Waking Up a Turd

SpeedThrills said
Sounds good.
You may want to test stall speed while it’s still running. Holding the brakes, apply throttle and see what it’ll rpm to. Should give you a rough idea.

Generally a bad idea that shouldn’t be done more than once in its life time or at all. It is possible to damage the torque converter and maybe the transmission this way.

Your more concerned about where the converter will stall at its flash point. Which is where you floor it and look at the tach to see how high the RPMs go up and where the vehicle catches on and moves. This is really the only meaningful thing that matters.

Mile Maker said
2) It will get a new camshaft more suited for street duty (even though it sounds fantastic now) Im going to entertain the idea of a hyd roller, and weigh the pros and cons of it. and of course a new timing chain.

IMO, and as for myself, I wouldn’t spend the time and money to convert an LA to a roller, Hyd. or solid unless it was to be a mean street machine. A good solid flat tappet cam will rock and at a heck of a cost savings.

3) Intake manifold. Likely a performer RPM, or a LD340. I kind of dig the retro theme of the truck, a LD340 would be great. I dont suppose anyone has one to sell?

Go straight to the RPM.

4) check out the heads. first option, Rebuild the J heads with 2.02 valves, and try my hand at some mild port work.
second option: If I do determine i need more compression, swap the heads for something with a smaller chamber, Again this will depend on what pistons are in it Likely Edelbrock or Indy.

I would not waste time rebuilding stock heads since there price vs performance value is at the bottom of the tank. Ether the Edelbrock head or a Black Friday sale on Speed Master heads would be a very good choice. The IMM heads are an excellent idea IMO.

5) sometime in the future, Source an OD transmission, and regear the diff. Figure out what stall converter i have now, Might be a great time for a swap while the engine is out.

All of that should make this truck fun. I will add to this threat with some of my findings as i go. Hopefully the bottom end is salvageable. If not i might be looking for another core to start with.

I think looking for another core to build while you drive what you have is a good idea. If you have the room as many do not. If you can, or if it is possible, you can break in the engine on a stand and give it a general (primary) tune on the carb and adjust the distributor to where you’ll like it.