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Team Mudshark

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Please be gentle. It's my 1st time. Ima Chevy guy since 17. Started with a pristine 67 Camaro with a 210HP 327 with a powerslide 2 speed. Proceeded to beat it up ending with a 334ci, 1.94 Fuelie headed, Weiand dual plane vette intaked, 1/4 cammed, Headman headered, Turbo 400 street machine with straight thrush mufflers bolted to the headers with occasional pipes out the sides. Transpack in the gearbox of course which I did myself. Never got around to adding a posi rear end or traction bars but it was big fun. Tore up the power steering puttin in the headers. I figured it was a passive theft deterrent.Steered like an old truck. Headed to Aviation mechanic's school so sold the Chevy and bought a 61 VW bus with a wee lil flat 4 airplane motor. Built that one too. Next GM was a 70 Gutless Cutlass, 4 door with a 350 and a T350. Did my own valve job using a bench grinder, lots of compound and an air drill. I can't believe that worked. Fixed rocker arms! Only paid $75 so I didn't want to spend much money on it. I called it the Tug. Was a decent tow vehicle for many years. Would back it down into the salt water in the rain with the doors open. Nothing to worry about. It was great. Bought a 4 x4 85 S10 Blazer. Only a 2.8 though. So little power! I looked into getting some more out of that engine but was advised I'd be better off just getting a cheap junkyard 305 and dropping it in there. Never got the chance. T-boned a Toyo 4 runner that pulled across in front of me. Totalled em both. Obviously too small. So next up was an 88 4 x 4 real Blazer. 350 TBI. i don't remember how much power that had but I dropped in an Edelbrock intake and a K & N filter. Turning the top of the air cleaner over allowed me to hear that too cool sucking sound when I jumped on it. Did the tranny on both of these too. Of course had a Flowmaster muffler on there too. Had the tranny rebuilt about the same time I hit rock bottom financially so I lost it to the tranny shop where it was sold off to pay for the work. I got $300. Broke my heart. Fortunately for me I stumbled across a broke 96 Tahoe 4 x 4, 5.7 liter now, with 200k miles. I guess cubic inches fell out of favor for some reason. 4 doors so I felt better/much easier putting the kids back there. Gonna take a big truck to get to them now. I love broke stuff so I went to work. Had it towed away from a local shop that could not get it running. Amazing. My Chevy beat a group a grease monkeys. I started by replacing the timing set. Then because the internet had been invented ( um, does that give away my age? ) did some research and discovered that a common problem with these was the constant flow fuel injection that allowed raw gas to build up in the intake resulting in an induction fire that melted the upper intake and sometimes the entire truck. I pulled said upper intake and lo and behold the top of my intake was indeed melted. Not terribly but the fuel injector harness and injectors looked like melted army men. (oops there I go again). So, checking with Chevy I found nothing avail other than individual pieces. Lucky for me, that internet thing shined once again and someone on ebay had an entire "spider" including a set of solenoid operated injectors with the harness attached. American ingenuity. Someone found a need and filled it. That was 92K miles ago. I guess they work. I now find myself approaching 300K and wondering what I should do. I have seen later model Tahoes on craigslist for 5,6, 7 grand. It's tempting. I have Spectre cold air intake, the filter just fell apart. It lasted many years though. The tranny has a stiff 2nd shift but the trans shop that rebuilt it told me there wasn't much they could do since it's all computer operated. The big dual cat, um, fell off and I've got dual exhaust through a couple of flowmasters or something like that with Magnaflow wedgie chrome tips out behind the rear mudflaps. I really went to find someone who could make it sound like a Mustang GT but this is what I ended up with. I'm not crazy about the split sidepipe sound but after I don't know, 10 years or so I guess I'm used to it. I can't get shifting out of my head so I often shift it manually. Mostly downshifts as I love the burbles. When it drops into 1st, I say it because there's no manual shift body in this thing so sometimes it shifts when it wants and I have to wait til 20 or so for it to kick down. Sounds really good at 4 grand in first leaving the Publix parking lot. Did I mention, I absolutely refuse to grow up? That 1 -2 shift is a kick as well. Pun intended. My front seats are crap. There are new leather replacement cushions avail on ebay for about $170 ea. That's about $700 for both front seats to look like new. I'm opting for sheepskin covers for about $300. The cheapo covers I had on there didn't last very long. My 4 wheel drive has apparently failed. I'll ask about that in another thread. The AC now works. At least for the last several weeks. Out of the 13 years I've cared for it I've had air for about a week not including now. Just couldn't get someone to sort it out. Still not right. Another thread coming. So a few days ago I made the decision to keep this thing going for a while longer. I really want to hit that 300K mark. I may blow it up by then though. I've decided that even though he goes pretty good, with only 200HP I feel inadequate. A 2009 has 330HP out of get this, a 327ci engine. They call it a 5.3 liter but they aint fooling me. Ifn they can do that than damn it, surely I can best that. So I'm gonna see if I can source a turbo system to say double the power. I think 400hp should be enough to destroy, I mean make this thing get out of it's own way. Not sure if the turbo route will be the final decision. I see cheap dual turbo setups online but I'm no fan of cheap ass Chinese reverse engineered crap so I'll be looking for something made in good old Merica. 700hp they say. Right. Out of some slag metal slave operated factory. No thanks. Ok, so there you have me. I tend to post anytime I have a difficult time with something and/or I don't see a good solution on utube. I apologize in advance, in case it hasn't occurred to you yet, I have a tendency to be a bit long winded. I will do my best to help out. These forums are a godsend for getting the real story in real conditions. A lot of the online vids show how to take off new unrusted parts. Nothing I care for is newer than 20 years old. Got 2 99 Fords as well. Thank the lord you have a Chevy to hug! Until next time... now where is that beer emoji?
 
