This thread includes my project truck I bought for $340 back in the tenth grade. It of course was not operational so I took it upon myself to revive the old beast just enough so that I could hit every mud hole in union county. The first stage of the build was "Fix it just good enough to go Mudriding, But not necesarily make it back" This consisted on getting the motor running just good enough and Rebuilding the C6 tranny. I rebuilt the carb and got the motor running, and it ran great, until of course it didn't. The truck had sat up for 9 years, and the gas had evaporated out of the tank leaving all kinds of awful sediment behind that ruined filter after filter after filter. I always tried to carry spares with me but often I'd be stranded just far enough from civilization to be in trouble but anyhow the other major obstacle was the C6 transmission. The guy that sold to claimed that it was good, of course it wasn't. (what can you expect for 340$?) When I enlightened My dad he said (Your Selling the truck or rebuilding it yourself) so as a timid little tenth grader, I took it upon myself to rebuild it, which is not a small feat for someone with no mechanical experience... But it came out great and was the last thing on the truck that was done right for a while.




















At this point I had a blast in the truck, I wheeled those open half ton axles like a mad men, and of course a plenty of problems like breaking Ujoints, driveshafts, busting the radiator, finding out the blower didn't work, driving with No lights other than headlights, a rotten seat, terrible interior, and a motor that always overheadted, this was just to name a few, there was always something that had to be fixed, the truck was never fully functional... Next part is coming.

 

Now for part two. I was getting tired of the truck leaving me stranded with either a u joint broken, or an overheated motor, or clogged filter, so I decided to "fix it right."



That is a picture of the truck leaving me stranded, (broken starter)


So, to 'fix the truck right' I dropped in a junkyard motor, replaced the gas tank, but an aluminum intake and chevrolet q-jet carburetor on the motor, built beefier driveshafts, and redid the interior. Though it was still in crappy shape, the truck was much more fun to drive, and much more reliable.

















We Use Fork Lifts in Mississippi...

 

Now for Part three...

I decided after about three years, of owning the truck to build it right. This included replacing the junkyard 400 with a 460, Replacing the rear with a 14 bolt and the front with a dana 60, and lifting it enough to fit 44 inch tires.
















Those, in case you are wondering, are unfinshed motor mounts I built to contain my 460, I could have bought L and L mounts, but I was not aware of them, so I built my on out of 3/8" plate drilled the plate to fit the bosses on the motor ran a steel pipe between the two tabs and and supported it with three engine mount bushings that cost about 3$ a apiece. and welded a piece of 2x2 square tubing to the the pipe to bolt it to the motor towers. I had to compensate, for the taller mounts by cutting the motor mount towers back just a little bit. and welding a new plate to them. They do a great job of supporting the motor.




This is a shot of me setting up the 5.13s in the dana 60 with a lock rite locker.

The next picture show how I achived clearence for 44s with stock springs, no blocks and no fender trimming.




I started by tack welding two pieces of 1/4 inch thick 3x3 square tubing together, taking an endmill and drilling a hole through the middle of the two and boring out the the hole 14 diameter. Needless to say, boring that much of a hole, got err.. boring. So i torched them out, not as pretty but basically as effective. I welded a 5 inch piece of 1 inch thick cold rolled steel to the tops of each spring perch to give them a bit more heighth.








It'll be tough to see but I torched a hole through the bottom of the rear spring hanger, and flipped the shackle to net some lift. I braced the top of the hanger by welding a 1/4 inch thick box to retain its strenghth. The next pic is the front hanger which I lowered to inches. I braced the bottom of it by welding a piece of angle iron to the frame and to it. Maybe the picture can explain it, but prolly not.



I actually lied I did use one spring that was not in the original pack. A one and a half inch thick spring from a tractor trailer! I cut if off so it hopefully won't interfere too terribly much with the ride of the truck but here's a shot of the suspension components at the axle.



Nice disc brakes huh?

Unfortunately that is as far as I have gotten. I hoped to get started on the dana 60 transplant soon, I have two more weeks of this semester of college then I'll be able to devote a substantial bit of time to the project, if anyone has questions, suggestions, or concerns, please post. Thank you...

---thekingofcows---

 

Love it! More pics though.

 

Here is the only other current picture, I will be sure to take more as I am able.

Side note, the hawgs are only backwards because the axle was not under the truck when I bolted them on, it was upside down. So I bolted the tires on and didn't even think about the axle being upside down and when I put it under the truck I'd realized what I had done...

 

I like it, I bet it is a blast...

That is the best way to own and old pickup, build it yourself the way you want it so that it fits your needs.

 

So you already got the d60 front axle huh? How do you like the 460?

 

Great job newb. Im diggin' the truck.

 

The 460 is fun, right now it doesn't have the low end grunt like the old 400 but when you get it into its power band you'd better get out of its way! I'd be willing to bet the 5.13s will improve the low end feel.

 

what in the hell did you do to the 460 to lose all the low end grunt and make you wish you had a 400 back?


even my old ZERO bottom end 460 build never made me wish I had "the low end grunt like the old 400."

It would spin boggers pretty good in jr high parking lots though.

 

Good looking build. Looks like fun.
Keep the pictures coming.

And as Alpha said, what did you do to the 460 ? My 460 has plennnnnty of "low end grunt".

Just curious though. Looking at the picture and reading what you said, i'm not 100% sure.. did you say that you cut a hole in the bottom of the spring hanger, to put the shackle through? If that is what you did, then why didn't you just flip the whole hanger..? If not.. well i've had an annoying work day.

Found a broken pipe, dug it up, fixed it, then as I was leaving noticed there was another pipe broke five feet from the original fix. Whoever thinks its okay to bury pipes next to stumps is stupid.

 

400 does have a bit more stroke to it, that IS why it was the 4wd motor, while the 2wd got the 460s.. it had more low end.

 

I didn't say anything about wishing I still had the 400 back. I merely commented that it doesn't have the low end grunt like my 400.

Take into consideration this, My 400 had an edelbrock performer intake manifold
and was other wise stock, however, though the motor wound out quickly, it did offer a lot of low end torque, it wasn't anything amazing it was just an old 400...

My 460 has a Torker intake manifold d0ve-c ported heads and a mild lunati cam, I actually did not build the motor, I bought as is from a friend of mine, that combination of components seems to make the motor perform best at a little higher RPM. However, like I said once you get the motor into its power band 'ie' 1800+ there is no comparison.

All of these facts im telling are only significant while the truck is lock in high end, were my old 9 inches gear ratio equated to about 3:23 (or so) once the truck is locked into low end, it mocks the 400s poor performance.

If you need to know anything else, let me know.

 

To answer your question Captain Prozon, the way I did the shackle flip netted more lift than if I was to simply flip the hanger, and I did not want to have to brace the hanger if i did flip it and lower it. So the bottom of the line, this is way I thought would make the most sense and be easiest.

 

I think I found your problem. Enter "one of these things are not like the other one. One of these things are not the same" song.


Get rid of that Torker intake an slap on a Stealth.


The entire combo will thank you.