project Bad Karma

[pockets]

You guys have inspired me to do a bit more to my truck than I planned so I thought I'd start a build thread. The truck is called Bad Karma. It started as a joke with my wife. See I get really irritated at bad drivers, inconsiderate drivers, etc. So I decided that I was going to be that guy that will never let you merge, won't move over for you, will blow the horn when I see you are the phone while driving, etc. Hence I'll be the deliverer of your bad karma

Anyway, I got the truck about a year ago as a simple driver. It's an 87 LWB as seen in the pics below. Early this summer I blew a head gasket and after a bad head swap ruined a piston I decided to do a 383 stroker, which is where I'm at right now, accumulating parts.

After the engine is in, this winter I'm going to build a custom dash with all new AutoMeter gauges, finish up the stereo install and look for some bucket seats. I also plan to install a nice big, loud air horn setup for some evil karma delivery...

If funds allow I'll static drop it this winter and put wheels on it, otherwise those will wait till spring. I'm really tempted to bag it, but don't want to do the expense at this time. The truck will be my regular driver and parts hauler, so I'll probably look for another project to drop.

Unfortunately I can't find the pics of my fiberglass work on the kick panels and relocating the head unit to the top of the dash, but as soon as I can get to the shop I'll take some more. They didn't turn out as well as I had hoped anyway so they'll be redone this winter.

Here are a couple pics of it. Some may have seen it in another thread.

[pockets]

the truck is currently at my brother-in-law's shop where he pulled the engine for me.





At home an partially taken apart. You can see the #3 piston is destroyed.

[pockets]

First thing I got was a set of AFR 195cc heads with a 65cc chamber



Next set of goodies was the rotating assembly. Got it from Summit Racing.



SpeedPro pistons with full floating pins:


Gotta love the friction coating on the piston skirt


This past weekend I got the ARP bolts, head gaskets and a few other odds and ends. Hope to get it to the machine shop this week.

[RandyP]

Sweet truck! So are you keeping the TBI or going old school and ditching all the electronics on it? Good to see more and more Okies coming along with builds! Welcome aboard.

[nbpro]

Sweet truck!

[pockets]

given the engine I'm building, the TBI would need far too much work so going old school with a carb. Probably a road demon, although the dyno test I saw for the engine I'm building had a holley HP.

The specs were in a recent Super Chevy where they compared a 350 to a 383 with the same parts to see the power difference. the 383 dyno'd at 480hp and 495ft/lb with a flat tappet hydraulic cam. As I won't have the dyno to tune I hoping for a low ball of about 450hp and 450ft/lb. I'll get it out to the track next spring to see what it'll do which should give a fairly decent idea if I hit my goal.

I remember seeing your build thread here. Looks really nice!

My brother-in-law's shop is up in Sapulpa so I don't get over there often with me in BA. I think the wife prefers it up there to in the garage anyway

[RandyP]

Ya my wife likes my beater here at my shop, but then complains when I'm gone at night or on weekends working on it. Can't be happy no matter what it seems.

[pockets]

Originally Posted by RandyP

Ya my wife likes my beater here at my shop, but then complains when I'm gone at night or on weekends working on it. Can't be happy no matter what it seems.

I hear ya... As soon as I get the engine back in it, it's coming home to the garage. She isn't thrilled, but I think secretly she likes it. Once she hears that exhaust it'll be all over. She fell in love with my dad's chevelle and the rumble of that big block he had

[68 short step]

welcome to the board, also nice looking project...i too am in BA

[pockets]

Thanks for the welcome. Glad to know I have peers in the area
Posted via Mobile Device

[Chevy350V8]

Nice trucks, looks clean

[pockets]

Thanks. It only had 83k miles on it. And only 5k in the previous 3 years before i got it according to the oil change sticker in the window. A nice old guy had it an couldn't drive anymore. My wife works for the paper so when he came in to place the ad she called me
Posted via Mobile Device

[joe231]

I dig it!

Posted via Mobile Device

[pockets]

Well, i'm finally getting the block over the machinist today. Since this engine is from my truck, naturally I don't have one to put it in and I really didn't want to bother my brother-in-law to come across town, so I decided what the heck, let's see if it fits in the impala... When I mentioned the idea to the wife I was expecting a "I don't think so" comment, but she actually just said ok. Gotta love her!

Perfect trunk opening size...


How's that for a tight squeeze? Should have used a smaller bolt, but nothing hit going in:


Fits perfectly!


I had to shorten up the chain on the hoist as the hoist boom was hitting the trunk lid. I didn't happen to have a plain chain, which most likely would have made the whole thing a lot easier. All I had was the leveler which actually belongs to my dad Oh well it all worked.

While it is at the machine shop I'm going to get some engine paint and prep for the short block build next week. Can't wait, been far too long!

[pockets]

machinist called me and said my block was cracked :\

that sucks! oh well, my brother-in-law has a salvage so he going to look for a replacement for me. If he doesn't have one I might go with one of Summit's 383-prepped blocks. More delays...

