Ace-Garageguy

The stock 5.3 LS makes around 325HP and 340 lb/ft of torque. Yeah, that would get you down the road. ^^^ See my post above... EDIT: A fully dressed (accessories like steering pump, alternator, etc.) aluminum LS weighs around the same as a dressed cast-iron even-fire 4.3 V6, so there's that. But REMEMBER...not all LS engines are aluminum. The ones that came in trucks are mostly cast iron, much heavier. EDIT 2: Last fully dressed LS I swapped (into a '47 Caddy) was a low-mileage takeout from a 2000 Corvette wreck. IIRC, the engine and 4L60E slushbox, including the engine harness, black box, and drive-by-wire throttle pedal ran around $3500. I paid another $1500 to get the black box reprogrammed for stand-alone operation with the gearbox, and an engine bay harness with all new sensors, and nothing dangling and useless. After that you're looking at custom engine and trans mounts, exhaust work to connect the factory manifolds and probably a decent system all the way to the tail, driveshaft mods, a custom radiator, and appropriate fuel system mods.

Not my favorite engine of all time, but GM's older even-fire 4.3 V6 would be in my top 5 candidates-for-swapping list. It's basically a smallblock Chevy with two cylinders removed, pretty much bulletproof reliable if you get a good one. Though thousands were stupidly destroyed by the "cash for clunkers" program, there should still be many many many available for reasonable money...and they came equipped with a variety of manual and automatic gearboxes, making the driveline swap easier. A custom-length driveshaft with the appropriate GM trans yoke is all you need there. IMHO the desirable years for swaps are '87-2006 (in '87 they got a one-piece rear main seal like the SBC, in '92 they got a balance shaft that smoothes them out some, and 2006 was the last year for a separate distributor). These are all in the 130-165 HP range, with 210-235 lb/ft of torque. A distributor-equipped engine with a carburetor would be the easiest swap, not requiring integration of any electronics (which can get very expensive very fast if typical car-chimps get involved). EDIT: The 4.3 in my '96 Blazer is entirely adequate to pull a reasonable trailer with a 4000-pound vehicle, driving through an automatic. My Blazer weighs about 900 pounds more than your little pickup, and a V6 engine would be a vastly easier swap than a V8.

Security is not something I've ever experienced, unless it was the direct result of me taking personal responsibility for my own.

"The contemporary form of authentic greatness is a civilization built on the spirituality of work." Much in line with Ayn Rand's idea that ALL work is honorable and satisfying if you do it to the best of your ability, whatever that may be. These thoughts do not, however, take into consideration that a great many people think they're entitled to everything while putting out zero effort to produce anything.

None of my stalled projects are "dead", they're only waiting for the right time to come back out. Of course, I may be dead before the stars are all in alignment again...

Zoom Zoom got it right. The additional weight of the truck over an early Miata is the major consideration.

PM'd

In this case it's "bored", not "board"...unless you're a plank.

I like it. A lot. A whole lot. But you're right. Initially, A/FX cars had to be built with factory-available parts...main structure, engine, gearbox, rear end...(though they didn't have to be factory-available on the model of car they were used to race with), and nothing like that amount of engine setback would have been legal. Mickey Thompson's A/FX Tempest is a good example: 421 Pontiac V8, manual gearbox behind it, and the Tempest's transaxle rear end and independent suspension replaced with a stout Pontiac solid rear axle. However, something like your Corvair could conceivably have been a class-legal M/SP (modified sports) car...depending of course on the sanctioning body. The engine setback is even too extreme for that though. But as you say, more likely it was built as a crowd-pleasing match-racer. Man, I miss those days.

The old lost-kitten bait-and-switch routine...

It's easier to deal with a man who knows he's a hypocrite than one who sincerely believes he's a saint in spite of the evil he does.

Planned obsolescence, today's version anyway, may well be more the effect of ignorance, incompetence, and inexperience than actual planning.

If you don't walk the walk, it's probably best not to talk the talk.

Receiving is way better than giving according to a lot of folks, whether they admit it, even to themselves, or not.

Back when I was a lad, "quail" had meanings besides feathered flying creatures, now largely forgotten.

Your beliefs don't make you a good person. Your behavior does.

Games People Play is a song from the Alan Parsons Project.

Missed this one way back when. Very nice indeed.

11 oz. box of blueberries. Eat 'em like candy. Filling, sweet/tart, only 180 calories, and they're really good fer ya. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7442370/. EXCERPT: "An increasing body of evidence suggests that blueberries and anthocyanins reduce biomarkers and risk of diseases that constitute major socioeconomic burdens, including cardiovascular disease (CVD), type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and neurological decline. In these observational analyses, anthocyanins often provide benefits over and above other plant food phytochemicals, including other flavonoids (2–6). The intake of even moderate amounts of blueberries (approximately one-third cup) and anthocyanins (<50 mg) daily is associated with disease risk reduction (2–4, 6–9)."

Right or not, tool-use was once thought to be exclusively human, but now we know some other primates, mammals, birds, fish, cephalopods, and even insects can do it too, but tool making is a whole 'nother level.

Group-think makes me wanna puke.

Yes, they're different things, but they can kinda overlap. Darker colored primers can "guide" you as to where imperfections lie, but that's not their primary purpose, as John says. A "guide coat" as he also says, is very often a dark color of primer or specific rattlecan material shot dry and speckled over a primered surface (and sometimes a powdered product that's dabbed on) that will subsequently be sanded further. Divots and dings and orange peel will jump out at you if you're using the stuff right...but I've rarely needed a specific "guide coat" on a model. On the other hand, using different colored primers as you build a surface is a great way to locate imperfections you might otherwise miss.

Thing is, all of the advice can seem overwhelming, especially when it's often contradictory...so tend to believe those who show their work over those who don't. AND...the wide array of products can also be intimidating to a relative beginner. BUT...after you have a little experience, including a few disastrous failures (which we ALL have had), the prep and painting phase of model building becomes a repeatable ritual with predictably excellent results. I've personally never quite grasped the mindset of modelers who don't seem to know how their builds, including paint, are going to "come out". The only guesswork or uncertainty for ME comes from trying new stuff for whatever motive, like trying to save money by using cheap primers or big-box rattlecan paint, or shortcutting "wasted time" on sufficient prep. Just figure out what works consistently well for YOU and keep doing it...and feel free to experiment, but don't do it on a model you care about getting good results on. And never forget, you're smarter than the inanimate models and materials you're working with. Use your intelligence to develop whatever innate talent you may have into skills, decide what level you want to work at, and keep trying until you're consistently reasonably well satisfied with what you produce. As for me, I'm never 100% satisfied with my work, and always see something I missed or could have done better. But I always know going in to a project that it's going to "turn out" well within the level I find to be acceptable FOR ME, at this point in time, because I've learned what works FOR ME, and also know that if something "goes wrong", I know how to fix it, whatever it takes.