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Shaggy

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Apr 21, 2008
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Please be gentle. It's my 1st time. Ima Chevy guy since 17. Started with a pristine 67 Camaro with a 210HP 327 with a powerslide 2 speed. Proceeded to beat it up ending with a 334ci, 1.94 Fuelie headed, Weiand dual plane vette intaked, 1/4 cammed, Headman headered, Turbo 400 street machine with straight thrush mufflers bolted to the headers with occasional pipes out the sides. Transpack in the gearbox of course which I did myself. Never got around to adding a posi rear end or traction bars but it was big fun. Tore up the power steering puttin in the headers. I figured it was a passive theft deterrent.Steered like an old truck. Headed to Aviation mechanic's school so sold the Chevy and bought a 61 VW bus with a wee lil flat 4 airplane motor. Built that one too. Next GM was a 70 Gutless Cutlass, 4 door with a 350 and a T350. Did my own valve job using a bench grinder, lots of compound and an air drill. I can't believe that worked. Fixed rocker arms! Only paid $75 so I didn't want to spend much money on it. I called it the Tug. Was a decent tow vehicle for many years. Would back it down into the salt water in the rain with the doors open. Nothing to worry about. It was great. Bought a 4 x4 85 S10 Blazer. Only a 2.8 though. So little power! I looked into getting some more out of that engine but was advised I'd be better off just getting a cheap junkyard 305 and dropping it in there. Never got the chance. T-boned a Toyo 4 runner that pulled across in front of me. Totalled em both. Obviously too small. So next up was an 88 4 x 4 real Blazer. 350 TBI. i don't remember how much power that had but I dropped in an Edelbrock intake and a K & N filter. Turning the top of the air cleaner over allowed me to hear that too cool sucking sound when I jumped on it. Did the tranny on both of these too. Of course had a Flowmaster muffler on there too. Had the tranny rebuilt about the same time I hit rock bottom financially so I lost it to the tranny shop where it was sold off to pay for the work. I got $300. Broke my heart. Fortunately for me I stumbled across a broke 96 Tahoe 4 x 4, 5.7 liter now, with 200k miles. I guess cubic inches fell out of favor for some reason. 4 doors so I felt better/much easier putting the kids back there. Gonna take a big truck to get to them now. I love broke stuff so I went to work. Had it towed away from a local shop that could not get it running. Amazing. My Chevy beat a group a grease monkeys. I started by replacing the timing set. Then because the internet had been invented ( um, does that give away my age? ) did some research and discovered that a common problem with these was the constant flow fuel injection that allowed raw gas to build up in the intake resulting in an induction fire that melted the upper intake and sometimes the entire truck. I pulled said upper intake and lo and behold the top of my intake was indeed melted. Not terribly but the fuel injector harness and injectors looked like melted army men. (oops there I go again). So, checking with Chevy I found nothing avail other than individual pieces. Lucky for me, that internet thing shined once again and someone on ebay had an entire "spider" including a set of solenoid operated injectors with the harness attached. American ingenuity. Someone