The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts FNG with a '56 bolt checkin in.

Just thought I drop a bit about myself, my ol bolt, and a general Howdy!

For openers, I'm 36, been in the Navy for over 18 of those workin on the environmental & safety systems on C130, C9, Huey, A6, F/A18, and currently P3 airframes from the searing heat of the Mojave desert to the numbing killing cold of Antarctica. I've always been good with machines & have been workin on anything with a motor I could get my mitts on since my early teens.
All I can say is I love to work on anything, I get a kick out of taking something that’s broke down & wore out, makin it work again, and starting all over with something new. I'm not real experienced with freehand metal working, & that is my current focus so that I can take on projects w/o making em FUBAR. I get a lot of that experience workin on my lil hot rod VW, but more on that later,...

However, the reason I'm here is this ol beast.

Beastie photo 1
Beastie photo 2
Beastie photo 3
Beastie photo 4

She's a '56 GMC 370 series 2-ton dump. All stock through & through, an inline 6 with a 2bbl, 4-speed box with a 2-speed single axle, & a short dump box.
All original steel with the expected rust in the usual places, but overall not bad. Only dent I found was one of the bullets in the grill got bumped, didn't dent it much, but did bend the lower radiator sheet metal a touch. She aint purty, but she's a tough old girl!
Getting her home was an adventure in patience & nerve. The exhaust leaks were bad enough, bein stuck in low range with a top speed of 35 was makin for a long drive, and the brakes were marginal. I gave up that fight & had her towed to a tire shop to get new rubber. After scaring the newbies with the widow-maker rims, they named her “Mater”, kinda fits too. Finaly got it to the house & there she sits, ugly as sin.
Brakes are the 1st priority, I don’t care if it goes, if it cant stop we have some serious issues! Managed to find an NOS hydrovac unit on Ebay, so once that gets here I’m going through & getting the brake system straightened out.
Until then, I’ve been workin on lil bits & pieces here & there. Replaced all the light bulbs & been working on restoring the rest of the light housings if I cant get identical items. The wiring is in sad shape and I'm thinkin I'll go through & rewire the whole thing stem to stern with aircraft grade wiring like I did in my hot rod and the original style fabric/asphalt wire loom.
But time will tell. I may just get her sea worthy again and turn her over to some poor bum that needs a toy of his own. I'm not a profit seeker, I do this stuff for the pure joy & fun of it, will sell her for 10% over what I paid for the lot and move on to my next project. What that will be, oh man, dont get me started,... If I could get ahold of a couple grand, a 3-car transporter, and a couple winches, I know where there are a few sweet peices of steel up in them mountains.

Now, as for my other obsession and the reason I have been looking for a transporter. My first project is a little different, but some of ya may find it interesting just for the novelty value. It’s a '70 VW beetle roadster I call the Black Bomber. And as you can see, this is NOT your typical pregnant roller skate!

Bomber photo 1
Bomber photo 2

All kinds of neat stuff, all custom made or adapted by myself. What better way to learn hot rod building w/o havin to drop a ton of bones? Not that it has been cheap, but not too bad overall compared to building a typical custom on this level.
It sits about 3" off the deck in front with no fenders and smoothed wheel wells, hiked in the hind end with stock fenders and rear tires stick out about 1.5 inches, overall rake gives it a mean stance & I get lots of comments about how it looks like the Prowlers bastard cousin. I think it looks better myself, but then I'm a nut!
Whats in it?: I have a 4" drop 4-bar Ford A style front axle, with early Ford spindles with 70's GM 11” discs, pushed by a Porsche 944 Master Cyl; '69 Mustang steering box run thru a Nissan 280Z steering column, and a removable steering wheel from Speedway Motors (love those guys, and judging by my bank account, they love me too,...); Mazda 626 seats I recovered and adapted to the stock seat rails myself; All digital blackout gages from Nordskog; Early Chevy tail lights frenched into the fenders, Dietz style headlamps with H4 bulb conversion & euro-style running lamps; A rare dual head spot light/flasher unit, fully functional; A completely redesigned electrical system I built from scratch using aircraft grade wiring, all covered in nickel platted copper sheathing for ground & radio noise suppression, & junction blocks (for local folks wanting some custom wires, I work cheap!); and a load of other odds & ends I have scrounged or built.
Anyone interested or at least intrigued enough to wanna peek, the complete build details, with stage by stage photos, can be seen here.

