Hello all! I've got a 1976 chevy k10 with a 350 tpi out of a 92' Camaro, bought it maybe a month ago. I wish I could tell you how many miles are on the engine, the seller told me it's got about 100k, but god only knows if that's true or not. Anyway, for the most part it ran well when I bought it, but off the bat I could tell it was having some vacuum issues (hunting idle, engine stalling, all that fun stuff) . Tired to nail down where the possible vacuum leak was coming from with a couple other techs at work with water and throttle body cleaner, but couldn't pinpoint a leak. Shortly after that, my idle got a lot worse, the entire truck shakes pretty hard at idle. In addition to that, I'm getting a banging noise that increases in frequency with RPM, and the truck drives horribly in reverse. Also, it stalls out more often. I'm thinking it's my timing. Would getting a timing light and checking the timing be my best option to verify that it is indeed my timing? If it is in fact my timing, where should I go from there? I am going to school for GM oriented auto mechanics, and working at a chevy dealership, so I have access to tools and lifts. The fact that I have no idea how many miles are on the engine makes me want to pull it out and rebuild it, but at the moment I don't have the funds to do that. Thank you in advance!

 

Being that this engine is 3rd gen related, I'll answer a few questions.

1) You have a pretty bad vacuum leak...find it
2) Check for shorted/mis connected plug wires
3) Cap/Rotor/Tune Up for sure.

And lastly, Sounds like you got a bad/loose flexplate or loose Torque Converter bolts.

Other than that, Start using the Manual to T/S it using the Tree process.

Good luck in your ventures!

Bob