BENDER stays in hibernation with me

[K85 Octane]

From a young age I've been into offroading. Normally as a passenger with my Dad, I've had so much fun. When I bought my first truck however, it was a new trouble free, good gas millage, lowered S10. I still have it, its my DD. I bought a quad 3 years later, '04. I still needed that 4x4 though and it had to be a K5. Finally had the money late last year to buy this.

K5 Silverado, 350, 700r4, 3/4ton D44 and 14BFF. 16" Centerlines and newish offbrand 31"s.
My first used car purchase, which comes into play later. The picture is from my first time out with it. The shell it came with had old rack holes drilled all over it. Cut it up and threw it away after no one wanted it. Picked up the white one for $100. No holes and it had sliding windows.

 

[K85 Octane]

I picked it up about 300 miles away. Bringing a friend with me and lots of tools, fluids, and money, I made the drive without any trailer available. Looked it over, talked with the guy, and drove it around by myself. The PO was waiting to pick up his daughter and had time on his hands. Ended up checking the compression and replacing all the spark plugs, before I said I wanted it. 140-145 psi on all cylinders, low but even. It drove nice, no rust, no visual damage, and so I ended up getting it for 1400 bucks. A decent deal over anything local in the Los Angeles area. Only thing I hated was driving it home like this. It did have a temporary gas and temp gauge. Heating and A/C work very nice.

 

[K85 Octane]

Got it home and started further inspection. Ripped out all the old POS wiring someone did for a stereo. POS speakers and sub box. My god, who wires things with different size wires, butt spiced together, all in one run? Going from something like 12awg at the battery, to 16awg connected under the bench seat that runs to a sub. Gezz, the 6x9's mounted in the panels were just as bad.

The seats are out of a late model Tahoe. Driver side is electric, but slow. No big deal. Did find out it was mounted with only 2 bolts. The passenger side is manual, mounted with 3 bolts lol. The carpet was decent, looked like it was removed from the same Tahoe, fit ok. All molding and rails were good, headliner too. All windows and locks are electric, they all work ok.

I ended up hating the headliner and sold all the molding for a good price. I didn't like the rear carpet so I ripped it out as well. At the time, I kept the front carpet. After working on it some more and needing to fix the seat mounts, I pulled the front carpet out too.

 

[K85 Octane]

A little ahead of myself.
Before pulling the carpet or taking anything apart, I checked some other vitals.
I had a trusted transmission shop look over the axles, trans, and transfer case. Replaced a fork, then split and resealed the leaky case on the 208. The trans had a leaky cooler line, the inside look decent enough to hold together for now. Axles are open diffs w/3.73s. Look decent, no replacing at this time.

First of the purchase was realizing not all carbs are "carbs". Some are CCC pieces of joy.

 

[K85 Octane]

Was driving it one day and it started getting hot. Was closer to Fathers house than my own. Parked it there for a day. Pulled the stat out, added some water, and drove it home.
Ended up replacing some things while I was at it.
Water pump
Larger radiator (stocker had couple pinholes)
new gates belts and hoses
fixed battery cables and battery holder
water neck, gasket, T-stat

Back in business
Took it a little further to Gorman for some climbing tests. Sorry, video is in HD 60fps and the computer can't handle it.

 

[K85 Octane]

found a fan and on my way out...found some shock towers. Mark8 fan. My friend has one in his OJ Simpson Bronco, seems to work very well, dual speed. The fan's shroud also fits perfectly inside the Blazers stock shroud. I think I'll modify the stock shroud, cutting the unnecessary parts and keeping what is needed for the E-fan.

 

[K85 Octane]

I joined CK5 cause of it's wealth of info and helpful people. There was so much info I found on suspension setups, long travel shocks, and axles that I thought "even without using the forum again, this info is worth the subscription payment as a thank you." I didn't know the sleepless nights I had coming, so much info and ideas, the damn brain wont turn off lol.

I've collected some parts while driving the truck. What I'm looking to do is a 4" lift, 1" body lift, and 1" 0 rates. I think this will keep the majority of the weight low, but still let me run 35-36" tires w/trimming. The 1" body lift is mainly there to give me room to clock the transfercase. Most of my parts are used or pre-purchased new, trying to save the funds. Got some TC HD4" front springs w/0 rate, rear 56" suburban springs, ORD 4" shackle flip, and some ORD greaseable bolts and front shackles. The front 0 rates will be moved an inch forward.

 

[K85 Octane]

More parts in the garage than on the truck. I also picked up some D44 flat top knuckles and had the one machined. I learned a little bit about pressing in ball joints, so I bought a harbor freight special ball joint/ u joint press. I'm hoping that was the hard part, but I've read torquing them is the funnest. O, and I'm learning how much it sucks to buy parts and change your mind. Anyone need a new fan clutch or swag bar bushings?

 

[K85 Octane]

Hehehe I like show and tell. What do you all think? Unfortunately I'm a little behind, the story continues farther than the thread.
More parts to add to garage:
4:56 gears
rear Detroit locker with install kit (pre-purchased new, bought them $300)
rear disc brake conversion with calipers, rotors, brake lines, everything
proportioning valve
front Eaton or Detroit trutrack, or something, can't remember what it's called lol
install kit, new u joints, Warn premium hubs

 

[tRustyK5]

looks good so far, keep the pic's and stuff coming!

Rene

 

[K85 Octane]

Ok, trying to get the timeline correct

I was starting to look into having the axles set up. Got some quotes, but figured I'll leave the lift for later. Then.........

