project Bad Karma

[Gordonr1973]

Nice write up so far!!

Good luck with work, I hope things go well soon.

[pockets]

Got my valve covers last night (sorry for the grainy pics)


I need some longer valve cover bolts. The ones in the ARP kit weren't long enough :\
I also have a bad feeling the covers are a bit too narrow and the rocker arms will hit them, but I won't know until I get the gaskets on there and check for sure. I'd hate to return them, I had a hard time finding any that I liked. I didn't want cheap chrome or any covers with a brand name. Know how hard it is to find something that doesn't have either one of those? I came really close to getting some aluminum ones that were fabbed up, but I liked these.

Mocked up with headers on:


Tossed on the pulleys to see how they would look:

[Muney]

Badass

[pockets]

Originally Posted by Muney

Badass

Thanks

Another set of small setbacks. I had to replace both front rotors and get new tires on the Impala last week, so there was a few hundred. Now I need to replace a spindle and tie rod on the same car. Sigh

Thankfully my brother-in-law owns a shop and should be able to get the parts cheaper than I can. Not to mention the break on labor costs. The tie rod would be no big deal, but not sure I want to tackle the spindle on that car (2005 impala).

Regardless, I'm going to order something this weekend for the engine. Gotta have something to keep the spirits up It will probably just be some new bolts that I need, but something is better than nothing.

The other nice thing about taking the car to him is he also has my truck there so I can pick up a couple more brackets I forgot to paint... It's been several months since I've seen the poor thing

[pockets]

Finally some good news. I only had to replace the tie rod ends on the impala, so that saved a bunch of money.

Even better, I was thinking of getting a used carb on ebay or craigslist and rebuilding it instead of buying that nice $500 holley HP I've been eyeing. Well, I was talking to my dad last night about all of this and he said he had two Holley 750 3310's sitting in the garage collecting dust and would give me one of them. Hot damn... $30 for a rebuild kit and I have a carb for the motor

It's nothing fancy, but it should do just fine for my little 383 street motor and saves me money that I can put to the exhaust and other little things I still need.

[lindstromjd]

Super nice looking truck!!

[pockets]

Originally Posted by lindstromjd

Super nice looking truck!!

Thanks

[pockets]

Well, uncle Summit sent me some more stuff. The only thing lacking now is my carb and I'm picking that up this coming weekend from my dad. In this photo is my distributor, more bolts, plug wires, carb rebuild kit, fuel regulator, motor mounts and some other stuff:


So, the plan is to pick up the carb this weekend on my trip to Goodguys in Texas, then next week sometime get the engine bay cleaned up and hopefully painted and drop the motor in. Minus a few hoses, clamps and whatever little items I'm forgetting the engine is complete. Just need the exhaust next.

Here is a better pic of the valve covers too. The last one was taken from my phone. I got these clear coated as well.

[mooseknuckles]

thats gonna be sweet!

[Stitch]

so no one even noticed the flame thrower kit hiding in the back...

Bade A

[Pop's C-10]

killer power plant

[pockets]

Well, I picked up a carb from my dad on the way back from Good Guys. I'll get a new set of plug wires tomorrow, then hopefully weekend after next i'll have the motor in and start

What I started with:


Parts primed:


Bowls and body painted aluminum:


Sitting on the engine:




Reverse view:


You'll notice I didn't paint the inside of the throttle body. Just in case the paint wasn't entirely fuel resistant, I didn't want the paint flaking off into the intake tract.

[pockets]

Found these seats on craigslist from a 90 burb and couldn't pass them up. I got the center console as well but I don't think I'll end up using it.

[Pop's C-10]

Nice work on tha carb..

[pockets]

Originally Posted by Pop's C-10

Nice work on tha carb..

thanks

[Red1]

Any thing new

[pockets]

well, I got the plug wires built and the engine primed. My brother in law is picking it up Thursday night to take back to his shop where the truck is sitting. Once I make sure the headers fit good, then I'll coat them and hopefully have it all started up late next week sometime.

[pockets]

Engine left the garage last night and I'll be test fitting the headers tomorrow, running fuel lines, putting on the alternator, etc.