So yeah, between the GMC, the Bomber, my old Coca Cola machine, and a few other toys,… I’m usually broke, and damned lucky to have a very, VERY understanding wife.

I like it a lot there James. Gess I should have menchioned that we need to post links to pics so we don't use up band width. By the way she is butieful.

Thats true enuf, I'll fix that right now.

Never been a VW kind of guy but I sure as heck can appreciate the work you've done and I immediately thought "Prowler" when I saw it. It's really cool. But on to the Truck.

I cut my teeth on dump trucks so I get a huge Woodie when I see a Big Ol'Goodin like yours. You didn't say it has a 270 but that's my guess. I don't see the 2 speed switch on the shift lever either. What brand is the body/hoist?
We want more pictures.

Nice, 'ol Jimmy, you have there. Check us out over at the discussion board of, www.oldgmctrucks.com. Lots, of good GMC Tech. info., over there also.

Thanks 53, always nice to hear that.
& yep, the switch has thrown a few folks already, makin me think I might have something not normal here. The switch for the 2-speed is built into the knob, just a little slider on the right side that you swing up & down. With the wires taped to the lever it looks like nothin is there. Pretty slick deal if ya think on it.

UPDATE:
The real fun part is it's been at my house for a month and nobody has said a word. It runs & drives fine & it's not torn up, but coz it's big & ugly, someone complained to the manager, in an anonamous letter of course. Seems that "work vehicles" aren't allowed where I live, & there's some stink about that coz one of my neighbors is a private contactor & is always moaning about how he cant keep his gear at the house. The fact that my ol' bolt is a private non-commercail project vehicle is besides the point, it's still a dump truck,...
Some peoples kids!

Our manager is bein cool tho, since I told him I need to fix the brakes & it should only be a couple weeks he gave me till the 20th (or whenever the property owner chimes in) to get it to the base hobby shop or put it in the trailer lot out back.
Hoping that once I get the dump box off the back I can pettition the owner about keeping it in my driveway since I'm gonna want to drive it a couple times a week and by then it wont look so "commercial". I can hope anyway.

Welcome to the Stovebolt community. Nice looking truck. Since yours has a 2bbl carb it is probably a 302. That is highly desirable. The first 3 numbers of the engine number will tell you. Sounds like you have an Eaton 2 speed rear end because of the electric shift. These Chevy guys are used to seeing a vacuum shift switch on the dash.

I have a '55 GMC 450 with a winch and poles. It has the 302 and the switch like yours.

I like the VW, too.

Hello Freq2002,
Great looking GMC, and welcome to the "Bolt". I just love those front ends, they have character.

John

Neat looking truck!

Freq;
Welcome. Dynamite work on the bug. Why don't you make a transporter out of the '56?

OT, I have a boy at Whidbey. Sonarman from Canada.

-Mark

Thanks for the welcome & the kind words about my foray into the wierd with the Bomber.

Cletus: I reread the 2-bbl part & realized I mistyped that, it's a 1-bbl. Me & my fat fingers!
The odd thing is I went out & cleaned off the engine to get the numbers so I could get some more info on it and lo & behold, there are none! Should be on the edge of the casting right behind the distributor, but looks like they were removed a long long time ago. Beginning to wonder what the story is there, bet I can guess tho,...
As for the rear end, it's the GMC two speed with 1.36:1 planetary gear reduction. Will be all kinds of fun gettin that beastie overhauled.

Hotshoe: Thats the plan for the truck is to make it into a transporter for my bug. Since the car is so low I cant use a standard trailer, need a tilt bed. But a tilt start at about $3,000 around here. Can't see the point of payin that for something I'll only use a couple times a year & then have to pay to park it somewhere else. Figure for a little more I can get an old bolt, fix it up, convert it, and have something I can drive back & forth to work if I want. Except for the part where I cant have it at the house, it's a good plan.
Think I know where your boy works if he's Canadian military, dont know any of em personaly tho, lotsa people on this base. Whidbey isn't a bad place to be overall, good duty. Too darn many sailors for my liking tho, dirty bastages!

