Rick, It may be in the thread but if so, I missed it. How did you lower the front of the truck after installing the drop shackles out back? Did you cut the coils or use van lower control arms are...?
I'd like to drop my '80 D150 step-side a lil' bit.

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“Buy the ticket, take the ride.”
― Hunter S. Thompson

My truck does not have the front end lowered. Just the drop shackles in the back. My son dropped his whole truck and used the van LCA and then swapped the rear axle to the top of the springs instead of the bottom. That lowers it @ 4" I think. That is too low for my tastes but many people like that look with short tires...etc.

Rick

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

As I said a couple posts back, the truck is now for sale. I really hate to sell it because I really do like it and it runs so nice. But with the purchase of a tow vehicle that can handle the mountains on the way to and from Wilkesboro & Clay City I just can't justify keeping the truck to run a couple times a year.
So since I just retired from my job, I can save some money on tags, insurance and upkeep, plus buy my own car trailer. That is kind of my plan. This post contains the rebuild in detail from start to finish so you know what you are getting.
Truck has been pretty much restored form the ground up except for the bottom end of the motor. I would say that the truck may not be mint but it is very nice. Many of you have seen it in person at the races. It has been garaged kept ever since I restored it except for a month or two when other peoples stuff was in my garage getting fixed.

I will post an add over in the for sale section too with more details. Sale price is $8000 or $7995 if that makes you more happy. If you or someone you know wants a sweet short bed to put a Big Block in, I will pull the motor and transmission and take $7000.

Feel free to make me an offer but I probably wont take much less than that before the big Mopar event at Mason Dixon in May. Fairly certain I can sell it there at that price.

Drop me a PM if you want to talk. I will send you my phone number. Thanks!

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

Thanks for the info. I'd love to see a picture of your son's truck too.

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“Buy the ticket, take the ride.”
― Hunter S. Thompson

Sorry I forgot to get a picture for you! I'll try to this week.

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

Ever since I got done with the racing season I have been thinking about the transmission in the truck and the one in my race car. The race car needs a heavy duty transmission to go with the new Edge racing convertor. So since I have the original transmission from the truck, I removed the heavy duty one in the truck and installed the original one back in. I installed a shift kit and adjusted the lock up shift point, installed a new filter and fluid as well as a new from seal. I fired it up and everything worked just like it should.

I still plan to sell the truck and hopefully it will go to a good home. It was all cleaned and waxed this past week and it is for sale locally. $7500 OBO. I know it's a bad time to sell but maybe someone will buy themselves a belated Christmas gift!

_________________
2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

Obviously I haven't posted to this thread in a while, and I have decided to keep the truck for a while.

So I am swapping my cars old race motor into my truck with Doug's new 14T pump gear. It was a relatively mild motor with a good head on it than ran 14.7's in the car only turning 5200. When I pulled my oil pump and looked at the gear it looked like it was showing some where from 5 race seasons. So I ordered a new Howards .473 / 220 @ .050 cam like was in it and pulled everything apart. Funny thing is I had lots of play in the timing chain. So much that I could see it gently touching the cover in places. Soooo! off came the crank gear and on went a new chain and both gears. Only problem is I have almost the same play as before. I new the stuff I took off was only run for the 5 years of racing Slant 6 (Not that much real run time) and knew they should not be that stretched.
So now what do I do. This is a engine that has never been rebuilt / line honed. I pulled the bearings out when I put it in the car and it still had the date coded 1974 bearings in it. I installed new Std. bearings and put it back together.

So do they make a shorter chain? I know they do for some engines, but slant 6??? Any help appreciated. Really trying to get this together soon!!

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

Is it the same chain as a pig block? You can surely get shorter chains for them.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

My research shows no shorter chains?

So if I make something like a chain guide to fit in the bottom of the timing cover to take up some of the slack, what material do I make it out of? I was always amazed at how timing chains could run on a guide / tensioner for 100000 miles. Let me know if you have any other insights.

PS. The timing set I used was a premium PBM brand that came to Ryan from Seymour's stash of stuff. I have ordered another timing set and a spare chain just to see if I get lucky and they made one too short!

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

For the silent type chain? I will have to look.

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

Oh, I didn't know it was a stock style chain. I was thinking double roller.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

I don't know if they are any better, but I have a couple NORS, Wolverene "Blue Racer" stock style timing sets, on the shelf.

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Charrlie_S
65 Valiant 100 2dr post 170 turbo
66 Valiant Signet 170 nitrous
64 Valiant Signet
64 Valiant 4dr 170
64 Valiant 4dr 225

Yeah, I don't know Charlie? This set from Seymour would have been fairly old I would guess. I would have thought better quality but maybe not.

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

Once upon a time I went through this. Tried about 4 different timing sets and just used the tightest one. I mentioned this to Doug Dutra in probably 1996 and he said my block I had simply had the cam and crank too close together. He'd experienced the same thing and his solution was a different block. About the only thing I think you can do within any kind of budget is get a double roller set and shorter chain.

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Joshua

Yes, I really was trying to get this in and running to test the new gear and stuff. Here is another problem ( I think) with getting the big block set. I am reading a couple places that the difference in the "shorter" timing set is not in the chain. It is in the top gear for the cam. It is made just a smidge larger in diameter to make up that difference. If that is the case then the Big block set would not do me any good since the top gear is different for the slant 6. Again I'm not sure.

At this point I am think a rub block inserted into the timing cover to take up some of the slack is my best short term answer.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what a rub block is made out of in other timing chain guides / tensioners set ups.

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6