292 I6 to 350 V8 swap update

[Bushman66]

Update on the swap, thanks to all those who answered the numerous questions I have had so far. As a quick recap, I was swapping in a 350 crate motor in place of the 292 I6. I reused the factory 4 Speed, complete down to the bellhousing.

The Good: Swap went exceedingly smoothly.

I found an OEM passenger perch to replace the 292 engine perch. The clutch linkage bolted up perfectly, with the pivot ball located in the forward hole. New clutch and throwout bearing kit, with the factory fork and bellhousing reused.

Throttle linkage was a piece of cake, reused the factory linkage, along with an Edelbrock kit to lengthen the rod to the Edelbrock carb on Edelbrock manifold. Coil bracket was off a 71 C10 and bolted on the intake perfectly next to the distributor. OEM GM Alternator bracket bolted to the driver's side head and was off a 72 Blazer. Engine pulleys were also off the 71 C10 and required a shim from Summit Racing to line up the pulleys.

Factory 3 row radiator was used, no flex hoses, found molded hoses that fit. Clutch 5 blade fan was used off a 1980 K-10. Awaiting a shroud from a buddy to see what spacer (if any) I need to run, as the fan sits 5 3/4" away from radiator.

Engine fired up and ran perfectly for the 25 minute @2000RPM cam break in cycle. Great oil pressure.

The Bad: Has a terrible growling noise that sounded like a bad water pump or alternator, but both are new. Finally had a friend come over to help diagnose it, and suggested folding up a thick blanket and covering up the distributor. The noise was completely muffled/eliminated, so the distributor is bad. It was a questionable donor, but seemed to turn freely with no excessive play. A new (rebuilt Cardon) is on the way from Summit racing.

Tried timing the engine, but the balancer timing mark was nowhere near the tab and it was jumping all over the place. Made a rookie mistake and forgot to disconnect the vacuum advance line before...DOH!!! It's probably been 20 years since I had to mess with a points / vacuum advance distributor.

Finally...the ignition (at the key) is dead, no response at all when you turn the key. It was working fine with the 292, so there has to be an internal break in the harness, probably from moving a 53 year old harness around in the engine bay during the swap. It's 100% correctly hooked up, confirmed. Right now I'm starting it with a hotwire from the solenoid to touch the positive terminal on the battery. I guess it just adds to the farm truck charm. I probably won't attempt to fix the existing harness, as next step is to rewire the entire truck. Too many gremlins to make it worthwhile to mess with the factory wiring.

[Captainfab]

Are you staying with a points distributor? It is very easy to upgrade to a HEI and you will gain about 1 mpg. You need to have the correct timing pointer for the particular balancer and water pump you are using. Are you using the correct short water pump or do you have the later model long water pump?

[Bushman66]

Originally Posted by Captainfab

Are you staying with a points distributor? It is very easy to upgrade to a HEI and you will gain about 1 mpg. You need to have the correct timing pointer for the particular balancer and water pump you are using. Are you using the correct short water pump or do you have the later model long water pump?

I am staying with points for now. HEI is on the roadmap down the road, when I rewire the full truck with American Autowire Harness kit. Another option I had very good luck with in my old 72 Bronco was a Pertronix ignitor as the trigger mechanism, but an MSD box to provide a MUCH hotter spark. Ran for 10 years and never touched that system once. Might duplicate in this truck.

I have the correct short water pump, and the 6.75" AC Delco balancer with the factory timing tab. I believe the timing mark will be ok, when we installed the distributor at TDC, the mark was right on. The timing mark issue was likely due to my dumb brain fart.

[Rac65]

My 65 originally had the 292 in it, sometimes I wish I still had it.