I forgot to mention that my dad bought me a subscription to vintage truck magazine, got my 1st issue yesterday. Kinda funny opening it up & seeing some of the folks from here in the article about Stovebolt.com. Pretty neat coinkydink!

I thought I'd put a link to it already, but for you folks that are actualy interested in my lil car, you can read about every detail, start to current state, here:
Build & photo page on Shoptalkforums.com
I must caution you tho, if you're on a slow connection it is LOADED with photos.

And for those of you, like me, who just dont have enough flippin hobbies, you can always see more off the wall custom kraut cans at The Volksrods.com home page & forums
I appologize in advance to those grieving garage widows that are surely going to hate me for that,...

At tghe very least, some good ways to waste a few hours at work. lol

Yanno what's fun about these old buggers?
How you can fix one thing & find 2 more to fix,... For me, thats fun, aggrivating sometimes, but I do love to tinker. Good thing too, or I might be contemplating new & exciting ways to blow up a truck! :p

Got all the lights working, have some very sweet fender mount lights on the way to replace those, but otherwise I managed to repair or restore most of the old lights.

Pulled the heater out & got the fan motor cleaned out & ready to rock, messed up a bearing tho, so will need a new motor eventualy. Just need to un FUBAR the wiring & get that working (That's gonna be fun!!).
Another part of that will be getting the hi/lo wiring fingered out so that the speed reduction solenoid on the speedo works properly. It's fully functional, seems the drive cable is shot tho.

Pulled the intake/exhaust manifold & replaced the gaskets, gonna have to do some massaging there tho, some serious gaps on a couple ports. Tore down the carb while it was out & got it fully functional again, even fixed the choke cable. Put it all together again & man, she starts right up! Didn't even have to touch the throttle, it runs like a top.

However,...

It was smoking a bit more than it should, so I look around, see oil all over the pipe, look further & discover I have GREAT oil pressure. I know this coz the oil was screaming out of a couple pinhooles in the pressure guage line. Joy!
So need to see if I can find a NOS oil guage.

STILL waiting for my Hydrovac, hopefully it gets here today. Once I get the brakes working it's off to the Base hobby shop for about a month of pure mayhem!

Oh, anyone know how to drain/service the hydraulic ram on these pigs? I'm only getting about half the travel I should have, need to flush the system.

OK, lets talk hoists. I've re-read the previous posts but I didn't see where you mentione the brand, model, type, etc of the hoist. But let me asssume for the moment that it is a twin arm underbody. Given the age my next assumption is (yeah, I know how you spell assume)that it is single acting. That being the case you will then find that there is a plug on the cylinder near the head and that is where you add oil. It is simply pumped from one end of the cylinder to the pressurized (bottom) side. As for draining oil, you guessed it..get a five gallon bucket and open the hoses at the pump Typically there is a small breather on the cylinder to let out trapped air and then you just cycle it a number of times to remove the remaining air. If your unlucky enough to have a manifold mounted pump attached to the base of the cylinder then it gets more involved since there are no hoses. No filters on these old hogs either. Enjoy :rolleyes:

Cool, gives me a starting point anyway. Thanks Dave
It is a single cyl action, with a seperate pump mounted fwd of the cyl. Not terribly complex, but since it's up where I cant really see it,...
So I have to prop up the box to get to get to this sucker? Guess I'll have to make up a couple of proper braces.

On another note:
Got the Hydrovac today, and for a part that's been in a box longer than I've been on this planet it's in excellent shape. Broke it down & have been running CLP thru it to loosen all of the old caked on lubricants & clean out the piston. Have everything working (tested with shop air) except the relay, the piston is stuck & I may have to get creative to break it loose. Still, for $25, I'm happy!
Unfortunately, closer inspection reveals there is NO way I am getting the brakes done in 3 days. everything will have to be replaced. Joy!

Hey Freq2002 check it out your truk is already a big star
http://www.stovebolt.com/bboard/cgi-bin//ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=6;t=001324

Heavy>
Yeah, I saw that, was pretty neat to see my ol girl in there.


