82 K5-Texas4x4rebels. Thinking about parting out the K5

[texas4x4rebel]

More 5.3 pics.

More crappy cell phone pics of the 5.3 conversion.

Here's a pic of the brake switch, the large orange wire coming in the the power wire from the harness. It goes to the factory plug for the brake lights which is also orange then comes out as a white wire that goes to the rear for the brake lights.

The plug to the left on the brake switch is for the 5.3 conversion. I didn't have the original plug that went there anymore so I looked around all my old plugs from when i put the new harness in and found that the old neutral safety switch plug fit perfect. The yellow wire coming in is power and the purple wire going out goes to the pcm. It has power when driving normally and then when you hit the brakes it goes to 0volts.
It was hard to get a good pic up under the dash.

Next thing to wire was a speed sensor the pcm since I was using the turbo350. If using the 4l60e you have to use a specific pulse per mile sensor but since I had a mechanical trans I could use any ppm just had to have the pcm programed to read the correctly. I decided to use the dakota digital inline sensor it was very easy to install just unscrew the cable from the transfer case and install this inline.

Thats about all for the wiring going to take some pics of the fuel system.Then I'll get them posted up.

 

[texas4x4rebel]

5.3l fuel system

Since I had a carb truck to start unless I dropped money on a new tank and sending unit for fuel injection I would have to do a external pump. At the moment I am trying to get the truck drive able and not dump a ton of money on it. So in the future I will upgrade the tank to a sumped unit and a new sending unit.

I decided to use the walbro 255 pump which will be plenty for my current set up or anything I do down the road. Off the tank is still the factory fuel feed hard line into a rubber 3/8" fuel injection line. After that it goes into a 3/8 to -6an, to a -6an inline fuel filter. The walbro pump is next up then it starts high pressure to a 10mmx1.0 to -6an, there should be another fillter after that but I forgot to order it at the time so its on its way.Next up in line is the -6an 45* to push lock hose. from there its about 9ft of -6an push lock hose to the fuel rail.
At the fuel rail there is a -6an straight push lock fitting and then a -6an to 3/8" quick disconnect.
On the return side is a 5/16" quick disconnect to -6an then a -6an to 3/8"barbed fitting then to 3/8" fuel injection hose around the back of the intake, up the passanger side to the front of the engine down to the frame rail and back into the factory return hard line..
Time for some pics used a real camera for these.
Here is the hard line from the tank into the 3/8" fuel injection line.

Next up is a shot of the the pump and the whole assembly.

Next up is a shot of the fuel rail i cut off some of the feed line on top but you can see all of the return line.

Here is where the return line runs down the front of the engine.

and then into the return line on the frame.

Next up was the throttle cable and thanks to gm never changing there parts a throttle cable from a 97 c/k truck will work on this swap.
The hole in the fire way is a little different but all I had to do was have someone push the cable through the fire way while I popped the retainer into place. I did have to tweak the pedal a little to get WOT but nothing you can't do without your bare hands.
Hook up to the pedel is identical to the factory and the factory bracket at the throttle body slips right onto the cable.
Heres a pic under the dash its crappy casue i couldnt fit in there and look throught the sight on the camera.

Coming out of the fire wall looks identical to the factory 82 peice.

A pic of the throttle body also since my motor had a egr valve which I dispossed of I need to block the hole in the intake. Well thanks to gm they make a plug just for this hole to be filled.Which you can see right behind the throttle body.

The only thing I havent done is get a kickdown cable for the turbo350 the only thing I have found so far for this is to get a lokar cable to cut to a custom length.
After all this it was time to haul it to the local perfromance shop to have the pcm tuned. After they did there thing it fired right up on the first crank and ran like a champ.

Loaded up headed out to be tuned.

After a few test drives around the block the only thing I found wrong so far with the conversion was that i welded the exhaust to close to the shift linkage and when you would take off it would push the trans back into neutral.

 

[texas4x4rebel]

It looks like a lot of people are viewing this but not many comments I would love to hear what yallthink good,bad, or indifferent on what you think will be and won't be a problem. Also my parents just got back from the bank and found that I had some old savings bonds they forgot about. Looks like Dana 60/14 bolt are coming in the near future.
I found a guy locally that's has a set of cucv axles for sale with 4.56 for $1200. I know I need to go with a deeper gear running 40s but at least I can take it out and wheel for a little bit since I still have the 10/12 bolt right now with 3.08.
Does that sound like a fair price.

