If I were in your shoes, and wanted to get my feet wet (pardon the pun)... I'd get an 80s mirada or cordoba and build up a 360 Magnum engine, skip all the electronic nonsense/obstacles of the truck.... leave the truck for what it is, a utility vehicle, parts runner, etc. You aren't in the rust belt, so you should have a good selection of candidate vehicles. Not sure why you are having trouble sourcing the magnum, I trip over those all the time here. Maybe expand your search to pick-n-pulls. Put a warmed up 360 in for cheap, and sell it off for a profit once you've had your fun.

Have a look at this article...
https://www.hotrod.com/articles/buil...t-block-cheap/

 

Nope, better cam will nicely compliment the kegger.

You can find new casting heads, complete, for around 600 bucks on Ebay, and various other places. Probably still have to change valve springs to match your cam though.

 

I appreciate any and all advice - but I don't follow your reasoning here. I bought this truck dirt cheap and the body is in pretty good shape (like you said, no rust belt). I love these body styles and I get bored easily so figured I would make a project out of it. I don't need or want a hot rod. but I do have literally four mountain passes (ok only two of them are legit mountains, other two still relatively steep) on every highway out of here and the thing pretty much has to drop to 2nd empty when climbing them. I think a solid running 360 geared towards torque is all I need. I could realistically get by with just a tune up, timing chain (surely needs replaced), and a tuner, but I've been wanting to build one of these since I was in high school (I had a 99 360, 2500, Dana 60's front and rear with 4.10s, nv4500, all factory - had to sell for kids, never had a chance to really see what it could do) - now I can afford it (reasonably...) so that's the plan. plus, still cheaper than a new truck. Gears would help substantially, but when I see prices like 2-2500 for front and rear, I can easily build a mild 360 for that much and do most of it myself, which is part of the fun.

 

that's the plan. here is the cam ive been looking at

http://utawesomeperformance.com/stor..._Camshaft.html

 

 

OOoo..... 9 to 10 inches manifold vacuum? Choppy idle? 2-5K RPM range? Custom tuned required? (add another 600 bucks.....) Hhhhmmm.... I might keep shopping for something like an RV cam...... idle to 5K, or 1K to wherever.

 

here she is. paid 1000 for her. 4wd didn't work, barely ran, needed new y pipe. leaking motor oil and transmission oil. the transmission had been recently rebuilt so it does shift nice. I need to do the check ball delete or whatever its called.

so far I've done the plenum, replaced all fluids, new rear main seal (thing was gushing oil), valve cover gaskets (leaking a little also), new tranny cooler line (side effect of trying to fix the leaking fittings) fixed vacuum (which fixed the 4wd) and 02 sensor issues so she runs pretty good now and doesn't leak except a little out of the front CAD. whoever had it before did some custom exhaust work and the o2 sensor was up against the transmission pan...face palm.

 

I know Ill need a tuner, had planned on it. he sells them and can tune for it, so $400 for the tuner and tunes. I figured anything would benefit from the tuner so I would be getting it anyway.

do you have any off hand RV suggestions? im not necessarily dead set on this one, but I was following some facebook groups awhile back of people who were happy with them.

Cams really are a little out of my wheelhouse

 

"factory valvetrain" was very attractive to me also...

 

This one maybe. Or this one. Both require different valve springs.