As I am a Chevy man born and raised, I feel I have made a significant improvement on the truck by going with a LS and a big block. I think more Ford lovers would disapprove. But anyways....Update time!
Had a bad string of luck shortly after I installed the fan back in....September? Wow it has been a while! Anyways the big block ended up locking up at idle after a short tuning session after changing the carb again. Not sure why it locked up really, no knocks or noise it just died like you turned the key off. Spun bearing I would guess, probably didn't like being run so hard on 100,000 bearings lol. So I'm finally done grumbling over the thing being blown up so I'm pulling the motor this week to check it out and have sent my spare 454 block out to the machine shop to get it bored, prepped and ready for a new rotating assembly. My initial plans were to go ahead and build it all out like I wanted to (12.5:1 forged pistons, forged rods and crank) yet life has gotten in the way so I must budget build this time with 9.5:1 hypers, i-beams and a cast crank (eww). It sucks but I'll save about $1,200 bucks for now. Besides nothing else in the truck is built for the high-horsepower version (or this power-level I might add) so I may get to go a little longer without replacing everything else. I'll try to remember to post my progress when I am back rolling again!