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'72 K5 - AJ's Gray Matter Build

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Weird. Mine looks similar to that. Maybe the headers and dual exhaust make it sound different. Mines super quiet all the way past 80mph.
 
That totally sucks AJ.... :angry1:

There is nothing more frustrating than dumping TONS of hours into a project and sweating all the little details, only to have something like this happen right off the bat.

Was this transmission original to the truck when you bought it, or had you already gone through it? I know the original owner had an obsession with purple-painted everything :haha: and he made several mistakes on the engine build. Maybe he applied his same "skills" on the transmission rebuild as well? :thinking:

It will be interesting to hear what the tear down reveals... I'm guessing some part was installed backwards, or out of sequence or maybe something just completely forgotten during the re-assembly.

I'd definitely reach out to Greg Ducato for some help.... He always seems to have the answers when it comes to transmission related issues on this site, and had pretty much seen / heard it all in terms of failure modes. :bow:


-G
 
Greg72 said:
That totally sucks AJ.... :angry1:

There is nothing more frustrating than dumping TONS of hours into a project and sweating all the little details, only to have something like this happen right off the bat.

Was this transmission original to the truck when you bought it, or had you already gone through it? I know the original owner had an obsession with purple-painted everything :haha: and he made several mistakes on the engine build. Maybe he applied his same "skills" on the transmission rebuild as well? :thinking:

It will be interesting to hear what the tear down reveals... I'm guessing some part was installed backwards, or out of sequence or maybe something just completely forgotten during the re-assembly.

I'd definitely reach out to Greg Ducato for some help.... He always seems to have the answers when it comes to transmission related issues on this site, and had pretty much seen / heard it all in terms of failure modes. :bow:


-G
Click to expand...

No kidding. Was a bit down about it all last night. But stuff happens on a build like this. Had already been kicking around pulling the motor and drivetrain over the winter: maybe upgrading to solid roller; resealing everything from the oil pan, tranny, and tcase (too many leaks for my taste). Most of these have been sitting for 6 years and likely dried out.

You're right about all the purple. When I bought the truck, it had a TH350 (purple) and it completely let go. I put in the 700r4 and 241 (see post 68). It was Monster Transmissions race duty 700. I know I'm under the 650HP rating, but most tranny vendors don't list torque ratings. My gut says the torque of the new motor did it in :confused:

I've already sent Greg a PM and he responded. Will be calling him at the shop tomorrow.
 
my gut says it was cuz it was a Monster trans.... :whistle:

sorry to hear AJ, hang tough.. be worth it in the end! :woot:
 
Lots of planning next steps over the weekend. No better way to recover than to come back bigger, faster, stronger. Get your :popcorn: ready

Made a call to Greg Ducato today and talked thru how to handle the 700r4. Gonna pull it and ship it to him for rebuild. Based on our conversation, the 3-4 clutch pack let go. It'll be interesting to see what else he finds.

With the transfer case coming out anyway, gonna tear it down and reseal it.

On to the motor and cam evolution... Gonna go ahead and make the change to solid roller cam, Might as Well, right? Here's what's in it now:

IMG_1234.sized.jpg


Traded a few emails with Comp today and landed here:

http://www.compcams.com/Company/CC/cam-specs/Details.aspx?csid=498&sb=2 :whistle:

Should be pretty healthy. Time to start tearing back down....
 
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AJ,

What's the reason for swapping cams? Did you get enough "seat time" to really get a feel for the last one...? I'm curious if it felt "soggy" or just not rowdy enough for you?

:dunno:

I'm considering a cam swap in my 502, since it's pretty clear that I made a mistake when I used the CompCams software all those years ago. I have a feeling that I left a LOT of power on the table and could do a lot better, while still being 100% drivable. :)


-G
 
Greg72 said:
AJ,

What's the reason for swapping cams? Did you get enough "seat time" to really get a feel for the last one...? I'm curious if it felt "soggy" or just not rowdy enough for you?

:dunno:

I'm considering a cam swap in my 502, since it's pretty clear that I made a mistake when I used the CompCams software all those years ago. I have a feeling that I left a LOT of power on the table and could do a lot better, while still being 100% drivable. :)


-G
Click to expand...

There's a few reasons Greg. I actually put 300 miles on the clock before the tranny died. Enough miles for me to know I didn't make great choices on the mufflers and cam.

The Lunati had a huge bottom end, but quit pulling hard between 4500 - 5000.

I've got a bad lifter too. It's not filling completely with oil, or bleeding off too quickly, causing it to make noise. It's not damaging the engine, but I can't set the lash correctly on it. At a minimum, I'd have to pull the intake to fix it.

Lastly, my engine guy say if you're gonna go roller, Might as Well do solid. With his racing background, he's not crazy about hydraulic. Hydraulic roller doesn't give you a ton more over hydraulic flat other than some reduced friction and a profile that allows valves to open and close quicker. But it's still hydraulic.

