Mr. Rusty

It's aged well!

That '70 should clean up really nice. the 198 isn't as torquey as the 225 but it can be made to run strong with a new manifold, carb, headers and zero decked block to increase the compression. That would give Mr. Rusty a nice boost in power and still knock down some good mileage too. Those slant sixes and three speed manual trannys are tough. I had a 67 short bed style side back in high school and my brothers and I hauled hay using the truck bed for 40 bales and pulled a 4 wheel trailer with 125 more. when we took off just feathering the gas would lift the front wheels off the ground and you could turn the steering wheel each way lock to lock and keep going straight. I was amazed the rear tires didn't blow. On one trip about 25 miles away we were out in the boonies and the clutch master cylinder ran out of fluid and we didn;t have any more fluid with us. I was 16 and my brothers were 18 and 20. We had to come to a stop going up a hill. My brothers had no idea what to do. I had just replaced the starter a few weeks earlier and I remembered it had a gear reduction starter and the truck didn't have a neutral safety switch. I told Matt to kill the engine, put it in gear and try starting it. It shuddered as it fired up but it took off and we had to repeat it every time we stopped, but it was much easier after we dropped the load. to shift we just eased it out of gear by matching engine speed with the tranny and then allow it to engage on the up shift. We got home about an hour late and my dad asked what took so long and he was quite impressed not only with me for thinking about what to do, but also about the strength of the truck and its engineering. As it turned out the clutch slave cylinder ended up being the problem. a new one back then cost about 20 bucks at the parts store. It was so simple it was elegant. I gotta get me another one!

Makes me miss my old white 1966 225 Super Six 4 speed (granny) Step side ... man I wish I still had that truck

Looking foward the updates