1979 C10 5.7 Diesel advice

[hatzie]

Originally Posted by THI

The easy swap would be a 1976 or earlier 350 Olds - nice long flat torque curve! A 455 would burn tires at will - if that is what you want. You trans and motor mounts are currently set up for an Olds (small or big block) and to change it to a Chevy would be a lot more work. 1977 and later Olds blocks are light weight castings and windowed webs so you would want the 1976 and earlier "Rocket".

The 350 Rocket is a beast. Nothing like the smallblock Chevy 350. I had one in a 1970 Delta 88 with a Rochester Quad on top of a cast Iron olds intake. I installed a later Olds HEI distributor on it in place of the points to cut down on fussy maintenance chores.
Those 1960's and very early 1970's Olds engines were torque monsters.
It moved that big land yacht like the Devil himself had his cloven hoof on the gas pedal.