 

[chalet2506]

Rig looks great, definitely need the new axles. I think 1200 is a little much unless they're ready to bolt up - good bearings, good brakes, spring perches moved, etc.. I'm a cheapass though.

I'd be worried about the th350, but you can wait until it goes boom to upgrade.

 

[COCHEV]

I think $1200 for 25 year old axles is high, still, it never stops people from asking that much. And there still isn't any other bolt in alternative to the front dana 60 for our rigs. that being said, the fact that they are cucv, 4.56s and a rear locker make em a good find. go offer a grand

Otherwise, cool ass rig and the camo is a much better color choice imo...

 

[Nazarethk5]

your truck is sick man you made that swap look easy. I really like the higher lift its just rite not too high.

 

[texas4x4rebel]

I'd be worried about the th350, but you can wait until it goes boom to upgrade.

That's pretty much the plan.

I think $1200 for 25 year old axles is high, still, it never stops people from asking that much. And there still isn't any other bolt in alternative to the front dana 60 for our rigs. that being said, the fact that they are cucv, 4.56s and a rear locker make em a good find. go offer a grand

Otherwise, cool ass rig and the camo is a much better color choice imo...

I haven't talked to him yet but my Buddie has talked to him about the rocks he is selling and it sounds like he will probably take less.
I also like the camo paint much better the green was a teenage decision.
Thanks for the comments guys makes me feel better that im on the right track.

 

[texas4x4rebel]

A few last 5.3 details

Well I was able to take care of the shift linkage problem pretty easy I had about 3in of rod sticking out the bottom of the adjuster so I busted out the and trimmed it up. In the pic i just took you can see a issue I had never noticed before but I think its time to upgrade the shakle and bushing cause the frame has takin a new direction right above the spring. Also I forgot to put the third bolt in the manifold but no leaks.

Also another problem I found was that one of the triggers from the pcm for the #2 fan is pulsing rather than holding a solid ground. So once I make it back out to the tuner he can fix that, for now I just wired them both to trigger off the #1 fan control.
Also since I no longer have a choke I wired the SES light into the choke light in the dash rather than running a new light just for that. Works great!

After many short test drives with no other issues I decided it was time to bring it home since me and my wife bought a house and dont need to store the blazer at my parents anymore.

Before bringing it home I needed to put the bumper back on and I decided to paint the old grill that the chrome was flaking off and it had cracked in a few places looks much better now not as easy to tell that is all nasty.
Befor

After

I drove it home with no issues just a little brake squeal from the truck sitting for so long.Its about a 30 min drive but only 10miles thanks to traffic.

So I messured my garage and the blazer when I was doing the engine swap to see if it would fit in there and I knew it was going to be within a half inch of weather or not it would fit and no body belived me that it would fit.
My DD a 2001 sirrea with a 6in kit and 35s fits with lots of room so I had an idea that the blazer with 11in and 39.5s would fit.
I put a set of 235s on the blazer and pulled it in slowly wouldnt fit. I let the air out of the tires and withmy father and law pushing the door up just a little extra clearance it squeaked in there. Also had to throw the boggers in the bed to get alittle more sag.

Getting the blazer in the garage was the point in the day the bad was that on the drivers front I had been rolling around on 5 lugs cause a lug nut snapped off sometime ago but taking the lug nuts off two more snapped off. So I pulled it in the garage with on three lugs on the right front. Also I didnt have the diff jacked up quite high enough to get the wheel off so I was moving it front to back since it was draging on the hub and noticed that the diff and spring was moving front to back also NOT GOOD.
Checked it out and found that the front spring perch was rocking all the rivets have worked loose.
Thats all for tonight work tomorrow so gotta call it an early night.

 

[TruckinFool]

Turning out to be a bad ass truck man. Judging from how it drives on 40's how do you think 33's 5.3/t350 and 3.07's will be? I might be getting stuck like that for a bit.

