CK5
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'79 K20

Just gonna be a simple 3/4 ton truck.
Well the p-pump is leaking again. Saw a little puddle under the truck.

It's leaking for where the pump is seated into the reservoir... picking up a new one from O'Reillys tomorrow afternoon.

I hate removing and installing pulleys on these things.
 
Haven't touched the truck for a few days.

Pulled all of the accessories off of the front and cleaned the front of the block and heads up a little bit.

I forgot the harmonic balancer bolt held the crank pulley on so I jammed my crow bar in between the two to try and separate them after I removed the 3 pulley bolts... I think the balancer was shot anyway, when looking at the front of the engine while running the belts had a decent amount of side to side movement, looked like they were wobbling around a bit.

So I ordered a new balancer, nothing fancy just a stock 8" replacement.

Should be slapping everything back together soon.

Gonna have to pull the pinion support out of the 14 bolt and go press the yoke off then replace the pinion seal. Thinking about throwing one of solid crush washer eliminators in there that uses the shims while I have it apart.
 
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Also, found a running 5.3L with about 150k on it in a truck that a guy is selling for a very reasonably price... junkyard prices for everything.

I may pick it up, not sure yet though.
 
Are we going through the parts wringer on this one too?
Man I'm trying to get too crazy with it. I'm gonna set the current engine up and run it with the 400/203 for awhile.

If I pick up the 5.3 I'll wait until I have EVERYTHING need to install it prior to me pulling the current engine. I've got the 350/205 in the other truck and that would be going behind the 5.3.
 
The guy with the "5.3" has a vortec headed small block so that's a no go.

I did find a set of 906 vortec heads for $80 though. Still trying to figure out if these have the screw in style rocker studs...

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didn't you buy a standard intake?
I did.

I know the Vortec heads use an intake that has the bolts going straight up and down but I figured I could have a better set of heads on standby if the current ones ever give me problems.
 
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The truck is up and running.

Bought a fan clutch, got home and found out that I can't use it with the Flex-A-Lite fan, the instructions that came with the fan said that it replaces the fan clutch. Luckily my old fan didn't have one either but it did had the correct spacer to seat the fan into the shroud per the flex-a-lite instructions.

Made 3 trips to the parts store to get the correct length belts.

The truck is running real smooth. I took it out for a drive, everything worked how it should. Didn't see anything leaking either when I parked it.

Put some marvel mystery oil in the engine and some in the fuel tank. Gonna change the oil this upcoming weekend.

Planning on doing spark plugs and plug wires tomorrow.

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Changed the plugs and plug wires today.

Old plugs were pretty crusty.

Been checking the radiator and p-pump after I drive and let it cool down.

Had a bad p-pump cap yesterday and some of the fluid was making it past the cap and running down the side of the pump. Replaced cap and topped it off and it's all good.

Radiator has needed coolant every time I've looked in there.

Found a little ratio tag on the D44. Tag say 41 11 with a 37 under it. Pretty sure I've got 3.73's. Was hoping for 4.10's but I'll live.

Popped the fill plug on the 14 bolt and fluid starting coming out so I'm good there. Had a really thin layer of froth/milky stuff, like really thin so I'm guessing maybe a little water may have gotten in there at some point but it couldn't have been much.

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I've got a few updates on this.

Picked up a 4.10 geared Dana 44 and 14 bolt, D44 has a passenger side flat top knuckle too. Got the set for $200 out of a truck that was being parted out.

Picked up a 5.3 out of an '01 or '02 Tahoe that had like 150k on the odometer when it was wrecked, paid $400 for that with EVERYTHING.

Tore the 5.3 down to a long block and I'm gonna douse it in degreaser then take it down to the car wash and scrub it and hose it down.

Gonna tear the whole engine down and have it cleaned at a local machine shop, they're asking $100 to clean all of the parts of a disassembled engine. Not planning on milling the heads or decking the block.

Picked up some Gen IV flat top 5.3 pistons and rods off of eBay for a steal, they have the floating wrist pins.

I've got a set of x5 new 37x12.5x16 5 Goodyear MT/R tires mounted on the old chevy split rims that I was thinking of using with the 4.10 geared D44/14FF, they measure out to 35.5" tall. Not sure if the D44 will be able to handle those though... they're big, fat, heavy ass tires.

Also got the truck up to around 100 MPH on the highway on the way back from picking the 5.3 up, that was pretty fun.

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The trucks been running extremely well. The trip to pickup the 5.3 was about 4.5 hours round trip and the truck ran flawlessly the entire time.

The engine hoist that the guy had to load the engine in the bed wasn't tall enough and I told him I could lower the rear end and he looked at me kind of funny lol, went to the rear bumper and let some air out of the bags and got the engine in there just fine.

Not planning on dropping the 5.3 in there just yet but the plans for the 5.3 are:

• Flat top pistons
• Stock 862 heads for now, got a line on 243 heads but they're not currently in the budget.
• Edelbrock dual plane intake and MSD 6014 ignition box.
• Edelbrock 1406 or a Holley 4160 (have both on hand)
• Cam for torque, been looking at the TSP 212/218 low lift offering.
• LS6 valve springs to match the low lift cam.
• Schoenfeld 1302LS1 long tube headers

That's really about it, I'm not shooting for anything crazy but I'm thinking I can pull off 400 or so horses with these things.
 
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