My truck is a great driver now. I've done a few relatively simple things one at a time over the last 3 years. Without a rebuild. In this order: New wheel bearings, brakes, brake lines, Dual Exhaust, Gear Vendors O.D., new 16" wheels w/ radial tires, Dynomat the cab, HEI, and new shocks. All of this together and I have 7 forward gears, I can cruise 70-75mph @ 22-2400rpm in 4th over AND actually hear the original AM radio. I can also split 3rd and 4th which is exactly what the sm420 has always needed. Well, besides 4th over. The O.D. and the radials together are true magic. Especially the radials. The rest is just icing, but each one being a noticable improvement. A dual carb intake would give me even more.
I have already started to build a 261 with all the above and more. If I would have know how much an improvement the radials and O.d were I might have decided I didn't need more motor for my purposes. But... I have already started and I guess I gotta finish it. Darn.
The down side is it is not cheap. For 1/2 the price I could have done a 350. But since that's what everybody does, It's a bit boring. I have shopped, bought and collected all the parts myself. A local machine shop has already decked, cleaned and bored the block, balanced the crank assembly including flywheel and harmonic balancer/pulley. The head/cam is being done by another local machine shop that specializes in cams and heads. The rods and pistons have been weight balanced. All I have left is assembly and the swap which I am having done by much more able hands than mine. I want to learn, but I also want it right. He's going to show me how he does it on the 261, and then I plan to rebuild my original 235 myself.
