Restoring Rusty

[Chaplain]

Wow...what a day!

[SkinnyG]

I may have missed if you posted already, but what brand were the leaky gaskets?

I have found that ALL the gaskets I used from a certain gasket-named company was less than spectacular. Never had a problem with Felpro.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by greg64

About the fuel gauge, there's probably a break in the wire somewhere. When the tank is empty, the sender is 0 ohms. When the tank is full, the sender is 90 ohms. So when the wire breaks, the resistance goes to infinity, and the gauge pegs Full. It's a pink wire, at least on my 77.
Greg

Thank you Greg, you won't believe this. My fuel gauge started working today. I think when I removed this wire harness box off of the fire wall to pull out the pink resistance ignition wire and replace it with a normal 12 gauge wire there may have been a positive disturbance in the Force causing the fuel gauge to wake up.

That's the good news, the bad news is that now I know I am almost out of gas, LOL, so tomorrow I will put about 5 gallons in and see if the needle moves accordingly.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by greg64

About the water passage in the rear of the manifold, that is the miracle of manufacturing of the SBC. The two heads are identical and interchangeable, to make manufacturing faster and cheaper. But the side effect of this (there are many) is that there are two useless water ports at the back of the engine that the intake manifold needs to block.

Thanks bud, I did not know that, I learned something new today.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by 77 350 Shorty Wide

Congrats on your success keep it up!

God Bless, Terry

Thank you Terry

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Chaplain

Wow...what a day!

I got my butt kicked that's for sure, but I learned a ton. This swap was supposed to take a weekend, but it took a week sandwiched between two weekends on top of that. Was it worth it, oh hewk yes!

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by SkinnyG

I may have missed if you posted already, but what brand were the leaky gaskets?

I have found that ALL the gaskets I used from a certain gasket-named company was less than spectacular. Never had a problem with Felpro.

I talk about two leaks so far.

The first was from Mr Gasket valve cover gaskets that just did not fit properly inside my stock valve covers. I don't think there was anything defective in them they just did not mate well with my valve covers. I replaced them with cheapie cork Felpro gaskets that fit like a glove and so far no leaks.

The second leak was with a Felpro intake manifold gasket that was either the wrong one to marry an aluminum intake manifold with a cast iron cyliner head / block, or simply not installed properly by me. I replaced it with a different Felpro gasket and problem solved.

I don't think its that black and white where one manufacturer simply makes junk whilst another always shines. I believe there are just too many factors. One being guys not knowing how to use the products properly or deliberately cutting corners, etc. Another factor being using the wrong gasket/part for the application either intentionally to save money or by mistake.

I like Felpro too, as they always provide you with instructions.

[Chaplain]

Originally Posted by Gregski

Thank you Greg, you won't believe this. My fuel gauge started working today. I think when I removed this wire harness box off of the fire wall to pull out the pink resistance ignition wire and replace it with a normal 12 gauge wire there may have been a positive disturbance in the Force causing the fuel gauge to wake up.

That's the good news, the bad news is that now I know I am almost out of gas, LOL, so tomorrow I will put about 5 gallons in and see if the needle moves accordingly.

I've been following along but the pink wire trick? What is that all about and where is it in the pic?

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Chaplain

I've been following along but the pink wire trick? What is that all about and where is it in the pic?

Thank you for following, the stock points distributor was connected to a yellowish wire I believe which spliced into a 9 volt pink wire with built in resistance that then ran to the wire harness block on the fire wall. The yellow wire continued to the starter. The pink wire is what I replaced with a brown wire in the end so that I would have full 12 volts to the new HEI distributor.

There is really no trick, the pink wire has nothing to do with the fuel gauge, it is for the ignition/distributor. It was simply happenstance that when I was messing with the wire harness box on the firewall that I moved or wiggled something that made the brown fuel gauge wire happy.

[greg64]

Greg, that's great that the fuel gauge started working again. If you're looking for something to do (ya right), you might want to pop that firewall connector block apart again, and clean all the contacts as best as you can on both sides. Unreliable wiring is no fun at all. I think a nail file will fit in there and clean crud off the female side. Emery cloth with small pliers should work on the male side. I think that's how I cleaned mine.

By the way, good on you to realize that ignition wire was resistance wire. It would have hurt the performance of the HEI if that were still there. when the engine is running, check that you have alternator voltage at the ignition coil. Should be 14.4V with your new wire. I was never sure on the early trucks if that resistance wire ended at the firewall, or if it went under the dash back to the ignition switch.

[Chaplain]

Oh oh oh. I forgot you had a points system. Either way I got some courage from the discussion. While I've got my engine out and cleaning up the firewall I should probably checkout the wiring harness block.

