The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Where to start!!

So I have the truck obviously. Love it, and drive it but with a '70 350 and a 3 seepd auto I want to make it highway drivable. I have never done a truck project so I don't know any more than the basics. Can anyone offer me a few starting points that can get me out of drum brakes and terribly slow driving?? Thank you

I had a 69 and put a mid to late fuely 305 in it and put q-jet carb on it and couldn't keep rear tires on it. The drum brakes were more than adequate to stop it (for a pickup anyway). A 70 350 would be all you need to make it fly. Give it a thorough going over, points, plugs, timing, carb.

They do make kits for doing front disc or power front disc. Not too hard to do. I agree with Carl about your 70 350. Any 350, pre 1973, is non smog era and is probably more powerful that a 73-upwards. Anyway they are the engines I like. Sounds like you have the very common TH350 trans also. Nothing wrong with that either, What is your specific complaint? You can get more HP and reliability with headers, good carb, HEI, and all the new tune up stuff as Carl says. To get more, you have to get inside the engine. I don't recommend that if it does not smoke or leak and has good compression. A 3/4 T long bed is not exactly a dragster platform. Also a rear end ratio change is possible. You should be able to cruise nicely with what you have, refreshed.

Well you are definitely right about a long bed not ideal for dragster business! I just want to be able to drive it at highway speed. I recently had to reseal the intake. The plugs and wires have less than 1,000 miles on them. The q-jet that was on it was shot so I put a 600 cfm edelbrock on it. When I run around locally it does pretty good but if I have to run up the expressway the temp gets high about 20 miles out of town. I try to stay around 60 or 65 but it still gets hot even without a load. Is that due to the low gear ratio in my 3 spd trans? Am I just an idiot who is driving it too hard? My hopes are to have a sound drivetrain with decent fuel economy that I can still us as an everyday truck, not just something to look at.

You should be able to drive that set up 90 mph without overheating. Something is wrong with either, your cooling system (radiator, thermostat, crud in water jacket, low coolant level, fan clutch), or your ignition timing is off.

Carl hit the nail on the head! Melvin (my 70 GMC C2500) is 350 q-jet. TH350, 4.10:1 axle. Overheating never an issue, even (over)loaded with a large cord of firewood.

Well I'm sure there is a clue there, but I don't know it. Most overheating happens at low speed around town.

I'd check to make sure that the radiator hoses are in good shape and not collapsing when you are driving down the road. They get old and mushy and can collapse. I would also wash out the radiator and make sure the fins are in good shape, also flush the inside of the radiator and backflush the engine block to.

Make sure you have the right thermostat.

Thank Ya'll for the info, gonna get those things looked into.

Jeremiah

Better do a compression check on it. Sounds like you have worn rings........

Most likely the lower radiator hose is collapsing at higher RPMs. I had this same issue recently with my Mustang.

What? None of what he suggested points to that. If he said it was smoking blue, then I could see that, but nothing there suggests that the rings are worn...

Since the intake was just off I would be looking at timing first, then tackle the cooling system.