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Got a couple of things done today..finished off the toe board. Mines a bit hacked to clear pedals and the trans.

Ghetto tonneau cover is finished and on. Not sure how well it will hold up᠁ time will tell.

Working out some ventilation for the hood. Hate to cut it but it’s not like it would be the first thing to be hacked.

Couldn’t live with the rear height. Pulled a leaf and it came down to a more reasonable fender to tire distance.

Weather has kept me from tackling the final leaf spring replacement᠁ so in the meantime it’s been a few small items marked off the list.

Replaced all the Philips head screws on the door panel with clutch heads.

Spiced up the rather boring air cleaner with stickers..lol

Cut, test fit and marked the new exhaust layout for the passenger side. Comes out of the muffler, takes a right turn in front of the battery and exits to the rear in parallel with the driver side. Next up is to weld it all together and fashion up a hanger tying both exit pipes together.

My original turn downs just past the rear end kicked up far too much debris.

Picked up a new set of rear tires for the solids. 255/70r15᠁ same size as the trucks currently running on the torq thrust.

Your truck is coming along nicely. Awesome job!

Thanks ^᠁ Will be a nice change when it’s no longer a project.

Passenger side front fenders pretty much ready for paint᠁ again.

Got the exhaust welded, painted and fit into place. Turns out I’ll need a longer bolt for the exhaust hanger.

I’ve been using silver bbq paint on the pipes and it looks like I won’t have enough to finish the exhaust. Which is unfortunate since rattle can paint is getting pricey.

Also toying with the idea of joining the two exit pipes with a Y and having a single exit straight out the back᠁ factory style since I’m all about originality

Dragged myself out to the garage and got the last leaf spring swapped out. Need to put the traction bars on and torque everything down. Next up will be putting the steering back together.
At that point I’ll finally be finished with the suspension.

Ubolts torqued to 45 ft-lbs, traction bars back on. Used a dei product to wrap the battery and got the exhaust cut. Managed to squeeze out enough silver hi temp paint to cover the last of the pipes.

Plan to reconnect the steering tomorrow and afterwards it could well be time to flash up the engine.

Got back out in the garage and the steering’s all back together. Realized I hadn’t finished tightening the rear bolt in the leaf spring. Also decided to change back to steelies and baby moons. Will change out the rears once I get them mounted.
Getting close to possibly having a running truck᠁ again.

It may be a good deal to have 2 sets of wheels. I had a '56 210 and would pull the front bumper off on occasion, everyone thought that there was another '56 in town.

Hey Tuts,

Actually my wheel disease is progressing... I've been eyeing Holley's re-released version of Halibrand sprint stars and lately I've even been toying with picking up some steel 16x5 rims; to run a set of Coker's Vintage/Military Tires.

For some reason the vision of a vintage military look on my truck tickles my funny bone. We shall see, those Coker's are worth a pretty penny.

Today's plan is to pick up some fresh fuel, fill the float bowls, top up the rad fluid and a couple of other final checks. Roll the truck outside, then fire up the new and hopefully improved big block.

Today’s plan went out the window. First attempted start generated a sweet fireball.

Plugs on cap one position to far to the right, distributor off by a tooth and a wired fuel leak on the back side of a T fitting. Took a minute to figure out the leak as the plug was face down. And oddly the points had no gap.

The only real success was converting my vacuum pump cup into a vehicle to put fuel into the carb bowls

Back at it tomorrow.

Timing sorted out and the truck easily fired up. Followed by a fuel leak in that stupid T connector.

Removed the T and went to the solid dual inlet that I had on the bench. Next issue᠁ gas geyser out of the front bowl vent. Same issue that diluted the oil last year.

Needle and seat have no blockages so it looks like the floats still stuck or sinking.

Not giving up on the Holley yet but I want to get the cam broken in and hopefully drive the truck.

