Hayden Turner
Junior Member
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2018
- Posts
- 2
- Reaction score
- 7
- Location
- North Texas
- First Name
- Hayden
- Truck Year
- 1984
- Truck Model
- K20
- Engine Size
- 350ci
Hello, glad to be joining the GM Square Body forum.
To first tell about myself, I am a 15 year old from North Texas. I have been working for the past few years and finally saved up enough money to buy a 1984 Chevrolet K20. It has a 350ci and a SM465 4 speed. I've always loved the looks of the trucks and have always wanted one, so I found one on craigslist and the price was right, so me and my father drove a few hours with his Duramax and brought her home.
Over the few weeks I have owned it, I have done a few things and wanted to share the progress so far.
It is originally a Montana truck (still is almost completely rust free) but it had the high altitude Quadrajet, that I had no intention of keeping, so I made a trip up to Summit racing and purchased a Edelbrock performer intake and carb along with a few other cosmetic parts.(Valve covers, air cleaner, plug wires, looms, etc). I also went buy O'Rileys and bought plugs, fluids, filters, and lots of de-greaser! Upon arriving at my home and starting to tear the engine apart, I pulled the plugs on the passenger head to find that all but cylinder #6 had helicoils in them, which promptly pulled out when removing the plugs. I bought the kit and tried re-tapping them and installing new helicoils, but they would just never thread for me. So I removed the carb, intake, distributor, and got my heads off. I was originally just going to do my passenger head, but after reading some, I saw it was best to do both. I took them to a engine machine shop, who is going to fix my spark plug holes, deck the surface, and install new hardened valve seats. They should be back tomorrow.
In the mean time, I started dissembling and rebuilding my front end. I bought new inner and outer wheel bearings, pads, seals, and had my rotors turned. Re greased the Warn hubs on it also and everything seems to be back in good working order. I have a shop manual that my grandfather bought a long time ago, and have been following the diagrams and specs from it.
I bought new headlights as both sides were cracked and burnt out. Got them installed with new springs and they work great now. The truck was missing the windshield wipers so I bought them also. This is all just in effort to get it to pass registration.
Rear end seems solid and makes no noises. I took a look at the shoes and they had plenty of life left in them, so I felt no need to replace them yet.
The interior has seen better days, but is not horrible. It's good enough for me to leave until I have all the mechanical aspects of the truck worked out and can save some and put a new interior from LMC in. Door panels and the dash are really cracked and the seats torn some but nothing I can't live with.
I only have two weeks before it will become my daily driver to school and work, and I work after school every night, so it becomes difficult to balance having time between AP and Dual Credit classes, to find time to work on my truck, but it is coming together. Hopefully I'll be off that bus soon!
Yet, even with the unexpected issues with her, I still love my K20. I have maybe 20 miles on the truck from just driving it around my area with my father, so hopefully when it starts seeing daily usage everything lives. Who would've thought a 34 year old truck would eat all your money!
I will stay active on this forum and let y'all know as the truck progresses on.
Thanks, Hayden Turner
To first tell about myself, I am a 15 year old from North Texas. I have been working for the past few years and finally saved up enough money to buy a 1984 Chevrolet K20. It has a 350ci and a SM465 4 speed. I've always loved the looks of the trucks and have always wanted one, so I found one on craigslist and the price was right, so me and my father drove a few hours with his Duramax and brought her home.
Over the few weeks I have owned it, I have done a few things and wanted to share the progress so far.
It is originally a Montana truck (still is almost completely rust free) but it had the high altitude Quadrajet, that I had no intention of keeping, so I made a trip up to Summit racing and purchased a Edelbrock performer intake and carb along with a few other cosmetic parts.(Valve covers, air cleaner, plug wires, looms, etc). I also went buy O'Rileys and bought plugs, fluids, filters, and lots of de-greaser! Upon arriving at my home and starting to tear the engine apart, I pulled the plugs on the passenger head to find that all but cylinder #6 had helicoils in them, which promptly pulled out when removing the plugs. I bought the kit and tried re-tapping them and installing new helicoils, but they would just never thread for me. So I removed the carb, intake, distributor, and got my heads off. I was originally just going to do my passenger head, but after reading some, I saw it was best to do both. I took them to a engine machine shop, who is going to fix my spark plug holes, deck the surface, and install new hardened valve seats. They should be back tomorrow.
In the mean time, I started dissembling and rebuilding my front end. I bought new inner and outer wheel bearings, pads, seals, and had my rotors turned. Re greased the Warn hubs on it also and everything seems to be back in good working order. I have a shop manual that my grandfather bought a long time ago, and have been following the diagrams and specs from it.
I bought new headlights as both sides were cracked and burnt out. Got them installed with new springs and they work great now. The truck was missing the windshield wipers so I bought them also. This is all just in effort to get it to pass registration.
Rear end seems solid and makes no noises. I took a look at the shoes and they had plenty of life left in them, so I felt no need to replace them yet.
The interior has seen better days, but is not horrible. It's good enough for me to leave until I have all the mechanical aspects of the truck worked out and can save some and put a new interior from LMC in. Door panels and the dash are really cracked and the seats torn some but nothing I can't live with.
I only have two weeks before it will become my daily driver to school and work, and I work after school every night, so it becomes difficult to balance having time between AP and Dual Credit classes, to find time to work on my truck, but it is coming together. Hopefully I'll be off that bus soon!
Yet, even with the unexpected issues with her, I still love my K20. I have maybe 20 miles on the truck from just driving it around my area with my father, so hopefully when it starts seeing daily usage everything lives. Who would've thought a 34 year old truck would eat all your money!
I will stay active on this forum and let y'all know as the truck progresses on.
Thanks, Hayden Turner
Last edited:
Pics
Sounds like you've got a plan. PICS???
