97zSC
Newbie
This is a pretty long winded post however I just want to cover all my bases, if you don't feel like reading just skip to the bottom. But let me go ahead and preface this by saying I'm 19 years old and have no mechanic background aside from a water pump and front caliper replacement on a 96 Ford I had when I turned 16 so I'm doing this just to have fun and learn. There's no better way to learn than by doing it myself and if I **** up, I **** up, so please don't reply if you're just going to tell me to put it in a shop. I consider myself fairly competent as far as my mechanical ability goes but my knowledge and experience are where I'm lacking, along with the fact that I tend to doubt myself and do way too much prep work before doing something like this
Just a little bit of background on the truck:
-Bought my 97 k1500 with the 350 vortec last year for $1200, 210,000 miles 4wd on the floor
-A month later transmission went out, 3rd gear was smoked everything else was mint
-Bought a 3rd gear clutch rebuild kit and got the friction plates separate
-Up until this point I had been losing water but I never really realized what it was due to being 18 and ignorant, truck finally overheated and died on the side of the road
-Did upper/lower intake gasket replacement, drained water out of cylinders however it was still leaking into the cylinders after this
-Also has new distributor
For all of the above I had help from a family friend, he didn't always know exactly what he was talking about however he knew more than me at the time and definitely had more experience.
So fast forward to now after I have done a **** done of research, bought David Vizard's How to Rebuild Your Small-Block Chevy, and the motor is sitting in the truck, just as a block, torn down to the lifter valley, and no front brackets. Everything is sitting in rubbermaid containers. I've watched as many tear down videos and write-ups as I can, learned more about the functions of the pieces of the motor, as well as reading Vizard book as far as the tear down and rebuild go.
My plan is to get a 12x12 or 10x10 canopy and enclosure kit(around $150-$175) just to keep everything as dust-free and moisture-free as possible then pulling the motor, doing the full teardown, sending the block and heads to be cleaned, resurfaced, new freeze plugs installed and valve job for about $400. I've read that at this point it'd be worth it to go ahead and have the block bored and clearanced for a 383. I already know I'll need a new PS pump due to the fluid kept burning up and I had to tap the gas when turning at low speeds, there was also one night where I entirely lost PS but it was back the next day. While the truck is under the knife I want to go ahead and do all the regular maintenance that would be required for this truck at 210k miles because I have no clue how its been treated but I want to err on the side of caution. I understand there are some things that you can't really know to change until they start to go but just common things that you guys have noticed over time on your vehicles or things on this forum. Sorry for such a long post but I just want to make sure I didn't leave anything things out, thanks guys.
Just a little bit of background on the truck:
-Bought my 97 k1500 with the 350 vortec last year for $1200, 210,000 miles 4wd on the floor
-A month later transmission went out, 3rd gear was smoked everything else was mint
-Bought a 3rd gear clutch rebuild kit and got the friction plates separate
-Up until this point I had been losing water but I never really realized what it was due to being 18 and ignorant, truck finally overheated and died on the side of the road
-Did upper/lower intake gasket replacement, drained water out of cylinders however it was still leaking into the cylinders after this
-Also has new distributor
For all of the above I had help from a family friend, he didn't always know exactly what he was talking about however he knew more than me at the time and definitely had more experience.
So fast forward to now after I have done a **** done of research, bought David Vizard's How to Rebuild Your Small-Block Chevy, and the motor is sitting in the truck, just as a block, torn down to the lifter valley, and no front brackets. Everything is sitting in rubbermaid containers. I've watched as many tear down videos and write-ups as I can, learned more about the functions of the pieces of the motor, as well as reading Vizard book as far as the tear down and rebuild go.
My plan is to get a 12x12 or 10x10 canopy and enclosure kit(around $150-$175) just to keep everything as dust-free and moisture-free as possible then pulling the motor, doing the full teardown, sending the block and heads to be cleaned, resurfaced, new freeze plugs installed and valve job for about $400. I've read that at this point it'd be worth it to go ahead and have the block bored and clearanced for a 383. I already know I'll need a new PS pump due to the fluid kept burning up and I had to tap the gas when turning at low speeds, there was also one night where I entirely lost PS but it was back the next day. While the truck is under the knife I want to go ahead and do all the regular maintenance that would be required for this truck at 210k miles because I have no clue how its been treated but I want to err on the side of caution. I understand there are some things that you can't really know to change until they start to go but just common things that you guys have noticed over time on your vehicles or things on this forum. Sorry for such a long post but I just want to make sure I didn't leave anything things out, thanks guys.