Mine has the 727 lockup in it, I could care less about the lockup part (or not) ///but I am gonna have to get a replacement converter for when I swap the engine because I believe the existing one has some issues with the ring gear teeth. the lockup part means my choices of converters is less, I was all ready to buy a B&M tork Master at a great price until I ran the numbers on my trans and it came back as a lockup. The lockup certainly isn't working..... I will keep the 727 in mine unless/until I find a smallblock trans to /6 adapter.....
I have thought about swapping to a stick/T5 (lotsa talk about that subject at the /6.org site-- there was recently a group buy on adapter plates to bolt to a /6-A833OD bellhousing to a T5...... but though she don't bring it up much, my wife wasn't happy I brought this truck home to begin with. and she wasn't happy when I converted my 93 Dakota 318 club cab to an NV3500.... (I bought that truck with a dead 518 in it)
I've been severely hurt 2x over the years (both right leg injuries-- knee 1st at 22, then ankle 18 years later) and wasn't allowed to drive my "then" vehicle either time, because of Dr orders..both times, I could drive/ as long as what I had was an A/T... but not if I had a stick...... which I did, both times I was laid up ) so I'm leaning towards leaving this one an auto.
With the 3.21 rears and 235/75-15s I'm really "borderline" as to whether I can even really use an OD in teh 1st place.... my Wrangler with its 4.0 inline, 3.07 gearing, and 5 speed, I couldn't use OD very well til I was over 55-60 or more/ and that was only if I was gonna be at those speeds for a while.... if I had a 55 speed limit open up and it was only a couple miles of 55+ it ran better if I left it in 4th. 5th was lugging. I think that with the 3.21s, tall tires and especially if I get the lockup working, (truly not worried about it, trans works awesome otherwise) that adding an OD would be a waste. 98% sure I'm not gonna drop to a 904/998/999.
on other notes, I got my stainless bolt kit today (all 304 stainless, including manifold to head studs) from Ebay, from a company called AlloyBoltz....
and been Emailing back n forth with a guy on Ebay for a couple weeks now, about 2 rust free, complete, bedsides for this truck..... tired of playing Email and phone tag so I finally just bought them via Ebay today... He had told me to pay on pickup but that is kinda hard to do via Ebay any more, I was hoping to get him to take his auction down..... and then he calls me like 10 minutes later-- go figure. Seller owns a body shop and the customer he got these from backed out on him, so he got "stuck" with them. I asked seller why he doesnt just have the complete bed, and he said "I asked the guy I got em from, the same question". I have been PM'ing @RustyRatRod here on the site, since he is in GA/ and so are these bedsides, for local guidance......for which I say "THANKS" to, for that. so now I will be making a road trip from Chicago-"ish" to near Savannah GA hopefully some time mid to late May. I have a 6-1/2X13' utility trailer (6-1/2X11-1/2 usable, last 1-1/2 ft is a dovetail) and "might" be looking for car parts, a garden tractor, something that someone up this way needs moved for help with gas money, etc.... Thinking out loud,, right now. Seller of those truck bed sides, has a few A bodies of his own...... I mentioned RRR to him, he thinks that he has bought parts from RRR before. I invited him to come here to FABO.
My trucks bed isn't in terrible shape (there are trucks 25 years newer around these parts, in much worse shape) but every time a truck up here gets patch panels put in, it looks great for about 2 maybe 3 years. After which, you can exactly see where they were spliced in. They rust exactly in line with the outline of the welded in panel. my 96 Dakota did that from when I replaced the rocker panel on the passenger side. Looked great then but now the seam I made sticks out terribly. I don't want to go thru all that work to cut and patch, for that to happen to this truck. so Im gonna drill the spot welds and replace the whole sides on it.
NOW, back to the engine build
next, is I'm waiting on my son to get a spare hour or 2, that he can come by here, and help me set the crank in the block w/o dropping it..... so I can Plastigauge the rods and mains, then start putting pistons in/ and measure TDC "in the hole", so I can get back to the machine shop and let them know how much they need to deck the head.
Anyone got a few extra head bolts, and a cam sprocket bolt and washer in their coffee cans they don't need?
