I can snap a pic quick in a little bit.
CK5
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'89 K5 The Bulldozer
- Thread starter Tnsejed
- Start date
1989 K5, linked, caged, backhalfed, LS3, Hero case, on 42's
I can snap a pic quick in a little bit.
So back on track. After all that tuning and diagnosing and getting things ready here she is in her pavement princess pose.
Went and ran a trail I'd never done before. Red cone. It was gorgeous up there. And secretly it was a little test to see how the engine did at 12,000' elevation.
Was a great day.
Went and ran a trail I'd never done before. Red cone. It was gorgeous up there. And secretly it was a little test to see how the engine did at 12,000' elevation.
Was a great day.
Proceeded to break in the engine and have fun that season. It was a great wheeling season and I got out quite a bit.
A little carnage canyon from that year. :
Found the LS smoke show section on the notch. I'll get the notch clean one of these times. Went with 2 CK5ers @1977k5 and @THE TURD. I think I've got the ticket for the notch now.
Whats funny on the LS smoke. This section of that trail has just the right angle to make alot of LS' smoke. I've been at worse angles just a little different and no issues. But here, we've watched tons of people kill the mosquito population. I run 3 sides and down PCV with catch can. Normally the PCV system is to blame for this, but I do not believe that's the case. Its a very specific angle, and afterwards the can volume is no different than before. The picture is a bit deceiving as the angle is quite severe.
A little carnage canyon from that year. :
Found the LS smoke show section on the notch. I'll get the notch clean one of these times. Went with 2 CK5ers @1977k5 and @THE TURD. I think I've got the ticket for the notch now.
Whats funny on the LS smoke. This section of that trail has just the right angle to make alot of LS' smoke. I've been at worse angles just a little different and no issues. But here, we've watched tons of people kill the mosquito population. I run 3 sides and down PCV with catch can. Normally the PCV system is to blame for this, but I do not believe that's the case. Its a very specific angle, and afterwards the can volume is no different than before. The picture is a bit deceiving as the angle is quite severe.
Took the family on a 4 day trail camping and hotel trip to Crested Butte and Aspen. I always wanted to complete Pearl Pass and Schofield Pass, as its only open for a short period of time during the year. So we hits some trails as well as doing Pearl Pass and Schofield. I didn't snap to many pics but I will say Schofield is tight with full widths. Also saw another squarebody on top of Pearl Pass. That was cool and we chatted for a bit.
After a bunch of days of camping and being on the trail its fun pulling up to the hotel.
After a bunch of days of camping and being on the trail its fun pulling up to the hotel.
Ended the season with Montrose for my buddies bachelor party. It was a rough time of year for montrose as it must have been 105 in the shade. It wasn't the heat that did it though. I got to the trails and found a good camping spot. I was also in charge of the beer. I brought 52 of them for 4 of us figuring that would easily tide us over for the trip. I was also the oldest one by about 10 years. I was unaware of what I was in for. First night the rest of the guys get to the camping sight and we start cracking them open. Sometime around 1am it was determined that there would be no beers left.
It made for a really hot next day. I remember trying to sleep in my tent after the sun came up but it was like a sauna. We got on the trails around noonish.
This is what I imagine my head felt like inside my skull:
We ran a bunch of trails out there. Calamity, Cactus, die trying, topless. Heading back this season to finish off the trail system. I'm looking forward to that. We also met some of the club guys that maintain the trail system. He was shocked to see somebody in there. Said it definitely was a seasonal thing.
That ended the season. Truck did great and I'm very happy with the engine.
It made for a really hot next day. I remember trying to sleep in my tent after the sun came up but it was like a sauna. We got on the trails around noonish.
This is what I imagine my head felt like inside my skull:
We ran a bunch of trails out there. Calamity, Cactus, die trying, topless. Heading back this season to finish off the trail system. I'm looking forward to that. We also met some of the club guys that maintain the trail system. He was shocked to see somebody in there. Said it definitely was a seasonal thing.
That ended the season. Truck did great and I'm very happy with the engine.
I was going to ask if you had taken this to Carnage Canyon, but now I don’t need to. Looking good!
Red cone is a new favorite of mine. I did it last year with the camper on the back of mine. The lower section in the trees was a challenge not to tear the camper off the truck. It's pretty cool we've done Pearl Pass too, but that was the year before I put the camper on. Surprised a few Jeepers up there for sure.So back on track. After all that tuning and diagnosing and getting things ready here she is in her pavement princess pose.
Went and ran a trail I'd never done before. Red cone. It was gorgeous up there. And secretly it was a little test to see how the engine did at 12,000' elevation.
Was a great day.
You are doing it right! Keep it up.
I've been trying to hit it once a year. It's pretty close to me and is a blast to run.
