New (Old) Truck

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AB_Rigger

Junior Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2017
Posts
4
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Location
Calgary AB
Ram Year
1987
Engine
360
Hey everyone. I just got a new truck and thought this would be a good place to acquire some knowledge. The truck started its life as an AGT service truck (Telephone company) until the company I work for bought it sometime in the 90's. We installed a hydraulic winch in the service body (We build and maintain cell phone towers) and the truck was used in that capacity. During the last 10 years it's probably only been used about 2 or 3 times however, so last year we removed the old winch and repurposed it onto a quick attach mount for a tractor/skid steer. The plan was to scrap this truck, but I asked my boss what he wanted for it and he said I could have it so I've been thinking about what I'd like to do with it (Free is always in my price range). I own a small acreage that I'll be building a house on in the near future and my current plan is to remove the service body and make a simple flat deck for the truck. A flat deck truck with a PTO will most likely be quite useful around the acreage. The body of the truck is fine aside from dents and scrapes, no rust whatsoever in the floor pans or rockers (Rare around here), however mice have found their way into the cab numerous times...nothing like the smell of hanta virus in the morning, but I should be able to clean it up inside well enough. It runs when fuel is being poured into the carburetor, but won't run on its own. It seemed to have some fuel pressure at the carburetor fuel filter and the fuel filter itself looked fine, but I don't know if there was enough fuel pressure, or if the fuel in the carburetor turned to varnish and gummed up all the orifices in the carburetor from sitting for so long. It was about a year ago when I tried to get it running (Only spent about 30 minutes before we decided to flat tow it to where it sits now), and it probably hadn't been ran for at least 4 or 5 years before that. I have several other vehicles, but I've never owned a Mopar product before and I'm not in any way knowledgeable about them, hence why I'm now here. I don't know the exact year of the truck but I think it's a 1989 Ram 350, it's 2wd (Unfortunately), has a 4 speed manual (Fortunately), and my boss thinks it's probably a 318 but it could also be a 360. I don't know if there's a visual difference between the two, but I'm hoping it's a 318 as I've heard a lot more good things about the 318 than I have about the 360. Here's some pictures of the truck and the engine. I'm not going to start overhauling it tomorrow (I have a few other car projects on the go that I need to finish first), but I thought I'd start thinking about it now so that I'll have a better idea of what I need to look for when the time comes, probably in the spring or summer.



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AB_Rigger

Junior Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2017
Posts
4
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Location
Calgary AB
Ram Year
1987
Engine
360
Did some more digging and it's a 1987 and has the 360 engine. Now I need to figure out what type of carburetor it has and decide if I want to rebuild it or put in a different replacement.
 

dsexpress

Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2012
Posts
62
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Ram Year
2012 RC Express (sold) 2017 Ram RC Express
Engine
hemi 5.7
It's a GM quadrajet. Believe it was the last year for carburetor.
 

Rado

US NAVY VETERAN
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Location
Maine
Ram Year
2015
Engine
Pentastar 3.6 V6
FREE is always good. If it doesn't work out you can scrap it for cash :) , Also when you pull the Work bed I would sell it as a small contractor would like to save a buck as well. Also be careful on the amount of $$$ you use to try and fix it and make sure that cost does not cost more then the value of the truck..
. Good luck as you may have a good yard truck :)
 
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AB_Rigger

Junior Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2017
Posts
4
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Location
Calgary AB
Ram Year
1987
Engine
360
It's a GM quadrajet. Believe it was the last year for carburetor.

A quadrajet? The little red tag says Manufactured in Canada. Not sure if that's significant or not. Are they pretty good carburetors or should I spend like $120 on a rebuild Holley 4 barrel? I'm not super well versed when it comes to carburetors (One of my other vehicles has a 4 barrel that I've never had to touch, and another has a 2 barrel I've also never had to touch). I've rebuilt lawnmower and dirtbike carburetors before but never one for a passenger vehicle.

FREE is always good. If it doesn't work out you can scrap it for cash :) , Also when you pull the Work bed I would sell it as a small contractor would like to save a buck as well. Also be careful on the amount of $$$ you use to try and fix it and make sure that cost does not cost more then the value of the truck..
. Good luck as you may have a good yard truck :)

I'll probably have to spend a little more than the truck is worth to get it to a good flat deck setup and running and driving well enough to use for what I want to do with it, but it should still be quite a bit cheaper than buying a similar setup so I'll call it a win either way. I do plan to do it on the frugal side as much as possible. I doubt I'll be able to sell the service body, but I'll probably list it in the classifieds and give it a month or two before I haul it in for scrap. I may be able to cut it up to save a few of the boxes for the flat deck if I want as well. I'll have to look more closely into the construction when I remove it to see if that's viable.
 
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AB_Rigger

Junior Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2017
Posts
4
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Location
Calgary AB
Ram Year
1987
Engine
360
Another question I'll have to figure out is why there's a GM carburetor on this engine. We didn't modify the engine of the truck in any way after we bought it. What carburetors came from the factory on the 360 in the late 80's?
 

Rado

US NAVY VETERAN
Military
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Location
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Ram Year
2015
Engine
Pentastar 3.6 V6
A quadrajet? The little red tag says Manufactured in Canada. Not sure if that's significant or not. Are they pretty good carburetors or should I spend like $120 on a rebuild Holley 4 barrel? I'm not super well versed when it comes to carburetors (One of my other vehicles has a 4 barrel that I've never had to touch, and another has a 2 barrel I've also never had to touch). I've rebuilt lawnmower and dirtbike carburetors before but never one for a passenger vehicle.



I'll probably have to spend a little more than the truck is worth to get it to a good flat deck setup and running and driving well enough to use for what I want to do with it, but it should still be quite a bit cheaper than buying a similar setup so I'll call it a win either way. I do plan to do it on the frugal side as much as possible. I doubt I'll be able to sell the service body, but I'll probably list it in the classifieds and give it a month or two before I haul it in for scrap. I may be able to cut it up to save a few of the boxes for the flat deck if I want as well. I'll have to look more closely into the construction when I remove it to see if that's viable.
I like the idea of possibly using the box's on your flatbed if the rear body is NG. If you have no plans on selling it a few extra bucks is not a bad idea as long as it is not a money pit... Good luck hope it is a easy fix !
 
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