easier to read if you break them up into those paragraph things. And capitalize the first letter of the sentence.

No one can tell you how to write, that's your own business. But it's kinder to the reader, and more likely to get a useful response. Not only because it's easier to read but it broadens your audience - not everyone will or can read a dense block of text.

That is the origin of:

tl;dr

All that hassling aside, we're pretty friendly, so welcome!

[luckyss]

Keep the 6 in it - that's one thing I regret getting rid of and wish I had done when I started working on mine.

[Bjj_junkie]

Thanks a bunch everyone! Very helpful advice and I'll probably keep this inline in it till I really feel I need to upgrade it. It seems like a powerful enough motor especially for just driving around. It'll save me some extra cash for other much needed mods.

And here I'll be adding some pics for the gentleman with the amazing gmc truck.

[Bjj_junkie]

Here's another. Sorry, I can't seem to add more than one at a time

[wreckedchevy]

looks like a really nice truck your starting with. mine originally came with the 250 6 and I switched it to a v8. If I did it again I would use the v8 stands in the v8 frame position. my clutch zbar sits in there funny and my distributor is basically touching the firewall. good luck with your project.