This was the last good shot of the back of the truck. After that season I knew things were changing. I also had some major bedside damage and took one hit to the top of the bedrail near the tailgate which I had to come-a-long out to get the gate to open. Of note is that my entire length of bedside was plated to the cage except for the last 16" or so, that was a mistake. Obliterated tail light number 5 or something like that. I do apologize to all of the guys on the front range for the fact that squarebody tail lights are scarce in the junkyards.
So into the shop it went
I also had lived way too long without a plasma cutter, but its not really necessary for my work. This next step gave me motivation to buy one.
So into the shop it went
I also had lived way too long without a plasma cutter, but its not really necessary for my work. This next step gave me motivation to buy one.
I set off trying to plan out everything that needed to happen for a full backhalf of the truck. First things first was my original goals. They have not changed over the years but the concept of how to get it done has. First thing I did was sit down with all of the gear for the different uses of the truck and figure out exactly how we used it and where it went. For long family camping expeditions we would utilize dry bags on the roof. That was a great idea and worked very well. Sleeping bags, pads, pillows, etc... went in those so we could fit the big cooler in the back. I figured if I had enough space for all that gear fitting anything else would fine.
I also had wasted space with my fuel cell, and did not like how I utilized the circle track sizing. It was the worst for space saving efficiency with my setup. Having known then what I know now I would have built some things different back then. Primarily, I would have built an entire platform above the cell for storage. I also would have lowered my under-the-bed storage container about 4 inches and sunk the cell into the floor. I also had my jack under the bed. Both of those things were so high up they only got hit once. Sacrificing that clearance would have gone almost unnoticed and gained a crapload of space inside. With that said I would never run a non-bladder cell so it was kind of a deal of learning what I did wrong as far as space planning goes as there weren't a ton of options for sizes within my budget back then.
Fuel system stuff:
I was now on another walbro pump. I was going to have to redo the fuel system anyways so it was time to step up to a better pump and fuel system. I could make some gains here. I had setup the LS with Fuel Lab components (Reg, prefilter, and filter), which so far I like, and already knew back then where I was headed with the pump.
The vent was going to stay the same as I had that problem solved.
I needed a fuel shutoff that was fairly easy to gain access to.
Pickups. I had used the walbro pickups (one in each corner) for the entire life of the truck until the vent problem. I took them out to potentially eliminate another theory that Fuel Safe had. They were thinking that if the cell did get overpressurized, that pressure closed the pickups. Which then caused immediate cavitation at the pump head. Supposedly this comes from experience in one of their cells. Anyways I ran the last season with just a flop tube I made up and it was fine as long as I kept fuel in it.
Hydramat: Its 15 micron and that is a problem. Its cool as hell but the restriction is an issue. With my little motor it would probably do fine but I'm concerned with pump life for any pump flow having a prefilter like that. My flame suit is on.
I like the in tank pumps, and the surge tank tech is kicking ass right now. But I like external pumps more to be able to change them out and diagnose stuff in the middle of nowhere without having to break open a hot fuel cell. If you've ever had your arms inside a fuel cell when its at 100 degrees you only get about 10 seconds of working time before your skin starts to scream uncle.
So the plan was a custom cell. I wanted a tall cell with the bottom split in two sections and a pickup on each side directly out the bottom. Gravity feeding to a Y, into my prefilter, into the pump. The prefilter tank size and gravity feed not relying on a siphon I think is a decent idea.
That's all for now. More stuff coming tomorrow.
I also had wasted space with my fuel cell, and did not like how I utilized the circle track sizing. It was the worst for space saving efficiency with my setup. Having known then what I know now I would have built some things different back then. Primarily, I would have built an entire platform above the cell for storage. I also would have lowered my under-the-bed storage container about 4 inches and sunk the cell into the floor. I also had my jack under the bed. Both of those things were so high up they only got hit once. Sacrificing that clearance would have gone almost unnoticed and gained a crapload of space inside. With that said I would never run a non-bladder cell so it was kind of a deal of learning what I did wrong as far as space planning goes as there weren't a ton of options for sizes within my budget back then.
Fuel system stuff:
I was now on another walbro pump. I was going to have to redo the fuel system anyways so it was time to step up to a better pump and fuel system. I could make some gains here. I had setup the LS with Fuel Lab components (Reg, prefilter, and filter), which so far I like, and already knew back then where I was headed with the pump.
The vent was going to stay the same as I had that problem solved.
I needed a fuel shutoff that was fairly easy to gain access to.
Pickups. I had used the walbro pickups (one in each corner) for the entire life of the truck until the vent problem. I took them out to potentially eliminate another theory that Fuel Safe had. They were thinking that if the cell did get overpressurized, that pressure closed the pickups. Which then caused immediate cavitation at the pump head. Supposedly this comes from experience in one of their cells. Anyways I ran the last season with just a flop tube I made up and it was fine as long as I kept fuel in it.
