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'81 K5, "BlaZeus"- How to NOT build the ultimate budget K5; 3 & 4 link build

BlaZeus said:
Hey guys. Needing some advice on lower link mounting. I was thinking about just mounting them off the frame like the trailing arms currently are. But I was wondering if it might be better to mount them off of my X-member like shown? Would it make that much difference? If I do do that then that X-member us gonna need a crap ton of gusseting and support and I'm not necessarily looking forward to spending a ton of time on my back getting burned by spatter if I don't have to.
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Is there a difference in the angle between the two choices? ( Looking from the side ) If so, how does it change how you want the suspension to work?
 
FOR MUD said:
Is there a difference in the angle between the two choices? ( Looking from the side ) If so, how does it change how you want the suspension to work?
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Thanks for the reply! Maybe a couple degrees difference?...mounting off the frame will put the mounting points lower and the link more parallel which is usually a better design.
 
Hey so Its looking like I'm gonna need to do something with my fuel delivery before BB16. A old guy who has a shop near mine who builds old chevys I was talking to him and he was saying that the 1406 edelbrock carb I have is crap, it's not worth putting a off road jet kit or anything on it, and if I have had trouble with climbing inclines in the past then I should sell the edelbrock and get a Rochester carb and he'll tune it for me and it'll be good to go. Thoughts?
 
Tbi.. Simplest quickest way to our goal. Go pull a setup from a junkyard truck. Q jets are cool but for what you are after even stock tbi is better
 
BlaZeus said:
Hey so Its looking like I'm gonna need to do something with my fuel delivery before BB16. A old guy who has a shop near mine who builds old chevys I was talking to him and he was saying that the 1406 edelbrock carb I have is crap, it's not worth putting a off road jet kit or anything on it, and if I have had trouble with climbing inclines in the past then I should sell the edelbrock and get a Rochester carb and he'll tune it for me and it'll be good to go. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

sreidmx said:
Tbi.. Simplest quickest way to our goal. Go pull a setup from a junkyard truck. Q jets are cool but for what you are after even stock tbi is better
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Depends on his experience with TBI. People have always said, "Just go pull it all off a junk yard truck and slap it on!" but there is so much more than that. I purchased a wrecked 89 K5 to swap the whole TBI motor into my 86 Blazer. I even had everything (stole fuel lines, harness, computer, motor, everything) and reworked the wiring. I still had issues getting mine setup and it took me a couple months to get things ironed out after reading and rereading GM wiring diagrams.

It seems like he is on a tight time budget (don't know what the $ budget is here) since BB16 is next month. If he had more time I would recommend looking at the different TBI routes, but probably not the best idea to jump into a TBI swap with that timeframe, especially if you haven't done it before.

I would say either get a good Q-Jet and have your buddy get it setup for offroad (my brother still runs a Q-Jet on his 78 K5 with tons and I am always amazed how well his still does offroad...its 10 times better than my edelbrock I had on my old 383 in my truck) and you can make it work in Moab until you get back. Or, if you have a little more $ hanging around to throw at injection, get the new FI Tech bolt on injection kit:
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/fif-30002
Then you just need to redo your fueling (new pump and lines...probably a couple hundred depending on how you do it) and you are rocking. Can probably get it all bolted on in a weekend if you have all the parts in hand.

This is my $0.02
 
Kay86K5 said:
Depends on his experience with TBI. People have always said, "Just go pull it all off a junk yard truck and slap it on!" but there is so much more than that. I purchased a wrecked 89 K5 to swap the whole TBI motor into my 86 Blazer. I even had everything (stole fuel lines, harness, computer, motor, everything) and reworked the wiring. I still had issues getting mine setup and it took me a couple months to get things ironed out after reading and rereading GM wiring diagrams.

It seems like he is on a tight time budget (don't know what the $ budget is here) since BB16 is next month. If he had more time I would recommend looking at the different TBI routes, but probably not the best idea to jump into a TBI swap with that timeframe, especially if you haven't done it before.

I would say either get a good Q-Jet and have your buddy get it setup for offroad (my brother still runs a Q-Jet on his 78 K5 with tons and I am always amazed how well his still does offroad...its 10 times better than my edelbrock I had on my old 383 in my truck) and you can make it work in Moab until you get back. Or, if you have a little more $ hanging around to throw at injection, get the new FI Tech bolt on injection kit:
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/fif-30002
Then you just need to redo your fueling (new pump and lines...probably a couple hundred depending on how you do it) and you are rocking. Can probably get it all bolted on in a weekend if you have all the parts in hand.

This is my $0.02
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Thanks for the response! Very helpful! That new FI Tech kit looks sweet! Although it will have to wait for a little bit of saving up. I will check out the Qjet option and see what I'm looking at there.
sreidmx said:
propane is easier
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No doubt!....but how difficult is setting it up? A buddy of mine is selling his propane kit that he never used on his 83 Toyota truck
 
Propane is probably the easiest to setup, you can also run it dual fuel, so that's a factor, only drawbacks are availability of fuel, and mileage isn't as good and some engines if not setup for the pane are less powerful. But the basic idea is the tank is tied to a mixer , Has to be hooked to a coolant line to stop it from freezing, that has to be ran to the injector btw this is on my tbi, but on a carb engine you have a mixer on top of the engine or carb, and as far as I know you only have an idle adjustment other wise it's self tuning.
I could be way off but that's how it was explained to me. Propane has excellent anti knock characteristics so lots of compression and timing makes big power.
 
Radiator mounting started. Sucks having a radiator that is wider than your frame rails. Ordered a new power steering pump. Should be here by 3 or 4. And then gonna go over to guys shop and hopefully he's found the Hydroboost brake set up by then and so I can start on that. Slowly coming together. Truck may not have all the little stuff bolted on by BB but it looks like BlaZeus will at least be running and driving good, just maybe not very pretty and maybe not have all body panels on. Lol.

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Link building time! Cut tube to 43" so they will be 1.3x longer than upper link tube length. Beveled end edges for good weld penetration on rod end adapters.

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Are you doing radius arms again? I hope so cuz having a shorter upper isn't good for caster and pinion changes at droop.
 
jekquistk5 said:
Are you doing radius arms again? I hope so cuz having a shorter upper isn't good for caster and pinion changes at droop.
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The new lower links are for replacing the trailing arms in the rear 4 link. The front is still the same radius arm 3 link I've been running.
 
Sorry I'm late to the party again...

Long term answer is fuel injection. Of what ever sort. I like TBI because it will run itself. Much engine mods and aftermarket might be better.

I did run Pritchett on a QJet. Only mod internally was a small baffle epoxied behind the primary jets. This kept the fuel above the jets at a steeper angle. Ran it like that 3 years, no issues.

But Pritchett was the last time I ran a hard trail carbed. I learned TBI fast afterwards

My current build got injection before it got to any trail head
 
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