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4" + 35's = ?

W

wilsowe

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Auburn, Alabama
If i lifted my 1990 k5 (350 auto) and ran 35's on chrome steelies (street only) how bad would that be? I know the gears in these things suck but i've got no money...none. So i'll be saving for like a year to do the lift and tires so is this viable or will i burn up the trans or just hate it or what? Thanks for help
 
( Covered a bunch ) . I pulled 33's with 3.08 gears . I pulled 35's with 3.73 gears .

Your TBI motor should pull them , won't be no hot rod . It does mean use of OD on flat freeway only .
 
i know it's covered alot in the searches but everybody generally says you'll burn up the trans which while i don't want to do, I've never had a really big truck so i dunno, i've got plenty of time to think about it while i save up the money. I'm not addicted to speed anyway so i doubt it will matter.
 
Its always a crap shoot , owning an old truck . Period . Change your fluids , use a cooler , and hope for the best .

Some have burned them up , but the majority of the burnt ones were early ones , or not cared for , or beat on wheeling or hot rodding .

They just still carry that stigma of " oh my god you can't use that " .
 
yea i'm dealing with some of that anyway cuz two weeks ago the fuel filter went bad after a 3 hour trip so i had to tow the thing back home for a measly 600 and then 1300 in repair, tune up and general maintenance that needed to be done. Now i'm leary of taking the thing on trips which i do every weekend, i'd hate to make that lack of trust in it even worse
 
When you change the trans fluid your only changing whats in the pan.So the trick is to flush out the trans.If you go trips every weekend,just change the fluid after you come maybe three or times then your trans has been flushed and happy.P.S. make shure you have a aftermarket trans cooler.
 
WOW , 600 bucks for a tow ? And 1300 for a filter and tune up :eek1:

I would invest in a basic set of tools in metric and standard if you plan on owning an old truck . Its so easy to work on these things .

Everyone starts somewhere .
 
naa. 600 was to tow the 200+ miles back home. 1300 was front brakes, rear brakes, fuel filter, fuel sending unit, fuel pump, repack front wheel bearings, plugs, wires, and labor and anythign else i forgot. Sorry for the confusion, while it was in the shop we decided to have all the things it needed done at once. practically everything is the factory 17 year old part on this truck and while it's been taken care of, it hasn't had basic preventative maintenance. also has 176000 on it. On that note, anybody have any idea how to make the cruise control or the trip mileage work?
 
wilsowe said:
If i lifted my 1990 k5 (350 auto) and ran 35's on chrome steelies (street only) how bad would that be? I know the gears in these things suck but i've got no money...none. So i'll be saving for like a year to do the lift and tires so is this viable or will i burn up the trans or just hate it or what? Thanks for help
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It would help us if you gave us the gears in the diffs. 35's and 4.10 gears will be fine. 35's and 3.08's on the other hand is not. What are your gears??
-Harrison
 
wilsowe said:
naa. 600 was to tow the 200+ miles back home. 1300 was front brakes, rear brakes, fuel filter, fuel sending unit, fuel pump, repack front wheel bearings, plugs, wires, and labor and anythign else i forgot. Sorry for the confusion, while it was in the shop we decided to have all the things it needed done at once. practically everything is the factory 17 year old part on this truck and while it's been taken care of, it hasn't had basic preventative maintenance. also has 176000 on it. On that note, anybody have any idea how to make the cruise control or the trip mileage work?
Click to expand...

All you had to do was tow it to the local parts place and buy a $5 fuel filter and you woud have been good to go...avoiding the 200 mile tow bill.

With an older truck like this, its a good idea (as stated earlier) to invest in a nice set of tools and do the work yourself. $1300 for what you stated is highway robbery. Front brakes run $20 from autozone with a lifetime warranty, rear brakes are cheap too, fuel filter is $5.99 from autozone, the fuel pump runs $49.99 from autozone, the fuel sending unit is $190, plugs and wires is $50, and re-packing the wheel bearing with grease is about $7 worth of grease. You could have done it all yourself for less than half of what you paid. Do yourself a favor and invest in a haynes or chiltons repair manual, a nice set of tools, and you will save major major money. The parts you paid for were only worth about $400. That means they charged you $900 in labor.:eek1: :eek1: :eek1: For $1300 you could have dropped a whole new gm crate motor in with a warranty.

None of these parts are overly hard to install. The hardest part is the fuel pump and sending unit which involves dropping the gas tank....but even that is pretty darn simple. You could have saved $900 just by doing it yourself.

Now...im not bashing you. Many people do not know how to work on their own cars...but if you buy an older vehicle (especially an older chevy because they are so so simple to work on) there is no reason to not buy a manual and attempt things yourself. Thats how most of us start. we knew nothing...things broke and we decided to locate the problem, disassemble it, and fix it. I dont have the money to take my truck to a mechanic (and woudnt even if i did...because with a mechanic you never know what kind of shotty job they did to cut costs and time...and if you do it yourself you know it was done right). The best part is that you found this site. People here are very knowledgeable about chevy's so if you ever have a problem..you have an online database of information and many members who can easily guide you through problems.

I hope i didnt come off as rude....im just looking out for you and trying to not let you pay way too much for cheap and simple jobs.:wink1:
-Harrison
 
no i dont take that as rude. I wouldve much preferred to do the work myself. As it is, I'm 22 years old and in graduate school. This is my daily driver but I dont have access to anywhere to even work on it (my apartment won't allow a non rolling vehicle, they won't even let me have two parking passes) So, it died on a weekend, dad wanted it towed home which is two hours from my school and none of us honestly have the time to do this kind of work on the truck. Probably a mistake trying to drive a 17 year old truck every day but I've always wanted a k5 ever since i knew what they were. Aside from that, the gear ratio is factory. I havent checked for sure but I'm thinking it's the 3.08, basically everything except the radio is factory. I wish I had the time to work on it myself but there are a lot fo variables in this you don't know about. I have the tools to do most things in it already, I'm fairly mechanically inclined just not experienced, sounds like i need a chilton's manual. Thanks guys.
 
first thing to do when you buy an old chev.
1. repair manual and some gear head friends
2. a creditcard w/ a high avail. bal.
 
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