The Right Tool for the Job

Last month, I wrote the autopsy report on the small-block Chevy that lived briefly in the engine compartment of Truck Norris, my 1967 C10.

- John McGann

It suffered an untimely demise due to operator error (mine) when something got into the carburetor and took out cylinder Number 8. There is no point in rehashing all that here; you can read last month’s issue or look online for an article titled “How to Destroy an Engine with a $6 Part” for all the gory details. If there is a bright side to all this, it is that a replacement engine is ready to drop back into the pickup, and my C10 will be back on the road soon. I purchased a new 350 from BluePrint Engines and got it running on my Easy-Run engine test stand. That is a tool I’ve had for a while but haven’t had much of a chance to use. Up to this point, it had been pressed into service for a few product demos, a video on how to perform compression and cylinder leak down tests, and served as a storage platform for an engine block for a couple of months. This was the first time I got to use it to break in an engine, however, which, of course, is the real purpose of a run stand.