Not a truck or SUV....but I bought a older Camaro to fix up!

[NYH1]

Well my block was no good.   It was cracked in two places.   My machinist had a .030" over same casting number block as mine.   He said it will clean up very nice if bored .040" over.   The block was cleaned and magnafluxed.   He sold me the block for $40.   

He's boring it and torque plate honing the cylinders to 4.040", decking the cylinder decks, align honing the mains, installing ARP main bolts, cam bearings and freeze plugs.   The machine work and parts cost $570.   So for $610 I'll have a block I can start putting parts onto/into the day I bring it home.   

This guy does very good work.   If I need anymore work done he'll do it for me.   He'll charge me accordingly, but I'm definitely getting my moneys worth.

So my son, he's 8 and I and even my dad, he's in on this too, are all getting excited.   It'll be my sons first small black, he helped take it apart.   My father and I have done a few, years ago.   Doing it with my son is great.   Just like hunting this year.   Now that deer season is over, we're going to start coyote hunting.   The kid loves it!         

[Lloyd Smale]

sounds like a great family project. keep us informed as to how it goes.

[NYH1]

It's been a long time since I've posted anything about my car.  I put my 385 stroker motor in it.  I had the rear end completely rebuilt, all new bearings, seals, new 3.42 gears and a Yukon Duragrip posi unit.  I bought a used but supposedly rebuilt transmission with less then a 1000 miles on it.  I started having trouble with it already so I'm having a serious TH350 built.  It should be done pretty soon.  The guy that's rebuilding it is one of the best automatic transmission rebuilders in this area.

The motor makes a ton of low end and mid range torque and pulls really good up to 5600 RPM's.  I haven't tried turned it higher then that.  Probably won't pull much higher then that anyway's because of the cam and heads.  They're both geared towards low and mid range power, especially with the added displacement of the 385.  Even with the factory 2.41 gears it pulled really hard, I was surprised.  The 3.42 gears makes it pull a little harder.  The posi made a huge difference in traction, although it still melts the tires upon the cracking of the throttle.  At least it moves forward and starts to take off instead of just sitting there spinning one tire.  It'll even light the tires up while driving 25 to 30 MPH. 

The Edelbrock 650 AVS carburetor is awesome.  I've made a few minor adjustments to it and it's a piece of cake to work on.  I'm really happy with it.  The motor pulls 20 inches of vacuum at cruising speeds.  It's a torque monster that's for sure.

When I pulled the rear end out of the car to have it rebuilt, I noticed that the main leaf spring (longest one) on the passenger side of the car was cracked all the way across in between the rear end mounting pad and spring perch.  So I put a new set of leaf springs in the car.  I'm going to start doing some of the rough body work pretty soon.  Just to keep it from getting worse.

We're getting there slowly but surely! 

[Lloyd Smale]

Might need some frame stiffener put in. thats alot of torque for a non framed car. I had a grand national that had a full frame but had ttops and it started twisting a bit on me after i did some modifications. Thats why most guys building them wouldnt fool with the ttop cars. Could be why your spring cracked. Sounds like a real fun ride though.

[NYH1]

Yeah, I need to put sub frame connecters in it.  The spring was cracked when I bought the car though.  Every time I turned left the car felt like it had a flat tire on the rear passenger side.  The rear of the car seemed as if it wanted to come around.  I checked the air pressure and tires dozens of times.  I couldn't find anything wrong.  Once I took the right side mount and perch apart I knew what my problem was.

It's a ton of fun to drive, that's for sure.  I have a lot more work to do on it.  It needs body, interior work and I want to replace most of the suspension so it rides and handles better. 

The work is slowing down for this year though.  We have a bunch of other stuff that needs to be taken care of.  I don't have any place to work on it over the winter.  I do most of my work once the snow melts in the spring and throughout the summer and fall.  I'm just not going to be able to do much this fall.  Would have liked to taken it to the track to see what it would run, have a few things to do before I can do that though.  Next year I guess.