350 swap?

[shrekmoose]

So I got my old diesel motor out and started to tear it down and boy am I glad i pulled it. The number 3 and number 8 pistons had cracked cylinder walls and the whole inside of the cylinder was rusted. Now with diesel near the 5.00 a gallon mark here im going to swap in a sbc 350. Anyone done this and have any pointers for me? Oh and if anyone is close to me I have a whole parts motor that im tearing down now. Freshly rebuilt starter and rebuilt heads that just probably need some cleaning up from the coolant on the pistons. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Do a search on here. Rizzo and at least one other person have threads on this.

My advice would be to try and find a 87-95 fullsize truck with a TBI 350 and a 700R4. That way you get the easiest to work on fuel injection ever made, more power than carb'd 350's, run at any angle dependability, a bit more mpg, and OD gear...as 4.56 gears are great for turning 38" tires without OD if you have a gasser. Even with an OD trans you'd be geared right for 35" tires.

 

[shrekmoose]

I was kind of wanting to go the TBI route but how hard would it be to wire everything up? Since im going to convert it to 12v should i just pull all the 24v wiring components out and start all over?

 

[AJMBLAZER]

If you were going to put a 350 in you'd basically need to pull out all of the 24v stuff anyways as it's all pretty much diesel and military specific.

That's why I said to get a whole, running parts truck. You can literally take everything from the engine and trans themselves to the wiring loom and swap them into your truck.

Only thing you'd need to do was get an adapter and possibly a crossmember to bolt a 700R4 to a NP208 if you have a 1008 truck now. A 88+ body style IFS truck would use a transfer case with the front output on the wrong side for you.


Might end up being cheaper just to get another 6.2L.

 

[shrekmoose]

Mine is the 1009 blazer. I was under the impression that a 350 would bolt right up to the tranny that was in it now. I am also not running any heater or a/c or anything like that so while im saving for the 350 ive been trying to clean out all these wires and hoses i wont need in there.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

No heater...damn...I know it still gets near freezing in TN. Wheeling rig?


Will it bolt right to the TH400? Yes. Will you have a diesel transmission that doesn't shift at the same points as the gas version and is also complete overkill and soaking up a decent amount of your power? Yes.

 

[Djfreema]

I had a civvy K30 that I blew the 6.2 on. I dropped a 454 in without changing anything, it was fairly straight forward. Had to make up some radiator hose adapters for the diesel radiator. Put a shift kit in the turbo 400 and ran it. If I were to do it again, I would have kept it a diesel. I spent about $3500 building the 454 and should have just searched for a good take out 6.2 which could have been got for around $1000.

 

[CCATLETT1984]

to make the diesel trans work for a gasser, you need the gasser torque convertor and you need to change out the governor on the side of the transmission, thats the only difference. The valve body is the exact same.

 

[shrekmoose]

Yes it is going to be strictly a wheeler truck not street legal even more than likely. What is consisted of changing that governor on the side? I dont have alot of transmission experience so far. For 200 bucks i couldnt pass up this thing to wheel in so its the new project. Thanks for the help so far keep it coming.

 

[CCATLETT1984]

you pull the cover off, pull out the diesel weighted governor, and slide in the gasser one. We did this on my buddies truck.

the gasser will run and drive with the diesel governor, but its going to shift way to low on the rpm's. it will be a dog.

 

[CCATLETT1984]

Yes it is going to be strictly a wheeler truck not street legal even more than likely. What is consisted of changing that governor on the side? I dont have alot of transmission experience so far. For 200 bucks i couldnt pass up this thing to wheel in so its the new project. Thanks for the help so far keep it coming.

What!! You got the truck for $200, you lucky dog.

 

[shrekmoose]

Yep 200 for a complete truck with 39000 miles on it no rust at all and a good platform to build a wheeling rig on. I was reading some of the other few 350 swap threads on here and they were talking about something not working with the PS pump. Any ideas how to deal with that issue. My plans are to get a carborated 350 in it now as cheap as possible and then as time goes on and im able to earn some extra cash build it change over to TBI and all that jazz.

 

[aboonski]

Perfect 350 TBI setup for your M1009

It's a shame you live so far away from Florida because I have just what you need; an 89 K5 Blazer with an ass-kicking 350 TBI and rebuilt 700R4 transmission. I just put a new Stewart Warner fuel pump in the gas tank which is another thing you will need if you plan to change from Diesel to gasolene. $1200.00 for the ride which will have everything you need including a 3" lift kit and T/A radials with aluminum 6" rims. It also has a tilt wheel which you could place into your M1009 to change out the generic lock cylinder that everyone has a key for (one key starts all of the CUCVs as you probably already know). But before you go to all the trouble of changing over to a gas drivetrain, check to see if there are ay GL auctions for used 6.2 diesels. You can pick a used motor up pretty cheap with a shipping container and all. Most of the ones I have seen on GL came from H1 Hummers when they changed over to the 6.5 motor.

 

[ehuppert]

Very easy swap!

change out torque convertor. In my case i bought a Hughes "towing" convertor. Trans governor is 4 bolts, remove cover, slide old out, new in.

hydro boost/ps is a PITA. My 1008 came with a vac booster in the bed so i removed hydro boost system and just put a different pump on to power the PS.

Rad hoses. cut the lower hose back a bit on the engine/wp side. Get a piece of straight hose that fits the WP, then get the appropriate size exhaust adapter to "splice the two together. Same deal on the upper hose.

Starter wring: Ran the "batt cable" and the solenoid wire to the starter Down past alternator, then back along block. Ran the alternator wiring to the junction blocks on the firewall, then a heavy guage (fused) wire from junc blk to battery.

Discarded all the wiring that wasn't neccasary in the engine compartment.

You'll need to disconnect the water drain line "end" from fuel tank and put pressure release (same as rear ends) on hose or you'll build up pressure in the tank.

just finally getting mine sorted out after putting it on the road a couple of months ago. Conversion wasn't running wehn i bought the truck. They never filled torque convertor, once i got truck running the trans crapped out. Two weeks ago i intended to replace a collapsed lifter, only to run the block numbers and discover it was a 305. Spent the follwoing several days dropping in a 350 (included installing a comp cam). Truck runs awesome.... Depending on intended usage a HEI, Carbed vehicle is fairly simple, not too many things that can go bad...

hopefully change out the bent driveshaft tommorow... Replaced the wasted front axle ujoint today...

Eric

 

[shrekmoose]

Lot of info here so far thanks guys. I have been kinda taking a break on it as I cant afford a new motor right this very minute. Just been kinda chasing wires and getting rid of the stuff I dont need. Anything else yall can think of pass them this way.

 

[bottleworks]

This whole downgrade to a carb gas engine boggles the mind.

You can buy take out 6.2L Diesels from GL for $100-150 in can. I bought 2 for $300 (with all tax +fees) last year.

If it weren't for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in collage.

 

[shrekmoose]

Well the fact here that diesel is 2.00 more per gallon of diesel and still going up kinda has something to do with it. And like i said its not going to stay carbed very long or if I can find the right parts it will be tbi to start off with.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

$2 MORE PER GALLON? Crap, here it's 75 cents more and will probably drop a bit soon.

 

[ultim8gamr]

More initial diesel cost but it catches up with the lower MPG you'll be getting with the gasser

 

[shrekmoose]

Yea prices here are terrible. Even offroad diesel from the co-op is over 4.50 a gallon.