Got my front turn signals in yesterday & installed them. Found them on Epay, they are from United Pacific truck accessories, model 38102 . They aren't as close to the originals as I'd like, but they look a darn sight better than the $14 a pop plastic ones they sell everywhere, and being LED they are very noticable.

United Pacific Inc. sells a bunch of different lights that have more classic styling on the lenses so for those that haven't checked out thier products it might be a good option for replacement lights. I'm looking at using a few of thier units when I build my bed.

Welcome aboard! Looks like you have a nice solid rig to start with.

Man, if I dont quit gettin grief from the neighbors makin waves about my truck, I may have to sell it before I even get some use out of her,... I cant afford all these storage fees & the like, it's rapidly getting out of hand and all due to STUPID neighbors that think it's a "work vehicle",... Either way, I have to get it moved off the property in the next couple days or I'm in the poo with the property manager.

What I NEED to do is find a place with a decent sized garage or a shop near here and move out of here. Sell this rat-trap trailer & get on with my life. But property prices & rent around this state is retarded, nevermind this island,... I need to make another 40-50K a year to be able to afford to buy a house on this flippin island.
I'm glad the interest rates came down so people could afford to finance thier homes, but man-o-man did it do a number of home values. I see places goin for a 1/4-1/2 mil that shouldn't sell for over 80K,... Some of these places look li8ke bombed out hulks that were shipped over from Afghanistan too, what a crock! But as long as people are dumb enough to buy them sensible people like me are gonna have to take the good ol' what fer up the keister.
Joy!

Ever think of relocating to the midwest? I work with a guy that recently relocated from San Diego, CA. He said the same thing that the cost of living, and real estate was out of site.

John

My folks moved to KS a while back & got a house there for 38K that would cost them about 200K here. It's tempting, & I would, but I'm a child of the mountains.
I can live w/o the ocean in close proximity, altho I'd miss it since I love to go kayaking. But I need to see those tall rocky things that have snow on them year round or I get a lil wierded out.
Am gonna get away from the coast when I retire from the canoe club, have some places in mind in WA & OR that aren't real crowded & the prices aren't TOO stupid, yet. Then again, Alaska sounds kinda fun too,...

However!
Today after work I got under 'Tater (I've decided that's her name, she's Tow-Maters big sis! ), cinced up the park brake a bit just in case, did some creative bungee cording on the brake lever so it would come up on it's own & got her out on the road. wanted to see if I could get her on base while the traffic was thin and I had daylight.
Didn't wanna run too well at 1st, wasn't sure I was gonna get any further than the field across the road. But I gave her a minute to cool off while I retrieved a couple items & a fire bottle (fire gremlin retardent), manned up, turned her over & gave it a go.
She was a lil rough at half choke, but gradualy blew the crud out of the heads & started to burn good, by the time I got to the base she was running fine. Sounded like a sherman tank, but running well! Have a mini-lightbar on the cab to warn the populace to give her some room and got there with no hassles. Wondered about the hills, and we didn't break 45 MPH, but overall a smooth trip.
So, tomorrow after work, the fun begins!!!

Went in to the hobby shop today & comenced the carnage. As you can see here I got the front end torn apart, which in itself was no small feat. Ol girl has been together for a long time & didn't much care for comin apart!
Most of the items in my pile \'o parts came home with me to be worked on while the shop is closed over the next couple of days. I did continue from this point & have the radiator frame out & removed the generator & fan from the engine.

I have all of the hardware out to remove the fenders & splash guards except for the lower rear bolts. Those suckers are welded in with rust, lookin like I'll have to cut the heads off of them to get those out. Needs to be done tho, have some cancer repairs to do down there!
The real joy will be removing & repairing the drivers door hinges. They are welded on!

The radiator has a small leak at the top, so I'll be looking for a radiator shop that actualy does repairs. Not holdin my breath on that one, but I'm not opposed to shipping it out to be fixed either.
The generator isn't workin either. Puts out enuf juice to shut off the GEN light on the dash, but not enough to actualy charge the battery. Took it to the parts house and they got a whole 1V out of it. Luckily there's a place near here that can rebuild it, so I'll be dropping it off with them tomorrow.

Busy day, got alot done, time for the hot tub!

