69 Longbed c10 restoration

[Sparky dave]

Bought a mark 4 454 engine last week and if been busy going over it. It codes as 1985 light city 2 bolt main with penut port heads. I paid £750 for it. The shortblock was all complete minus the balancer and flexplate and the heads are complete but removed for inspection. After examining it looks like the bores are in good condition however I removed the rear main cap to replace the rear main seal and there is scoring on the crank! What made me think I could do a big block swap for panuts!

[Sparky dave]

Painting thw 454

[Sparky dave]

Cleaned all gasket surfaces using a Stanley knife blade as a scraper and ordered myself some nice new gaskets also chased all the thread a out of the block. I discovered 2 stripped header bolt holes in the block whick will need repairing

[Sparky dave]

Decided im going to change out pistons to a -22cc speed pro hyper to get me in the neighbouhood of 9-1 compression ratio as it is a dished piston 454 which will probably be 7.9-1 and I don't think I'll be happy with the performance or economy as I have a healthy 9-1 350 smallblock already. Decided also to do the main bearings but think that's as far as I'm going to go as long as the conrod bearings all check out good. I'm going to weight my pistons to my old pistons maybe 're use cast rings and do a home polish on my crank and clearance my main bearings to keep costs down. If I can buy a year or 2 I may well decide to do a 496 when I'm ready for my next spend and do it right. I'm going to use the penut port heads and try make some big torque in low to mid rpms. Many people are getting over 500 hp and over 550ftlb using penut ports after upping compression and using hydraulic roller cam, Under 5000! Makes for a nice street truck motor! Also economy will be better with a lower rpm motor. That's what I'm dreaming anyhow

[Sparky dave]

A couple of pics of the truck now as she stands. It's currently my daily driver taking me to work in and around the city where I live. It gets a massive amount of attention we just don't see classic American v8s where I'm from. Everyone I talk to thinks it will be unafordable to run but it couldn't be further from the truth. She costs me £100 for insurance per year and that's it! Like a pay as you go (just add fuel) .... and new shiny parts.. and lots of time. But hopefully I'll get that money back if I sell. Oh she does 20mpg on motorway too. I think maybe more. My brothers Isuzu 3.0d builders truck only gets 24 and that's brand new!