In your case, I'd definitely fill out the cam recommendation form and have one of their techs reach out to you. Camquest just doesn't take everything into account, especially anything EFI.
 
I like that new cam spec, should run nicely. I get the reason you're swapping, what's not to like about a motor that pulls to redline?
 
AJs72K5 said:
There's a few reasons Greg. I actually put 300 miles on the clock before the tranny died. Enough miles for me to know I didn't make great choices on the mufflers and cam.

The Lunati had a huge bottom end, but quit pulling hard between 4500 - 5000.

I've got a bad lifter too. It's not filling completely with oil, or bleeding off too quickly, causing it to make noise. It's not damaging the engine, but I can't set the lash correctly on it. At a minimum, I'd have to pull the intake to fix it.

Lastly, my engine guy say if you're gonna go roller, Might as Well do solid. With his racing background, he's not crazy about hydraulic. Hydraulic roller doesn't give you a ton more over hydraulic flat other than some reduced friction and a profile that allows valves to open and close quicker. But it's still hydraulic.

In your case, I'd definitely fill out the cam recommendation form and have one of their techs reach out to you. Camquest just doesn't take everything into account, especially anything EFI.
Click to expand...


I hear ya! :waytogo:

Way back in the old days when I was first spec'ing out the motor, I was obsessed with peak torque "off idle"... figuring that was going to get a heavy truck off the line and moving quickly. In reality, I've got such deep axle gearing (5.26:1) that I'm going to build a lot of TQ at the wheels no matter what!!!!.... realistically, I think that what I really should be shooting for is a setup with a strong, flat torque curve all the way to redline. The gears are going to move the weight I've got... I just need to let the truck breathe better so that it can hit the upper RPMs more easily.

:thinking:


-G
 
Sorry to hear about the trans, Gregducato will get you fixed up and will get that pesky 3-4 clutch fixed once and for all.

ramairbox.com is the place for the air filter setup, just checked and the web site is still up.

Mufflers on 3" pipe can be tough to get reasonably quiet, I ended up adding some round magnaflow mufflers at the end of my tailpipes to finally get it tolerable.

Be really careful with solid roller lifters as they like to tear themselves apart and fill the motor full of needle bearings. I personally prefer hydraulic roller cams on sub 6500 rpm big blocks to avoid the whole solid roller lifter mess. I agree hydraulic lifters are difficult to adjust, (priming the oil pump while adjusting makes things much easier)and they can be noisy on aggressive cams but they don't come apart. If you do run a solid roller then consider the Lunati bushed lifters.
 
bigblock72 said:
Sorry to hear about the trans, Gregducato will get you fixed up and will get that pesky 3-4 clutch fixed once and for all.

ramairbox.com is the place for the air filter setup, just checked and the web site is still up.

Mufflers on 3" pipe can be tough to get reasonably quiet, I ended up adding some round magnaflow mufflers at the end of my tailpipes to finally get it tolerable.

Be really careful with solid roller lifters as they like to tear themselves apart and fill the motor full of needle bearings. I personally prefer hydraulic roller cams on sub 6500 rpm big blocks to avoid the whole solid roller lifter mess. I agree hydraulic lifters are difficult to adjust, (priming the oil pump while adjusting makes things much easier)and they can be noisy on aggressive cams but they don't come apart. If you do run a solid roller then consider the Lunati bushed lifters.
Click to expand...

Thanks Chad. Good stuff to think about. :thumb:

Priority right now is pulling the tranny, getting it on a pallet and on it's way to Greg.
 
And so it begins....again.

IMG_2266_zpsgsht2xs6.jpg


Gotta say, I do like having a three car garage. Enough room to do this and still park my car inside.

IMG_2267_zpslc5uey9m.jpg
 
Ambiguous update! :waytogo:

I had hoped that the transmission was pulled a couple of weeks ago.... :dunno:

Is this the cam swap intro?

-G
 
Greg72 said:
Ambiguous update! :waytogo:

I had hoped that the transmission was pulled a couple of weeks ago.... :dunno:

Is this the cam swap intro?

-G
Click to expand...

I had my kids labor day weekend. Spent time doing stuff with them instead of working on the truck. :thumb:

Engine and trans are ready to get pulled out together. Trans will go on a pallet and off to Greg. Engine will go on a stand and start prepping for cam swap.
 
All the seals and gaskets will get replaced too (xfer case, trans, engine). After 5 years, they'd all dried out and were leaking.
 
Spent the afternoon wrestling the engine and trans out. Need to prep the pallet to get sent off to Greg. Then it's time to digging into the engine and xfer case.

IMG_2282_zpsytgik3ac.jpg
 
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