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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.
Overview Gallery Discussion
Larry said:
HA! That’s probably on me :haha: I used to use header gaskets with manifolds all the time in the old days to help them from leaking before we had someone that could plane manifolds. Since I didn’t have an exhaust manifold gasket listed for the K10 I assumed I used header gaskets like usual. Apparently not on an 8.1 :dunno:
Ah, well…it was a good character builder for you to wrestle the manys off and on :haha:. That truck kicked me in the sack daily for two months straight....your turn!
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Oh, I didn't do both sides. Took me a good chunk of the day just to do the one side. I'll do the other side on another weekend. At least that side doesn't tuck in under the head nearly as much and no steering shaft to work around. That side isn't leaking, yet. So I've got another day of fun in store.
 
I'm a little disappointed in Taylor and Summit. Taylor only would give me a part number to generic 10.4mm wire with the wrong boot for the plug. Summit's response was the warranty on the Taylor plug wire set is 90 days. They provided a different part number for a 10.4mm replacement but it does not come with either correct boot as the part description lists it for use as a coil wire with HEI boots. Plus I'd need a special crimp tool to do the ends on the monster wire.

I'm not buying another plug wire set for one wire. I'll buy the incorrect one to get going but I'm not looking forward to tackling the other side and possibly having more break over there.

Might have to engage the squeaky wheel mode to Taylor and push the issue. I've got nothing to loose there.
 
ZooMad75 said:
I'm a little disappointed in Taylor and Summit. Taylor only would give me a part number to generic 10.4mm wire with the wrong boot for the plug. Summit's response was the warranty on the Taylor plug wire set is 90 days. They provided a different part number for a 10.4mm replacement but it does not come with either correct boot as the part description lists it for use as a coil wire with HEI boots. Plus I'd need a special crimp tool to do the ends on the monster wire.

I'm not buying another plug wire set for one wire. I'll buy the incorrect one to get going but I'm not looking forward to tackling the other side and possibly having more break over there.

Might have to engage the squeaky wheel mode to Taylor and push the issue. I've got nothing to loose there.
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Just buy a set of these
Accel 9065C - ACCEL Extreme 9000 Ceramic Spark Plug Wire Sets
 
Rick Capito said:
Just buy a set of these
Accel 9065C - ACCEL Extreme 9000 Ceramic Spark Plug Wire Sets
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Those suck for a big block with a manual trans. Why a manual trans? Well, because you can lug the engine down to lower RPMs with a manual where as an automatic will never go below 780/800 RPMs. These 8mm Accels are too small and break down underload just like the stock wires and tiny RayLar wires. These engines need a big 10mm or bigger to keep the spark going at the low RPMs. Funny, my 2001 Silverado with an 8.1/zf 6 speed that I bought new always had a herky jerky “miss” when lugging at low RPMs and just figure it was the way it was. My K10 did the same on stock GM wires as well as the Suburban with 8mm RayLar wires. The RayLar wires barely lasted 6 months before burning open (not from the exhaust, the wire burnt open internally right in the middle of the wire on a trip to Arizona….total crap Chinesium wires with a nice ceramic boot), so then I bought these big 10.4mm Taylors and the low RPM jerk went away completely. After that I installed these fat wires all of my 8.1s and fixed all of them. Even on the stock 8.1 that jerked since new no longer had the low RPM jerk
 
Larry said:
Those suck for a big block with a manual trans. Why a manual trans? Well, because you can lug the engine down to lower RPMs with a manual where as an automatic will never go below 780/800 RPMs. These 8mm Accels are too small and break down underload just like the stock wires and tiny RayLar wires. These engines need a big 10mm or bigger to keep the spark going at the low RPMs. Funny, my 2001 Silverado with an 8.1/zf 6 speed that I bought new always had a herky jerky “miss” when lugging at low RPMs and just figure it was the way it was. My K10 did the same on stock GM wires as well as the Suburban with 8mm RayLar wires. The RayLar wires barely lasted 6 months before burning open (not from the exhaust, the wire burnt open internally right in the middle of the wire on a trip to Arizona….total crap Chinesium wires with a nice ceramic boot), so then I bought these big 10.4mm Taylors and the low RPM jerk went away completely. After that I installed these fat wires all of my 8.1s and fixed all of them. Even on the stock 8.1 that jerked since new no longer had the low RPM jerk
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They work great for me 0 issues
 
I intend to keep the 10.4 mm Taylor wires for the reasons Larry pointed out. I'm just annoyed that with no more than 2000 miles on this set I broke one removing a wire. That and I'm not in a mode to spend another $144 plus shipping on another set of wires when all I need is one.
 
Sad thing is, there's probably someone out there with extras laying around.

I'd probably buy the crimper to make your own figuring it's probably not the last time. Especially since you wheel with others using the same wires. But I also like excuses to buy new toys .......errrr tools.
 
