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85 K20, the little old ladys truck.

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Is this the correct way to fix this?


No, absolutely not.

But it's better than how it was. It's had a piece of tin roof flashing self-tappered over the floor with a bunch of expanding foam in there.

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Another buddy at work had this Edelbrock just sitting, brand new still in plastic wrapped box, bought for a project he never got around to. Told me he'd sell it to me I liked it.


Well I like it. A lot.


Night and day difference from the 650 Holley.

I have done zero tuning on it, just dropped it on the intake and bolted it down, and it started like it's fuel injected, and fries the tires if you look at the pedal wrong.

Only problem is i can't get it to idle below 1100 rpm which is less than ideal.

No vacuum leaks and the idle screw is about to fall out.

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May need to play with the timing if it still idles that high. And I’ve never had an issue with an edelbrock. Drop and go. Maybe twist an idle screw or air screw a touch but that’s it.
 
Problem was the fast idle on the choke, turned it down and it's running like a sewing machine.
Changed the oil this morning and what came out had to be 30% gas.


Did a 70 mile loop today with it and it's running like a whole different truck, lots of power, no stumbles or hesitation, exhaust that doesn't burn your eyes.
The difference in economy is amazing too, with the Holley running super rich the best it ever got was 7.5, this fill up worked out to almost 13 MPG, which for a K20 with a TH400, 4.10 gears and 33s seems incredible.


Only concern is I think it's burning oil. The black smoke is gone but now I've got just the faintest blue smoke at idle cold. I wonder if all that gas didn't start to wipe the rings out.
 
We had a brand new Holley on dad’s bronco that kept flooding the back cylinders and filling the crank case with gas. Tried a rebuild kit and adjustment and nothing. Threw an edelbrock on there and instant fix and no issues 4 years later.

Try driving it for a while and see if the rings break in. More than likely they will.
 
So the smoke is gone entirely.

However, I can't help but think I hear just the slightest bit of bottom end noise when it's cold now.

Its entirely possible that I'm imaging it, because I dont remember hearing it before the most recent oil change, and I'm not sure if I hear it warm or not.
Guess im scared of the possibility of the gas thinning the oil out enough to hurt the rotating assembly.

It's got 5 fresh quarts of 15-40 Rotella T in it and according to the factory guage has almost 60 lbs of pressure cold and around 40 warm at idle, and back around 60 at speed.


I'm probably just reverse placebo effect-ing myself.
 
Dug into the Holley some, it had #65 jets and a #85 power valve, which by my figuring should be just fine, lean if anything.

It originally came off my boss's 55 Chevy, and he said that it he could never get it leaned out the whole time it was on there.

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Been driving it back and forth to work all week and doing most of my little errands with it as well as just cruising around, and finally got it down below 1/4 tank, just filled it up and had to check my math 3 times.

16.9 MPG.

I'm amazed.
I wouldn't believe it's possible for this truck to get 17 mpg.

I've never gotten mileage that good from anything with a TH400, let alone a 4wd 3/4 ton with 4.10 gears.

My pewter 2000 truck which is basically the same exact truck just newer, and with overdrive, 6.0 4L80 4.10, only gets 12 or 13 on average.

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Sitting on the lift, we're perfectly level.

Swapped out the 1/2 inch of zero rates for 1 full inch, and got it leveled out just right.

Forgot to grab any more pictures because I started in on the back, which is getting an add-a-leaf and another inch of zero rates to un-level it front to back, when I discovered that my new U-bolts were for a half ton, So it's spending the night on the lift.

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kennyw said:
Before you believe it, verify the odometer and speedometer are accurate. However, that is not far off of what I owed to get on the highway with a 1979 K20 with a 350 and SM465.
Click to expand...


Somehow I hadn't connected those dots, the speedometer has always been off, 10 mph fast, 60 indicated is 50 actual.


So I figure it's probably more likely 13 or 14, which still seems pretty good for what it is.
 
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Been driving the ole K20 pretty regularly lately, daily driver duty for the last couple weeks.


The other day I noticed a burning oil smell, and the dipstick was basically dry.

I had oil running down the exhaust and burning, as well as oil all over the starter and fuel pump.

Looking on the front of the block there's two threaded bosses right by the fuel pump, and the top one is dripping oil and is venting crankcase pressure.

At first I thought it was the freezeplug, but it's clean (relatively speaking)

Could it have cracked inside there? Could just putting a bolt in there solve this?

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The Griff said:
Been driving the ole K20 pretty regularly lately, daily driver duty for the last couple weeks.


The other day I noticed a burning oil smell, and the dipstick was basically dry.

I had oil running down the exhaust and burning, as well as oil all over the starter and fuel pump.

Looking on the front of the block there's two threaded bosses right by the fuel pump, and the top one is dripping oil and is venting crankcase pressure.

At first I thought it was the freezeplug, but it's clean (relatively speaking)

Could it have cracked inside there? Could just putting a bolt in there solve this?

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Click to expand...
Yup, a short bolt with some pipe dope will fix it right up. Don't use too long of a bolt or it will catch the fuel pump push rod.
 
Yep that's the hole that you run a long threaded bolt into to hold the fuel pump pushrod up in the block when changing the pump. My dad taught me to cover the pushrod in grease to hold it in when I was in high school and then I learned about that hole later on.
 
Truckman4life said:
Yep that's the hole that you run a long threaded bolt into to hold the fuel pump pushrod up in the block when changing the pump. My dad taught me to cover the pushrod in grease to hold it in when I was in high school and then I learned about that hole later on.
Click to expand...


Really?!



That would have been good to know like a dozen times.

Instead I've just tried to quickly shove the fuel pump in there before the pushrod falls.


But why would it have only just now because an issue?
 
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