77K5. The IronMaiden...9/2 headed for Blazer Bash 20!

[chulisohombre]

those headers are sweet.dont have to worry about bending those flanges from overtightening.looks like you need to clearance the frame a lil more.even though you got that stronger crossmember in there it will probably still flex a lil torward the frame upon hard acceleration or just reving the engine may be enough to make it hit the frame.for the most part once its running you will know for sure how much to clearance it.then you still have to box it in that location so who knows.they are crazy awesonme headers though.the nickle will not let it rust im guessing.looks almost like a hairline crack in the flange where you grinded it.hope im just seing it wrong in the pic.[/quote]

would this be the pic your referring too?

I'll look at it again, but didn't notice it while working on them, some of the flange material is far from smooth, and may just be a "handling" mark.

thanks for pointing it out though.

yep thatd be the one.upper right side of the flange where t meets the tube.im not hundred percent sure but 4 wheel drive headers should give a lil more room for the driveshaft.i bought 2 wheel drive truck headers and both tubes come down equal and meet the same distance and angle by the shackle.i used 2 1/4 tubes to go through by the transfercase and it fit nicely and tucks in under the body pretty good.has about a 4 inch clearance from the body so i didnt worry about a heat shield either.yours may run hotter than mine tough.i only got a wee lil 350 in mine.

 

[76zimmer]

yep thatd be the one.upper right side of the flange where t meets the tube.im not hundred percent sure but 4 wheel drive headers should give a lil more room for the driveshaft.i bought 2 wheel drive truck headers and both tubes come down equal and meet the same distance and angle by the shackle.i used 2 1/4 tubes to go through by the transfercase and it fit nicely and tucks in under the body pretty good.has about a 4 inch clearance from the body so i didnt worry about a heat shield either.yours may run hotter than mine tough.i only got a wee lil 350 in mine.

that is a milling mark (at least thats what I'll call it) there are a few of them on the flanges, maybe 10-15 thou. deep. There are more in some of the other pics above.

I need to get my transfer case crossmember made up, then I will see how much driveshaft clearance I have, but it looks like it would be a clean shot to the axle without collector interference.

 

[chulisohombre]

glad it isnt something wrong with the header.so a good gasket should seal that off then.with a lift you shouldnt have to worry about the header or pipe making contact.the axle is dropped away from the frame with the lift so you it is already clearanced out of the way of the driveshaft.that is why i opted for the 2 wheel drive version.it seemed like it would be easier to run the exhaust if both came out at the same height.

 

[76zimmer]

It should seal good, the squared pipe that comes through that flange, will be the seal to the port, so the incidental marks in the flange shouldn't matter at all.

 

[Ned Kelly]

Nice headers! - I may consider those L&L's also. Is your frame a 1 ton? Just wondering if the headers may fit in a 1/2-3/4 ton frame without clearancing issues? I ask because isn't the 1 ton frame 8" channel and the 1/2-3/4 ton frame 6"?

Is is necassary to box the frame in that spot if you (or I"m thinking me also) grind off alittle to clear those headers? Something I hadn't given any thought to until I saw your posts on this.

 

[76zimmer]

Hey Ned, I think the frames are all the same dimensions, in that area, except the 1 tons are slightly thicker metal. My frame is a model year 75-K5. I will be boxing the frame througout for added strength.
I really haven't removed much from the frame, if you can look at the b4 pic where the frame is marked with an orange paint pen...And I think the weak spot is where the front spring, rear shackle mount is; where the frame drops down to the rocker panel area.

good luck with yours!

 

[76zimmer]

Well, this has taken most of my time since getting back from the Charlotte drags. My Suburban has developed what I think is a rod knock, and I've been looking for something with a little more Balls to it, and my neighbor had this truck....a 99 2500. It has 175K on the clock, it runs and drives real good. He is a smoker so the interior was literally dirty enough to choke on....thick smoke layer on everything in the front. I had to get the drivers seat repaired as the leather was worn, and had some holes in it, and some of the padding was torn up....that'll be about 225$ to get that repaired, otherwise the interior cleaned up really good, with a lot of scrubbing. I went through it from front to back, and put rear brakes on it, and changed all the fluids and filters in the drivetrain. Everything looks pretty good for 175K on it.
In addition to the fiberglass cap, he gave me a roll up toneau cover, and a hard lid cover for it.
I put a new set of Goodyear Duratrak's on it, and a new set of footwell liners from WeatherTech.

So now I got a decent daily driver again, and can let the burb set while I get to work on the Vette, then the IronMaiden again.


It was pretty much this dirty throughout:

The interior after the cleaning:

This is what you get with a brake job on a Michigan truck:

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Nice.


At least you didn't have to torch and beat off the rotors like we did on my buddy's In Law's '04 1500.

 

[blazinzuk]

that is a good lookin truck Dave!

Now back to work!

 

[76zimmer]

Nice.


At least you didn't have to torch and beat off the rotors like we did on my buddy's In Law's '04 1500.

No...thank God AJ, I just had to get them past the rust on the hub, and the parking brake shoes.....Is there a way to adjust those with the rotor on? I didn't see an access hole by the adjuster.


Here is a couple daylight pics....I sure hope this truck serves me well for the next couple years.

 

[76zimmer]

that is a good lookin truck Dave!

Now back to work!

I'm on it Eric, thanks for the pep talk.