Seems the engine just wasn't happy with it's new owner, or PO I"m sure. It stopped getting hot, but there were other things going on. If I drove it far (40+ miles) it would start spitting coolant back through the reservoir bottle. The hoses were also under a lot of pressure, days later I could open the radiator cap and have pressure escape. O crap. I knew something wasn't right long ago, but never really cared enough to stop driving it It was fun and an absolute PLEASURE to drive.

Well, it was a blown head gasket or something. So I tore into everything and realized " this thing has been apart and thrown together before". There were miss-matched bolts everywhere. I thought maybe the passenger side manifold was cracked (seems popular) but no....the bolts holding it on where too long and where bottoming out before getting tight enough. Ugg. Couple different ones on the intake manifold too. From this point on, I knew I'm in for a new motor.

Fast forward> pulled the heads off and found a puddle of coolant in #7 cylinder. Figured as much since that spark plug was a different color and smelled like....coolant! The motor is a 30 over 2 bolt 207 block and currently in the recycle pile. The connecting rod nuts where all the same except 3, they were I think 14mm lol. Of course the piston with 2 shots of coolant on top of it was a mess, top ring was broken in a few pieces.

 

[K85 Octane]

looks good so far, keep the pic's and stuff coming!

Rene

Thanks man. I'm a little behind with the story. I've had it ~8 months and the progress has been super slow. The engine going out was a major blow to getting anything else done. With the rain and a few colds I've had, jack squat is all I've accomplished.

 

[K85 Octane]

because I had no gauges to start
sending units were questionable
and I'm looking to simplify the wiring (removing computer)
I figured these were in order
2 1/16 and 3 3/8
tach and speedo
fuel
trans
water
volt x2
oil pressure
"cool white" superbrightLEDs for the gauge

 

[K85 Octane]

My Uncle is a machinist. So I've been discussing what direction we are going with this new motor. I was talking about a 383. He has a few 4 bolt blocks, one is the newer vortec ~95 3/4ton block. 538 block?

Since I was buying a block anyway and my needs were met with a simple 383, my Uncle laughed and said "I have a nice 400 block too." Well... Lets build a 400!

So I'm now putting some parts together for a 400. Looking at a forged crank, roller tip rockers, hydraulic flat tappet Comp cam, 9.1 CR, etc. I'm not knowledgeable enough to pick it all out, so my cousin and uncle are helping. Hydraulic roller would be nice but damn they are expensive.

The heads are an interesting dilemma. I've been set on some 1.60/ 2.02/ 180-190ish runners/ ~65cc domes/ assembled heads. I've come across two heads I'm currently looking at:
$570
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/EDL-60909/

or

$1200
my other cousins AFR heads. Brand new 180 or 190cc (can't remember), 65cc domes, 2.02, 1.6, dual spring, also ported, really really nice heads. I think he has $1900 into them.

both have EGRs. World makes some nice iron heads but only 170cc runners.
opinions?

 

[tRustyK5]

Big runners are for high rpm, the smaller runners like the 170 cc runners on the World SR torquers are better for low to mid range with much better throttle response.

Rene

 

[K85 Octane]

Yeah, that's just it, I wanna make sure everything works with each other. I think the runners are 180. With a 400, they might work like 170s do for the 350. Unsure, still need to get together with with the brains of this operation and discuss. I've heard 170 is a good torque port as well. The SR torquers are also on my list, I like that they are iron too.

 

[K85 Octane]

Oooo remember I said this is the first used truck I've purchased? Well yeah, some things have caught my eye, things I should have seen before I bought it.

It has a replacement VIN in the door jam. It's not a salvage title though.
HOWEVER....I think it is, just not reported. hmmm
The frame has a big "86" written on it, the writing looks like junkyard or parts depot writing. All the body mounts are new looking. The front core support also has the same style and color "86" written on it. I've been to junkyards and I understand replacing parts is necessary on old trucks, but I think a picture is being painted here.

I am happy with the way it drives. Very straight, no wobble, no pull, stops good, rides nice, etc. So I think I'm lucky for what I could have ended up with. All rivets are in tack, no cracks that I have seen, and the shackles etc seem to be straight. The front end has new red bushings in the eyes.

 

[K85 Octane]

So since I've been reduced to waiting for an engine, it is my responsibility to be ready for it when it's done. I still need to pull out the old wiring, starting with the cruise control and replacing the iffy blinker lever. During that time I'll tighten up the sloppy tilt and replace the key cylinder. I might grab a new steering wheel too, but don't want to spend too much on just a wheel. That could go towards my clocking ring, body lift, or a new wiring harness.

This next week is a big test at school for me, week after that is my finals. Progress will cease for a little bit. I have been working on installing my gauges though and am quite happy with the way it's turning out. I hope the way I'm doing it helps other people with their own. I've taken ideas from various places, starting with Chevy305's build, and moving from there.

cutting the old gauge holder, Edward Scissorhands style. Getting things out of the smaller gauges way. With the larger gauges I was looking for a flat surface to mount a panel to, so I cut things accordingly to use the 4 screw holes in the corners.

 

[K85 Octane]

After the fact, I realized the hole for the light, just behind the shift indicator, was prolly something I could have kept. No I'll just throw a small LED behind it somewhere.

I had some 3/4 plywood and starting shaping what I would need to mount some gauges. On top of the plywood I was going to use some 1/8 aluminum. This was going to play two roles. I could mount the gauges to it securely. AND it was the perfect thickness to put the gauges right up against the old bezel rings.

 

[K85 Octane]

I cut a piece off the old clear plastic to cover the shift indicator, stock like. Afterwords, I realized I didn't need the extra amount at the top of it, where it necks in or squares off. It has just gotten in the way now. However, it might play a role later in lighting the indicator.