Spent some time this weekend with the beastie, even brought along a lady freind of ours that likes to wrench on things to help out.

Latest damage:
Removed drive line, clutch & throttle linkages, emergency brake lever, all the engine bay wiring, both front fenders & splash shields, exhaust pipes (& I use the term loosely with those hole riddles buggers!), intake/exh manifold, carb, fuel pump, starter, and the engine mounting bolts.
Only things I need to pull to get the engine & tranny out are the shifter and the PTO shaft. PTO U-joint is on there good tho, allen screw is foze solid, this could prove to be a real task! I'm hoping the deep-creep has some effect on it, will try a couple tricks to get it out but may end up drilling it out. Not my 1st choice, but it works.

Next step is obviously getting the engine out of it's hole & breaking it down to parade rest to prep for rebuild.
Head will need some work on the manifold facing, some pitting & such here & there that keeps it from sealing well. It's nothin compared to the exhaust manifold tho, it looks like hell.
Once thats out of the way, the brake system comes apart. Already have a Hydrovac, but it's going to need a new master & all new lines at a minumum, I'm hopeful that the wheel cylenders are workable and that my brake shoes are in decent shape, time will tell.

So, lesse here, what was I doin,... Oh yeah, update on the beast!

Spent a week out sick knockin on pneumonias door(not the reccomended way to get time off) so lost some time there. Did manage to get my generator to a guy that rebuilds them in his garage (Crazy lookin ol guy, but from what I've been told, is the poo when it comes to these old jenny's). Dropped the radiator off for inspection & was informed the core is done for. Still waiting for a call back to see what it will cost to put in a new core. Would like to keep the stock tanks & frame, but we'll have to see what we find out.

Drilled out the stop screw opn the PTO shaft & got it off OK. So got the cherry picker in there & yanked the engine & tranny out of the truck. Found out that either the head or the whole engine spent time in a junk yard, the yellow paint pen "270 GMC" across the back of the head was a tip. Might explain the missing serial number,...
Stripped the tranny down & removed the bell housing, just need to go by the shop today after work & get it onto a real stand tho, just sittin on jack stands at the moment.

Transmission looks really good considering the oil looked like rotten Hershey's syrup & there's a load of moisture in the box. Cleaned up real good with a pressure washer anyway. Seems real tight overall, debating whether I wanna take it to be gone through, only real leaks were on the PTO shaft & shift seals. Need to locate a shop in the area that has expereince with old top loaders 1st tho, not playin that "I think I can do it" game with the local yokels.

Gonna start strippin down the engine next, then the brakes come apart. Gotta get my arse movin, would like to have her at the 1st show of the season on March 31st.

Photos are coming, just gotta post em!

Best tranny shop in the Seattle-tacoma area is (and always has been) is a place down in Tacoma.... Don Hall tansmissions... 253-848-5041
He's been doing tranny's for almost as long as your truck has been around..lol

I just talked to don and he says he'd be glad to wave his magic wrench over it and make-it-better.

Michael

Thanks Mike, I'll have to look into that. Been too busy of late to make the trip down to Tacoma (granted, at least I'm a lot closer than Spokanistan ), but since droppin the box out of this beast is pretty simple, I may take it to him after the local show. Gotta go give the Napa guy a headache & see if we can locate a couple Spicer oil seals, I should be good after that.

Dropped the head off at the shop to be stripped, cleaned, & magnafluxed. Also geting the broken end studs pulled out and having the manifold surface shaved. Overall the head looked OK, but we noticed that 5 of the springs were installed upside down.

