Black Betty - Formerly Blaze the Monster Machine

[centexk5]

Old one off. Not terrible except for the relief cut in the y-pipe for the driveshaft. Apparently this truck may or may not have had emissions judging by the remnants of what looks like an O2 sensor and the ECS controlled distributor I pulled out a few weeks ago.

 

[centexk5]

Got the headers on. They fit surprisingly well. I've got a touch of concern on the passenger collector next to the driveshaft. It's tight and I'll have to watch the direction the flange is rotated and even then it might have a date with a grinder. I had to remove what looks like an aftermarket bump stop bracket from the passenger side to get it in. There are 3 bump stops on the passenger side and none of them look bigger stock. Glad I've got new ones on the way.

Hopefully after lunch and getting the kids down for a nap I can start piecing together the rest of the exhaust.

 

[imiceman44]

Got the headers on. They fit surprisingly well. I've got a touch of concern on the passenger collector next to the driveshaft. It's tight and I'll have to watch the direction the flange is rotated and even then it might have a date with a grinder. I had to remove what looks like an aftermarket bump stop bracket from the passenger side to get it in. There are 3 bump stops on the passenger side and none of them look bigger stock. Glad I've got new ones on the way.

Hopefully after lunch and getting the kids down for a nap I can start piecing together the rest of the exhaust.

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This one is stock.
It's only on the passenger side

 

[centexk5]

Interesting. Well it's gone now.

 

[centexk5]

 

[ZooMad75]

Too much "brrrrappp" for my taste, but if that's the sound you were going for you got it. I'm just not a fan of any glass pack style muffler due to the cackly tone.

 

[centexk5]

It needs a crossover pipe for sure. Just ran out of time. I'm not a fan of glasspacks either. It's why I run bullets.

 

[centexk5]

Bump stops!!! Gotta be way better than the stockers that are on there. Yes, this truck has 6" of suspension lift and still has the stock bump stops.

Thursday the bulk of the new suspension arrives with exception of the springs. Was supposed to arrive tomorrow but UPS updated it's delivery date. Bastards.

 

[centexk5]

Parts!

 

[centexk5]

Finally got to drive it with the new exhaust, distributor, carb, and tune up. Holy crap does it drive good now. Starts immediately, strong down low. Very responsive. Gotta tweak the choke as a couple of times you could feel it catch and hold the throttle but that's an easy fix.

Swapped the bump stops out today and started working on the body lift. What a CF. The rear body mounts weren't attached to the frame, the body mount directly under the pedals was missing the bushing and cup washer so it wasn't attached, one body mount up front had a regular washer and one had a cup washer. I'm glad I bought all new bushings with the body lift. Now I've gotta go find some cup washers and buy those.

The good news is is that the driver side is on, mostly. Gotta shove the back of the truck over about half an inch to get the rear bolts lined up. Truck looks a lot better dropped down 2" and the best news is that it went from 84.5" overall height to about 82". I need 81" to clear my garage door. So once the new springs and shackles go on to drop me to a 4" suspension instead of 6" I should be able to park this truck in the garage.

 

[centexk5]

Small amount of trimming required to get the bushing to fit. Thankfully I didn't have to drop the tank. Waiting for the glue to dry on the last washer//bushing combo and then hopefully get it slid in and drop the body and tighten bolts and call this project done.

 

[centexk5]

Success!! Now to adjust the linkages on everything.

 

[fourwheelerjeff]

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are you trying to put a cape on your K5?

 

[centexk5]

It's super blaze!!

 

[centexk5]

5psi, a 150lbs in the bed, and it still scraped the top just a touch but she's in. Went ahead and aired the tires back to 35psi. I won't be driving it until after the springs are on. Now I can work on the thing and not be rolling around in grass.

 

[centexk5]

Still no word on the springs shipping. I'm sure they got caught up in this mess. So I ordered a trans governor calibration kit, new cover for it, an adjustable modulator, and a new detent cable. Tired of this transmission shifting at 3500rpm at full throttle.

 

[centexk5]

Got the transmission parts in today but also got a special part in also.

@nvrenuf was able to source me a stock steering arm that'll work with my new lift. Thank you again.

 

[centexk5]

Tinkering around today. Yanked the factory oil cooler and trashed it. Yanked the fan shroud and realized it was cracked in several places and held together by RTV. Explains some of the noise I was hearing. Also checked out the upper radiator mounts and it looks like I need new bushings. Looks like I'll be ordering more parts.

 

[centexk5]

Just got notification that my springs ship tomorrow!!!

 

[fourwheelerjeff]

Tinkering around today. Yanked the factory oil cooler and trashed it.

why? what kind of shape was it in?