CK5
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'91 K5 Four Wheel Camper

This is the build for my 1991 V1500 Blazer, AKA the K5.3. It started out life being sold to the U.S. Government with a 350 TBI/700r4/241 combo. 4 years with a 5.3/700r4 Combo and now moving to an 8.1L Vortec and NV4500 5-speed.
I think they make a nice matching pair. :thumb:

Thanks, the family resemblance is pretty evident. Big brother and little brother. Only a couple of years apart. Can't wait to hear this thing through some pipes as the straight manifolds sound like ass.
 
Awesome build. Larry, you did a ton of work and it turned out awesome.

Back on page 3 there was a jack/stand thing on the back of the frame. You have any info on that?
 
Awesome build. Larry, you did a ton of work and it turned out awesome.

Back on page 3 there was a jack/stand thing on the back of the frame. You have any info on that?

Thanks! Rob has the hard part to finish it all up and dial it in to his preferences.

That jack is a Gray Manufacturing brand industrial 7,000 lb. pneumatic bumper jack left over from my dad’s shop. It was built in the early 90’s and handy as hell! I see older smaller ones popup on CL from time to time from $100 on up to $$$$$. We had a larger Gray sissor jack for lifting medium duty trucks that was overkill for the home shop that my dad’s sold for $1500 years ago.
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Thanks for the info. They have all kinds of awesomeness on their site. Looks like the modern version of that is the kl-20.
 
So Rob’s wife’s 2004 Trailblazer shit the bed Christmas Eve while driving up to Denver to spend Christmas with Rob’s parents. He got it trailered down here so we could swap the engine and while pulling it in the shop Friday afternoon this happened…surprisingly it didn't make as much noise as you would expect as things started flying out of the oil pan :haha:
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Carnage!
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A TB engine replacement is a huge PITA! Book time is 19 hours. There is absolutely nothing easy to get to on this sumbish! We still have to put this big finger puzzle back together now after a 20 hiatus finding a rear main seal for the replacement engine :mad:
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yup, put one together from two, sell it and split the proceeds...:woot:

That's funny!

Let us know how it goes Larry!?
Ours was a free bee that I may or may not fix. I do like the little thing though.
Lots of power and comfy to drive.
 
My goodness. We could have stuffed 3 8.1's in the amount of time it took to R&R the 4.2. I feel like I got hit by a bus now too. Many thanks to Larry and Bill for putting in the effort to get this pain in the keester done in only a weekend. Given how we got screwed on the rear main seal I wasn't sure we'd have the dang thing running tonight.

Note to anybody willing to be dense enough to work on one of these monsters when installing a rear main seal, DON'T- I repeat DON'T use the seal installer sleeve that comes with the rear main seal. It's smaller than the crank and will not line up the seal to go on right. We wasted a GM seal in the process and had to deal with the assclowns at the local autozone to get another one. No one in town had one, but they could have one in by 10:00 am today. I went over to the store without calling (dumb I know) and sure enough the truck had not come yet by 10:30. Came home and stewed in my own anger for a while, calling other stores looking for one, none available. Called the main store back a few more times and the truck still had not come in and it was going on 1:30. Finally got the call after 2:00 it was in and hauled ass after it. Needless to say I wasn't happy with the boys at the Zone today.

Still the engine is in, running smooth and the wife can drive it again. The boy can drive his S10 and I can get back to mine. That leaves the El Camino that my Dad loaned to us to sit for a little while. With this nightmare out of the way the focus can go back to the big Blazer. My exhaust guy came over to the shop to check it out friday night and we've got a plan of attack to go after. Should be going to him this week.
 
Been a little while for an update. Since Larry brought the K5.3 up to my shop I've been working with the exhaust guy for a plan of attack. I stayed late yesterday to check out my no shifting problem with the 700r4. Put it up in the air and commenced to pulling the Governor.
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I got the governor out to look for a wiped out gear or stuck valve. By the look, the gear is mint.
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The valve however was stuck like glue. I had asked our buddy Jesse for some help here and he predicted the valve sticking. A little brake clean and some atf and the valve freed up. I stuffed it back in and gave it a spin around the bullpen, no dice. Won't shift out of first. One thing I didn't do is pull the TV cable off the throttle body and snap it a few times with the engine running to see if the TV valve is stuck and free it up. I did adjust the TV cable again as it might have been too tight, but it didn't make a difference. I'm open to thoughts here for sure.

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