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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.
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swettysblazer said:
Let us know where you get the floor kit from....
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I went through auto-interior.com. price beat lmc by a lot and it comes with 40 oz jute padding vs the lmc kit with only 30 oz jute. The flooring is vacuum formed specific by application. Gonna have to wait for a good warm day to install it.
 
Had a minor setback today. Decided to run the Blazer to grab lunch again, just to make sure it's ok to run for the 45 minute ride back to my house Saturday. Seemed to be fine going over to get lunch and I pulled over to situate my tea and took off normally. Ran through 1st gear to the point that it was going to shift and then the engine starts missing. The engine is going up and down on speed and get some odd popping through the exhaust. I pulled over again, stuffed it back into park and revved it up. Still acted up. So I shut it down waited a little bit and fired it back up again. It seemed to rev up normally, but as it did before it accelerated up to the point it is going to shift out of first and starts missing/popping. I had about a mile to limp it back to the shop so I took it easy and got back. I noticed the temp climbing on the gauge so parked it and shut it down.

I'm not quite sure what to think the source of the problem is, but the idle did start to hunt just before it acted up. It didn't really do it until it got up to temp. It almost feels like a bank of coils shut down once the rpm's climb up. But once the rpms come back down it seems to run like it always has. It could be a big vacuum leak at the throttle body. I was busier that a one legged man in an ass kicking contest when I got back to the shop so I really didn't have any time to troubleshoot. I did look under the hood and all the connections seem to be tight to the coils, but didn't see anything really out of place. I'll have to take the laptop and cable to work with me so I can plug in and see if the data will show anything.

Note to Larry since your phone shot craps today, if you read this I might need your help in going after it Saturday if I can't sort it out before then. I really want to drive it home but I'm not risking a meltdown for it.

I'll fire it up again tomorrow and see what it does.
 
Phone is back alive. It snagged on something getting out of the rental car this morning and did a few summersaults before a sudden impact with the parking lot where the battery tape connector broke…..again. Made a quick run to Batteries Plus tonight here in Chicago after the meetings and got’r back online.

Geeze, hard to guess what the problem is until you throw the fuel pressure gauge on it and laptop to start monitoring all the readings with TunerPro. There could be a loose connections somewhere but they are all easy to see and reach to tug test. I have to come up to Canon Friday anyway so if you want I can drag the trailer with me and drag it back to the BigAssGas Garage on my way back but I'll need that laptop and dongles to talk to it. The ladies are going to FL next week anyway so I have a complete week to mess around in the shop. Just need to get the NV4500 R&R done whenever the trans shows up then start taking apart the HD truck Bill scored for parts. We can take a peek at yours before we start on Bill’s mess. With the tune out of whack and it acting like this I’d rather not see you drive it on the highway.
 
Sounds like a plan. Good to hear on the phone. I'll put a gauge on it tomorrow. No truck at the shop again today, I'm hoping tomorrow.
 
Take that laptop to work with you and see if anything compelling shows up on TunerPro. Off the top of my head I can’t remember exactly how to pull codes but the codes are exactly the same as OBD1... Same 2 digits codes as TBI engines if I recall correctly. I think may be listed in the long list screen in TunerPro. If it is acting that goofy a code should have dropped. I’ve been suspicious of the throttle body gasket being we never got a new one which could cause a leak and hunting idle but the other issue sounds more electrical than a vacuum leak but it is anybody’s guess right now especially with a 6.0L tune in it.

Also leave the fuel pressure gauge on it for a while after the engine runs and see if the pressure drops off quickly. Maybe we have some whizzing injectors. Pressure will probably drop a few psi after the engine stops but shouldn’t fall flat to zero instantly. It probably will overnight but not within a few hours.
 
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I'll take up the tuner laptop to check. We'll check the fuel pressure and I'll fog the throttle body looking for a vacuum leak. I'm with you, while a vacuum leak might cause the idle to hunt, that isn't what the problem feels like when it's acting up. The engine is cutting out for sure. Seems to be rpm specific once it is up to temp.
 
I've got tunerpro rt on my laptop but haven't had the chance to try it out yet. It combines the scannerpro and turnerpro into one item that does both. Still, I'll take the one that we know works right now to check it out. I'm not sure about tune being the cause since I've driven it a similar amount before without a hitch. Then again, my brain is shifting into high gear overthinking it. Need to stop and gather some detail before I start jumping to conclusions.
 
Figured out the driveability issue. Learned something too. I took it out again today and sure enough once the engine was up to temp it started to act up and the temp gauge would start to climb. Pulled over and checked the basics and discovered the coolant was low. Seems as if there might be some self preservation measure in the mefi4 system and it was shutting it down. I knew the radiator has a leak at the seam, but never rechecked while it was up at the shop. I got back to the shop and topped off the coolant and the system went back to normal. Revved up normally and didn't act up at all.

Still Larry is going to trailer it back to his place tomorrow. I'll pull the radiator and take it to the shop and get it soldered.
 
Yeah I feel like an ass for not looking at the coolant level. But the gauge never got past 240 so it got warm but not extreme. Had the gauge gone low I would have been screwed since it would indicate the coolant was low enough in the head the sender wasn't submerged anymore.

I didn't want to pull it apart at the shop for the radiator and deal with it being in the way of paying work in the shop. I'll pull it outside at Larry's. Thank goodness for our 50-60 degree days in February around here! Then I can get it home to start filling in the details, data logging and tuning.
 
Those issues are frustrating, but at least it was an easy one. Nice work on stepping back and clearing your head.
 
I had forgotten about the radiator leak. For some reason I thought you already fixed that. Good find! I wouldn’t be surprised of the MEFI-4 has some low coolant derate feature.
 
Well, the K5.3 is back at Larry's place now. He came up and grabbed it with the trailer. The leak was enough that it would have pumped itself dry on the way home. It was funny loading it up. Larry didn't bring the ramps so he said make sure the hubs are locked in and throw it in 4 low. I squared it up and just pulled it up on the trailer. A couple of my techs were watching this and came over to harass me about it. We all kid each other a lot around there so it's all in fun.

I'll get the radiator fixed this next week and start the tuning.
 
I don't use ramps very much with my smaller car trailer. Sits crazy low to the ground as it is.
 
Crazy.. It's those silly things I'll end up with a white head of hair instead of grey..
 
With the most of our stuff running 35's we better be able to drive on the trailer without ramps. If it can't what business does it have off pavement then?

Deliveries have arrived for the floor liner and stereo supplies. I didn't have a lot of room in the budget, but I scoured amazon for some cheap 6x9's and enclosures for them. Managed to find some Kenwood 3-ways for under $30. I've got the recycled head unit from a minivan we used to have at the house that I prepped the wiring for already. So tonight I soldered up the jumpers to the boxes and locked the speakers down to the boxes. I had to try it out so I powered up the radio off of my RC charger power supply and popped in a CD to give it a try. Holy crap these things crank. That is for a 10 yr old JVC head unit and cheap 6x9's. My son got home late tonight and couldn't figure out what the hell was going on in the basement from the loud music down there. He comes over to my bench to find this jerry rigged system is the source of all the sound. He just laughed at me. Pretty normal.

Radiator is at the shop getting the tank on one side re-soldered. The guy looked at it when I dropped it off and said it had been fixed there before. He said he'd take the old solder out and do it again the right way now. It's way less to fix than getting another one that's for sure. Should be ready tomorrow.
 
I used to not carry ramps. Broke a front axle shaft so 3 wd. Man was that hard getting it loaded straight
 
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