CK5
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Adventures with Big Blue
- Thread starter campfire
- Start date
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- Tags
- air supply rocks
Toofer...
Sits in driveway. Seeking purpose in life.
Insurance has been turned on again, this truck should be seeing some road time soon. 
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Ensureance is good, keeps things moving..
Pics from the short drive.
Neat to see it moving again.
Neat to see it moving again.
Observations from the trip:
This thing is fun to drive. I forget this fact each winter when it sits.
This thing continues its speed paradox. It's pretty slow off the line but somehow always wants to cruise North of 70MPH. Which is annoying when all the roads nearby are 55MPH at most. But how can such a slow thing so effortlessly wind up at much too high a speed? This has perplexed me since I first got it on the road.
The shifting is still quirky. Good firm 1-2 shift, super hard 2-3 shift (too late), and a mediumly-soft 3-4 shift (slightly too early). Doesn't spend much time in 3rd unless I move the shifter. Occasionally it gets so eager that it will shift from 2-4 directly (or at least feel like it). If I'm cruising gently I'll just let it sit at 1200RPM and let it work its ways up, but fairly often I put the pedal down and kick it back to 3rd. All these things have been consistently true for the 6 years since the rebuild. I guess it's just the typical I-hate-automatics schpiel.
Overall I like this truck.
This thing is fun to drive. I forget this fact each winter when it sits.
This thing continues its speed paradox. It's pretty slow off the line but somehow always wants to cruise North of 70MPH. Which is annoying when all the roads nearby are 55MPH at most. But how can such a slow thing so effortlessly wind up at much too high a speed? This has perplexed me since I first got it on the road.
The shifting is still quirky. Good firm 1-2 shift, super hard 2-3 shift (too late), and a mediumly-soft 3-4 shift (slightly too early). Doesn't spend much time in 3rd unless I move the shifter. Occasionally it gets so eager that it will shift from 2-4 directly (or at least feel like it). If I'm cruising gently I'll just let it sit at 1200RPM and let it work its ways up, but fairly often I put the pedal down and kick it back to 3rd. All these things have been consistently true for the 6 years since the rebuild. I guess it's just the typical I-hate-automatics schpiel.
Overall I like this truck.
Oh yeah...I only reached for the nonexistent floor shifter once. 
That's progress, right?
That's progress, right?
Your gears are to shallow.
Martin
Martin
Everybody says that. 3.08s with O/D are slow. Everybody knows that. But that's the way the truck came, and it cruises so nicely at highway speed that I have no desire to regear it. Larger tires are out of the question, but it's happy just the way it is. Street truck.
The K5 is a different story. It is losing the 3.08 gears. But unless it becomes a trailer queen I need it to be happy on the road, too. So it's not going as low as you would like it to be.
I think to keep both of us happy I'd need a 7 or 8 speed transmission.
I think some 3.42 gears would liven that thing up nicely and still let you cruise happily at highway speeds. You want a 6.2 diesel to run about 1,900 rpm at crushing speed for max efficiency, 3.08's are too much gear for that thing.
Probably. I do like the overall gearing of it now, but I'd gladly run 3.42 and 31" tires. 3.73 w/ 31" tires feels too low for a street rig, so I'd bet 3.42 is nice. I wouldn't mind the extra inch of ground clearance. When crawling underneath it, that inch actually makes the difference between sliding under the front axle and having to slide in from behind the front wheels.
But unless I somehow manage to blow both the axles at the same time I don't see the benefit in tearing it apart. It's working. I have lots of other projects that aren't working. But I can walk out and turn the key and that's worth something. It's not coming apart until some other project is finished.
Oh, I also wanna see some data to back up that efficiency number. The biggest reason that I don't wanna touch this thing is that it pulls 23-24MPG @ 55MPH and 21-22MPG @ 65MPH. With 140k engine and no particular signs of new parts on it (pretty sure the injectors have not been replaced yet). Few 6.2 owners claim to get that kind of mileage, and my 3.73/31"/700R4 Suburban pulls 18MPG. It's not an apples to apples comparison (the T/C lockup hasn't ever worked on the Suburban), but I'm pretty sure that the standard CK5 recipe of lift + big offroad tires + more power is going to get me down to a standard CK5 mileage number. I've heard folks say to run 1800RPM at cruise, but it seems like most 6.2 owners that I've heard from are claiming 18-20MPG, not 22-24. I don't personally have a lot of data points, so I would be interested in hearing any data that others have collected.
So as long as this truck is pulling fantastic mileage I think I'm gonna leave it alone (though new injectors should help the mileage out some). If I need a fast truck or a lifted truck at some future point that will change the calculus. But life is happy for now.
When are you coming up? For Luke's trip?
No pictures, but Big Blue hauled a trailerload of garbage & debris down to the dump today. 8840 pounds gross, 7120 pounds net. The truck is kinda sluggish with the extra weight and corresponding axle. But it does its work pretty well, IMO.
My truck has been down for 2 weeks now, and it is driving me insane! I'm a truck guy.
