98 start up- first post!

[jayvick187]

Hello all,
First post here. my name is Jason and I live south of the Detroit area. I have a 1998 Chevy Silverado, ext cab 305 vortec, it was my daily and now its moved to more of a project idea. 302k miles and babied its whole life. 2wd. its pretty much been my only driver since I got my license, i love it more then anything lol. Anyway, I want to do an engine swap with possibly a 383 or a 454 (same mounts I think?)

I don't have millions, but can drop a little to stay in budget, I don't have Facebook, where I can get leads and all my dads car guys have retired since. I'm looking for someone reliable whom I can trust to do engine work, then do some body work, cuz after all I live in the rust belt and rust does happen. I don't want a full out drag truck or lowered and jacked up or anything like that, just a street sleeper. I'm mechanically inclined, but with work and family its tough to live in the garage at times.

Thoughts?

 

[Erik the Awful]

I don't have any Detroit contacts for engine building, but for the 350 vs 454 question, are you going "nobody open my hood" sleeper, or "everything looks stock" sleeper?

It doesn't take much to build a hot 383 that looks like a 305 when the hood's open and sounds like every other 305 out there that's been straight-piped with Flowmasters.

The other end of the spectrum is something like Farmtruck that only looks like an old truck until you pop the hood and see miles of braided hose.

I'm trying to keep my truck looking stock under the hood. It's more of a tow pig than a racer, but I'm hoping that when I get it tuned that it'll be near 400 lb/ft of torque. It's a 350 with Vortec heads, cam, intake, Holley Sniper, and headers.

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