72 K30 Build

[mjensen]

Looking good Brett! You'll probably have this thing on the road years before me

[7dee2]

Thanks Mike! We are shooting to be done before the end of this year I’m jonesing to drive it.

And some pics of this diff painted and back under the frame. Looks kind of silver with the flash in the pics but it is actually a cast iron gray.

[7dee2]

We dug this stuff out and dropped it off at the machine shop the other day. It’s the start to a 489 stroker motor for this truck, this 454 4bolt block with a set of bare 049 oval port heads I’ve had tucked away. It's currently .020 over and will be fit to a new set of forged .030 over pistons. Heads will be left as cast except for a little larger valve (2.19 & 1.88’s) that are being added.

[7dee2]

All the guts have showed up for our 489 over the last few days. It should make for a pretty torquey setup, cam comes on right off idle and pulls to around 5200. Kept the compression low at about 9.25 to 1, hoping it will run on crappy gas cuz I’m sure it’ll be thirsty!

[rgunlock]

That's going to be a beast!

[Dieselwrencher]

That's going to be a pretty stout engine! Yeah, thirsty isn't the word I'd use.

[7dee2]

Originally Posted by rgunlock

That's going to be a beast!

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

That's going to be a pretty stout engine! Yeah, thirsty isn't the word I'd use.

Thinking it's going to be a fun truck to drive and gas is going to be cheap forever right?

[ryanroo]

Originally Posted by 7dee2

Thinking it's going to be a fun truck to drive and gas is going to be cheap forever right?

sweet! double sweet! i love big blocks.

people often ask or comment on the consumption of fuel in my given vehicle for the day. it always sucks, but if i add up all the hours of my life spent in the drivers seat of some vehicle i own, i figure it more than worth it to spend that time i cant ever get back driving something sweet. i just put gas in it when it needs it and laugh at all the truck payments i see driving around.

[7dee2]

Thanks Ryan, ditto on big blocks and truck payments I can’t believe the price tag on a new 4x4 these days!

We ordered some replacement inner axles a while ago and received the wrong lh side so after returning it to the vendor I got one of their aftermarket axles. Not really what I wanted but couldn’t seem to locate a Spicer axle for that side. Kept looking and lucked out finding one on ebay the Spicer distributor just happens to be about 30 minutes from our house, score! Here are some comparison pics of the original and the new snow plow axle with the aftermarket piece.

[7dee2]

Our axle shafts are back together and ready to install.

[7dee2]

Big news, we have located a replacement bare D60 housing and it’s on the way! Coming from the east coast and the seller claims it’s not a rusty old boat anchor, bonus! Some more progress our front hubs did get the new races installed.

Our preformed brake (84 K35 http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...&postcount=379) & straight bulk fuel line showed up last month from Inline Tube. There’s also two L72 fuel pump to carb fuel lines with the y-blocks in there somewhere. It’s tubing time again!

[deejaaa1]

what the project. i have a hard time just replacing vacuum hoses. looking good.

[7dee2]

Thanks deejaaa1!

Looks like a mummy showed up at the front door, so far it looks pretty good and at least neither of the king pin cones are hanging half way out!

[rgunlock]

Fingers crossed on this one for you Brett!

[7dee2]

Thanks Rick I hope so, one local vendor wanted $800 for a bare housing or $3200 complete & rebuilt!

Took a wire wheel and gave it the once over, cleaned up pretty good still need to knock out the axle seals but didn’t see any issues. Next stop is a date with a hot tank.

[Dieselwrencher]

Nice score on the D60 housing!

[7dee2]

Thanks DW, ebay can sure be a great thing! Our little cart is filling up again with parts that are ready to go! Oh and yes we do like Hot Salsa!

[Dieselwrencher]

Did you source new dust shields, or did yours clean up that nice?

[7dee2]

They did clean up pretty good. One had a small rock dent so straightened, quick wire wheel then a little 80 grit scuff, some aluminum paint not perfect but they'll work.

In our preparation for the long block to return the decision was made that it’s time for a new engine stand. I’ve gotten tired of fighting my 30+yr old one that likes to try and tip over and can barely handle a complete big block. So this 1500lb capacity Big Red (that's black? w/fancy chrome ew ah ) needed the front leg narrowed just a little bit to fit our cherry picker on the one ton setting.

[Dieselwrencher]

That's one thing that I don't like about my current one. I can't get the cherry picker around it to get a 1200lb engine off. Sketchy.

[7dee2]

I know we couldn’t find a new cheapo stand that had any capacity that would nest with our picker until I ran across this one. Looks to be way better than the 1000lb HF with just a minor mod and for under $100 ordered online!

So this showed up last week and is a big motorvator to get the chassis back to being a roller! We’ll leave it bagged until we are at that point.

[7dee2]

Installed both rear 3+3 brake line brackets, upper bracket lined up to one of the existing bump stop holes we had made just needed to drill another in both the bump stop bracket and then later the frame. Lower needed a trim as we will not be running the rear prop valve and both needed a minor tweak to fit the lines. Not much length to spare on the new soft line but that lower bracket can still be raised some if needed.

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by 7dee2

Installed both rear 3+3 brake line brackets, upper bracket lined up to one of the existing bump stop holes we had made just needed to drill another in both the bump stop bracket and then later the frame. Lower needed a trim as we will not be running the rear prop valve and both needed a minor tweak to fit the lines. Not much length to spare on the new soft line but that lower bracket can still be raised some if needed.

Is that the right soft line? That looks REALLY short, I'd be concerned about it coming up tight if you drive the truck empty...

[7dee2]

Yeah it is the correct one for our donor truck as it seemed a little short to me also. RockAuto has 4 vendors for this part, 2 of them give the length and ours is the longest one by a whole ¼”!

Here are some pics of our reformed axle line ends they came pre-bent for the wider 14b. While doing this I found the easiest way to deal with the narrower cab & chassis 14b is to just lift the spring pack up out of the way. Pretty sure we’ll do the same when it’s time to bleed the system there is just very little to no room between the backing plate and spring pack. Just hope our short soft line will accommodate this maneuver when the time comes.

[7dee2]

Here’s how this has turned out so far. May still need a new longer soft line but this is without a bed and the axle resting on stands.