Adding 2 more cylinders

[Chevy nutcase]

I hate how my brain works sometimes. When I bought my 66 c10 and saw how well the 250 ran I had I long discussion with my brain that we will never have to swap out the motor. It's not fast but an inline 6 has a charm to it especially when most have been pulled in favor of their bigger cousins. But here I am anyway thinking how far a v8 is going to bury me financially. Back when I was a teen and didn't have two nickels to rub together I always did cheap rebuilds getting a $100 kit from summit and never having professional machine work done and hope for the best. They always worked but I cant do that anymore so do I find a crapshoot motor on marketplace, have it professionally machined, spend a thousand years gathering parts or do I get a crate engine? I have no idea what the going rate is for a block to be pro inspected and bored if necessary so I'm sitting firmly on the fence right now

[Arne]

Prior owner of my truck swapped a used early '80s 305 small block into it, because running examples were cheap and easy to come by. If you don't need a hot motor, that may be an option without breaking the bank.

[Bears63]

A basic crate engine is cheap (comparatively speaking) as opposed to buying a used engine and having it professionally rebuilt. I rarely mess with rebuilding engines anymore. If it's not something special I'll just get a crate engine.

[Chevy nutcase]

Originally Posted by Bears63

A basic crate engine is cheap (comparatively speaking) as opposed to buying a used engine and having it professionally rebuilt. I rarely mess with rebuilding engines anymore. If it's not something special I'll just get a crate engine.

Before digging into options I would have agreed a crate engine would be considerably cheaper but I'm not so sure now. Summit sells a couple different brands like ATK, Blueprint and Edelbrock. ATK sells the last expensive option with remanufactured blocks and a basic long block with no intake or accessories ranges from $2500 - $3000 which I wouldn't be against but all of them are listed as unknown restocking date. Moving to next in line is Blueprint which for a mild drop in and go complete engine goes for $4500 - $5000. Salty but that includes carb, distributor, intake. I'd need a water pump and fuel pump to complete it and the blocks are new and not remanufactured. A plus in my book. Then theres the edelbrock engines which start at $5500 and go way up from there.......... I'm going to have to call a few local machine shops or pay them a visit to get a rough guesstimate on their prices because I could get a number of rebuild candidates for $200-$300

[Moarplease]

Originally Posted by Chevy nutcase

Before digging into options I would have agreed a crate engine would be considerably cheaper but I'm not so sure now. Summit sells a couple different brands like ATK, Blueprint and Edelbrock. ATK sells the last expensive option with remanufactured blocks and a basic long block with no intake or accessories ranges from $2500 - $3000 which I wouldn't be against but all of them are listed as unknown restocking date. Moving to next in line is Blueprint which for a mild drop in and go complete engine goes for $4500 - $5000. Salty but that includes carb, distributor, intake. I'd need a water pump and fuel pump to complete it and the blocks are new and not remanufactured. A plus in my book. Then theres the edelbrock engines which start at $5500 and go way up from there.......... I'm going to have to call a few local machine shops or pay them a visit to get a rough guesstimate on their prices because I could get a number of rebuild candidates for $200-$300

Ask them availability of things you will need. Local machinist engine builder is selling of his equipement because he just couldn't get what he liked to use anymore. Blocks themselves were the first issue and I know lifters followed.

Adam

[Socal_Dad]

If you can drop by some shops that swap LS engines, they may have some good leads for you on perfectly good and complete engines that were pulled for a swap. Should be much less expensive and you could end up with a matching trans too.

[SkinnyG]

Buy a newer Silverado with an LS, and swap everything over (engine, trans, wiring, ecu, etc), then part out what's left of the donor.

Getting an engine built is -always- more expensive, and there is always the stuff you didn't get with the motor that you need. And if you end up converting it to EFI, just buying a complete truck as a donor (that you can part out) is very wise.

[Chevy nutcase]

Originally Posted by SkinnyG

Buy a newer Silverado with an LS, and swap everything over (engine, trans, wiring, ecu, etc), then part out what's left of the donor.

