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Hey folks, I just picked up a 1980 pickup with a pretty good size lift, 35's, and upgraded drivetrain.
The truck has a transmission and transfer case from a mid-90's v6 Toyota, with an adapter bell housing to fit a crate 302 with the GT40P heads, and an Edelbrock carb and intake.
The truck has an electric fuel pump and a holley fuel pressure regulator, and runs awesome once it actually starts, but is very hard to get lit when cold, like it takes forever to get fuel
into the engine. If I hit it with ether, it will fire instantly, and burn off the ether, and die again. After trying until I have almost killed the battery, it will finally come to life and run fine, and have plenty of
power, and easily hit redline in every gear.
The truck was built and daily driven in Colorado Springs and just brought to Nashville, TN this weekend, so elevation change may be a factor, but I wouldn't know, as I never started it cold in Colorado.
I had the same issue on previous Chevy, Ford, and AMC engines in the past, and I'm beginning to think that Edelbrock carbs just suck. Electric Choke is hooked up.
Thanks in advance!
Last edited by thechief86; 12-01-2017 at 04:00 AM.
It's been a few months since the first post, and I guess nobody really had anything to say, but the fix for all my problems came in the form of electronic fuel injection from FiTechEFI.com. It cost a little more than a good carburetor, but has so far been worth every penny, turning my unreliable turd of a v8 swapped truck into a dependable daily driver, and competent offroad machine that doesnt choke out when the trail gets a little steep or off camber.
The event that forced this now much appreciated upgrade came when I tried to climb a very steep v-notch and the truck stalled out, then caught on fire when i tried to restart it. This ruined my carb, as well as a lot of the underhood wiring, so my friend Jacob and I ended up rewiring the whole truck with a universal harness, and installing the FITech EFI system. Just this week, since my Colorado tags have expired, I took my truck through emissions inspection here in Nashville as a joke, and it PASSED!
So this shows me how well the EFI works if a tailpipe emissions test can't tell the difference between a Japanese 4 cylinder and an American V8, all while the truck can be driven 500 miles a week, getting 17 mpg on 35's.
The truck has gobs of power, so much so that it scared the heck out of my dad when I did a wide open throttle pull through the first 3 gears. I'm very happy with the setup so far.
Hey guys, I took this truck out wheeling this weekend, and had a great time, but had some little gremlins pop up here and there.
My main concern is my cooling fan setup. The truck currently has two almost worn out "puller" fans that had to be mutilated a bit to fit between my engine and radiator. I think I want to change to a single 16" fan, but I don't have room currently. Should I mutilate my core support a lot, and move the radiator forward, or should I mutilate it a little and use a "pusher" style fan in front of the radiator?
My reason for changing the setup is that when crawling off-road, the truck wanted to run at 230° F, and it ultimately blew my fan fuse trying to keep up, with 2 fans pulling too much current. The truck has been completely re-wired in the the last 6 months, including a new fuse box.
Here are a couple of photos of the clearance in front of and behind the radiator.
03-02-2017, 03:14 AM