found a need and filled it. That was 92K miles ago. I guess they work. I now find myself approaching 300K and wondering what I should do. I have seen later model Tahoes on craigslist for 5,6, 7 grand. It's tempting. I have Spectre cold air intake, the filter just fell apart. It lasted many years though. The tranny has a stiff 2nd shift but the trans shop that rebuilt it told me there wasn't much they could do since it's all computer operated. The big dual cat, um, fell off and I've got dual exhaust through a couple of flowmasters or something like that with Magnaflow wedgie chrome tips out behind the rear mudflaps. I really went to find someone who could make it sound like a Mustang GT but this is what I ended up with. I'm not crazy about the split sidepipe sound but after I don't know, 10 years or so I guess I'm used to it. I can't get shifting out of my head so I often shift it manually. Mostly downshifts as I love the burbles. When it drops into 1st, I say it because there's no manual shift body in this thing so sometimes it shifts when it wants and I have to wait til 20 or so for it to kick down. Sounds really good at 4 grand in first leaving the Publix parking lot. Did I mention, I absolutely refuse to grow up? That 1 -2 shift is a kick as well. Pun intended. My front seats are crap. There are new leather replacement cushions avail on ebay for about $170 ea. That's about $700 for both front seats to look like new. I'm opting for sheepskin covers for about $300. The cheapo covers I had on there didn't last very long. My 4 wheel drive has apparently failed. I'll ask about that in another thread. The AC now works. At least for the last several weeks. Out of the 13 years I've cared for it I've had air for about a week not including now. Just couldn't get someone to sort it out. Still not right. Another thread coming. So a few days ago I made the decision to keep this thing going for a while longer. I really want to hit that 300K mark. I may blow it up by then though. I've decided that even though he goes pretty good, with only 200HP I feel inadequate. A 2009 has 330HP out of get this, a 327ci engine. They call it a 5.3 liter but they aint fooling me. Ifn they can do that than damn it, surely I can best that. So I'm gonna see if I can source a turbo system to say double the power. I think 400hp should be enough to destroy, I mean make this thing get out of it's own way. Not sure if the turbo route will be the final decision. I see cheap dual turbo setups online but I'm no fan of cheap ass Chinese reverse engineered crap so I'll be looking for something made in good old Merica. 700hp they say. Right. Out of some slag metal slave operated factory. No thanks. Ok, so there you have me. I tend to post anytime I have a difficult time with something and/or I don't see a good solution on utube. I apologize in advance, in case it hasn't occurred to you yet, I have a tendency to be a bit long winded. I will do my best to help out. These forums are a godsend for getting the real story in real conditions. A lot of the online vids show how to take off new unrusted parts. Nothing I care for is newer than 20 years old. Got 2 99 Fords as well. Thank the lord you have a Chevy to hug! Until next time... now where is that beer emoji?

Holy crap! I don't think I have ever seen this big of a intro post! Can't wait to see more posts like this from you!
 
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