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71K5 - BP71K5's Just for fun build

Overview Gallery Discussion
Update 9/11/2015:

A few of the last times I've been in Moab on 9/11. Not today.

I tried the seat belt locking trick and wasn't able to get these belts to lock by pulling them all the way out. Oh well. I think there are some clips you can get to do the same thing.

I got started on the passenger seat. Just copied the drivers side for the most part. Here it is tilted up.


And there's the small bracket that will lock it down to the floor. Almost the same as the stock one, except using 3/16" plate. Even still has the weld slag on it. I ran out of welding wire so this is where I stopped.


And I've been commuting to work this past week in my K5. I'd post a picture of my radiator that ISNT leaking but Im happy to say there's no point in doing that. :smile:

Even spent 30 minutes fixing the heater last night so I could stop boiling through my shirt on the way to work each morning. The flapper door wasn't closing so heat just kept pouring in. After adjusting the cable I was able to drive to work and only sweat mildly. It was a good day.
 
Not leaks, but my coolant overflow tank seems to lose a little water each time I drive it. The last day I drove, the water level stayed put so I'm hoping there was just a little air that's worked its way out instead of a head gasket being bad...

Update 8/12/2015:

Doing some more on the passenger seat. Added bracket to hold the latch in the correct position:


Tacked in and testing the fit.



I need to add some braces to support the back of the tilting portion so I cut out some gusset type material to build some little feet to add to the bracket. I've been watching and reading some tips on welding technique and feel like I've got a little better handle on making them look a bit nicer and not having to grind them quite so much. Here's one of the 3/16" gussets that will support the back of the tilting portion. I still need to figure out how to see a bit better near the end of the bead so I don't overlap too much.


And the back side.


Passenger seat is almost there.
 
That's OK penetration, but leaving just the outside welded isn't terribly strong. Even a small fillet on the inside will vastly improve the strength of the part. As it is now you could break that apart with a hammer. With a small bead on the inside you could beat on it for days without ever breaking it.

I'm really digging the fab work and thought/design you've put into those seat mounts. Amazing work that you should be very proud of. :waytogo:
 
I'm gonna need to borrow your drawings when I get around to interior.
 
tRustyK5 said:
That's OK penetration, but leaving just the outside welded isn't terribly strong. Even a small fillet on the inside will vastly improve the strength of the part. As it is now you could break that apart with a hammer. With a small bead on the inside you could beat on it for days without ever breaking it.

I'm really digging the fab work and thought/design you've put into those seat mounts. Amazing work that you should be very proud of. :waytogo:
Click to expand...

Thanks for commenting on the welds. These just hold up the back of the seat so it doesn't tilt all the way back to the floor when it goes down. I will go ahead and add a bead on the inside even though it may not be needed with how it's being used. I can certainly use the practice.

One other thing I've been testing is my tire air pressure. I had these 37" tires inflated to 30psi and it was a really harsh ride. I did some of the tire pressure calculators from on this site and found the ideal pressure would be closer to 18psi. So I dropped the pressure down to 22psi and it makes a noticeable difference in much less harsh jolts when I hit one of those Cali pot holes that show up every 30 feet. I may try 18psi as well and see how that does.
 
That psi is probably in the ballpark.

Way back when I ran the 38" TSLs, I was around 15 - 17psi for street driving.


-G
 
Update 10/2/2015:

Welcome back CK5!



Little bummed that I forgot about the cage bars when I tilted it forward. These are low back seats but a little taller than stock.








In progress shots after painting. You can see some little rubber washers I bolted to the legs to get rid of any rattling.


 
Update 10/28/2015

I've been driving the k5 a ton for a multitude of reasons. I kept getting more radiator leaks!

No matter what, the top hose kept leaking intermittently right at startup and sometimes after I turned the engine off after driving for a while. My hypothesis became that there must be extra pressure build up on that hose or the clamps weren't tight enough. I installed two clamps and cranked the nuts down. Then the leak moved to the thermostat end of the hose. I tightened that and it didn't do anything to help.

Next try, I drilled a small hole in the thermostat to relieve pressure when the motor was cold or after it was shut off and heat soaking.

Result? The leak moved down to the bottom hose! After re tightening the lower hose, no leaks for a couple hundred miles so far. Eeesh, I was getting ready to set fire to the whole thing.

Since I was driving it so much my wallet was in pain from all the gas being burned at ~7.5mpg.

So I invested in some gear to tune the engine myself to try and bring my mpg numbers up.

First step was converting my ecm to accept programmable flash chips:



Here's my ECM with the prom unsoldered. I discovered a genius device to remove solder from the holes on a circuit board. A combo soldering iron and suction gun. It works great.



Here's the view where you can see light through the holes after the solder was removed.


Here's the adaptor for 28-pin flash chips from moates.com soldered in place of my old prom.



I've spent the past few weeks learning and tuning. I've already noticed a decent power increase from more aggressive timing and my mpg may even be improving a bit at the same time. I'll post official numbers as I get closer to what I think is a decently tuned engine.
 
I can't believe you've had all those problems with the leaks!

