Been driving the truck everywhere and came across a few issues. The only major one being the oil pressure in the little ol' 283. It still ran like a champ but at hot idle it only showed around 3 or 4psi of oil pressure.
So I found a re-buildable 350 4 bolt main on craigslist and me and my dad re-built it top to bottom. Nothing fancy, just your standard 30 over, mild cam, etc. And now that I was going to have a reliable engine I decided to swap the 4 speed and crappy shifter (the other issue I was having) for a T-5 so I could do some highway miles with the overdrive.
It was the first engine we've ever re-built together and everything went together great. Got it in the truck, got it broke in and went to take it for a test drive when we noticed a nice big oil puddle under it.
Long story short, the threaded hole in the back of the block under the head...the threads were ****ed up. If they were messed up before, or if the machine shop messed them up when they took the plug out and put it back, who knows.
After some tool throwing and head scratching we re-tapped the hole a little deeper and put the plug back in...all better [cl
After the radiator shop telling me $800 to re-core the stock rad. I decided to put in an alum. one I had laying around. Dave Havlir at the House of Fab moved the outlets around for me since there never in the right spot it seems Thanks Dave!
I decided to make a shroud for the elec. fan as well.