Next step᠁ Edelbrock avs2 ordered and on the way

It's heresy because a lot of people like them, but unless you're on a quarter mile track running wide open, it's never a bad idea to give up on the Holley manifold washer. I've had several Holleys and was never hugely impressed. I came to grips with the AFB tuning kit fairly easily, and I never looked back.

I've got a 1411 750 cfm Edelbrock on my 454. I had to cut the fuel pressure back to 3.5 psi to prevent flooding the carb.

Thanks for the info RLB... my regulator is currently set for 6psi

Well᠁ the carb showed up yesterday. Mounted it and started connecting the throttle, choke and some other bits. Still waiting on a couple of pieces to show up.

Needed to clearance my throttle bracket as the eddy was slightly rubbing in one spot. I was wondering if the throttle cable would be long enough, turns out it was too long. Also turns out my eyeball measuring could have been a little better. Nearly cut it to short.
FYI᠁ I’m using a cut off wheel on my angle grinder and it makes an extremely clean cut on the cable end.

Hopefully it functions better than it looks᠁ rather sad looking little unit.

I have used the same throttle linkage on a SBC. It takes a little time to get it "just" right but it worked smoothly in the end. Was the addition of the heat shield an after thought?

Hey Tuts,

I like the linkage setup... I was referring to the eddy as looking visually sad. Poorly written on my part.

Heat shield came about after removing the tunnel ram. Going to the dual plane brought the carb down to a level where it was exposed to heat coming off the engine. The Holley fuel bowls hung out far enough over the flange that they were getting a little to warm.

So I went to the spacer and the plate to reduce the chance of boiling fuel. The Edelbrock is more compact in that regard...so I suppose the heat shield is now a moot point.

Looks like on the Holley you used ported vacuum to the distributor and on the Edelbrock you are using full vacuum.

Hey Gord,

Going to try full vacuum with the Edelbrock and the new cam to begin with. I'll likely move it to ported vacuum at some point and see how it behaves. My base timing is set at 14dg so we'll see if it likes the extra advance from the full vacuum. It's all trial and error at this point

I still haven't given up on the Holley and I'll re-evaluate that carb situation at a later date. For some reason the Holley float appears to be getting stuck and refusing to...well float.

PCV setup is finished, fuel line is done and updated the throttle connection with Edelbrock #8009. The cotter pin that holds it all together is teeny tiny᠁ slightly concerning.

Rear tires got mounted on the steelies and I’ve got to say that I’m super happy with how they look. My torq-thrust experiment is over for the time being.

Everything is ready to go for tomorrow’s fire up.., take 2.

Looking great (as ussual).

The tiny cotter pin should be fine, no load on that pin given the straight pull of the throttle cable.

Your choke cable probably needs to be adjusted, it doesn't appear that you will get full choke before the lever runs into the cable housing.

So the worlds worst cam break in session continued.

Had a fuel delivery issue after it ran for a short bit. Thought it could have been the regulator so pulled it and ran a straight shot from the pump to the carb. Still had an issue so started to think the fuel pump had packed it in.

But being a “master mechanic”᠁the deduction was made that the tank was empty.

Ended up redoing the fuel lines and simplifying the set up.


Truck does sound angrier than before and the cam is pretty snappy.

Back at it again tomorrow᠁ if I ain’t failing, I ain’t trying

Got it sort of running᠁ still having a fuel issue at idle and restart.

Looks like the Edelbrock is getting too much fuel at this point. Haven’t checked the floats yet but I’m going to try stepping down the fuel pressure.

Unfortunately the Holley regulator lock ring is cemented to the adjuster. Will have to disassemble the fuel system again and put the regulator on the bench.

Made a short video of it.

https://youtube.com/shorts/4z2rZNZGL6g?si=6CkU31pwsR3UwSfl

Went back out᠁ pulled the regulator and broke the lock ring loose. 1/4 turn counter clockwise and the truck now idles with reduced fuel pressure.
Will need to tweak it some more but it’s a start.

YouTube Video

Not sure my build thread is actually a build. I spend more time deconstructing than actually building.