The engine is almost entirely stripped down. just have to pop the mains, pull the crank, & remove the cam & it's done.
After some work with the ridge reamer the pistons dropped out without a hitch. I noticed all the pistons are marked with a 30, so I'm assuming they are 30-thou oversize. #2 has some pretty bad pitting where some water built up on the piston, so I dont think I can get away with a hone & ring job on this deal. Also, I know I shaved off more than 10 with the ridge reamer, so I have to wonder, whats the max I can over bore one of these pigs?
I know they have pretty low compression so they can stand to lose a bit, and this isn't gonna be a screamer motor, but still, like to be safe. Someone was saying they could lose 120, I cant imagine finding pistons & rings to fit that is gonna be easy, or cheap for that matter. Can I overbore it to 1.25" & use 292 pistons? Any help would be a good thing.
Pokin around lookin for parts for the old I6 is an exercise in patience. Have found some good info on casting #'s, but no source of pistons.
I can wait on the tranny, but the engine I definately need to get back together soon. I can already tell this is gonna be fun! :p

Went by the machine shop today to drop off the block and see how the head was coming along.
It's good, no cracks, but it needs 3 exhaust seats at minimum so the machinist is gonna install a full set of hard exhuast seats. Dunno about the valve guides, but the valves look workable.

Finished up the master cylender & hydrovac installation today, bled the lines out & am ready to do a full system bleed. Wont know how well the system works until I get the engine back in, but everything seems to be workin well as is. May have to wait a bit to complete the wheel cylenders since I seem to be running out of money for odds & ends. I'll get the drums off and have a look to make sure I dont have anything on the edge of failure, but we'll see what happens.

Before I go & get the wrong stuff,...

I'm getting some things ready to paint under the hood and am wondering about the correct color. Is the General Motors medium grey/blue the right color for old GMC engines?

Thanks!

Good grief, if it's not one thing, it's your Mother,... :p

Just got back from the machine shop. Damage is as follows:
Head needs a full set of valves and guides, otherwise same deal. I'm getting some valves off E-pay if they are still there.
Block is solid, no cracks, cleaned up real purty & all, but the pitting in the #2 & #4 is bad. Since it allready had +.030 pistons, pretty sure it's worn out to at least +.040. Machinist isn't sure he can get the pitting smoothed under +.080 tho, and thats the max overbore his supplier makes.
Soooo, I have to see if anyone has a set of +.080 or .100 pistons I can get with matching pin (1.053") & pin height dimensions. Still waiting to hear back from tech weenies at two piston places on anything that will fit what I need with the same bore as the 292.
-or-
Have the two bad jugs sleeved & get the +.060's for $400 a set, WHEN they make another run in a few weeks.

Anyone have a good 6-banger in WA? May be a little while before I get the 270 back & built up,...
Joy!

Hey, educate me some . . .

What causes the pitting? Where does it show? And why is it a big problem?

I'm guessing the roughness in the cylinder walls
A) lowers compression from a poorer ring/wall seal;
B) wears out rings faster
C) maybe causes overall increase in wear (pins, rods, crank) from greater friction?

Seems like the sleeving would be the simple solution, but sounds like time is an equal factor to money for you right now.

I'm about to pull my 216, and have only pulled heads on engines a few times, not well versed in what to look for. I'm hoping to steal from your experience! ;-)

-Michael

Pitting in the cyclenders is damage from corrosion, usualy from moisture accumilation on an engine that hasn't run in ages. Sometimes it's a little surface rust and can be cleaned up with a ball hone, other times requires boring the jug. Unfortunately, unless you have a mini-borescop & can look into each jug through the sparkplug hole, you have to remove the top end to inspect for it.
In the case of my engine, when you match the damage in the jugs to the damage in the valve seats you can see what valves were open allowing moisture to collect in the engine (& also the reason I remove the rocker arm assembly on any engine I store, keeps the holes closed!). Typical issue in wet climates on vehicles that get parked for months/years at a time.
And the issues it causes are exactly what you stated, Depending on how extensive it is it will cause heavy blow-by and compression loss, fuel in the oil, ring wear &/or breakage. However, oddly enough the one jug I have with the worst blow by issues was the one that had the least wear on the rod bearings & pin. Simple cause is it't hitting hard when, or if, it fires.

Hey! She's no beast. She's a beauty and I think I'm in love with her... it's an...unnatural attraction to dump trucks. I just can't help it!

Just read your post and all the responses. I know what you mean about hobbies. Mine are expanding by miosis (or is it mitosis?) First I buy a house and do all sorts of things to it, then buy a truck to haul the stuff for the house (now on my third pickup), then build a greenhouse to grow orchids, then buy another project house for which I decide I need a dump truck, then I start to restore the dump truck while using it to work on the project house. There doesn't seem to be an end to this madness! No self help groups either.

