My 86' C10 Big Block swap Thread

[school boy]

This is my first build thread on this forum and will be a slow one. The truck is a unmolested 86 swb c10 with a tbi 350 and 700r4 combo. This truck is untouched except for fresh paint and being lowered. My goal is to swap in a mild 454 and 4l80e in and use the truck as a crusier and haul my car to the track.
The donor truck is a 95 3/4 ton 4x4 chevy. This truck has beed family owned since the late 90's and been worked on the farm. With only about 115,000 miles, i just plan on freshing it up and throwing in a factory gen vi roller cam, headers, duel plane intake and a demon 625 street demon carb. We just got the truck here 2 days ago and we're going to start tear down this weekend. Btw, this is a running/driving truck i paid 800 for. Not bad eh!
Heres a few pics!

and the donor truck

[chevybuilder18]

love the square, really nice wheels on it. what kind of wheels are those?

[school boy]

thanks, they are weld's but not sure on the style.

[pontgta]

Originally Posted by chevybuilder18

love the square, really nice wheels on it. what kind of wheels are those?

I had some eagle alloys like that on a firebird.... I do not think they make those anymore


looks nice and cannot beat 800

[school boy]

Originally Posted by pontgta

I had some eagle alloys like that on a firebird.... I do not think they make those anymore


looks nice and cannot beat 800

i bought the donor truck for 800 lol! i wish i bought the 86 for 800!

[pontgta]

Oh.....stilll a runing truck for $800 is not bad....

[school boy]

oh for sure! the truck was still being worked on the farm and driven daily! i plan on parting the rest out and making back all plus more of the 800 back. with a tbi for a big block and full floating 14 bolt rear, that there will bring in a few bucks

[SSC's76]

looks like you have a fun project ahead of you.


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[school boy]

started on tear down, heres some pics



.
Nice big 14 bolt!

[school boy]

got a little more done yesterday. going to try to sell the radiator support system to recoup some funds.

[school boy]

btw, can you find the something off about the engine?

[chebyshortbox65]

Where's the power steering pump pulley
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[school boy]

Originally Posted by chebyshortbox65

Where's the power steering pump pulley
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exactly! i knew the pump went bad not too long ago but didnt realize he just bypassed it!

[chevybuilder18]

dang. wish i had those rims on the square. its looking like your getting her out. ive got my eyes set on the third gen small block 5300 vortec swap, engines got original set of heads an they are aluminum! hope yours turns out unique. are you keeping the TBI or upgrading?

[school boy]

i pulling the tbi set up but selling it. took us 3 hrs to pull the harness but we didnt want to cut anything. hoping to make a few pennies considering i have the complete efi harness, tbi/manifold, distributor, ecm and all sensors; plus the computer can run a 4l60e or a 4l800e trans is they wanted

[bnoon]

Originally Posted by chevybuilder18

ive got my eyes set on the third gen small block 5300 vortec swap, engines got original set of heads an they are aluminum!

Just FYI, all of the 4.8/5.3 truck engines used aluminum heads. Only LS based engines that had iron heads were the early LQ4 6.0 truck engines. Later 6.0 went to aluminum as well.

school boy, nice work! Been contemplating a big block swap myself, but I don't think I could do it without adding a Scat stroker crank!

[school boy]

Originally Posted by bnoon

Just FYI, all of the 4.8/5.3 truck engines used aluminum heads. Only LS based engines that had iron heads were the early LQ4 6.0 truck engines. Later 6.0 went to aluminum as well.

school boy, nice work! Been contemplating a big block swap myself, but I don't think I could do it without adding a Scat stroker crank!

i though long and hard on a 4.250 stroker, but with the peanut port heads it would probly hurt more than it would help because how little the heads flow. plus with a 4000 lb truck, that 454 will be a tire burner anyways!

[school boy]

Made some progress yesterday. the cab was removed and engine, trans, and transfer case was pulled. the only hiccup was a broken exhaust manifold bolt. since the heads are getting port matching along with a valve job and clean up work, theyre going to be off so getting the bolt out shouldnt be much of a pain.

see the bolt in the right upper corner....

[chevybuilder18]

Originally Posted by bnoon

Just FYI, all of the 4.8/5.3 truck engines used aluminum heads. Only LS based engines that had iron heads were the early LQ4 6.0 truck engines. Later 6.0 went to aluminum as well.

school boy, nice work! Been contemplating a big block swap myself, but I don't think I could do it without adding a Scat stroker crank!

i believe truck engines were all Iron, except for a few, the Difference i believe between vortec and LS was the Iron based engine and aluminum. i believe 4.8/5.3 vortecs did come with cast iron heads. if im not correct please blame wikipedia or please do correct it. Thats where i got my info.

Originally Posted by school boy

Made some progress yesterday. the cab was removed and engine, trans, and transfer case was pulled. the only hiccup was a broken exhaust manifold bolt. since the heads are getting port matching along with a valve job and clean up work, theyre going to be off so getting the bolt out shouldnt be much of a pain.

see the bolt in the right upper corner....

it should be an intresting swap. is that transmission an over drive? electronic? how do you go about transitioning it to a kick down from electronics?

[school boy]

Its the 4l80e overdrive trans. I can get a stand alone computer to run it. As soon as i get everything straightened out. The engine is getting a rebuild i believe and the trans will be converted to 2wd
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[school boy]

Got a little done, not much but moving foward. the 454 found a cozzy spot for time being and the trans/transfer case is ready to be cleaned and put up. Also got picked up a used Edlebrock 2.0 performer intake, and heres the demon 625 going on it (its on a sbc intake in the picture when it was going to be used on the 72 i sold)

[chevybuilder18]

nice. cant wait to see you get it in the truck. is the drive shafts the same fit for each truck??

[dieseldawg142]

no replacement for cubic displacement! have a gen IV 454, love it! hate the fuel economy!

[school boy]

Originally Posted by chevybuilder18

nice. cant wait to see you get it in the truck. is the drive shafts the same fit for each truck??

ill have to get a turbo 400 yoke for my driveshaft but the 4l80e should work with my driveshaft. its less than a 1/2 inch difference in length

Originally Posted by dieseldawg142

no replacement for cubic displacement! have a gen IV 454, love it! hate the fuel economy!

im hoping the demon 625 carb will help with those tiny primaries! 15-16 mpg would thrill me!

[school boy]

ok, update. No progress on installs or removal. like i said before, it will be a slow build. But after selling the rest of the stuff im not using, i recovered $950 of my $800 spent on the donor truck! yes, i got paid to take a running 454 and 4l80e trans....
As of right now, im swapping out the bench seat for a set of mid 90's trans am seats and a 2012 truck flip seat center console. didnt grab a pic of the seats but theyre nothing special, just grey cloth seats. probly will get replaced as soon as a nice set of black leather ones surface.
Another score is a set of 84-92 camaro cluster with the 7000 rpm tach. for the ones that havent seen, someone on the forum replaced the fuel gauge for the camaro tach.
Anyway, here's pics