Alright, decision has been made. Will be pulling the 250 and going with a SBC 350.
At this point I have 2ea 350 candidates, a 70's version thats currently in a daily driver with no major problems except it doesn't produce enough HP for the owner. He's got a brand new 383 stroker awaiting to swap within the next week or 2. He'll keep the carb & headers but otherwise the 4-bolt main engine will be complete and ready to drop in the Jimmy and bolt up to the TH350. I'm liking this solution as it's a quick turn around but the cost is higher. I've got a QuadraJet and adapter plate just itching to bolt up to a V8.
The other is a nearly complete 96-98 5.7 Vortec w/the fuel injection intake and roller cam. The injectors have been removed but has the distributor, all the pulleys & brackets and manifolds. It was supposedly pulled from a wrecked vehicle (model unknown) and has been sitting on a pallet in the dry for ? years. It'll need to be gone through before I'd drop it in. It's got the 4 bolt per side fuel injection manifold to head config which my research indicates that these should be the very "good" factory 906 or 062 Vortec heads. This engine can be had pretty cheap and is probably the better long term solution but since I'm not leaning towards going with an ECM for the truck it'll need to be "down graded" to run a carb, and at this point the carb in question is the afore mentioned QuadraJet I just happen to have. Aftermarket intake manifolds are available.
I can also get a 700R4 on the cheap which I'll probably do for the future. It's been sitting for ? years in the same dry as the 5.7 so it'll need gone through also before it's put into use. I'll be researching that.
I thought I knew SBC's until I started researching them again. Theres just enough "gotcha's" to where one just can't go willy-nilly into the world of SBC's unless one has a ton of $$$'s. I don't LOL....
I'll be pulling the 250 soon and will make anyone who may want to try a later model 6 banger in a Stovebolt a great deal on it.
Since I've already got a Stovebolt 6 Chevy thats going to stay that way, I'm going top have alittle fun with the Jimmy.
Dave