Getting an engine built is -always- more expensive, and there is always the stuff you didn't get with the motor that you need. And if you end up converting it to EFI, just buying a complete truck as a donor (that you can part out) is very wise.

I'm keeping my truck old school so an LS was never in the cards for me. I get why people do it with reliability, power and of the shelf parts and I'm not knocking them but I like things simple.

I just had my truck out today on a good 20 mile run to stretch her legs for the first time since upgrading the points and lowering it and while it runs good I find myself wanting a bit more. the 250 runs great so far as I know, it was 30 deg this morning and I can lean in the window, give it a little choke and it starts right up first try. Out on the road is a different story as I can keep up with traffic in town fairly well but its still lacking a bit. I have to wind 3rd out past 3000 rpm before I can even think about 4th and when I do the least bit of a grade in the road has it whimpering. I can just feather the gas because anymore will have it spitting a bit. I don't know if its a timing issue, a carb needing a rebuild or if the 250 is just tired.

[Short 3/4]

Originally Posted by Chevy nutcase

I'm keeping my truck old school so an LS was never in the cards for me. I get why people do it with reliability, power and of the shelf parts and I'm not knocking them but I like things simple.

I just had my truck out today on a good 20 mile run to stretch her legs for the first time since upgrading the points and lowering it and while it runs good I find myself wanting a bit more. the 250 runs great so far as I know, it was 30 deg this morning and I can lean in the window, give it a little choke and it starts right up first try. Out on the road is a different story as I can keep up with traffic in town fairly well but its still lacking a bit. I have to wind 3rd out past 3000 rpm before I can even think about 4th and when I do the least bit of a grade in the road has it whimpering. I can just feather the gas because anymore will have it spitting a bit. I don't know if its a timing issue, a carb needing a rebuild or if the 250 is just tired.

The spitting sounds like it could be a timing/distributor issue. Remember the gas they had in ‘65 does not exist anymore, so factory timing and advance curves are obsolete.
I found a good carb rebuild that included rebushed throttle shaft and switching to a recurved HEI distributor made a world of difference on my six. Might be cheaper than an engine swap if it works. Of course best to do a compression/ leak down test first before you try to polish a turd😊.

Then there is the whole gearing issue, which can drastically affect performance, but that’s a whole other discussion.

Good luck
Tom

[Chevy nutcase]

Originally Posted by Short 3/4

The spitting sounds like it could be a timing/distributor issue. Remember the gas they had in ‘65 does not exist anymore, so factory timing and advance curves are obsolete.
I found a good carb rebuild that included rebushed throttle shaft and switching to a recurved HEI distributor made a world of difference on my six. Might be cheaper than an engine swap if it works. Of course best to do a compression/ leak down test first before you try to polish a turd😊.

Then there is the whole gearing issue, which can drastically affect performance, but that’s a whole other discussion.

Good luck
Tom

Well it indeed was a distributor issue. Turns out these trucks do enjoy having the vacuum advance hooked to actual vacuum. It wasnt an oversight on my part but it was definitely a "are you kidding me" moment. After I installed the summit HEI I had to out on a few short trips and it worked beautifully but yesterday was abysmal as I could barely accelerate in 3rd or 4th. Today I thought I'll advance the timing a bit and take it around the block. Took the lil vac elbow off the advance and bumped the timing from what looks to be an A high on the timing indicator to just above it a degree or 2 so the crank mark is just touching the edge of the indicator. Idle came up a wee bit, tightened the distributor back down and went to put the vacuum elbow back on. It was split and a chunk was hanging on by a thread. well I had a spare and took it back out on the same run as yesterday and it goes without saying that it ran much better. I'm going to murder that elbow

[bigmoe]

Originally Posted by SkinnyG

Buy a newer Silverado with an LS, and swap everything over (engine, trans, wiring, ecu, etc), then part out what's left of the donor.

Getting an engine built is -always- more expensive, and there is always the stuff you didn't get with the motor that you need. And if you end up converting it to EFI, just buying a complete truck as a donor (that you can part out) is very wise.

Whole vehicle is a good idea. What I do is watch the insurance auctions for good donors.