Put a vacuum gauge on the truck and got some odd results. Ran through the valves again, checked rotor position, set everything back to tdc and still got nothing consistent. Timing check 14dg, ran terrible. Put the timing light back on and got 2dg. Reset to 14 and read 8dg on the light. Started to pull out what’s left of my hair᠁ and it hit me harmonic balancer ring is slipping.

New balancer is on order but the way some dummy built this truck᠁ the radiator needs to come out and the grill᠁

Semi-pro tip᠁ if you think you should run straight water until everything is sorted out᠁ go with your gut. Anti-freeze is nasty

Had a slight weep from the front china wall. I probably could have lived with it but since it’s all coming apart᠁ what’s a little more regression.

Valley is nice and clean, gaskets almost look good enough to leave in place. I do have another set so might as well replace them.

WOW... two steps forward and now a GIANT leap backwards. I hope the new balancer gets things sorted out for you...

Would be nice to have things sorted out. If failure builds character᠁I figure there’s enough character building for me to have developed multiple personalities.

Fenders and tailgate never got colour sanded due to time and laziness. Have the time now but still lazy. So tried using a denim pad, some compound and polish.

Front turned out pretty well, rear not bad, tailgate was a lost cause. Too much junk in the paint for the pad. The tailgate really needs to be colour sanded᠁ so let’s call it good enough.

The reflection in that fender looks 20 ft deep, very COOL.

Black looks great ᠁ for about 5mins

Still waiting on my balancer so did a couple minor adjustments. Finished the passenger side front fender᠁ it’s still got some weirdness to it.

Moved the oil pressure gauge to the left of the steering wheel and added a fuel gauge.

New pointer and dampener arrived. Got the old stuff removed and began some reassembly.

I use a cheap pulley removal tool that works pretty well but I love the Moroso install tool. Highly recommend it.

New condenser, distributor cap/rotor, new coil wire, coil, spark plug wire and after a week of failures᠁ finally spark on plug 1.

Not sure why it was such a struggle but it’s finally (for now) over.

Started putting the truck back together᠁ again.

I did find some of the wires were showing signs of melt through down near the boot. Ordered some new/better grade of plug wires and some more dei wire insulators.

Picked up some new champion plugs that are recommended by Edelbrock. The plugs take a 5/8 ratchet and it just barely fits inside the head.

So᠁ just to prove my mechanical incompetence.. or my faulty math skills. I finally figured out the timing struggles. New balancer is marked 0-60 and it turns out 40= 16 dg of timing᠁ referencing the 16 mark on the balancer equated to roughly 6 dg btdc.

Not surprisingly the truck runs a whole lot better with some advance.

https://youtube.com/shorts/KbGyHDt19EY?si=QLEkLBzBHpWJtg6e

Got out to the garage and finished off a couple items. Passenger fender is fully bolted in, reconnected the turning indicator. Tested the indicator before bolting everything up᠁ and the front flashed for 2 seconds before packing it in.

Turns out the rear drivers side rear indicator and brake light are also out. Never had any electrical issues last year so this is somewhat unexpected.

I used this web site to make a paper timing tape and glued it onto the harmonic balancer. Very handy...
Paper timing tape

Hi Gord, thanks for the info.

Colour sanded and polished hood. Decided against my louver project᠁for now.

Spent some time working on the lights... re did the taillight ground, checked the connector in the taillight housing, reset the flasher, took the relay fittings off/on, checked the indicator switch and currently have 2 taillights and driver side indicators. Pretty sure I have a connection issue with the bulb assembly in the front.

Truck went around the block᠁ wasn’t super happy. Died and didn’t want to restart᠁ was on a slope, fuel level is low and I think it flooded. So mixed bag of reasons.

Changed from yellow to blue step up springs and changed the rod to 68-57. Kept the jets the same which equates to 3 on the Edelbrock chart. It’s roughly 8% leaner. Afr at idle went into the high 13’s and let me move the idle set screw farther out.

And that’s it for tonight᠁ even if doesn’t run᠁I still like looking at it