Hey Everyone,

Getting much closer to having my 350 TPI into my 1965 C10. Last weekend I spent a day cleaning the motor, tearing it down, cleaning more and more. I got a bit of water down the intake while cleaning (runners and plenum are off right now) so I ended up rolling the motor over on the stand to see what comes out, sprayed a ton of WD-40 down the intake and into the exhaust ports and filled the motor with oil, and then wired up a starter and battery so I could turn the motor over fast. Repeated this process several times, got all the water out, all good there

Now, this is the first time I have ever seen the motor turn over, I bought it as it was sitting on an engine stand(I purchased it 7 years ago). The motor turned over good, no strange noises or anything like that. The starter spun it fast enough to get the oil pump going and since I had the valve covers off I was able to confirm it was pumping oil good!


So, all of that said. I have valve covers off, the whole TPI assembly off, what else should I do before I put the motor back together and back in the truck? I have painted the plenum and taken the dents out of the runners. I am painting the block this weekend, what else should I do? Should I pull and re-gasket the intake manifold? Are there any injector o-rings I should be replacing? Anything else?

Thanks in advance!

 

When you're done putting the intake on (if you ever even take it off), be sure the bolts that go into water jackets have a good seal on the threads and such. They're a pain to seal up once it's all together and in the car, and they can spray coolant if they don't have a good seal.

 

I had heard that before. I am still debating the intake manifold. I am inclined to not touch it, as I have *never* been able to get an intake manifold to seal back up right(have tried many many times on carburetor SBC's, they all end up leaking after a bit). Are these newer manifolds easier to seal up? Or just as big a pain as the older ones?

 

Alright, here is a quick update.

I decided to move the intake manifold over from the 305 to the 350. In the process I went ahead and painted everything, which was good because it now looks sweet

I also made a mess of my clean garage!





In the process I discovered something disturbing about my "Like New" used 350 TPI.

When I pulled the intake manifold I found this(for those that cant see it, look at the middle set of pushrods) :


So now I am going to pull my oil pan and take a look around, see what else might be hiding(hopefully nothing)

In the meantime this was my other task, figuring out my wiring harness and stripping out all the unnecessary stuff, that was a heck of a task.





So, anything I should be doing under the oil pan while I have it off?

 

that is the torx bolt from one of the runners. check to see if there is any more... tiny bolt big trouble if you don't find it.

 

Update from the week:

Decided to pull the oil pan to go ahead and make sure this motor had zero issues that I was missing. Rolled the motor over, made a mess(Oil!), checked it out, and determined that this motor is in great shape, looks like a very low miles motor



Then I decided it was time to put the thing back together, went and bought a large pile of gaskets and started cleaning the gasket surfaces and re-assembling. Also mail-ordered the EGR block-off plate, don't need emissions controls in this hot rod, so get rid of them.

After 2 days of work(I know, Im slow) this is how I left the motor:





So, Next weekend I need to replace the timing chain cover with my new chrome one, then bolt on the parts I am keeping on the front, measure the belt length to verify the correct belt, then go purchase the belt at the parts store. I also need to put the harness on the motor to be bale to loom up the harness and make it look pretty



I wish I knew where a motor test stand was in nor cal, I would love to verify this motor will work before I actually tear apart the running/driving hot rod.


Overall I am finally making progress on this motor(Did I mention it has been sitting on my engine stand for nearly 7 years?) which feels awesome!

 

Good for you doing the intake, much easier on a stand than in the car.

 

Welp, here is an update.



Got the chrome timing chain cover on(oil pan had to come off again )
Started putting on the front accessories. Discovered I need a few bolts, but I am close(will get bolts this weekend)
Found in my parts tub a new set of plugs and wires. Only thing i'm missing for a good tune-up is a new cap, which i will get this week

Also started dressing up my wire harness. I put the un-loomed harness on the motor, plugged it in, then put loom on each wire. This is a incredibly time-consuming process, I am close to done on it. I am hiding the wires that arent currently in use but will be later(Like A/C).

I do have a question(hopefully people see it here): On the harness I have(straight out of a 91 camaro) I have a plug that has the positive wire on it( looks like this:

) but I am assuming the ECM needs more than that to be powered? I know the negative wire goes to the block, and there are about a dozen other ground points on the harness that I am using. I do have a collection of wires near the A/C plugs that look like they belong on the starter, but it is not clear. Can anyone help? I will get some pictures of the question this weekend if needed.

I do plan to wire my starter solenoid straight to the key like it is today on my carb motor, and the key on/off will go to the key as expected.