1976 Stepside Refresh/Update

[jrcaprai]

A little History: I needed a truck for Hauling my Motocross Bike, Working around the House, going to the Dump, or Whatever...I Had always wanted a mid 70's Stepside ever since I was a kid... I finally found one for 1500.00 in 1995. It was Faded Orange, With Rust, Rough Interior, 350/350 Combo, It Ran Really good, but was kind of a mess.. the Wood in the Bed was all rotted. It was a Cheyenne, with Factory AC (that did not Work) and Power Steering...
I found a Pic That looks exactly how mine looked when I bought it. It is from another Build, since I don't have an original Pic of mine when I bought it.


The exhaust was falling off or Rusted, So I replace the entire thing with 2 1/2 Pipe... It had some old rusty Headers on it, which I kept for the Time being.
I replaced the Carpet, and Bought a Nicely re-Upholstered Seat from a Junk yard, and Put it in. <B> Of Course I wanted more power, so I bought a Comp 270 Magnum Cam, that had 224/224 Dur@ .50 and about .480 Lift, Edelbrock Performer manifold, and a Edelbrock 600 CFM Carb... That Helped a Bit... But Now it needed to Sound Better, so I put Flowmaster 40 Series Mufflers on it.
It needed new tires, so I bought some 255x60x15 BFG Radial TA's for all 4 Corners... About this Same time, I had the entire Front end Rebuilt with MOOG parts... I also Bought 3" Drop Spindle's and the 4" Hanger/Shackle's for the Rear.
I was going to sell it to get something nicer to drive, but the Wife Bought off on me getting a New Engine, and a New Paint job!

So I bought a 383 Kit that came un-assembled and I put it together with stock 882 Heads, a Comp Cams XE284 Hydraulic cam, and a 2000 RPM Converter... It was much better than the old tired 350 that Came out...

Next Came Paint! It was in Paint Prison for 1 Year! But When I got it back... WOOHOO!

I had the entire Body Shaved, all marker lights, Trim, Drip Rails, Door Handles, Mirrors... I bought a Flat Tailgate from Goodmark, but It was Concave, and I did not like the way it looked, so I just reversed it! Now it was totally flat and smooth! I also had a ZR1 Taillight Roll Pan Molded in...
The Wheels I had looked Nasty, So I bought some Torque Thrust II's in 15x10 and 15x8... I bought some Mickey Thompson Sportsman Pro's as the 255x60 Didn't fit the 10 inch wide Rims so well...

I started to Drag Race it and was running in the Mid 14's, Not bad, but still not Fast Enough.



Next, came the Rear-end... I bought an Eaton Posi, and 3.73 Gears. Had that Installed and what a Difference, WOW!
On the way home From Work one day, I did a Burn out at a four way stop-sign across the intersection... I heard a Clunk and it wasn't driving right, so I pulled over and started to look underneath. The T350 Case had Rotated about 90 Degrees and Cracked from the top of the Bell-housing to the oil-pan...

So I bought a New Trans from a Respected Trans Shop with a Shift Kit in it....
I also Upgraded to an Edelbrock RPM Airgap manifold and a 750 Cfm Demon Carb, Also a Holley Annihilator Ignition Box, And Distributor, and Dart Pro 1 200 cc Aluminum Heads... Put a Fuel Cell in the Very back of the bed and removed the Stock Tank! I also Put in a Holley Blue Fuel Pump, and Braided Steel Hose From the Cell all the way to the Carb!

Back to the Track and was Running 13.50's.

About 3000 miles after the Trans Replacement the new T350 Went South!

I bought a new COAN T350 and a 3200 RPM Converter and Put this in...
I also put on a pair of BFG Drag Radials 325x50x15!

Back to the Track! I went to an event Called the Hot Truck Nationals

They had 3 Classes... Cruiser Class 17.00 and Slower, Street Class, 13.99 to 16.99, and the Pro Class, 13.99 and faster....
I entered the pro Class... The Air was Great and temps were in the low 70's

I was Running 12.80's now !

This is the Final Round of the Pro Class


WOOHOO, I won the Pro Class!



A few weeks later (in 2005) I am Driving to the Track, got about a half mile from my house, when it started to run bad, and cough and then just quit.
I had to get a tow truck to go a half mile, Arrrghhh!

Well the Distributor had Come apart and the Rotor was ground into the Cap.
I bought a new cap and tried to start it, same thing the new Rotor ground into the cap again... so I decided to Pull the Distributor. The Distributor Gear that meshes with The Cam Gear had Come apart! Oh Great!
I Pulled the Engine and took it down to the Shortblock and cleaned all the gear parts out of it, and then Rebuilt it....

I lost my Job, and had to start Selling off parts... By the Time I was done I had pretty much stripped the engine down to nothing, and sold the long block off too!

Well things have Changed and I started to Refresh about 2 Years ago!

I bought a 400 Block that was bored .40 over and all the Machine work was done...



I then bought an All forged Rotating assy, Scat Crank and Rods, and SRP Flat top Pistons...


I bought a Comp Cams Big Mutha Thumpr Cam for it, Hyd Flat Tappet, and a set of used 993 Heads.. an Edelbrock Performmer RPM Intake and a Holley 750 Douple Pumper


Then It was tax time, and I got a Nice Refund!

So I bought a Comp Solid Roller Cam, Howards Lifters, TFS Push Rods, Dove Rocker Arms 1.6 Ratio, Comp Cams 2 Piece Timing Cover, what a sweet piece! and Profiler Heads 210cc.
If you haven't heard much about Profiler Heads, they Flow over 300 Cfm from an as cast Port, they are on par or Better than AFR's 210cc CNC head!






Last Saturday I finished Putting the Engine back together... I will drop it in this week some time.... It should put out between 525 - 550 HP






This is how she has been sitting for the last 5 years!










I can't wait to get it going again!