I can't fire it up as I have the wrong cap on the distributor and the new one won't be here until Tuesday, so it'll be next weekend before it's running (assuming the headers fit).

[pockets]

Got the engine installed today with a lot of help from one of the guys that works for my brotherinlaw. Took a while to get the motor mounts done as I had to shave off some if the poly from the bushings. Unlike the stock ones there is no play or spare room in those clam shells now.

Also got the fuel plumbed. It doesn't look pretty as I didn't cut the original steel lines but I'll figure something out to clean it up a bit.

I'd post pics but the battery in my camera went dead after 2 shots and I took those if my wife's vw beetle which will be the next project.
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[truckindude]

i really like the valve covers

[pockets]

Thanks. One guy said he saw a pair for about $500. I hated to laugh but I only paid like $130 for them from summit
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[pockets]

Got the headers in, tranny and converter all bolted up which was a nighmare. I needed a new trans mount and autozone gave me the wrong one twice. ended up going to o'reilly's and got the correct one.

carb went on ok, but once I put the bracket for the throttle and TV cable, one of the bolts was too short. Figures.

We then proceeded to get all the grounds hooked up and make sure we had fuel. And did we ever. leaked all over the place! Also adjusted the regulator the wrong way so instead of getting lower pressure we pushed too much and fuel shot out the bowls, blew the clear sight plugs apart as well.

So with fuel all over the place we decided not to try to start it and let it air out. I need to get some smaller hose clamps and some teflon tape for some fittings as well.

Needless to say it was a bit of a frustrating weekend, but at least it is together enough to fire up once we get the fuel quirks worked out.

[RandyP]

Keep plucking away, you'll get there.

As far as bad weekends, if you only knew how wrong mine went you'd think yours was pretty honky dory!

(broke a manifold bolt off during an R&I process, drilled it, tapped it, went to far, had antifreeze coming out, on my 79 K5, not my 87)

[pockets]

ooh yea, that is a bad weekend!

I certainly feel much better than pretty much everything in the engine bay is all bolted up and there and the only thing holding back the break in is some small tweaks here and there.

I still have to get the AC in, make sure the TV cable is going to be good, fix up the exhaust and stuff like that, but hearing that engine run the first time will sure be sweet.

[pockets]

I had a bad weekend trying to get this POS to start. spent two days checking fuel, spark, setting the distributor, resetting it, resetting it again, over and over. nothing.

Finally called my brother in law today and asked if they could take a look at it. I was sure it was something stupid. Sure enough, got a call about an hour and a half later and it turned out I had the distributor 180 degrees out. Doh! I felt like an idiot. I didn't realized the timing mark on the balancer will be at zero at both TDC and BDC so I never bothered to do the pull-the-plug-and-place-finger-over-it trick. Oh well.

So after work I went up to the shop, and it sure enough it started right up. Ran about 30 seconds and stopped, no fuel. We had to bypass the oil pressure switch to the fuel relay, no problem. Ran about 5 minutes and was spewing out something on the passenger side. Raised it up on the lift and at first thought it was water but turned out to be oil. Uh oh... everything seemed to be tight. As we were sitting there thinking, he asked if I had the oil dipstick in. Sigh... put the dipstick in...

Started it up again and with the exception of one minor leak on the fuel return which I covered up for the time being and one on the water pump block off, it ran great. For about 10 minutes. At that point it decided to shoot off the upper radiator hose from the radiator. Scared the living hell out of me as water exploded all over the place. Thankfully at that point I was standing about 10 feet in front of the truck so it didn't spray all over me. I quickly ran over and shut it off, but water was all over the place at that point so cleaned that all up and decided to call it a night.

I'll get back over to the shop this weekend and probably replace the thermostat just in case, tighten up the leaks and a few other little things and finish the break in.

I'm naturally biased, but it sounded pretty good while it was running. I can't wait to get the exhaust on and see how it sounds then. I really didn't let it idle so I'm not sure how it sounds there. While it will need a little carb tuning, it had pretty good throttle response.

I'll make sure to take the camcorder this weekend as well and see how sounds on tape and post the vid.

After that I still have to work up the exhaust, put the AC on and the two other belts, do a perm fix for the fuel pump relay and it _should_ be ready to roll. We'll see...