sons first car

[MEMO43]

One day I noticed a ticking sound coming from his truck when running an not sure what it was
I chose to ground his truck until we could find out what the noise was.
Found out it was a cracked flexplate. I tried showing my son the painful art of flexplate replacement... but since his truck falls under the might as well category
The old engine which was starting to smoke an loosekng coolant. Out it goes

 

[MEMO43]

We swapped in the l31 after the joyous hrs of cleaning wires and the engine bay.
Since there was no came lobe for the fuel pump we did an inline pump to help feed the Qjet and keep it happy. the first pump (carter) was to much an would push fuel causing flooding under idle. even with the regulator dialed down to 3 psi
Then we swapped fuel pumps an not enough fuel to it.
Out comes the eddy that he learned how to rebuild.
still to rich an fouling plugs.

 

[MEMO43]

My son was shocked that we could do an engine swap an get the new one fired up all in the same day.
We ended up installing a holley street avenger 600cfm. That's where he learned the witch craft of a dial back timing gun and a vacuum gauge to set the idle mixture screws.
The carb from the factory came with #68 jets
living at 5500 ft above sea level we jetted it down to #64 primaries. since it's vacuum secondaries we left the rear alone.
We ran into a few hiccups like
Him adding to much silicone to the one piece oil pan gasket (instant oil leak), you can only imagine how much fun it is to change out the oil pan gasket with the engine installed.
Waiting on ram horn manifolds tonget the exhaust redone, thus time run trus duals, haven't decided if we are going with an X style cross over or H pipe.
I want to re do the dual windstar fan wiring.
we also did the steering box replacement.
I got tired of PS fluid leaks on my driveway...
next is the passenger side tank sending unit.
I'm almost glad the main mechanical is done.

 

[MEMO43]

So far we have done
All new moog ball joints
Moog TYE
moog drag links
Rancho 9000s all around
New radiator
New gear fluid
selector valve
driverside tank an sending unit
Np208 rebuild
Flowmaster super 40's
New headlights
On board air
wire Dual windstar fans
electric fuel pump conversion
wire a few relays for all major electronics
everyday we end the day by discussing what he has learned and wants to learn.
He has mentioned welding, good enough 3xcuae.for me to buy a welder

He is getting the hang of stabbing distributors (5 times so far)
timing a 350
adjusting air fuel mixtures
an tuning Carbs by changeing jets.
I'm sure there is more to come, especially
since I want it to be 100% safe an reliable
an I'm enjoying the bond wrenching with my favorite gear head.

 

[fourwheelerjeff]

what kind of on board air?

 

[MEMO43]

what kind of on board air?

we opted for the viar 150 psi set up.
we installed it in his tool box. we are able to take his tire from 15 Psi back up to 40 in about 2 minutes
I'll grab some pictures later an post them

 

[MEMO43]

here is the set up
we got it on Amazon