1982 Chevy Pickup - Brute Forcee

Always use two wrenches to... 

   

  read full caption

Always use two wrenches to loosen the fuel-line fittings.

All that was left to track down now was a high-performance ignition upgrade for the worn-out HEI under the hood. MSD suggested its four-pin HEI computer module and all the parts we'd need to rebuild the distributor including a new coil, a cap, a rotor, and wires. After a hard weekend's work under the dualie's hood and a day at the Muffler Man exhaust shop, we pulled it back into our Tech Center to see what it could muster. Before dynoing the engine, Editor Cole did comment that the truck pulled much harder than before and that now it sounded great! He felt confident that future mileage tests would also prove that the increase in power would yield an increase in efficiency, and the truck still wouldn't pollute any more than it did when it was new.

Before we swapped out a single... 

   

  read full caption

Before we swapped out a single part, we put this '82 dualie through rigorous paces on the Dyno-Jet. The truck grunted out 324 lb-ft of torque at a healthy 2,500 rpm and 188 hp at 3,900 rpm, but we had plans for much more.

So we put the dualie through another day's bashing on the Dyno-Jet and found that both power and torque increased a significant amount-not incredible numbers for a motor destined to do street/strip duty in a Camaro or Chevelle, mind you-but for a tow vehicle intended to cart around numerous project cars on a large, two-axle trailer, it was a good jump in both power and torque. Additionally, the best test, the one often referred to as "seat of the pants," yielded an impressive driving experience proving that big numbers don't always translate into real-world drivability.

As for the results on the Dyno-Jet, both power and torque grew with the torque peaking at 400 lb-ft (an increase of 76) at 2,500 rpm, while the horsepower output rose to 280 ponies (up by 92) at 4,400 rpm. What the computer printouts confirmed was that the torque came on low and stayed there throughout the whole rpm range, providing this vehicle with the necessary motivation to get the job done.

And, as a final assessment of this Edelbrock swap, the additional cooling that the combination of a trick aluminum waterpump and lightweight heads will provide means that on those long trips towing a project to the paint or chassis shop, we won't get stuck on the side of the road waiting for the temperature to come down. And, that's a good sign that our own temperatures won't be rising.

We will rebuild and reuse...        read full caption We will rebuild and reuse the original distributor with new upgrade parts from MSD.

A few hours after starting,...        read full caption A few hours after starting, we were ready to yank the heads. Although, big-block iron heads rarely get "yanked" off the motor. They're usually more like "wrestled" off, and since we like our backs the way they are, two of us shared the workload for this.

We used almost a whole can...        read full caption We used almost a whole can of WD-40 to bust loose some of the rusty fittings, but we still broke an exhaust manifold bolt.