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1977 Chevy Silverado half ton Suburban help!

chevyidaho96

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chevyidaho96 New Member

chevyidaho96

Posted
Posted

Hey everyone! I'm new here. Live in good ol' Idaho. Aquired this beast a little over a week ago. Traded my 99 Grand Prix GT plus $250 for it. I've been stranded in it 3 times so far including once the first night I had it. Two times were battery, the first time was the accelerator cable coming off the gas pedal and being stretched out. Anyways, it has an exahust leak of which me and my cousin who is a mechanic are trying to tackle. We got the exhaust manifold off but two of the bolts are rusted in there and will not come out no matter what so we are going to replace that exhaust manifold. Anyways, besides the exhaust leak, the suburban itself runs and sounds like shit. Someone who owned it before me thought it'd be a good idea to install dual glasspacks on it. It has the 350 small block engine in it and normally those have quite a bit more power than this one does. We added some oil to it the other day because there was hardly any in it. Seemed to run a little better but had kind of a knock. I'm thinking it was low on oil for a bit after I got it and thats part of why it sounded bad and was running rough. It didnt seem to have a knock before I got stranded and it was running decently. As for the exhaust leak, I'm thinking because of the extent of it, that is the cause for the lack of power but I'm also thinking the engine itself being low on oil is another reason for lack of power. Transmission shifts fine. The vehicle itself is really fun to drive and I got alot of complements on it when I would drive it. The front and rear main seals are also bad, and transmission leaks from the transmission vent hose, the battery is 7 years old, the previous owner changed the spark plugs and wires and did a shitty job of it and put some of the wires on backwards of which me and my cousin had to fix, and the previous owner also ducktaped two of the wires, the battery is 7 years old, the carburetor needs rebuilt, the accelerator cable is currently rednecked thanks to me so the vehicle can at least be driven, and the glass in the tailgate doesn't roll down more than an inch. So my question is, is this thing worth fixing at least to the point where I can drive it? Did I really get myself into a money pit? If I fix it and do the work myself or have other people help me, would it be worth it? Would it be pretty reliable if I fix it? Are these engines pretty easy to work on? Any info would be greatly appreciated!

grampadirt Senior Enthusiast

grampadirt

Posted
Posted

It appears you have a boat load of trouble and expense,think i'd dump it.7 year old battery?C'mon....replace it.

muddkatt Senior Enthusiast

muddkatt

Posted
Posted

Your cousin who is a mechanic should be able to answer your questions better than anyone here, he is actually looking at the burb.

 

Just from what you called out, you are looking at about 500 in parts and that is if nothing else is wrong inside the engine. Those old 350's are not rocket ships especially when trying to pull a 6000 pound Suburban.

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