What's new
CK5
Register an account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members.

'72 K5 - BYT - 1 ton swap

Overview Gallery Discussion
At the Fullsize Invasion Sand Halloween event last year, I managed to rip the frame damn near clean though.
20241031_172112.jpg
The only thing holding together was about 3/4s of the top of the frame. :yikes:

This was right at the end of the trail on the last day, and luckily someone spotted it before I got on the freeway.

A few of the guys grabbed some scrap metal and an onboard welder and patched me up enough to get home.
View attachment 20241031_173145.mp4

I've been busy the past couple of months, but I finally got around to cutting off the patch and repairing the frame right.

I welded on some angle iron and used some all thread to pull the frame back into position as close as possible before welding up the crack.
20250127_223045.jpg

With it mostly welded back up, I cut the angle iron back off then massaged the rest of the frame back into position before welding it up the rest of the way. Then it was time to add a frame plate.

20250128_181959.jpg

20250128_212333.jpg

20250128_221454.jpg

I made this frame plate to match the plates that were already there in front and back of this area. I hadn't reinforced this area before because I had bump stops welded on in the way. They were BS poly bumps anyway, so I cut them off so that I could plate the area properly this time.

I did the passenger side as well, but no pics. ;)
 
Chickntrk said:
This illustrates how adding plates in one area creates stress risers where they end....maybe you can tie your A pillar bars into a couple bars that run down to the front of the frame at the bumper?
Click to expand...
Yep. I have never understood boxing or plating partially. Just transfers stress. The Jimmy has zero boxing or plating. 22 point cage took care of the stiffening work.

Links and coils also release a lot of stress.
 
Smart repair. Leaf springs really do work over our frames, and you wheel harder and more regularly than most.

Chickntrk said:
...maybe you can tie your A pillar bars into a couple bars that run down to the front of the frame at the bumper?
Click to expand...
This is a great idea. With a couple of tie-ins down to the frame, this could make the frame effectively ~2' tall, a lot stiffer, and you don't have to remake a ton of other work to get it done.

One could also go for custom 4x2x.188 rails...

David
 
AgDieseler said:
Smart repair. Leaf springs really do work over our frames, and you wheel harder and more regularly than most.


This is a great idea. With a couple of tie-ins down to the frame, this could make the frame effectively ~2' tall, a lot stiffer, and you don't have to remake a ton of other work to get it done.

One could also go for custom 4x2x.188 rails...

David
Click to expand...
I'll put a pin in the custom rails idea for now.

Chickntrk said:
This illustrates how adding plates in one area creates stress risers where they end....maybe you can tie your A pillar bars into a couple bars that run down to the front of the frame at the bumper?
Click to expand...
With this plating done, at least it's beefed up back to where the A pillars and rock sliders are tied into the frame, but yeah, the long term solution would be to build an engine cage and tie that into the rest of the cage work.

I REALLY don't want to deal with going through the firewall though, so this will have to do for now. I'm going to try backing off a bit for awhile and hopefully keep the truck in service a little longer. :)
 
The more I think about it, adding some shock hoops to the front would spread the load too because you'd be essentially "bridging" the bad area and the shock force is more spread out.....but then you'd need longer shocks......and if you're going to do that you may as well go to links and coils
 
Chickntrk said:
The more I think about it, adding some shock hoops to the front would spread the load too because you'd be essentially "bridging" the bad area and the shock force is more spread out.....but then you'd need longer shocks......and if you're going to do that you may as well go to links and coils
Click to expand...
Yeah, as much as I hate to admit it, links and coils are on the table... but not soon.
 
Recently I noticed that my water pump was leaking, so it was time to replace it. A pretty straight forward project, so I decided while I was messing with the engine, I'd resolve my CIL issue. I've had a knock sensor code I've been ignoring for quite awhile now, but it's possible that it's retarding my timing and costing me power, so it was time to deal with it. In order to get at the knock sensors I had to remove the intake.

20250316_183601.jpg

With the intake off, I replaced both knock sensors, along with the pigtail, then cleaned up the whole area. I wanted to make sure that I didn't knock anything down the intake, so I stuffed paper towels into the holes.

Once everything was cleaned up, I bolted the intake back on, hooked up all the wiring and tried to start it...

But, Josh, you say, you didn't mention pulling the paper towels back out of the intake holes!!

Ah, so you're ahead of me already. :doah:

I spent about 45 minutes trying to figure out why the engine wouldn't start before it finally struck me that I never unplugged the intake holes. ugh. I spent the next couple of hours taking it back apart, rotating the engine around to open the intake valves and pulling pieces of paper towel out of the cylinders. I managed to get almost all of it out, luckily.
20250317_182628.jpg

It wasn't 100% of the towels, but as good as I could get, so I put it all back together and hoped for the best. Thank god I didn't use cloth towels! Anyway, happy to report that she fired right up, and after a few minutes of running a little rough, it smoothed out and appears to be none the worse for wear. There was a bit of a "burnt paper" smell to the exhaust for a bit, but otherwise it looks like I got away with it.

what a pain in the ass.
 
The minute I read about stuffing the rags in, I knew where you were going.

I had to cut the spring perches off of the axle on ReTonkulous today. Because I screwed them up a couple of months ago. So we all do something lame every now and then.
 
I had a tough time finding good knock sensors for the 5.3 in my Tahoe, I tried Dorman and AC Delco which were both junk out of the box and ended up trying Delphi knock sensors and they have been working great for over a year. After the third time swapping them I was pretty efficient at the job though!!
 
I'm always afraid I'm going to forget the towels in the runners.

As I was reading I thought you were headed towards serious MAW and doing a cam and intake swap. :D
 
cheavyk10 said:
I had a tough time finding good knock sensors for the 5.3 in my Tahoe, I tried Dorman and AC Delco which were both junk out of the box and ended up trying Delphi knock sensors and they have been working great
Click to expand...
The kit i bought was from dorman. Hopefully I'll have better luck.
mrk5 said:
I'm always afraid I'm going to forget the towels in the runners.

As I was reading I thought you were headed towards serious MAW and doing a cam and intake swap. :D
Click to expand...
Oh, @the_blaze was seriously trying to talk me I to it. :eek1:

I really don't want to go down any rabbit holes this year. I'm going to try and just enjoy the blazer and pigeonrat for just one season!
 
ashman said:
The kit i bought was from dorman. Hopefully I'll have better luck.

Oh, @the_blaze was seriously trying to talk me I to it. :eek1:

I really don't want to go down any rabbit holes this year. I'm going to try and just enjoy the blazer and pigeonrat for just one season!
Click to expand...
Nate did an intake and cam on his 6.0L and it sounds pretty rowdy. It would really up the enjoyment.....
 
cheavyk10 said:
I had a tough time finding good knock sensors for the 5.3 in my Tahoe, I tried Dorman and AC Delco which were both junk out of the box and ended up trying Delphi knock sensors and they have been working great for over a year. After the third time swapping them I was pretty efficient at the job though!!
Click to expand...
Welp, I had similar luck. Damn light is back on. I'll have to try the Delphi sensors next.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest Posts

Top Bottom