Bought a 1985 Chevy C70 dump truck from a guy hurting for money. It ran, bed went up and has a working belly blade. I picked it up for $2200. Problem I am having is finding any specs on it. I can't find anywhere on the vehicle what the motor size is. Makes it hard to look for parts. I just made a temp fix on a brake line because it was gushing out under the cab area. I want to do an oil change on it because it is well below the add mark on the dipstick. Everything is covered in gunk and grime. Engine, tranny and so on. Any help in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.
Most common, assuming it a gas engine would be either a 366 or a 454 if it's a big block. Both excellent engines but are not known for fuel economy when working. Good old trucks.
427 was real common in that era, too.
The guy told me it was a 454 but when looking at parts online it never gives the option for a 454 only the 427. Another question......what oil would you recommend? I don't think I want to just dump some cheap 10w30 in it lol
Yeah it's a gasser
454 was a light truck and motorhome engine. Not likely a 454. 427 or 366 were the heavy truck options. I believe they are the same platform but the block is different as are probably most all the parts. I don't know what to tell you to look for but when I was still working on one in the early 2000s a Chevy or GMC dealer could still get the parts easily. If it was mine cheap 10W-30 or maybe just some regular brand name is all I would put in it. It is not a high tech engine. I liked them pretty well.
A quick way to spot a 454 is crawl under the front of the truck & look at the back of the harmonic balancer . 454 has a counter weight cast in to it as will the flywheel being it was external balance engine .
Take the VIN number to a GM dealer and they can tell you what it was built with at least.
I would suggest a trip to the car wash with a gallon of simple green...you need to get the engine clean before you can even start looking for numbers. 10W-30 or 10W-40 motor oil is fine, and I suspect that it is no longer the original engine or the engine has been rebuilt at some point in time. Howard
A gallon of simple green is in order. I am going to change the oil then clean up the engine compartment the best I can. Guy told me fluids were good but I didn't think that was truthful. Oil is blacker than coffee and below the add and the power steering fluid is almost empty in the reservoir.
And I would most certainly drain and refill the transmission and rear end, any GL-5 gear lube around 80W-90 would be fine...and of course, find all the chassis zerk fittings, suspension, steering, springs, linkages and driveshaft. Wiggle as you go to find bad king pins, u-joints, tie rods and such. I have worked on many, many trucks of this vintage and older! I suspect there is even a throw-out bearing/clutch spline fitting also. Howard
I greased everything and gave everything a look over.
What transmission does it have, I have seen some of these with a 10 speed in which case you don't want gear lube but if it is a 5 speed I think that is right.
looking at VIN id numbers: http://www.nastyz28.com/gm-chevy-codes/chevy-engine-codes-suffix-12.php they do show a 454 option engine in a medium truck application, VIN id code will be a W., where the engine was a 366 the code should be a B, and in the case of a 427 it should be an E. I had and issue with a 78 medium truck that turned out to be that very problem. We assumed that it was a 427 and it turned out to be a 454. Crank is different throw and piston pin bosses are drilled different.
The oil filters should be the same for either engine. The engine numbers are on a pad at the passenger front deck surface of the block (where the block and head meet). That is how you ca see what's in it now. The VIN should tell you what it was built with.
My 76 C65 had a 366, I changed the block and pistons to a 427. These motors are fire breathers. They have forged crank, big cam, big valves. They are taller, leaving room on the piston for an extra oil control ring. Cooling is much bigger all around, and a 454 will not interchange. These engines needed mountains of torque to do the job, and run very fast all day long. Cruising at 50 MPH is 3000 RPM, and climbing in lower gears it sees 3900. My engine builder has died. He told me the 454 couldn't be had in medium duty of 1976, It may have been available later. Willie
Jack, my engine builder said "Yeah, if you can get a 366 running just right you got just enough power to pull a sick whore off a pis$ pot"
It (medium duty 454) became available in in mid year 77 and was discontinued at the end of the 78 production run. It apparently became available again in 84 and 85. While the 366 and 427 and 454 all appeared the same, there was no way that a 366 could be upgraded to a 427, there was nowhere near enough meat in the cylinder walls to stand a 4.250" bore, which is what bore it is. the 427 and 454 truck blocks are in fact .90" inches taller than the passenger block to allow for the extra ring that was mentioned. This makes them (THE TRUCK BLOCKS) extremely sought after by the drag racing crowd because it allows them to build a longer stroked engine! Bores of the 427 and 454 are the same at 4.250" however, the strokes are different, I found out the hard way!
Here's some other info on the subject: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=660267 I didn't know that GM put a 454 in a medium duty until the Vortecs came about, but I learned something I guess. All I know is that a 427 with a 5x4 will get about 2 mpg loaded and make you want one of them diesels that pass you going about 30-40 mph faster than you on a good hill. They prolly inspired more sales of Detroit diesels than anything LOL.
In my experience, a good running 427 would pass an 8.2 diesel, but it took about half an hour to complete the pass, and traffic behind would get impatient.
Same way Don . But if you think about it all GM would have had to do is drop a 454 steel crankshaft in a 427 "tall deck " truck block . And we have a 454 " tall deck " Truck blocks also had an extra transmission mounting bolt at the top as compared to auto big blocks .
We changed the block. 366 & 427 were interchangeable except block, and pistons. All the guts were the same. I erroneously believed the timing train in the 366 was worn. It turned out a little indexing nub inside the distributor was broken off allowing it to rotate about 3 degrees it shouldn't. Getting timing correct was impossible! I saved the 49000 mile 366 block & pistons if anybody wants one. I had a close call climbing a very steep hill with a borrowed trailer hauling a backhoe, with no trailer brakes. In lowest gear I ran out of power. I wasn't confident the spring brakes would hold it should it stall. The 427 is a different experience. Willie
One of the BBC chevy's I've built. This 454 made 484 on the dyno at 5200. Built it five years ago along with the mounts,installed it and plumed it. Rewired the critter too. Truck Shop
any idea what the hp and torque numbers were on those old gassers? We just moved our 550 in the dump bed with a 72 fleetstar with a 550 v8 tandem
Yeah I was thinking about the two stroke Detroits. I forgot about that 8.2L trotline weight LOL.