Thanks Greg and Greg.

[LSX408]

Nice job, glad to see you got it running!

[y5mgisi]

I hate setbacks like that! But good that you got it going!

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by LSX408

Nice job, glad to see you got it running!

yes, for sure, thank you

[Gregski]

kinda strange coming home and not having a Summit package waiting on you, what nothing honey, not even a measly throttle bracket, LOL, jk

[Gregski]

I just got paid today,
got me a pocket full of change.
Said, I just got paid today,
got me a pocket full of change.
If you believe like workin' on yer truck all day,
just step in my shoes and take my pay.

so with tens of dollars in the bank account I am on the fence on what to do next, I got two options:

1. Wrap up Phase II of Engine Upgrade with the long tube headers by buying an X pipe exhaust kit

2. Buy a gauge cluster with a tachometer and take a break from engine work. Drive the truck the way it is for a month or so cause and reap the rewards of your hard labor.

[Gregski]

I know - I'll screw around with the door panels

Justification = I only got one key. One key period, and that's the ignition key, I aint got any door keys so I am not locking the truck at night (but don't get any ideas my pitbull sleeps in it at night for realz)

The Plan: Get a door cylinder lock out and take it to a lock smith fer some keys to be made

[Gregski]

absolutely love working on this truck, now I've had some love / hate relationships with my vehicles [I'm looking at you my '85 2.8 Liter piece of ______ Blazer] but me and Rusty are still in the Honeymoon (don't fart around each other phase)

seriously a door panel held on with four philips screws, I mean who does that any more (they all use those forsaken clips that brake and make you cut your hands up, and scratch the panels or the paint

and I wanna see you BMW owners wash your electronic everything door panels on the front lawn with a garden hose

[Jake Wade]

Greg, I bought an ignition and door lock set, all keyed alike for cheap.

http://www.classicparts.com/1973-78-.../#.VNA2IpU5CM8

[Gregski]

ah there it is, the Money Shot, our crown jewel, we don't need no Mobile Lock Smith, we'll take this baby in tomorrow at lunch time and get us some keys

super easy to remove too

Door Lock Cylinder 1 - - - Cuts On Hands 0

[Gregski]

what's that?

Am I going to take the door panel off the other side or risk having the world be off balance?

Shoot you guys know me too well. I am a Gemini after all

so here we go, how hard could it be?

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Jake Wade

Greg, I bought an ignition and door lock set, all keyed alike for cheap.

http://www.classicparts.com/1973-78-.../#.VNA2IpU5CM8

Very cool Jake, let's see if I can get three keys made for less than $24 bucks then? The place I am going to is a bunch of Ninjas best in town.

[Gregski]

sometimes when Rusty fights me like that I feel he's like a stray dog that lived a hard life before you found him and now he just don't know how good he has it, and he don't know to trust you yet

but how in the heck did that door handle rust so bad, it's on the inside of the cab for crying out loud, and it's made out of foam, LOL

[rich weyand]

Gregski:

Sorry I'm so slow with this. You're moving fast and I've been busy.

Two notes on what I saw in my catching up:

1) Hook up a PCV valve on one side and a breather on the other. Two reasons. First reason: with nothing to pull all of the blow-by out of the crankcase, a lot of it sits in there, just a smoky, sooty environment, and when you turn off the engine, it condenses/settles in your crankcase and under your valve covers. This is where a lot of engine sludge comes from. Second reason: when the engine warms up, it pushes air out the breathers, and when it cools down, it pulls air back. Sometimes that air being pulled back in is humid air. Which condenses in your oil. Which puts water where oil wants to be. With PVC, the carb pulls the blow-by out, therefore no sludge, and it also pulls out the condensation the next time the oil warms up and the water evaporates. If you ever rebuilt an engine with 100,000 miles, the difference between whether it had PCV or not is not subtle. One is pretty clean internally, and the other is absolutely filthy. Looks like somebody dumped a couple pounds of crap in there. And with internal rust as well.

2) Looks like you have the vacuum advance hooked to timed vacuum, up on the side of the carb. That's pollution nonsense. I remember when it was introduced in 1968 together with AIR pumps and cats and all. The previous 30 years vac advance was always connected to full manifold vacuum. So hook the vac advance to full manifold vacuum. It's down underneath in the front by the PCV port (see Fig 7 on Page 7 of your carb instructions here: http://documents.holley.com/199r10331rev2.pdf). This will give you advance at idle (which you should have), and will allow a leaner mix at idle and keep the carb in the idle circuit at idle. You THINK it idles nice now. Move the advance line and you will see how good it can be.

Nice progress. Jeez, I turn around, do a consulting assignment or two, and you are way down the road.

[y5mgisi]

Love your thread update style!