Totally forgot you were running EFI. Cool soldering iron you got. I may need to pick one up for work.
 
Z71paramedic said:
I can't believe you've had all those problems with the leaks!

Totally forgot you were running EFI. Cool soldering iron you got. I may need to pick one up for work.
Click to expand...

The solder removal tool was cheap on amazon. It beats the braided copper wire by a long shot. TBI has also been the best k5 upgrade by far. The carb didn't do well with big jolts of momentum going up/down big slopes. This thing just runs no matter what angle it's at. And starts up on the first turn of the key every time.
 
Yeah, immediately following this transmission and transfer case work for me, and the roll cage (so there's still a truck left) and new springs, mine is getting the EFI treatment. I'm extremely tired of carburetors.

Glad you're getting to put some miles on it!
 
bp71k5 said:
Update 10/28/2015

I've been driving the k5 a ton for a multitude of reasons. I kept getting more radiator leaks!

No matter what, the top hose kept leaking intermittently right at startup and sometimes after I turned the engine off after driving for a while. My hypothesis became that there must be extra pressure build up on that hose or the clamps weren't tight enough. I installed two clamps and cranked the nuts down. Then the leak moved to the thermostat end of the hose. I tightened that and it didn't do anything to help.

Next try, I drilled a small hole in the thermostat to relieve pressure when the motor was cold or after it was shut off and heat soaking.

Result? The leak moved down to the bottom hose! After re tightening the lower hose, no leaks for a couple hundred miles so far. Eeesh, I was getting ready to set fire to the whole thing.

Since I was driving it so much my wallet was in pain from all the gas being burned at ~7.5mpg.

So I invested in some gear to tune the engine myself to try and bring my mpg numbers up.

First step was converting my ecm to accept programmable flash chips:



Here's my ECM with the prom unsoldered. I discovered a genius device to remove solder from the holes on a circuit board. A combo soldering iron and suction gun. It works great.



Here's the view where you can see light through the holes after the solder was removed.


Here's the adaptor for 28-pin flash chips from moates.com soldered in place of my old prom.



I've spent the past few weeks learning and tuning. I've already noticed a decent power increase from more aggressive timing and my mpg may even be improving a bit at the same time. I'll post official numbers as I get closer to what I think is a decently tuned engine.
Click to expand...



Can I ask what software you are using and what tips/ tricks did you start out with? I want to start tuning things but don't want to kill a motor. I have EFI live for my DMAX, and tunerprort for the TBI in my wheeler. I have yet to find a good tutorial that goes over everything.
 
jekquistk5 said:
Can I ask what software you are using and what tips/ tricks did you start out with? I want to start tuning things but don't want to kill a motor. I have EFI live for my DMAX, and tunerprort for the TBI in my wheeler. I have yet to find a good tutorial that goes over everything.
Click to expand...

I'm using tunerpro-rt with a Moates APU1 combo emulator and chip flasher. Eaglemark(RIP) ran a site that has lots of good random information. He even wrote a few good starter tutorials. I'd recommend just reading through a bunch of the beginner stuff. The "tuner-boys" are kinda like old school hackers and they don't like to just give step by step tutorials.

Here the first 3 steps:
1. Use an existing BIN for a truck/engine combo similar to yours. That should at least let the engine start and run.
2. Turn off equipment you don't use like EGR, etc.
3. Datalog the main fueling table (VE) to figure out if the existing BIN needs to be adjusted leaner or richer. Increase/decrease the fueling table values so the engine runs efficiently at all MAP/RPM ranges.

Don't mess with timing or other stuff until those three steps are good. Almost every other aspect of how the engine runs depends on that fuel table to be correct. There's also a few interim steps/tips to make the first three easier. My timing still needs work so I don't have good advice on adjusting it yet.
 
Z71paramedic said:
Yeah, immediately following this transmission and transfer case work for me, and the roll cage (so there's still a truck left) and new springs, mine is getting the EFI treatment. I'm extremely tired of carburetors.

Glad you're getting to put some miles on it!
Click to expand...
Best upgrade ever! I can't believe I waited as long as I did, but now that I have it I can't imagine ever going back.
 
Update 11/22/2015:

Just been tuning, tuning, tuning. I've been able to get my "light foot" driving style up from 7.8mpg to 8.9mpg. It's not much but I'll take anything I can get. Drivability is even way more fun now since I've increased the off-idle fueling. Even managed to smoke a couple 37's for a couple seconds. :)

I bought a cheap tablet (seen on the cup holders) to run the tunerpro software and to connect the emulator (the box on the glove box door). I haven't used the emulator much just because I'm still logging and checking data, but I think I'm about ready to tweak some idke related settings with it. Also need to keep tweaking the timing map since I think there is more power to be had there.

 
Brian,

What happened to your original super-fancy radio project? It looks like you've got a new head unit in there now... :dunno:

-G
 
Greg72 said:
Brian,

What happened to your original super-fancy radio project? It looks like you've got a new head unit in there now... :dunno:

-G
Click to expand...
If you look back a ways in this post, it had some kind of internal electrical problem I didn't feel like debugging. So just bought a new one with vintage style.
 
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