Is this similar to the hydrovac you found?http://picasaweb.google.com/orchidskip/HYDROVAC?authkey=57r0_h37YH0

I really wish you were my neighbor. You got skills...

According to the info I have a 270 Jimmy has a bore of 3.781 while a Chevy 292 has a bore of 3.875. With an overbore of .090 on yours to clean it up your now at 3.871 so you'd need 292 jugs +.030 for a 3.935 bore. So my question is can you bore a 270 by .154? Man, that seems like a lot to me. Most 292 will accept a .125 bore but even that gets the wall pretty thin. Seems scary to me but I'm sure you have figured all this out. Wouldn't you be better off to find some overbore 270 pistons? I don't know what 270 pistons look like but stock 292's have a large dish depression in them to lower compression so that might be a problem too. Call me a worrywart I guess. Am I missing something here?

orchardskip> This site IS a support group!
& yeah, thats the same type of HydroVac, I lucked into it, esp. at the price I got it for seeing as brand new units (they still use them in forklifts) go for over $400.

53> Yeah, I've been loking at all the options. initialy I had some bad numbers & had some confusion about the size difference between the 270 & 302. The 292 pistons are closer, and there were about 10 different configurations on one site I went to, so the dish wasn't an issue. The issue I have is the pin height since the 270 is a 4" stroke, & the 292 is a 4.25" Stroke. Nevermind the fact that I have 302 rods so the pin bore is WAY wrong,...
I have found one place that offers +.080 pistons, I'm hoping that the current overbore & wear is about .040, the pitting looks to be about .020 deep for another .040 total when bored, but I need to check all of my options options just to be safe in case my machinist really has to hog it out.

& wouldn'y you know it, there's a complete & allegedly running 302 on Seattle Craigs List right now for $575.
Freshly painted Chevy Orange, but it's all there. Tempting prospect, very tempting.

Gettin ready to head down to the shop & get the tranny cleaned up for a fresh coat of paint, then clean out the firewall & frame rails so it's all clean & ready for assembly.

Need to go by the radiator shop tomorrow & rattle his cage, never got back to me with recoring estimate, this late in the game I'll have to use the leaky one for a bit so I can get it into my storage unit. haven't heard from the guy about my generator yet either, but I can live w/o that for a while yet, didn't work anyway!

Been taking care of cleaning up all of the attached parts & items & getting them painted so I can paint the head & block & slap it together when it comes home.

Your not the only one who gets told things will happen faster than they do. however I know the guys who are working on my stuff are really good. One of the reasons they are taking so long they are busier than he!!. I have kind of diverted my attention form the 56 on too my new 64 this is keeping me from chomping at the bit.
But I still want to get that Big Block into the 56 thats the really fun toy.

Sure missed the old girl at the car show last Saturday,... Woulda looked pretty cool next to the '92 Peterbuilt some guy uses to haul his 5th wheel with.

Got the Bomber back in the box for a while. Needs engine work anyway, been puttin it off to finish the body work & it may be worse off than I thought/ Good thing about VW's tho, you can still drive them even if they're only hittin on one cyclender!

So yeah, time to get back to work on the truck. Still waiting for my numerous parts to get done, still dont know the status on my block since the machinist took a last minute vacation. In the mean time I have metal work to get finished up. Gonna hand form a lot of the patch panels for the rust in the fenders. Still have some cleaning to do in the engine bay as well, then paint & wiring. Bumper needs to be banged out & cracks welded too, so no shortage of work to be done.
Gettin a new house mate settled is as well, it's been some crazy busy days around here! But, the great wrencher in the sky willing, I'm hoping to have ol 'Tater runnin under her own power in a few weeks. Time will tell.

Got the radiator back yesterday! It looks great with the new core too! The guy installed a new core with the slotted fins that make the airflow more turbulent, maximising heat transfer too. So with the same size core I get much better cooling.
Had them take the drain tube off the top & add a new neck for a pressure cap & recovery bottle. Just need to think of something that will look right to catch the fluid. Then again, I might just clamp an old beer bottle to the side with the tube stuck in it. :p

One part out of four down,... These next ones are gonna huuuuurt!