Bought a replacement truck

[RumbleFish]

What's red-line on these trucks? I put a tach in it today and it seems like it howls by the time I hit 3000 rpm.

4000-4500 should be plenty. The crappy 2bbl and smogger exhaust is choking most of your power. A 4bbl and headers will make a noticeable difference

[tampabayBill]

Put a curve in the distributer with advance all in by 2.8 to 3.2 k rpm. Plus headers and 4 barrel. ZOOM !!
.

[meby]

I put in a new accelerator pump and no difference in the choking down when I stomp on the go pedal.

Speaking of smog crap, whats the easiest way to ummm, neutralize the emissions garbage?

[PToombs]

Matt, check the linkage and make sure when you push the throttle lever that the acc pump starts to move immediately. Does it have a catalytic converter? maybe check to see if it's plugged.

[RumbleFish]

Does it still have an air pump? That's not helping anything. As for the cats, you can gut them, cut them out, or get a y-pipe for a no cat truck.

[meby]

it has a cat - haven't checked it yet. It also has a smog? pump.

[Tacoclaw]

I usually pull every vacuum line besides the brake booster, HVAC, and dizzy advance and plug them all off, then pull off the smog pump and EGR stuff and cap any holes.

then again it's been a while since I had to mess with any of that stuff. I do remember a quarter being almost the perfect size to block off the Ford EGR port.

[RumbleFish]

On my last gasser, I went the easy/sleazy route and cut the belt on the smog pump and just looped the hoses together. The pump finally came all the way off when I had to remove it for a water pump job.

[meby]

Good. I was hoping it would be that easy to get rid of that stuff. thanks fella's.

[PToombs]

Just watch the steel line that goes from one exhaust manifold to the other, it's in the back. If it rusts thru you'll be pulling the manifolds to seal it up. I got lucky once and got the piece out of the manifold and could braze it shut, then put the stubs back in to seal the hole.

[bmoeller]

My boss had the cat plug on his 97 GMC. Blew the headgaskets.....................

[meby]

I removed the belt for the smog pump and it made a noticeable difference. At this point it seems to choke worse at lower rpm than higher. I also misted the motor with starting fluid and I don't think I have any vacuum leaks.

[bmoeller]

Knock the guts out of the cat..................

Even had to replace a muffler on a car when a baffle inside of it was plugging things up as well.

[meby]

It has a brand new muffler on it. I put in a new set of wires tonight and have run my second tank of fuel through it. I put in a ultra heavy dose of seafoam and toluol and it is running a lot better now. I think the wires were original and were in pretty bad shape.

I also put in a borgeson shaft tonight. Thumbs up!!! It turns a really sloppy, sh*tty steering into really tight and nice. This just made my list of items to put in every future dodge I own. Sweet.

I appreciate all the suggestions fella's

[Diesel]

Thats a good looking truck. Maybe you'll end up just fixing the body and swapping in a diesel and some new axles down the road.