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Mr. Clean's dune cruising 71' K5 "Oprah" beams, links, and turbo ls powwwa

Well I finally unloaded my truck and trailer today after the past weekend dune Thrashing so I took some pics of the carnage once I got it in to shop.


Its really hard to see where the frame is tweaked but you can just see that my bump no longer is lined up with my bump pad. I'm really not to concerned. Slide the bump out, some heat, and some leverage and she will be as good as she was in 1971. I do need a new bump pad for the one bump tho. You can see where after I bent it I kept using the 1/4" of it that was still hitting.







 
As well I'm pretty much over the carbed 350 and my noisy TH400. So I'm planning on band aiding up the motor the best I can and I'll run it for the Hillbilly party. The trans will just continue to make lots of noise for that weekend as well. Then after that weekend 350 is coming out and going on a shelf, and the TH400 is headed to a tranny shop for a rebuild, and reverse valve body. And I'm going to drop in a BDturnkey ls motor. A 4.8 or a 5.3 I don't care which one. More and likely a 4.8. Because it will be more fun to beat people with a smaller displacement motor than them in the dunes.

Anyone heard of the BDturnkey motors. I know he is a vendor on pirate. But guy takes junkyard ls motors and builds stand alone harnesses, ecm tunes to your specs and ships to you ready to run after 12v power, a ground, and fuel.

Straight from his website
Your BD Turnkey Engine comes with the following:

Engine
Engine Harness, modified OEM w/OBDII Port
ECM (tuned to your specifications)
Gas Pedal Assembly & TAC Module (DBW)
Intake Manifold
Oil Pan (generally truck style)
IAT Sensor
Fuel Rail - (5/16 & 3/8 hose easily adapts)
Throttle Body (DBC or DBW)
All necessary sensors for turnkey application
Flexplate
Starter
Exhaust Manifolds, with connecting pipe to O2’s
Spark Plugs, Wires, & Coil Packs
Water Pump
Alternator & bracket
Power Steering Pump & Bracket
Idler Pulley
Serpentine Belt
Air Conditioning Compressor, Bracket,Belt (optional)
The 4.8s run $2200 and do 300hp and the 5.3s run $2400 and run 325hp

For me spending $2200-$2500 to get a motor on a crate that's ready to drop in and not worry about a harness or ecm or any of the front components needing replaced sounds just fine with me.

Work has gotten slammed and we are way overbooked for the month of June so I will be working 6 day weeks for the next 2 months at 60+ hours a week. So the overtime is going to get racked up pretty good this month.

So my plan is run what I got for Hillbilly party. As soon as that weekend is over at the end of July the motor and trans is coming out. Trans to the shop to get rebuilt and then work on getting the 4.8/5.3 in place and plumb and wire it and be back hitting the dunes by September.
 
And the only reason a ls swap and tranny rebuild isnt happening before the hillbilly party is this.



This is the fourth and final load of a 12'x24' pool with a 37 1/2'x 19' wrap around deck that i just finished tearing down tonight........now i have to reasemble it at my place :doah:

Idk how in the heck the women talked me into this.
 
It's a sand toy, HP is king. You're going to be disappointed to spend $2k+ and all that effort for "only" 300hp.
Go 6.0 for sure. Also while you're checking around call Kevin at Pacific Fab. He's a friend of mine and they are heavily involved in the LS marketplace. They have another company, Tilden Motorsports that deals with all of this stuff.
 
The 4.8 in our company van spends lots of time at higher rpms. Its a good little motor. Put 4.88's in the back and it will be fine for Silver lake, bigger dunes you may need more motor.
 
Only thing the 4.8 lacks is torque.

Oprah being kind of fat she's going to need some torque. I would do nothing smaller then a 5.3.
 
I think the fact it gets around just fine with a bone stock 350 that probably makes half the power that 4.8 makes shows that he will be just fine with the 4.8.
 
It's a sand toy, HP is king. You're going to be disappointed to spend $2k+ and all that effort for "only" 300hp.
Go 6.0 for sure. Also while you're checking around call Kevin at Pacific Fab. He's a friend of mine and they are heavily involved in the LS marketplace. They have another company, Tilden Motorsports that deals with all of this stuff.


yep

or at the very minimum the 5.3 with some mods.
 
yep

or at the very minimum the 5.3 with some mods.


The only way id run a 4.8 is with twins turbos. In fact a performance chevy magazine ran a stock chinese turbo on 5.3l and did over 60 pulls at 1200 or so horsepower only to take the heads off and find out it was a 4.8.

http://www.hotrod.com/how-to/engine/hrdp-1109-stock-gm-ls-engine-big-bang-theory/

5.3s do great once that have some LS mods and a good cam. Not too hard to make 400hp with them. The lq9/lq4 6.0l motors are great too but they are way more expensive than i think there really worth.

Im all for getting cheap motors and making big power through forced induction as opposed to building a high dollar NA motor. If the cheap motor pops, throw another one in there and back the psi off by 1! :D
 
It's a sand toy, HP is king. You're going to be disappointed to spend $2k+ and all that effort for "only" 300hp.
Go 6.0 for sure. Also while you're checking around call Kevin at Pacific Fab. He's a friend of mine and they are heavily involved in the LS marketplace. They have another company, Tilden Motorsports that deals with all of this stuff.

Sweet i look into them and compare.
 
Only thing the 4.8 lacks is torque.

Oprah being kind of fat she's going to need some torque. I would do nothing smaller then a 5.3.

Oprah is light as heck! I would honestly guess probally 1000-1500 lighter then your truck. Anx theres only pland of getting lighter......front axle, fenders, quarters, hood....:whistle:
 

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