[RandyP]

I might be willing to part with my old 350 from my 87. It was running when we yanked it, but is pretty well used on the inside from what we can see just removing the intake. Has not had a luxury life of good maintenance that's for sure.

It's just sitting in the shop floor right now, body man was saying he was going to use it to stab down in a demolition car, but not sure how that'd work for him not being able to put a mechanical fuel pump on or anything. I'll inquire if he really wants it or not if you want.

Or...
http://tulsa.craigslist.org/pts/1967336850.html , he is a good guy to buy from. Usually a straight shooter, have bought from him before. For the price, might be a decent gamble for a complete assembly? I know the cores are going for like $150 - $200 it seems.

[pockets]

i really appreciate that. I'm waiting to hear back from my brother-in-law. He doesn't normally have chevy engines being mostly an import salvage, but occasionally he has one lying around.

[pockets]

well my brother didn't have a late model, 1 piece rear seal block. If I didn't already have the crank it wouldn't matter, but I do.

Thanks for the CL link. I don't think I want a complete assembly. I would just throw everything but the block away anyway, but maybe he has something else. My brother is going to check some of his salvage buddies to see if anyone has a core as well.

[RandyP]

If he has a core or worn out one, he goes by weight usually on it. All he cares about in the end is what he'll get out of what's left on the vehicle from the scrap yard. Is why he'll let you pick over a truck/suburban and get little tidbits very cheap. He'll look at you and go "that don't weigh much, take it".

[pockets]

lol, I can understand. about every 12-18 months or so my brother in law crushes cars and whatever he can fit into them metal wise and loads them up for scrap to some company in TX that comes and gets them. Nice thing for me is he doesn't mind taking junk off my hands, like this engine block I have...

[pockets]

Well I found another block here in town thanks to craigslist. For some reason it didn't even occur to me before RandyP made the suggestion

Picking it up tonight, but won't be able to get to the machinist till mid next week. Oh well.

[pockets]

Got the block back from the machinist the other day. Got it cleaned out pretty good that night. Amazing what gunk you find in the bolt holes

Last night I started on the block clearancing for rods (stroker crank). I'm doing one side at a time and surprisingly nothing hit. However, they bolt heads were so close you would have a hard time slipping a piece of paper through the gap. So I broke out the good old grinder, which I haven't used much since my USAF days, and went to town.

Spent about an hour doing the driver side, taking it nice and easy. Should finish up tonight and then mic all the crank and rod clearances for final bottom end assembly.

[pockets]

I got the bottom end put together this weekend. All the clearances were right in order. Mains were at .002, rods were right in the middle (I forget at the moment), rings were gapped perfectly from the factory, so no issues there.

I did send a few snap rings for the piston pins flying... They didn't want to stay on the snap ring tool. Rings weren't too bad, but I can definitely see why some people buy a ring spreader; had a couple sore fingers. But once I got the hang of it, it all went pretty smoothly.

I didn't think about painting the block before the assembly. now it'll have to wait till it's all together as there is plenty of oil on it






Piston to deck clearance was just shy of 27 thousandths.

[pockets]

I had yet another setback. Got the cam last week and went to install it and... the wouldn't fit through the cam bearing! I couldn't believe it. Just to make sure I didn't order some offsize cam by mistake I tried the OEM cam and it didn't fit either.

The bearings I got were speed pro and bought them from autozone, so I can't blame it on the machine shop. Oh well.

I figured if it was going to cost me $20 or so to have the shop install them, I'd just buy a tool for $32 and do it myself, so that is what I did. When the new bearings came in I made sure they all fit over the cam, and sure enough they did. Turns out that after I got the other bearings out, only the front one didn't fit. go figure. I don't have a dial bore gauge small enough or dial caliber to see what the ID is, so not sure what the issue was.

Either way, I pulled the crank, push the pistons just far enough out of the way that I could get the new bearings in. After I did that I see a bit of small dust and dirt that managed to make it's way into the block from all these weeks of sitting. Better safe than sorry, so I pulled the pistons out and cleaned it all up.

The good part of that was now I could paint it without having to mask a ton of stuff off, so that's what I did. Primed, painted and clear coated and it looks pretty good.



Thankfully the paint dries quickly so I got it back to putting it all together. With the cam in, I could also put on the timing chain of course, bolt on the pan and get the heads on.

Here is a shot of the pan with the new ARP stainless bolt kit.



Here is a shot with the heads on, and uh, you can see where I missed a spot during paint



I got the manifold on as well, but don't have a pic of it. All that is left (I hope) is a set of rockers, new valve covers and a carb and I can put it back in.

[pockets]

Well I've been out of work for the past two months, so there has been no new parts. I just realized that I had a few more pics that I never posted, so perhaps these will suffice until I can get funds to get this thing back together.

Rocker arms installed and intake on. Also got a new water neck and painted it.


I removed the chrome from the timing cover and painted it.


A few painted brackets and accessories.



So far the only natural metal part on it is the intake, which I did clear coat in an attempt to prevent it from soaking up oil, grease, gas, etc.