squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

[Tom Slick]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

that's kind of what I was thinking you meant by the table mount - can you get a close-up on it? I think I know how you did it but am curious to see... It's a great idea.

[squirrel]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

sure, here it is. I still need to drill the holes out to 5/16" and clean and paint it. And figure out how to put the nuts in the side panel....I should take the aluminum skin off the outside of the panel, but I probably won't.

[Tom Slick]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

nutserts like they use on speakers from the backside of the panel?

[watahyahknow]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

if you weld a few tabs with treaded holes on there you could screw a quarter piece of stainless pipe over it like a cover to make it look pretty

[squirrel]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

neat idea, I'd probably use aluminum because I'm lazy...but still, it's a good idea. I'll probably do that.

I just used regular T nuts with the 4 tangs.

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

I was looking at my trailer out at my back window while doing dishes a bit ago thinking of the things I want to do to it. Just as soon as a few snow drifts melt off I can start working on mine. Definately motivational!

[watahyahknow]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

you allso could lay some washers behind the stufff you mounted so it standing away from the wood a little and make a lip on the part that slides over so you can clip the lip behind the part you have that way there arent any bolts sticking out and you dont need extra welding , prolly simpler too

[squirrel]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

I was thinking about it, I'll probably just use a piece of plywood at a 45 degree angle to cover it. The "face" of the part is pretty much flat. I could add mounting tabs under the bolt heads, or as you suggested just slip them behind the part and clamp them in place.

[squirrel]

I've been goofing off and not doing much car stuff at all lately...like for the past couple months. Robots and laziness got hold of me. But I finally got off my ass and did a little work on this old truck. Put the pass side headlight back in, and I'm finishing the brake job. When I first got the truck going, I got the brakes to sort of work. I didn't want to spend much money on it because I didn't know for sure what I was going to do with the truck. Since then I decided to get it on the road, and so I need to fix the brakes right. I found some new old stock replacement drums on ebay for $50 each, and ordered some relined shoes in town (cheaper than any online place I found, strange). So I'm going to get that done today hopefully.

I'm still debating about the engine....I'd kinda like to just drive it around with the old 283 and see how it does, but I know it's going to be iffy, since there's evidence of the engine spewing oil, the pass side exhaust is covered, as if it was blowing out the draft tube. Since I got it running and drove it around, it doesn't seem to smoke noticeably, which kind of surprised me. When I pulled the plugs out and found four of them fouled, I also did a compression check, and the numbers were all over the place--70 to 125 psi. A few days ago I again pulled the plugs and did a test, and they're all 80-90 psi. The plugs look ok considering it's running pretty rich, none of them oil fouled yet. The compression numbers sure are low, but at least it doesn't look like it has any burned valves or anything odd like that. I'm kind of tempted to pull the pan and timing cover, look at the timing chain, replace the rear main seal, and see if there's anything else funny looking under there. It doesn't knock noticeably, but the oil pressure gets real low when it's hot, which might be related to the oil being really old, or it could be that the bearings are worn out (which is more likely).

[milner351]

Jim - do you think there's any possibility the rings could have been stuck from sitting so long - and that's what caused the compression change after running it a while?

I wonder what a quart of marvel mystery oil (or a pint?) would do - don't think it could hurt and that stuff sure is good at "unsticking" stuff... I'd be interested to see if that had any effect on the compression after an oil change.

If it's not hard to pull the pan in chassis - that's always worth a shot- pull the oil pump and see what it looks like inside, pull bearing caps, etc.

I know you're a BBC guy - but I'm pulling for the old 283.

[squirrel]

I'm thinking that the rings were full of oil on a few cylinders that had high compression before, now that it's actually firing on those cylinders, the oil all burned away so now the rings aren't getting any help sealing the compression in.

I have enough parts to build another 283....or a 350....or a 396....or whatever else I want to spend money on. I think if the 283 doesn't seem to be in good enough condition, I'll just work on that 454 and swap it in. I think I have most of the parts I need. The only thing bothering me about it is the cam, I'd like to put a roller in it so it will survive....big bucks.

[Beagle]

I've been wondering about that and CarCraft just went through what I was thinking - why not break in the cam with low pressure valve springs?

How's the Camper doing?

[HillbillySailor2]

Jim - do you think there's any possibility the rings could have been stuck from sitting so long - and that's what caused the compression change after running it a while?

I wonder what a quart of marvel mystery oil (or a pint?) would do - don't think it could hurt and that stuff sure is good at "unsticking" stuff... I'd be interested to see if that had any effect on the compression after an oil change.

If it's not hard to pull the pan in chassis - that's always worth a shot- pull the oil pump and see what it looks like inside, pull bearing caps, etc.

I know you're a BBC guy - but I'm pulling for the old 283.

I'm pulling for the 283 myself. You know, Jim, you could do a quick and dirty tear-down/rebuild rebuild on the ol' 283 "Goliath style"...but you have to do it with the engine in the truck. Maybe stab a modern cam and late 80's 305 heads on top of that. That would kind of go with the theme of the truck rebuild you've done up to this point and shouldn't cost that much money.

[Russell]

I going to vote for the Big Block. I don't think you are going to be happy with the power out of the 283. With the camper I think its going to be more load than it wants. If the BBC swap is more trouble than its worth I would vote for a vortec 350 that already has a roller cam. There was someone on here that has an old chevy farm truck I think it was a 283 with a few upgrades and they said it was still weak.

But I am a ford guy so what do I know...........

[squirrel]

May 13...been a while.

Haven't done anything on the camper lately, I need to get my butt in gear. But I did start to play with the old 283 a bit, pulled the pan to change the rear main seal, then remembered I never actually ordered the new seal. oops. The engine is a 58, and they used a rope seal from 55-58 in the small blocks, and the replacement neoprene seal is only available mail order from restoration places. So I ordered one today, should be here in a week if I'm lucky. Like I said, oops.

A few pics, this thing is a mess....but it's fun to putt around in when it's running.