Hydramat: Its 15 micron and that is a problem. Its cool as hell but the restriction is an issue. With my little motor it would probably do fine but I'm concerned with pump life for any pump flow having a prefilter like that. My flame suit is on.
I like the in tank pumps, and the surge tank tech is kicking ass right now. But I like external pumps more to be able to change them out and diagnose stuff in the middle of nowhere without having to break open a hot fuel cell. If you've ever had your arms inside a fuel cell when its at 100 degrees you only get about 10 seconds of working time before your skin starts to scream uncle.
So the plan was a custom cell. I wanted a tall cell with the bottom split in two sections and a pickup on each side directly out the bottom. Gravity feeding to a Y, into my prefilter, into the pump. The prefilter tank size and gravity feed not relying on a siphon I think is a decent idea.
That's all for now. More stuff coming tomorrow.
I also wanted a few more things. I wanted to ditch the lights and use the lights like I have setup for turn signals on the front.
Needed every seat to have belted in access to their PCI intercom headset plugs. This is a "Stop it or I'm turning this car around" family roadtrip thing. They would pull the plugs out on accident and sometimes on purpose, then start goofing off with each other, until I had to yell like a madman.
It also would be awesome if the truck was quieter. Its pretty loud. Its the same with the LS3, sounds way better than the 5.7l, but still loud. The tires are loud as shit too, but sound level going up the passes at speed would be nice to reduce.
Then the big one, weight. I wanted 500 pounds reduction off the back of the truck which would give me the bias I was looking for.
Needed every seat to have belted in access to their PCI intercom headset plugs. This is a "Stop it or I'm turning this car around" family roadtrip thing. They would pull the plugs out on accident and sometimes on purpose, then start goofing off with each other, until I had to yell like a madman.
It also would be awesome if the truck was quieter. Its pretty loud. Its the same with the LS3, sounds way better than the 5.7l, but still loud. The tires are loud as shit too, but sound level going up the passes at speed would be nice to reduce.
Then the big one, weight. I wanted 500 pounds reduction off the back of the truck which would give me the bias I was looking for.
I started taking measurements and designing some stuff up to see how it would all fit. I also needed to nail my 4 link numbers. I had a pretty good idea what I wanted to hit for numbers but I also wanted to leave a little adjustability. Adjustability of 70-40% AS , with a tad bit of understeer, reasonable changes through travel etc.. It was interesting with minimal restrictions of an actual vehicle I was able to get some damn good numbers with a ton of different IC lengths and roll center heights. I chose what I liked and then built the back around it.
This comibined with Bend Tech worked well.
First was to retruss my axle. Get everything old off of there. and Then get all the new stuff on. I machined a new tie-in plate for the pinion to truss connection.
This comibined with Bend Tech worked well.
First was to retruss my axle. Get everything old off of there. and Then get all the new stuff on. I machined a new tie-in plate for the pinion to truss connection.
Link mounts all fabbed up and starting to go in the truck.
Time to get rid of the frame.
Remaining section boxed from where it stopped before. Part of the cage in the truck was staying so I was able to tie in there.
That was as far as I could go with the bedsides still in. So it was time to cut the truck in half.
I left two downtubes to hold the floor up. I was keeping the floor.I figured after I got structure under the floor I could cut those tubes off.
Shop is a mess.... but it was awesome to get to this point.
I left two downtubes to hold the floor up. I was keeping the floor.I figured after I got structure under the floor I could cut those tubes off.
Shop is a mess.... but it was awesome to get to this point.
It was time to start giving it some structure again.
Sway bar provisions if needed.
One thing I didn't make note of above. The truck is now 8" shorter off the back. Wheelbase is out to 118".
I build more or less at full bump but I spend a ton of time checking things at ride height and full droop. I think its the only way to really build off an existing truck. Having things modeled in the computer helps alot but with so much of the body and frame never being square its bit me too many times with vehicles not to check all the travel.
New custom cell built to the size I wanted. 25 gallons. Full fabric liner. Testing cell clearance and desired seating position. Also getting harness mount position marked up for correct belt angles.
Testing some clearances before adding anything else. It sucks when you're jack doesnt go low enough....
Sway bar provisions if needed.
One thing I didn't make note of above. The truck is now 8" shorter off the back. Wheelbase is out to 118".
I build more or less at full bump but I spend a ton of time checking things at ride height and full droop. I think its the only way to really build off an existing truck. Having things modeled in the computer helps alot but with so much of the body and frame never being square its bit me too many times with vehicles not to check all the travel.
New custom cell built to the size I wanted. 25 gallons. Full fabric liner. Testing cell clearance and desired seating position. Also getting harness mount position marked up for correct belt angles.
Testing some clearances before adding anything else. It sucks when you're jack doesnt go low enough....
