thrown together junk sleeper?

[moturbopar]

Hi all, its been awhile since I have been here, I like the new forum!
Anyways I have received a free 73 gmc 1/2 ton pickup that has no engine. I also have a 72 472 that has been sitting around for about 3 years. I purchased the engine for another project but never got around to doing the swap. What I am thinking about doing is building this truck the cheapest I possibly can and make it as quick as I can without spending over a $1000 not including the parts I have collected over the years.

What I have for an engine is a 72 472 with 100,000 miles, I have put new moly rings in it, bearings and gaskets. The heads were rebuilt befor I bought the motor and I have done a mild pocket porting. I also have a set off used pushrods and valve springs for a mt10-kit that I had used in 500 that I built I also have a set of 1 3/4" bb chevy headers for a truck. I also have ported factory intake. So I pretty much need a cam (mt-10( , header flanges and some other minor things.
As for the truck It is a long bed striped down plain old gmc truck. I have 3.07 geared lock righted 12 bolt. and the th400 that came from the cad and a set of traction bars. It has had a mild shift kit installed and seems to be in good shape.
I am hoping if I throw all this stuff together with a 150hp shot of nitrous that I might hit the low 13s maybe the high 12s! I think its possible, so what do you guys think?

[J-rod]

I'm hoping you've gone forged rods and maybe pistons if you are planning on nitrous....

[moturbopar]

Naw the stuck stuff has worked fine for me befor. I have run 200hp on a 180,000 mile 500 befor with no problems. Plus if it blows up, 472s and 500 are only $50-150 around here. I can get 425s free alot of the time. Heck maybe I will keep throwing more and more nitrous at it to see how much the 472 will take :twisted: :lol:

[STDog]

472s and 500 are only $50-150 around here. I can get 425s free alot of the time.

Where's here...

I'd love to pick up a 472 for $50

[Busguy71]

ME TOO!

[STDog]

goal: 472 powered VW beetle

That'll be a beast. Front engine or use an eldo trans for rear engine (no back seat)?

[moturbopar]

Sorry. I live down here in AZ. At Ecology out here you can buy a complete engine with all accesories for $175 and they have 1/2 price days and on rainy days you get 25% off. There is another JY that I dont want to mention that I can get long blocks for $100 and short blocks for $50.

[Illraceya]

I was at Ecology 6 months ago and picked up a '72 Eldorado 500 for $80 on one weekend and sold it the next for $300! Not bad for 3 hrs. work. :D

[moturbopar]

Its crazy how cheap you can pick them up. Im sure lot of people have a hard time finding them back east, but they are all over the place here. Ive been offered a couple old cads for free lately but I just dont have room for them :(

[The Rage]

Its crazy how cheap you can pick them up. Im sure lot of people have a hard time finding them back east, but they are all over the place here. Ive been offered a couple old cads for free lately but I just dont have room for them :(

If gas wasn't where it was, I'd take me a trip from SC to AZ tommorow to pick one up.

That's incredible!...

[Vern]

You know if you cold get about 6 of em on the back of a pu hmnn.

[STDog]

If gas wasn't where it was, I'd take me a trip from SC to AZ tommorow to pick one up.

And where was gas?

Interesting graph I saw.
http://www.mackinac.org/media/images/2005/gasgraph6.jpg

This was early June, but it's not much different now.
As a function of average disposable income, it's not much different that 10 years ago, and much better than any time before 1985.

Most vehicles get better gas milage now. My Deville gets about 10mpg around town, so imagine spendig 15% of you income to drive 10k miles? Even my SUV gets twice that.

We've been spoiled with extremely cheep gas over the last 20 years. Compared to the the previous 40 years it's been a great. This relative cheepness is why new cars have more miles per year that older ones (my 5 year old SUV has 75k miles and my 35 year old car has 97k miles). people couldn't afford to drive as much as they do now.

[Big-Daddy]

goal: 472 powered VW beetle

Actually, I saw on the internet 4 or 5 years ago where someone had done just that!!! Back-halfed a bug with the complete front half of an eldo, including frame and radiator support.

I cant recall the web page, or the details, but I do recall one line from it where the builder said "It's spooky how well they mated together, almost like the cadillac engineers designed it to be a perfect fit"

[Busguy71]

dont want to hijack the thread, but I've seen that project too. The only difference is I'm doing it on a full frame chassis that I'll fabricate when I get around to it :roll: , and it will be fenderless with a solid front axle. The beetle frame is garbage for the amount of power my motor is gonna put out. As for that 150 hp of NOS, I'll leave that to moturbopar :twisted: I'll be doing wheelies with a mostly stock motor :lol:

[Morella]

Where is "Ecology"? I live in AZ and I'm not familiar with it.

thanks

-denise

[Illraceya]

Its on 27th Ave. between Van Buren and Buckeye. They always have 30 or 40 cads with 472s or 500s. :D :D :D

[Illraceya]

(in Phoenix)

[Illraceya]

(in Phoenix)

[jerry]

i lived and drove trucks all over arizona and don't remember an ecology anywhere.so where's it at?

[jerry]

i should have finished the posts i thought it was a town.thanks for clearing that up