Well it's been a while since I have been to the forum, but that's mainly because my truck is put back together and for now, all is well.

Over the month of September and into October I spent all of my time rebuilding the 400 that came with Roxie, knocking like it was going out of style. After tearing the motor down, I found a pushrod that was just flopping around in the head rather than being seated under the rocker arm. When I tore the motor down to the crank, I found a journal that had been worn about 1/2 down due to a spun rod bearing. There was a good sized ball of metal shavings in the pan, roughly the size of a brillo pad.

I figure I am pretty lucky the block was in good condition. Heck, I bought the truck for $700, so I don't think I did too bad. I was able to drive it short distances during the move to my house, so I knew the four wheel drive worked, along with the transmission. Well, now after all this time, and a sad amount of money, she is running, and sounds great! All in all, this is what had to be done:

clean + magnaflux the block
welded and ground the crank
bored/honed the cylinders .030 over
added oversized pistons
replaced a couple of connecting rods
line-honed the mains
replaced all valve seals
reseated valves
replaced master cylinder+brake booster
replaced horn
replaced flasher relay
rewired tail lights + one socket (the guy butchered all of the wiring)
rewired head lights (again...wtf was he doing with this thing?)
replaced turn signal switch
installed door handle on passenger side
installed window crank handle on passenger side
scraped off window tint from rear window

That's the gist of what I have done over the past 2 months. Here's the video I took today. She's not pretty yet, but we're getting there!

Roxie - YouTube

Thanks to everyone here at the forum that has helped me when I hit the multiple brick walls I had in store for me. I couldn't have done it without your help!

~Cyrrius

 

Let me be the first to say congrats and good job on the rebuild. It's always gratifying to say "Yea, I rebuilt that". Instant street cred!

So, why is your rig named "Roxie"? I named mine "The F-Bomb" cuz it's what I said everytime I found another hack job done by POs. The only bright side of my POs is someone actually used anti-seize on the manifold bolts and none of 'em snapped off during my exhaust upgrade.

I dig the green paint on the dash and glove door. Are ya thinkin' of shooting your rig with that? "Kermit" green and black would make for a mean color combination.

 

Thanks! I am definitely fricken amazed at the truck now. I've watched the video so many times just to hear it run haha.

I almost named her "Dizzy" after I got the engine installed and then pulled up the dizzy to hear the little collar on the oil pump drive shaft slip off and the foreboding "clunk" in the oil pan. But Roxie seems to fit since every time I crawl under it I'm getting hit in the face with tiny rocks.

As far as paint, I'm thinking of using that truck bed paint on the body, and painting the wheels the matching green. The block and pan are that green. It's actually the engine paint that I used on the dash and interior items too.

 

good job sounds great. should have shown the engine in the video.

 

Nice work, my '79 is in a similar state. I wish winter was not coming as that will slow me down with my limited garage space.

Regards, Rob

 

Dang, you're right. I thought about that last night, after the fact. I'll have to make a video of all the pictures I took. That was another life saver...every step I took, I got another photo just in case I couldn't remember the details. It paid off in the end too!

 

Thanks Rob! I agree, I wish I had more time before winter also. As you can see, the truck is sitting under a carport. That won't help much when it's time to drop the driver shaft haha. Well, they don't call it work for nothing! Best of luck to you!

 

Ok, the video isn't worth much for entertainment, but it shows several of the photos I took during the entire process, from trailering the truck from the POs all the way to showing the motor reinstalled and completely back together.

Rebuild Photos - YouTube

 

Now that was nice! showing off your hard word and progress.
Engine looks great.

 

Thanks! I'm pretty happy with it - and definitely happy it's running finally!