 

[MTBLAZER89]

Looks good dude! Thats about how mine fits in the garage too!

 

[texas4x4rebel]

Turning out to be a bad ass truck man. Judging from how it drives on 40's how do you think 33's 5.3/t350 and 3.07's will be? I might be getting stuck like that for a bit.

I think you should be ok like that for a while it actually drives pretty nice like that for what it is. There is definitely a big power increase for being all stock my old carbed motor had edelbrock intake and carb, a comp extreme 4x4 cam, and long tube headers.

Also having fuel injection is a dream no longer needing to wait for the engine to warm up all I do is jump in hit the key and it fires up first try everytime.

 

[TruckinFool]

Good to hear.. cant wait to get this thing running!

 

[texas4x4rebel]

Fixed the front spring hanger and wheel lugs.

Well I got hardware and started to work on replacing the worn out rivits if I had my axles already with crossover i would of switched to the 52s but thats down the line.
Heres a pic of the bad mount.

I got started pulling the rivets out lucky I had my airhammer and they were fairly easy to remove. While working on this I found that the front inner hole had a small crack running from inner hole out to the edge.

Its hard to see but i ground down the paint to prep it for welding.

Alittle welding not bad for leaving my mask in my wifes car.

And all bolted back together.

Also heres one of the rivits that was still in ok shape after the airhammer.

I also had to fix the wheel lugs that i broke off.

Thought I would post some pics of the hub dissassembly incase some one hasen't seen it.
After pulling the six allen screws out just pull the outer hub off and you should be looking at this.

Here you can see the actual locking part of the hub. Also I pulled the snap ring out of the outer hub enought that you can see where it is installed after pulling the ring out install two screws back into hub and pull it out. I had to rock it a little at first to brake it loose. Next you will see this.

At the bottom you can see the hub nut and lock ring just unscrew the first nut remove the lock ring and unscrew the second nut. After this the hub and brake should come right off.
Just reverse the order to reinstall.make sure you dont over tighten the hub nut and have the spline on the lock ring linedup with the groove on the spindle.

 

[76zimmer]

I think pricing on those axles is dependant on your area. I paid 900 for a whole 1ton drivetrain, w/o engine, but now have over 3K in the axles alone.

 

[BulldogK5]

This looks like a well thought out rig. I personally like the lime green paint but the camo with the chrome accents was cool in a different kind of way too. I guess I just like the flashy shiny stuff.

I would like more info on the GN though. I have wanted one of those since I was a kid. That or a MC-SS or 442 of similar vintage.

 

[Fixer]

I really like this build too. I fish up at Marshal Creek. PM me if you ever want to go wheelin.

 

[texas4x4rebel]

I really like this build too. I fish up at Marshal Creek. PM me if you ever want to go wheelin.

Where you located some of your pics look like your in one of the subdivisions around me.

 

[texas4x4rebel]

I would like more info on the GN though. I have wanted one of those since I was a kid. That or a MC-SS or 442 of similar vintage.

It's my bros gn its a 86 with some engine mods and suspension he's having some trans and speedo problems so it sits alot still fun to drive though.


Started on the removal of the 3" body going to a 1" also gotta start grinding out the dash for some new gauges.

 

[texas4x4rebel]

body lift coming off

Finally got around to taking the 3" off and dropping down to a 1" yea I went cheap and just cut my old pucks down with a band saw but I see no loss of structural integrity doing this. Just went down to the hardware and bought new grade 8 bolts two inches shorter. Yes it cluttered but most the stuff is my brother-n-laws he was just relocated so I was storing his stuff.
Half way there.

Heres a pic of the one of the pucks cut down and installed.

Still waiting on my gauges to come in but a buddy had a old broken one that I used to start mocking them up. The tach is old and just a temp.

Gotta head back to work tomorrow haven't worked since Saturday gotta love a paid day off.

 

[texas4x4rebel]

Finsihed up everything for the body lift saturday and ran the exhaust out the rear didnt like it dumping under the truck.
Took it out in the field/drainage ditch for my neighborhood need to trim the fenders left rear tire grabed the fender and bent the sheet metel down
then backing into the driveway the left front fender damn near got riped off. Also took the top off sunday. Only pick I have taken so far.