Restoring and upgrading a car can be a long process. Many restoration jobs take months or even years to complete, but the guys over at YouTube channel Powernation are all too familiar with turning projects around in a relatively short amount of time.
Powernation recently decided to build a sport truck out of an old 1993 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and documented the entire build process in one single video. The truck in question had unfortunately lived a hard life, so almost everything except for the body and some interior parts needed to go in order to truly transform this old workhorse into a true street truck.
The centerpiece of Powernation‘s “low-buck sport truck” build is 383 cubic inch stroker Small Block V8 engine, which has been upgraded with a modern-day fuel injection system from Fast, new cylinder heads and a performance camshaft. The engine replaces the old, worn-out General Motors 350 cubic-inch V8 that was previously found in the truck, which had over 250,000 miles on the clock and was not worth upgrading or investing any money into. Handling the gearshifts is a built 4L60E four-speed automatic transmission, which they take to a local specialist for an overhaul and to install some minor upgrade parts.
Once the bodywork is complete and the upgraded powertrain has been dropped in, Powernation puts on some finishing touches such as a new upgraded exhaust, a new limited-slip differential and new factory replacement taillights from LMC Truck. With all the work complete, Powernation takes their truck for a spin to test out its newly lowered suspension and upgraded powertrain.
Powernation spent a total of $15,000 on their “low-buck sport truck” with some of the more expensive items being the engine, EFI kit, trans rebuild, exhaust kit and wheels. That’s still a fair bit of money to invest on an old Silverado, but a similar build could definitely be executed for less money if one has the means and know-how to pull it off.
Watch Powernation‘s cheap sport truck build come together in the video embedded below.
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Comments
Recently??
Do you know how old that episode is?
Probably 10 years old.
The show is not called Truck Tech anymore.
And Kevin Tetz moved on from that show at least 3-5 years ago.
That Chevy 350 is still a real Chevrolet Motor Division engine as well. Not a GM 350, Not an Oldsmobile 350, Not a Buick 350 or a Pontiac or Cadillac either. Nothing became ‘One GM’ until 1983 when GM Corporate officially took over every former divisions engine they decided to keep and called them as their own… The so called ‘smallblock’ didn’t become a ‘GM’ smallblock until the LS.
Before that the 305/350 was a true SBC Small Block Chevy even into the 90’s to everyone I’ve ever known. Despite how GM wants to rewrite history and lift the smallblock name. The Pontiac Trans Am guys hated that in the 80’s and I didn’t blame them. They lost their true Pontiac heart and soul. The same can be said for the 3800 and it’s variants. It was and will always be a Buick. Buick had their Nailhead, Oldsmobile had their Rocket, Pontiac will always be remembered for the H.O. Tri Power and 400 mid block, Cadillac was simply the Standard of the World known most for the monster 500. Chevrolet was Smallblock.
GM was Transmissions.
I was thinking recently what if GM just downsized but not gone cheap in the 80s and still invest in the smaller division v-8s?. In other words, Chevy 350/305 would have just continue as was when received electronic f/I but the Pontiac 301/301t, Olds 307, Buick-Rover 215 V8 and Caddy 368 had continued well into the 80s with improvement also, probably a totally different GM than what we have now.
This truck was right size. It was large but no uneeded bulk.