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1989 Crew Cab Tow Rig Build

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Well, just ordered up a Tilden Motorsports 8.1 package for this sucker. They have a 2005 8.1 that came out of a 3/4 ton pickup with 110k miles on it that will be mine. Since the 05 had EGR delete from the factory, I will be able to pull off the stock manifolds and bolt up my headers with no issues. 05 does have the return-less style fuel rail on it, so I will have to swap it over to the return style fuel rail (kept my return-style rail from the other 8.1 I pulled out) since I already have my lines setup for a return style, so that will be easy. They are also supplying the whole DBW setup including the pedal assembly. So all I'll have to do is mount the pedal wherever I want in the cab.

Said should be 8 weeks, which I assume will be accurate since I know Pac Fab/Tilden Motorsports has a KOH car they race...and we are in that time of year. But I'm alright with it. There will be some piece of mind knowing that once I get the motor, bolt it in and hook up my 3 wires, its gonna fire (and with what I dealt with on this dumb thing, that is highly beneficial, haha).

Here is my truck just sitting waiting for the motor...

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Sucks you had to monkey w/ that other engine for so long. But at least you got a plan in effect!
 
JoshHefnerX said:
Sucks you had to monkey w/ that other engine for so long. But at least you got a plan in effect!
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Whatcha gonna do...it was a great learning experience though. Doing a lot of trouble shooting and diagnosing gave me a great learning experience to figure out what is what with LS style swaps and what each sensor is doing (had only done a TBI swap before). So it's all good
 
You are going to have the perfect drivetrain setup in your crewcab. Cool to see someone making this much progress.
 
LNielson said:
You are going to have the perfect drivetrain setup in your crewcab. Cool to see someone making this much progress.
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Thanks man! I think it will be a really fun truck to drive, but also be able to tow pretty darn heavy with it too. Since I plan to use the truck for lots of things (hunting, riding dirt bikes, towing, etc.), I think I will eventually get two sets of tires for it. A smaller set to throw on when towing heavy (say 265 or 275's) to maximize gearing, and then throw on a set of 35's when hunting or something like that for some ground clearance. We will see. Plan is get running (as soon as the motor shows up, haha), then paint it
 
That is a good plan, won't work but a good plan. Just plan on the 35's they will tow fine. Besides it really sucks to have to change out a set of wheels and tires.
 
kgblazerfive said:
That is a good plan, won't work but a good plan. Just plan on the 35's they will tow fine. Besides it really sucks to have to change out a set of wheels and tires.
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kgblazerfive said:
Let me clarify that, it will work, just wont get done :)
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Obviously you haven't seen how many sets of tires my brother and I have between us, have you? :haha:
I don't care about changing tires...I'm like my own pit crew, haha. Back before I had this shop, I had to swap the 44" boggers off my blazer for little rollers just to get it in the garage...changing some little 35's aint no thang!

GWeakland620 said:
How now that I am thinking about it, what springs are you running?
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They are 3" lift springs from ORD (no, not ORD's custom springs, just their "lift kit" springs). I think they are either Alcon's or Pro Comp...can't remember where they source those springs from. To be honest, I feel like they are more like 4" springs...but may settle over time
 
Kay86K5 said:
They are 3" lift springs from ORD (no, not ORD's custom springs, just their "lift kit" springs). I think they are either Alcon's or Pro Comp...can't remember where they source those springs from. To be honest, I feel like they are more like 4" springs...but may settle over time
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They aren't the Tuff Country's?
 
Since I have to wait so long to get my motor, I fugured I may as well do something to the truck while its sitting there...so why not start sanding and painting this large stupid thing? I always forget how much I hate sanding and paint prep until I do it again

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Put the blazer to work to tow it over to my water source so I could give it a bath after sanding

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Now I need to get some paper to tape it off and get some primer. I’ll get that stuff this week and probably this next weekend get some primer on it. Then I’ll pick up the paint and start laying down some color.

I went back and forth on how I wanted to paint this thing, but decided I didnt want a real fancy paint job cause I plan to use the truck a lot. If the paint was really nice, I know I would have the tendency to not want to use it as much. I’ve spray painted a few rigs before and have figured out how to get them to look good from 10 ft away, so thats the route I’m going. This is the paint I’m getting:

https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/...int---enamel-17764/spray-paint/da1620/4268057

Its all gonna be one color in a royal blue. Should look pretty good. Its gonna take a lot of cans on this stupid long truck, haha
 
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If you want a cheap repairable paint job that you don't care if it gets thrashed do a Rustolem roll on. Or you can thin it and put in a cheap HF hvlp sprayer.
 
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