ZooMad75 said:
I intend to keep the 10.4 mm Taylor wires for the reasons Larry pointed out. I'm just annoyed that with no more than 2000 miles on this set I broke one removing a wire. That and I'm not in a mode to spend another $144 plus shipping on another set of wires when all I need is one.
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Look at it this way, but a set and you have seven more spares:D
 
Larry said:
Because, like I alluded to above, low RPM is where the heaviest load on the secondary ignition system is at
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I must be sensitive to it because with the single stock wire on there I can feel the difference when I lug it in 3rd around a corner.
 
ZooMad75 said:
I must be sensitive to it because with the single stock wire on there I can feel the difference when I lug it in 3rd around a corner.
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It's one of those things where once you feel it and know what it is, you can’t unfeel it ever again. I suspect a lot of people deal with it and not realize what it is or even notice it

I don’t know what it is with plug wires these days where they just break so easy taking them off. PSI considers the 8.8L plug wires as one-time use only so any time our dealers pull a plug on an IC Bus they must order a wire. We sell them individually or in sets. They are the same ole Delphi wires we used on the 8.1L forever so there is nothing special about them except the cost…..because they come from P$I there is a substantial price increase :surepal:
 
Larry said:
Those suck for a big block with a manual trans. Why a manual trans? Well, because you can lug the engine down to lower RPMs with a manual where as an automatic will never go below 780/800 RPMs. These 8mm Accels are too small and break down underload just like the stock wires and tiny RayLar wires. These engines need a big 10mm or bigger to keep the spark going at the low RPMs. Funny, my 2001 Silverado with an 8.1/zf 6 speed that I bought new always had a herky jerky “miss” when lugging at low RPMs and just figure it was the way it was. My K10 did the same on stock GM wires as well as the Suburban with 8mm RayLar wires. The RayLar wires barely lasted 6 months before burning open (not from the exhaust, the wire burnt open internally right in the middle of the wire on a trip to Arizona….total crap Chinesium wires with a nice ceramic boot), so then I bought these big 10.4mm Taylors and the low RPM jerk went away completely. After that I installed these fat wires all of my 8.1s and fixed all of them. Even on the stock 8.1 that jerked since new no longer had the low RPM jerk
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Do you have apart number I would be interested in getting those I have a 02 Zf6 8.1 I found part number 99615 is that correct? Not to be a pain but what plugs are you running?
 
Time to get Ian's camper ready for prime time. It's in need of all the stuff Ron's and mine needed. The plan was to hit his place after work today and get the front lift panel replaced with the same setup I did using electrical conduit.
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First up is to get the rotted out original lift panel out of the way. Ian pulled it out without taking out any screws or drilling out any rivets, it fell apart.

In order to facilitate that removal, the top needs to be supported so some chunks of 2x4's on the edges out of the way did the trick. Yes, that's daylight coming through the canvas in spots. We need to seal those up for now until the camper gets new canvas.
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The new lift mechanism is really simple. Two sections of 1/2" conduit bent into shape where one nestles within the other. Overall, the height is 24" to support the roof with the canvas pulled taught.
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We trimmed the ends of the conduit to what we needed and drilled the holes for the pivot bolt exactly at the midway point of 12". The bottom bolt hole is 12" below the pivot bolt. We assembled it outside to make it easier to install. Learning from experience on that step. I had installed the two sections separately and joined them when inside. By myself, it was a pain. Having it assembled made it a snap to install.
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The bottom pivot is just a couple of "L" brackets screwed to the inside channel and bolted through with a 1/4" bolt and a prevailing torque locknut.
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Also having the bottom pivot kick slightly away from the wall allows it to cam over and lock into place.
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The upper section is held to the roof with conduit saddle clamps directly attached to the roof joists. You can also see the crappy particle board used for the cab over section. The dark stain shows clearly where it got wet. It feels solid, but it's warped pretty bad. Ian had to lay up there to drill out the rivets to remove the upper and lower hinges and it sagged enough to touch the top of the cab. So it's getting replaced tomorrow when we install the section of the stock top to the front of the camper.
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We got a lot of work to do tomorrow for sure.
 
Good work. It sucks the canvas/overhead was in worse shape than we thought. How thick you guys going with the overhead panel?
 
Capt Ron said:
Good work. It sucks the canvas/overhead was in worse shape than we thought. How thick you guys going with the overhead panel?
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The canvas is only a little worse off than mine. We can deal with the little holes. The particleboard being wasted was expected. I thought it was a little ambitious of Ian to lay down up there to drill out the rivets and then we heard the distinct sound of sheet metal oil canning we knew it was toast. That's why we had another board in there for Ian to lay on and not have it sink back down to the cab again.

We are going to double up two layers of plywood to get to the same thickness of mine at 1 1/8". He's a big dude too, so having the extra thickness will be worth it in the long run.
 
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