mountainexplorer
1/2 ton status
After spending most of a day pulling it and putting it in the Stepside (I might add this install tops the list of most stubborn motors to install), I found out before I even got to the mud pit that two cam lobes were going flat, and going flat fast.
Friday I pulled the motor out of the Truck Blazer (which was my Suburban's 454 from 2001-March 2005, and in the Truck Blazer most of this year. It needed to come out anyway since the throwout bearing for the clutch was seized.
The 454 goes into the stepside, requiring motor mounts to be pulled out, and even with proper alignment... it still refused to drop into place. After 3 hours, a come along, alot of prying and spinning the motor over, it finally went in. As soon as it fired, it sounded fine and ran like it used to in the Suburban except for a slight tick. I drove it on the trailer, loaded up and left for the mud bog in Moyie Springs (pronounced Moy-Yay), Idaho, getting there at 1 am where Buckwheat had already saved our group a camping spot.
I unloaded it the next morning, adjusted #8 exhaust valve and #6 intake, then drove down to the pits, where our sub-group had parked and camped, including Wayne with a stock Bronco II modified just enough to clear 33" Boggers and Jeremy's straight axle '91 Chevy shortbed. Then my motor started backfiring, and I found both rocker arms were loose again. I re-adjusted them to the point where it would run, but both #8 exhaust and #6 intake valves were barely opening. I adjusted the timing and idle to account for it so it would run.
Brad showed up in his '84 K5 on 38" Boggers locked front and rear and I rode with him through the pit.
Eric got there soon after in my Utah Crew Cab towing his '77 K20. Since my motor was running pretty sad, I let him run the 39.5" Boggers with his 305 2-barrell powered '77 K20.
Brad broke something in his front 60, and ended up going home early. I then hitched rides with Buckwheat in his '68 Dodge on 36's, and Wayne in the "Baby Bronco" on boggers. It was fun being a passenger and not worrying about breaking stuff.
Keith showed up in his new '85 fullsize Jimmy and his latest girlfriend (he has a new girlfriend ever few weeks it almost seems like), and I talked him into taking it through the pit if I took mine through with 2 bad cam lobes. Then the latest girlfriend wanted to go home, so they took off.
Two other friends, Sam and Rusty, showed up in Honda's cause their rigs arent together at the moment, and joined as spectators and passengers. We watched Dave, another guy I know from my area, run his 505ci powered S-10 bodied race rig through the pit. The crowd loved that. Undoubtedly he and Jerry Walker in the "Ram Runner" were the two fastest rigs there.
The usual local crowd was there, including the 6-wheel drive 472 Caddy hearse, Ford powered Toyota on 44" Boggers, 427 powered Nissan cab on Iroks, big block powered Chevy Luv, Ben Spinney's tube rockcrawler, and alot of other big tired high horsepowerd rigs like this Suburban with a 468 and 44's.
My old '79 green Shortbox that I sold last winter was up there... a bit rougher than when I sold it, but still running. He said he had already gone through one tranny and T-case.
I talked with a few other familar faces that remembered my Blue and White GMC from the spring mud bog, and I spent time looking around remembering some of the parts I used to own that have made it onto other various rigs up there. We put Rusty's rotating light on my Stepside as it got dark Saturday night and made a couple passes through the pit. That night, as most people were getting drunk, I as probably the only non-drinking person there out of the 100 or so people, heated the cab of the Crew Cab with a propane torch and went to bed. Jeremy messed up his front spider gears that day, and they borrowed a welder and Sam and some other guy tried welding the gears up while under the influence, in the rain and in the dark. It didn't last too long the next day.
http://mudallica.50megs.com/photo4.html
Sunday I ran few a few more times, then we all loaded up and headed home, with dreams of what we'll all have put together for next spring's big mud bog up there. Best part was, I didn't have to put a crank and bearings in a motor upside down on a tire like last spring.
Friday I pulled the motor out of the Truck Blazer (which was my Suburban's 454 from 2001-March 2005, and in the Truck Blazer most of this year. It needed to come out anyway since the throwout bearing for the clutch was seized.
The 454 goes into the stepside, requiring motor mounts to be pulled out, and even with proper alignment... it still refused to drop into place. After 3 hours, a come along, alot of prying and spinning the motor over, it finally went in. As soon as it fired, it sounded fine and ran like it used to in the Suburban except for a slight tick. I drove it on the trailer, loaded up and left for the mud bog in Moyie Springs (pronounced Moy-Yay), Idaho, getting there at 1 am where Buckwheat had already saved our group a camping spot.
I unloaded it the next morning, adjusted #8 exhaust valve and #6 intake, then drove down to the pits, where our sub-group had parked and camped, including Wayne with a stock Bronco II modified just enough to clear 33" Boggers and Jeremy's straight axle '91 Chevy shortbed. Then my motor started backfiring, and I found both rocker arms were loose again. I re-adjusted them to the point where it would run, but both #8 exhaust and #6 intake valves were barely opening. I adjusted the timing and idle to account for it so it would run.
Brad showed up in his '84 K5 on 38" Boggers locked front and rear and I rode with him through the pit.
Eric got there soon after in my Utah Crew Cab towing his '77 K20. Since my motor was running pretty sad, I let him run the 39.5" Boggers with his 305 2-barrell powered '77 K20.
Brad broke something in his front 60, and ended up going home early. I then hitched rides with Buckwheat in his '68 Dodge on 36's, and Wayne in the "Baby Bronco" on boggers. It was fun being a passenger and not worrying about breaking stuff.
Keith showed up in his new '85 fullsize Jimmy and his latest girlfriend (he has a new girlfriend ever few weeks it almost seems like), and I talked him into taking it through the pit if I took mine through with 2 bad cam lobes. Then the latest girlfriend wanted to go home, so they took off.
Two other friends, Sam and Rusty, showed up in Honda's cause their rigs arent together at the moment, and joined as spectators and passengers. We watched Dave, another guy I know from my area, run his 505ci powered S-10 bodied race rig through the pit. The crowd loved that. Undoubtedly he and Jerry Walker in the "Ram Runner" were the two fastest rigs there.
The usual local crowd was there, including the 6-wheel drive 472 Caddy hearse, Ford powered Toyota on 44" Boggers, 427 powered Nissan cab on Iroks, big block powered Chevy Luv, Ben Spinney's tube rockcrawler, and alot of other big tired high horsepowerd rigs like this Suburban with a 468 and 44's.
My old '79 green Shortbox that I sold last winter was up there... a bit rougher than when I sold it, but still running. He said he had already gone through one tranny and T-case.
I talked with a few other familar faces that remembered my Blue and White GMC from the spring mud bog, and I spent time looking around remembering some of the parts I used to own that have made it onto other various rigs up there. We put Rusty's rotating light on my Stepside as it got dark Saturday night and made a couple passes through the pit. That night, as most people were getting drunk, I as probably the only non-drinking person there out of the 100 or so people, heated the cab of the Crew Cab with a propane torch and went to bed. Jeremy messed up his front spider gears that day, and they borrowed a welder and Sam and some other guy tried welding the gears up while under the influence, in the rain and in the dark. It didn't last too long the next day.
http://mudallica.50megs.com/photo4.html
Sunday I ran few a few more times, then we all loaded up and headed home, with dreams of what we'll all have put together for next spring's big mud bog up there. Best part was, I didn't have to put a crank and bearings in a motor upside down on a tire like last spring.
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