John Irwin
Junior Member
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2018
- Posts
- 6
- Reaction score
- 14
- Location
- Portage, PA.
- First Name
- John
- Truck Year
- 1983
- Truck Model
- K10
- Engine Size
- 305
Hey all! Having owned 4 different squarebody pickups over the years since 1980 I finally got one that has me about ready to wave the retreat flag and give up. I found an 83 shortbed k10 last year online here in Pennsylvania and drove the 80 miles to look at it on a weekday after work. It was at a small corner lot used car dealer. The owner wasn't around by the time I got there around 7 PM so I got a chance to really check this truck out without someone up my backside talking bs. What I found was amazing. An al original 2 owner example of trucks that were real trucks. Very solid frame, the usual body rust and a perfect example of backyard body and paint work. Still it looked so much better than the beat up abused examples I looked at prior to finding this one. So I took my wife to see it 3 days later and knowing that he wanted $9000 for it we left with a personal loan for $8000 with the confidence that my lady of 35 years could talk him down in price. This is a woman who could talk Santa Clause out of his sleigh. She was raised by an auctioneer so figure that! I asked the guy if he thought it would make it home over 2 steep mountains here in western PA. I would have considered renting a trailer if he would have been honest. But he assured me that she was running great and I had no worries. Very long story short, yes we got it home barely. It kept starving for fuel which after checking the whole fuel system turned out to be a kinked feed line from the tank to the fuel pump sucking shut on hard pulls. Someone put a new gas tank in recently and used the old original sending unit which was folded half closed. Fixed all that then blew a head gasket coming home from work. Taking me 3 months of weekends because of having no help and a full time job which kicks my 56 year old butt so bad that I don't feel up to auto work after work, I finally got that fixed. New valve seals, new distributor, headers, new dual exaust with 8 inch cherry bombs. She ran awesome for a few weeks then picked up a miss. The old quadrajet was badly in need of a rebuild so I swapped it for a rebuilt carb out of Florida. PA winters are brutality cold and after getting educated in choke adjustment and carb tuning I had her running great again. Started fouling plugs which turned out to be a choke pulloff problem flooding the engine. Replaced the choke pulloff and once again running great. Now I just started getting a hesitation kind of bad miss only on acceleration after shifting up a gear. Once again fouled plugs. I give up! This truck is my baby and yes I know that she's old but it's my daily driver my ride to work. I just can't get this 305 running right. I had 2 retired Chevy mechanics who worked on these new look at her and both said that it's a solid truck with a strong for 83,000 miles engine. I'm only the 3rd owner of a 37 year old truck but I'm convinced that this thing is Christine and she hates me! I'm not an auto technician, never was but I'm not ignorant to understanding the pre computer engines. I built and tuned my own stock car motors in the 80s and 90s, 600+ hp roller motors so I know some things about a sbc. This little ole 305 is killing me and frustrating me beyond belief. I know that the 305s weren't great but I hoped to enjoy this thing for at least a year then had plans to save for an ATK crate engine. Just terribly frustrated. Just wondering if any of you all have been here like me?
