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76 K5 Build; More Parts....Trucks

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wage92 said:
be careful with that dynamic compression, when i built mine i recall reading that you dont wanna go much over 8.5 on pump gas. I think youll be fine, but i would listen careful when you first start getting running and its under load, because thats when youll hear it pinging if you are too high.

Also, for static compression you are in a good range, 9.55 is plenty safe for pump gas, with aluminum heads you can go up to 10.5ish and still be safe on 93 octane gas.
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I figured I'd be fine on the static. I've got two cars at 12+, but those are reverse cooled Lt1's.

The plan is to start filling up with 93 to hopefully get the 87 out of there by next week. I've read a bunch over on Speedtalk about dynamic. From what I gather I'm real close to the edge. But many other things come into play in the real world other than numbers from a calculator.
 
yea its true, sounds like you know what you are doing. just giving ya a heads up, would hate to see detonation ruin a nice engine. I like the 400s and with those heads i think you will be very happy.
 
I've done a quite a few motors in the past, this is my first 400 though. Spent a decent amount of time planing this one. Not claiming I know it all, but I've got a solid grasp of whats going on. Always trying to learn....probably have a stack of auto/high-po books about 5ft tall, not to mention the internet. If you can wade through the BS, sites like pirate, speedtalk, yellowbullet, thirdgen, ls1tech of course here have tons of information. Just have to keep an open mind and not take everything as truth.
 
This is going to be an awesome 400 I think.

Be sure to post some pics of the header to shackle clearance and please tell us exactly which spark plugs end up working. (My headers are about to rust through so I'll be shopping around pretty soon.)
 
Got up this morning and was only going to put the small tires on the truck. Well...one thing led to another and next thing I know the old motor was out and on the garage floor. Being it was still somewhat warm out (30ish) I decided to keep going. Pulled the intake, water pump, accessories, crank pulley, clutch, motor mounts and distributor from the old one and did a quick clean on them. Said F it, I'm makin good time and dropped it in the truck. It's only bolted to the bellhousing and the cross bolts in the mounts, so have to hook most everything up and then build the exhaust. I only got a few pictures while it was light out. I'll try to get a could more tomorrow.


Small tires on and old one out.




Empty bay, note the massive amount of oil in the bellhousing. Maybe I should have left the old one in for the winter....the underside of the truck was pretty well under coated.





Old one out

 
Those manifolds came off of my friends truck...maybe 30k miles on them. They looked like new, raw cast iron, when I first put them on. Couple mud bogs, some watery trail runs and daily driving sure fixed that. I just couldn't bring myself to put them on the 400. It was only about $500 for the headers/mufflers/pipe/clamps/hangers. Figure a few hours to get it together under the truck and it'll be good for a long time.


If I were close I'd be happy to lend a hand. I was actually helping finish my buddys truck too. That red/blue one you can see in the background of one of the pics (can see the red hood leaning against the fence in the first pic from today). That is literally a pile of parts we had laying around. Have maybe $200 into the thing. It will be beaten quite hard....
 
Got a little more knocked out today. Put the headers on, drivers side accessory bracket, power steering pulley, radiator/fans/hoses, carb, grounds, starter/wiring. I got caught up in the excitement of it all and had it rolling over...then realized what I had done when I got out of the truck. I don't have the distributor or oil pressure line hooked up. So I got a nice squirt of oil onto my hood. Also had the motor at TDC where I wanted the timing at....so I've got to reset that before put the distributor in.

Picked up some gauges (factory ones don't work), some shorty spark plugs (ended up going with Accels) and some u-joints for both shafts. Still need to get coolant, oil, oil filter and some exhaust hangers/clamps.

Tomorrow I hope to get the plugs, distributor and u-joints done. Then I'll probably have to wait till Wednesday before I can get back at it to finish the exhaust.


How it looked last night when I called it quits. Don't laugh at my valve cover hold downs. I was planning on running the matching blue covers but they were way too warped to use. I've only got 6 of the wing nuts, but only 4 studs...had to scrounge up some bolts for the back. Will come back to these and replace with regular nuts/studs or plain bolts.




Drivers side header




Passenger side header. Someone clearanced the frame at some point, possibly for a BBC.




Drivers side bellow the frame.




Passenger side bellow the frame.




From the front looking back.




Drivers side looking at the colletor. There is more room than it looks near the clutch fork.




Passenger side looking at the collector. No where near the shackle. Both sides look to be a straight shot back. Won't have to bend around the t-case.




How I left it today. And yes I know my belt is routed wrong again. I was chasing a belt squeal and couldn't find it. I tried everything, new power steering pumps, alternators, idlers, belts, waterpumps/pulleys. Tracked it down to my crank pulley. With the factory routing it has more wrap on it, the way I have it only wraps it about a 1/3 and it doesn't make any noise. The good that came out of all that was I got my second alternator mounted up (still not wired). I also built a second battery tray, will try to get some pics of that too.



 
looks like its coming along nicely, those headers have tons of clearance.

Out of curiosity what is the second alternator for?
 
wage92 said:
looks like its coming along nicely, those headers have tons of clearance.

Out of curiosity what is the second alternator for?
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The second alternator was put in place while I was chasing a noise that I thought might be comming from the idler that was originally there. Turns out that wasn't it...but it was something I had wanted to do anyway. Not sure if I'm going to turn it into a trail welder or hook it to a second battery. Dual batteries are in the works, but I'd like an isolator and use one alternator to charge them. Using dual alternators brings its own challenges. If anything, it's a good backup if my main one dies. I made the wires long enough to just unplug one and plug the other in. Even left the factory pigtail on and made a jumper to use the newer, 140 amp, one.
 
You may have already said, but I couldn't find it - What headers are those? I would have liked to have had those on my engine. They would have may life a bit easier as far as exhaust pipe routing. Plus I like the fact that they don't come anywhere near the shackles. It's like they were made for a four wheel drive Chevy. :thumb:
 
Got the distributor and plugs/wires on today. Also put the line in the oil pressure port for the gauge. Even with the shorty plugs I had to loosen the headers to get cylinders 3 and 4 started. The boots are almost touching the tubes, may have to get a socket and BFH to make some clearance.


Accel shorty next to standard AcDelco






The battery tray I made for the drivers side. Piece of old bed frame. It bolts to the core support and through the inner fender. Spaced it out so I can still get to the headlight plug. Still need to add a way to hold the battery down.

 
It's been a rain/snow/sleet mix since I got out of work at 3. And being that the job I had scheduled cancelled, I decided to tackle the gauges. Nothing fancy here. Just some Sunpro's...oil pressure/water temp and volts. Mounted them in the factory bezel. Kept them in the same orientation too. When the weather wants to cooperate I'll put them back in the truck.







Had to hack off some parts for clearance.

 
andyblack said:
Are you going to put the clock back in? I like my little clock
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Mine had "Brake" light down there. It was always on, probably because the wire wasn't hooked up to the combo valve. It's just an empty spot now, don't really know what to put there. My GMC had a clock, never looked at it don't remember if it even worked.


wage92 said:
keep up the goodwork! :thumb: i know how ya feel working around the weather.
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I figured the weather would turn on my at some point. I'm just glad that I got most of the work done before it did. Only thing really left to do outside the truck is the exhaust. And the u-joints, but those can wait till after it's running.
 
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