76 K5: Megasquirt EFI, Electric Fan, and ICON Coilovers

[secutright]

secutright submitted a new Build:

76 K5: Megasquirt EFI, Electric Fan, and ICON Coilovers

Well I've been lurking the forums here for a few years now, pretty much never posted much, but have learned tons from reading through everything on this site. I've been working on my K5 off and on for a year or so now. Been told by a couple people that I need a build thread, so I figured I'd start working on one, given that I'm off work with an injury, and can't work in the garage... So, here goes....


My previous project, an early 70's baja bug that I took from stock to this. The only reason I include this is how I funded the initial purchase of the K5, by selling this. My family outgrew this not long after I got it to the offroadable stage.
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Sorry for the crummy pictures, I had a smallish garage and it was raining outside this day... This is the day after I got it home, pretty much as stock as it comes. Engine ran, but was misfiring pretty badly.
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Checked all my valve clearances, found a small intake leak, so figured I'd start there trying to chase down the misfire. And I figured I may as well do a small upgrade since I had the intake manifold out anyways...
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But that was to no avail, couldn't figure out for the life of me why I was misfiring. The K5 fortunately came with a donor truck with a GM Goodwrench Crate that only had 20-30k on it, so rather than fight with this anymore, decided to swap the engines out.
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The heart transplant ready for surgery...
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Upon teardown of the original engine, I found this. Some very nasty oil ash. The adjacent cylinder had a small amount as well. The valve seals and guides were pretty much gone, and it was just sucking mad amounts of oil in until it would eventually foul the plug and kill the cylinder.
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Maiden voyage of the K5! Went up to Coyote Flats, above Bishop, CA. Spent a long day wheeling around up there, We met at the bottom of the hill at 0700, and didn't get down until after 2100. But we had a ton of fun, and the family had a new addiction to offroading.
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Baker Lake. Absolutely beautiful area, I do miss living up there. Did some fishing while we were there, we were the only people on the lake, caught dozens of beautiful Golden...

Read more about this build here...

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[secutright]

At this point my good friend Steve (aka sreidmx) conned me into believing that I would never be happy with leaf springs, and I NEEDED to go coilover . So, the axle came out, started doing cleanup on it.



Bought some chassis brackets from Ruffstuff, and put an order in with Ballistic Fab for some axle link mounts which never did arrive, finally cut my own out... But that's another story in itself. Anyways, the chassis brackets just weren't landing where I wanted them, and so required some modification...




And the axle, about ready to go back under the truck. Complete with hack 'n slashed link mounts.



Rolled the axle back under the truck, sighting things to make sure it's all looking about like I want. Also cut myself some knuckle gusset/shock mounts and got those welded in.



I know they're booger welds. I was being too lazy to do a proper cleaning...



Started getting my links built, and bolting things in place-ish.



And my 14" Fox 2.0 Factory Series Coilovers. Would have liked a larger diameter, and I'll likely upgrade them down the road, but I couldn't argue with the price. Figure at least they're good for setting everything up and getting my spring rates figured out. EDIT: I just realized I didn't include my spring rates. For now I'm running a 12" 250 and 16" 400.



Coilovers settling into their new home.

 

[secutright]

First time back on it's own feet, with new legs!






At this point in the project it got put on hold, I got a last minute work transfer to Victorville, had 2 weeks to move and report, and couldn't take any time off for the move itself... The truck just barely fit on my trailer...



Checking out my droop limits. Please ignore my redneck jacking skills, by the grace of God I didn't die. Or children. Or any small critters...

 

[Phil513]

Very cool! I have camped up at Coyote Flats a couple times. Towed my old Manx buggy up there and banged around. Good times.

Love the truck. Pretty ballsy going straight to coilovers. lol.

 

[secutright]

Got my upper link mount final welded.



And got my links painted up, and started reassembling or what felt like the hundredth time.





Started articulating things to check clearances out.





Everything looked great, except for this. This was the only spot I was binding, my shock eye was too short, and was colliding with it's own mount when compressed... FYI, anyone out there doing radius arms with an axle mounted shock, do yourself a favor and get a set of the extended eyes, $70 well worth it, and kartek had them at my door in 2 days.

 

[secutright]

Very cool! I have camped up at Coyote Flats a couple times. Towed my old Manx buggy up there and banged around. Good times.

Love the truck. Pretty ballsy going straight to coilovers. lol.

