squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

[Scott Liggett]

Cleaner on the inside. Good luck getting all that grease off the outside. The only stuff I know that will fix that muck is Oil Eater and a pressure washer.

[squirrel]

I'm not gonna bother trying to get it all off. If I did, I'd take it to a machine shop for a soak in the hot tank. I just scraped the thick stuff off, and rinsed it in my solvent tank. It'll be fine....and probably won't get much use, I expect the engine is really tired. I just wanted to see how it looks in there, and see if I can get a few more miles out of it, without having it dump oil everywhere. Looks like the main bearing is still standard size. I'll probably see if I can find any loose rods, and see how the bearings look there too. It does make some kind of knocking sounds, I think. It's hard to distinguish specific sounds, with the symphony of old truck noises it makes.

[Scott Liggett]

What I found out with the Caprice's mysterious, come and go knock was that it was the original, really loose timing chain slapping it's cover.

[squirrel]

I pulled one rod cap off, it has .010 under bearings (rod bearings are marked). Mains are not marked for size, I measured and the rear is .010 under also. The crank looks nice on the two journals I looked at. The new seal came in the mail today...kind of hokey, it is too small for the groove, and has a wire spacer used to push it forward. I guess I'll see how it does, it went in just fine. Seems to have a little more oil pressure when it's warm, now that it has fresh oil in it, or else I didn't drive it far enough in the rain to get it really warmed up. I haven't looked yet to see how much it's leaking.

Those new one piece pan gaskets are the shit....sure makes it easy when working on the pan with the engine in the vehicle

[squirrel]

I did a bit of work on the old truck today. It has been missing, like a fouled plug, so I pulled the plugs, sure enough 7 was wet, a couple others didn't look too good. I decided to go with some projected nose plugs, and use 45 instead of 44 because the one plug that looked like it was firing good was like that. So I got a set of R45S plugs at pep boys. Ok, I really got a set of 7, because one of the AC boxes had an Autolite plug in it. I love living 10 miles from the parts store...oh well.

I also found a set of slightly used plug wires from my friend's Vette, we swapped the EFI engine into it around 1997 so they must have been sitting in my shed a long time. The wires looked good, so I installed them. There were some of the clips to hold them in place with the wires, so I put them on the engine too.

While I was in there, I decided to put the distributor in the right orientation so # 1 is where it belongs, which required pulling the distributor out, turning the shaft about 90 degrees and putting it back in. I used a screwdriver to line up the oil pump drive shaft so I didn't have to try to bump the engine to get it back in, and I also used the "dead stick" timing method to set it close--have the distributor end of the secondary coil wire near the firewall, set the timing pointer to 8 advanced, turn the key on, and turn the distributor body counterclockwise and stop just when it sparks. Works good.

It ran really smooth when I started it up, I took it for a little drive down our road, about 3 miles, and it seems to pull stronger and run good. With the new oil, the pressure was a little better, above 30 when hot at cruising speed, and about 10 when idling hot. Nothing to write home about, but the engine might last a little while.

I've been thinking about selling my 57 suburban project, I should put that 454 and TH400 in this truck, it's a good motor.

[TheSilverBuick]

I've always opened all the spark plugs at the parts store to look for cracked porcelains if for nothing else. Over the years I've seen a couple come out of the box broken.

Huh, never heard of the "dead stick" method, but sounds like a good one! I'll have to file that away in the back of my mind. Could be useful for the T-bird or Centurion.

[squirrel]

They used to tell us how to do stuff like that in Hot Rod back in the 70s

[TheSilverBuick]

Think it would work with the Number 1 spark plug wire hooked to a spark tester (or grounded spark plug) with an HEI cap?

[squirrel]

I don't know about that, I just fake it with electronic systems, and have to put the timing light on it to get it right. I think the reluctor needs some speed to get it to trigger, but you can experiment and see. Just make sure there is a spark path for the coil output so you don't zap the module.

[squirrel]

I sold my other truck, the 59 extended cab. So I guess I need to get to work on this one, and get it on the road. I've been thinking about the engine and transmission, etc. and I think I might try it with a 396. The advantage is that I should be able to keep the old SM420 four speed in it, and still have decent torque for going up hills with the camper. I have the 396 I built in 1979, although it's getting kind of tired. I'll see how the pistons and whatnot look in it. The engine is on a stand, it has the heads and pan off, so it's easy to look at. Although I discovered that mice got in it, I had a fender cover over it and they made a nest in the valley. I guess it needs to all come apart now to clean it up.

[Brian Lohnes]

SM420 is bomb proof goodness and the 396 should be about perfect for hauling around with the camper.

[squirrel]

The more I look, the more things change...

I have a set of pistons I got about 10 years ago, for a 396. I dug them out of the shed and looked at them, they're the TRW forged pistons, for a .030 over 396, stock 10.25 compression. I took them out of an engine that had very few miles on it. They won't work in the old 396 I have, because it's 060 already. But I have another block that's still standard, I could bore it and run those pistons.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SLP-L2240NF30/

But I got to thinking about flywheels, and I remembered I trashed several of them in the great purge of 2010. I did save a couple of Chevy flywheels, both for the 11 or 12" clutch...and one of them is for a 454! I don't even remember where I got it. So maybe I should just run a 454 with the 4 speed and see how it works. I might even just pull the engine out of the 57 Suburban project, it's a good motor that I built for my 66 suburban in 1993, drove it for 5 years, and freshened up in 2001 but never ran it again. It has flat top hypereutectic pistons, open chamber oval port heads, and a mild cam.

THe more I think about the 4 bolt 454 that I was planning to put into the 57 one ton, the more I want to use that 4 bolt block for the 427 that I'd planned on putting in the 61 belair.

[Beagle]

I'm thinking the paid for in 91 freshen up and 4 speed=good idea.

[squirrel]

The other consideration is the exhuast to steering box clearance. The bellhousing mounts to the frame crossmember, so it's not real easy to move it around when you do an engine swap. I ran a 4 speed in my orange truck when I put the 396 in it in 1979, I remember going thru some trouble getting the driver side manifold to clear, but I don't recall which manifold I was using. When I put the headers in it still hit, but I think it had a little more room. I guess I need to try it and see what happens.

The alternative is to get rid of the crossmember mount bellhousing, and run a rear mount, then I could move the engine around as needed, which is what I did with my other trucks when I put automatics in them. But I'd kind of like to keep this one mostly original, it's less work and less money, and adds something to how the whole truck is going to end up being.

[Scott Liggett]

If you don't need that 454 flywheel; I possibly might need one for the Caprice. hehe.