'76 B1800 getting a rebuild

I have had this truck for the past 6 or 7 years and bought if off a guy who kept it in a barn and told me that he had done everything necessary to store it correctly. I drove it for a couple years on and off as it spent more time in the garage getting fixed that it seemed to spend on the road. About 4 years ago I had a hose pop and I seized the engine. After leaving it in a barn and watching it slowly deteriorate I have finally paid off enough of my student loans and CC debt from college and am on a mission to get it back on the road.

I have not had a chance yet to pull it apart, but am contacting shops to figure out where who I want to do the work it needs. Unfortunately I don't have a decent enough garage to do much work myself. I intend to rebuild the frame if it isnt too bad, or track one down to replace it. I am also trying to hunt down a diesel engine that will fit in it. If any of you guys have any ideas I would greatly appreciate it. If I can't find a diesel that will fit in it, I am planning to drop/squeeze something else into it, but don't plan on rebuilding the engine that is in it due to the difficulty I've had in trying to find parts. I will try to get a picture posted of my truck soon.

Thanks for any suggestions y'all have.

where are ya located

if you want to do a diesel use the cummins 4bt.

Cummins would be badass!

im so pissed that i didnt think about that befor i got the 302. lol oh well i guess after this one i'll do it on the next. if not the cummins you could prob check into like one from a vw or somethin

I live up in NH. I have been trying to figure out if the Renault/Nissan M9R turbo diesel is transversely mounted or not. I was thinking about trying to use one of the new VW turbo diesels, but I think they are all set up for transverse mounting and I think the switch to front wheel drive would be a nightmare on that truck.

4bt is about 5 grand before any goodies with just the basic swap. I looked in to it several times and couldnt afford it so i pawned the idea off on a buddy of mine who is now doing a ground up build on a bagged hardbody with a 4bt and some goodies. The truck is going to be sick when its done. I cant wait to go blow some black smoke on the jacked up diesels.






-Justin

oh yea the cummins is in no way cheap. but maybe you could find you an old bread truck or somethin and buy the whole truck use what you can from it and then scrap the rest and get some money back.

Thanks for the ideas. Any of you guys know of any other longitudinal mount 4 cylinder engines that would make for a decent swap? I saw some post about a guy who was looking into dropping a Cosworth YB Turbo into some vehicle as a swap, but havent been able to find much for specs on the engine to sort out if it would work or not.