Thanks Phil! I absolutely loved that trip. Went back up there multiple times, as I said I used to live in Bishop. Some of the coolest off-roading I've done! And I know it was gutsy going straight to it, but I had the extra money from a fire storm that netted me a lot of overtime, and I figured why waste money on leaf spring setups if I was going to be changing out to something later. I had the tools and previous experience to pull the build off, so I just went for it.

 

[secutright]

Got my 36's on the front, obviously have some fender trimming to do...


And got some reinforcement built for my panhard mounting.


Swapping the rear axle out to the 14BFF that I acquired from sreidmx, since he decided to defile the Chevy name and build a Ford chassis under his blazer....



I know, I hate the blocks, but I needed a lot of lift to match the front, and I didn't have time or money to mess with the rear end at this time. I had the blocks, so they went in.



Disc brake conversion on the 14BFF.


For anyone out there that's never installed one of these, the spacers that came in my kit were .125" too long, not allowing the caliper to sit over the brake pads. Nothing a grinder and a caliper couldn't accomplish, but it was a little bit of a frustration, especially since it's supposed to be "bolt on."

 

[secutright]

So, finally got the truck assembled enough to do some testing, and here's the results!


Steve's kid just hates trucks... I just think he was amazed to see a truck that was moving under it's own power! (Hint hint sreidmx...)









So that's where we are. Need to finish mounting up some rear shocks quick and dirty like, and put a little cross bracing on my shock towers. Gonna start building the links for the rear end soon, going to get as much as I can done before dismantling this time, hopefully make it a weekend bolt up affair (yeah right)....

 

[sreidmx]

Hey now! Let me clear up some stuff, it's your fault I even went down this coilover I beam road.. You had to go and buy that crap from ruff stuff and I couldn't be out done.. The one upping began after that lol.. So to be fair yours had moved what.. Around the yard twice and the first go around we sheared the trackbar bold off.. Then spent 3 hours trying to track down the magical bolt that doesn't exist in your town all while pissing the wife's off Royaly..

 

[secutright]

Hey now! Let me clear up some stuff, it's your fault I even went down this coilover I beam road.. You had to go and buy that crap from ruff stuff and I couldn't be out done.. The one upping began after that lol.. So to be fair yours had moved what.. Around the yard twice and the first go around we sheared the trackbar bold off.. Then spent 3 hours trying to track down the magical bolt that doesn't exist in your town all while pissing the wife's off Royaly..

2 laps of the yard counts for more than 20 trips up and down the lift . And yes, we did piss them off good that day. Good news though, tractor supply finally opened up here!

 

[82355]

I like it.

Martin

 

[sreidmx]

Most excellent! At least mines been in the air..

 

[FOR MUD]

Nice looking build. I really like the clean picts showing things up close and different angles. Just not sure about the green paint on the body

 

[Stomis]

Little bit of shimmage under that drag link and you panhard to steering angle should be perfect.

Not lookin too shabby

 

[GWeakland620]

That looks great man!!! Very inspirational.

 

[78K30]

looks great! Looks like they flex really good, what joints did you use on the lower axle end if I may ask?

 

[82355]

I love the green and white two tone.

Especially with the white bumpers.

Martin

 

[secutright]

Little bit of shimmage under that drag link and you panhard to steering angle should be perfect.

Not lookin too shabby

Thanks! The angle is actually pretty damn close, it just looks of from the angle of the pictures I was taking. I expect to have a acceptable amount of bump steer.

looks great! Looks like they flex really good, what joints did you use on the lower axle end if I may ask?

Thanks for the compliment! I was worried that my build wouldn't be well received for whatever reason... My axle end of the links are poly bushings in a 2" DOM sleeve with a zerk fitting, the chassis joints are 1.25" heims (Stinking big!), and I believe it's a 7/8 heim tying the upper and lower link together...

 

[78K30]

Thanks for the compliment! I was worried that my build wouldn't be well received for whatever reason... My axle end of the links are poly bushings in a 2" DOM sleeve with a zerk fitting, the chassis joints are 1.25" heims (Stinking big!), and I believe it's a 7/8 heim tying the upper and lower link together...

Alright thanks! I figured that's what they are, it flexes pretty well that way I'll possibly do it that way when I install my 60 at some point. And I can attest to how large those 1.25" heims are I used them recently to extend my factory F150 radius arms.

It's seeming pretty well accepted right now! I'm with Martin the green and white looks great.

 

[GWeakland620]

I'm with Martin the green and white looks great.

X3