 

[rdn2blazer]

Nice looking rig! good for you bud.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

No...thank God AJ, I just had to get them past the rust on the hub, and the parking brake shoes.....Is there a way to adjust those with the rotor on? I didn't see an access hole by the adjuster.

Honestly I don't know. It took us all day one Sunday last summer just to beat/cut the damn rotors off and by the time that was done we realized they had given him the wrong rear brake pads and the place was closed. I had to head back to TC so I wasn't there when they fixed and reassembled it.

Oh, what size are those tires, I like how they sit? Dad had a '00 K2500 like that and with the stock 245's it looked silly.

 

[Avery4jc]

That's a good looking truck and should serve you well. Those 6 liters are screamin' engines.

 

[76zimmer]

Honestly I don't know. It took us all day one Sunday last summer just to beat/cut the damn rotors off and by the time that was done we realized they had given him the wrong rear brake pads and the place was closed. I had to head back to TC so I wasn't there when they fixed and reassembled it.

Oh, what size are those tires, I like how they sit? Dad had a '00 K2500 like that and with the stock 245's it looked silly.

Dam, was that thing run in the water alot, or just from the salt?

I did find out that there are two different sized rotors....the big center hub bore for the 14bsf, and I suspect the smaller hub bore for the 14bff.
The parts guy was on top of it, and told me ahead of time to bring in a rotor with me....there is only a couple tenths/inch between them.

The tires are 265/75/16....31.8 tall, and 8.5 tread width, 10.5 section width.
The truck has airbags on it for extra load capacity. those are run @ 20# everyday.

 

[76zimmer]

That's a good looking truck and should serve you well. Those 6 liters are screamin' engines.

This 6.0 is like having a BB, after driving a non vortec 350 Burb w/ 3.42's.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Dam, was that thing run in the water alot, or just from the salt?

I did find out that there are two different sized rotors....the big center hub bore for the 14bsf, and I suspect the smaller hub bore for the 14bff.
The parts guy was on top of it, and told me ahead of time to bring in a rotor with me....there is only a couple tenths/inch between them.

The tires are 265/75/16....31.8 tall, and 8.5 tread width, 10.5 section width.
The truck has airbags on it for extra load capacity. those are run @ 20# everyday.

We were very surprised. Was supposed to be a "pull it into the garage, all three of us attack it, replace the rotors and pads on all four corners and be done with it" swap. Done in an hour or two. Then we discovered NOTHING on the suspension had been painted by GM. Nothing. You know that heavy coat of suspension paint that stuff like knuckles, control arms, brake parts, etc get? Nada. I think it's a cost saving or somehow that one got through.
Doesn't help that his MIL apparently never washes it and the few times she does in the winter it's the $4 el cheapo blast and go wash. Nothing on the undersides...the paint is shiny so it must be good.

Okay, I have 265's on The Blazer as well. They just look so much better than the 31's and smaller. A lot of folks see mine and seem to think I have 33's and a small lift yet it's stock. Only the tires and wheels are different.

This 6.0 is like having a BB, after driving a non vortec 350 Burb w/ 3.42's.

Hahaha, yeah. The TBI 350 isn't a powerhouse, especially with mileage gears and toting a Suburban around. Nice flat torque curve but compared to a rev motor like the LS engines, it doesn't shine.

 

[76zimmer]

We were very surprised. Was supposed to be a "pull it into the garage, all three of us attack it, replace the rotors and pads on all four corners and be done with it" swap. Done in an hour or two. Then we discovered NOTHING on the suspension had been painted by GM. Nothing. You know that heavy coat of suspension paint that stuff like knuckles, control arms, brake parts, etc get? Nada. I think it's a cost saving or somehow that one got through.
Doesn't help that his MIL apparently never washes it and the few times she does in the winter it's the $4 el cheapo blast and go wash. Nothing on the undersides...the paint is shiny so it must be good.

Okay, I have 265's on The Blazer as well. They just look so much better than the 31's and smaller. A lot of folks see mine and seem to think I have 33's and a small lift yet it's stock. Only the tires and wheels are different.



Hahaha, yeah. The TBI 350 isn't a powerhouse, especially with mileage gears and toting a Suburban around. Nice flat torque curve but compared to a rev motor like the LS engines, it doesn't shine.

Makes you really appreciate when a job goes off without problems doesn't it?

I do think they stopped using the coating on stuff quite a while back....I remember seeing new trucks with surface rust on the underneath components already???

These Goodyears are 31.8 tall, and its all the front fenders want without some trimming, and I don't need to get into that right now. I sure rides better than with the worn out BFG's on it. No more shimmy to it.
My wheels are badly corroded were the salt has got under the clearcoat. I cleaned em up by getting the loose clearcoat off, and using a rust neutralizer, and a heavy stiff scrub brush with Ajax on em....at least it took the dark colored corrosion off...now it just looks like snowflakes where the corrosion was...I'd like to get them stripped and polished and recoated, but that is down the list a long way.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Yes, it does. Two of us rebuilt The Blazer's front end easier than that brake job was with three of us.

My buddy knows a guy who does powder coating up by Wayland if you want to go that route.

 

[76zimmer]

Hey AJ, hook me up with his number or name....I'll not do the wheels right now, but I will need to do a little rust repair next year on it (if I can make the time) and I might get em done then. It also is good to have a guy that can do that for other stuff.