George_Pimpdaddy
1/2 ton status
Well seeing as most here have a build thread and it seems to help keep progress up and get opinions and ideas going its time for mine. 
So I bought my 89 K5 for my 18th birthday after looking over alot of others that were not fuel injected or in as nice of shape for around $5000
So I was happy with my new truck and daily drove it everywhere which lead to the original 350 blowing a rod one day on the way to work.. So I dove into my first engine rebuild and went with a 355 long block and started cleaning up reusable parts like the intake and accessories. Had it back up and running working on it everyday after working for 10-12 hour days. Still remember that saturday morning when me and a friend stayed up most that night working in the garage sorting out final issues and taking it for a test drive after break-in at 5:30am
After about a year I had a set of true duals 2.5" pipes installed and hedman headers.
Well after a few good wheeling trips to go hunting and weekend fun I had blown up the factory gov lock in the rear 10 bolt so I opted for a Auburn posi unit. the 700-r4 was dying so figured since i replaced the engine how hard could a tranny be
it wasn't to bad with the help of a friend and the rental of a tranny jack we had it at a local shop that day and told him to go hard on it and told him that its gonna be in a k5 with at least 35" tires. Well a week later i picked it up with all the goodies hardened sprag, bigger pump, heavy duty sunshell, shift kit lvl2, corvette servo...
Soon after I traded a buddy a built up computer system for his 14bolt FF and 10 bolt 8 lug with 4.10's
We totally rebuilt the front axle with all new bearings, premium ball joints, new u joints, warn premo hubs, and brakes. and sprayed some rustoleum black on em.
Bought the disk brake kit for the 14 form Ruff Stuff and still need to do that. Also bit the bullet and got a set of BFG mud terrain KM 35X12.50 on some steel 15X10's. Had lots of fun with it like this for a couple of years but always was wanted to lift it up to help clear the 35"s that i had to cut alot of fender to run.
So since I had other vehicles to drive I figured it was time to add a cam and intake to her and take it off the road to replace the rad support as it was cracked badly and once sent my battery into it during a hard stop. so for the winter in the small single car garage it went. That was back in January 2009 and been put off since I didn't have heat and then moved to a new place this novemeber with a 2 car garage. Russell and I just got it running a few weekends ago with his help and knowledge we had installed the new cam and timmed it up. The Break in was great
nothing like the smell of fresh motor reving for 30 mins.
Went with the Edelbrock TBI cam and intake since its supposed to be computer friendly.
So now im ready to start lifting it and its gonna be a daily driver at times but mostly a toy to take hunting and go camping with so I got a ecobit shackle flip to install as well as some 56" springs for the rear which should net me around 5.5" i've been told. so just gonna have to get some 6" front springs and some zero rate's to help position the axle and level it out.
Hope to start working on the floor pan under the front seats soon as its cracked from stress and loose seat mounts. Got a nice pair of newer chevy seats with the seat belts on them going in. Also itching to start on the rear shackle flip and 56"s and the disk brake swap as well.
So I bought my 89 K5 for my 18th birthday after looking over alot of others that were not fuel injected or in as nice of shape for around $5000
So I was happy with my new truck and daily drove it everywhere which lead to the original 350 blowing a rod one day on the way to work.. So I dove into my first engine rebuild and went with a 355 long block and started cleaning up reusable parts like the intake and accessories. Had it back up and running working on it everyday after working for 10-12 hour days. Still remember that saturday morning when me and a friend stayed up most that night working in the garage sorting out final issues and taking it for a test drive after break-in at 5:30am
After about a year I had a set of true duals 2.5" pipes installed and hedman headers.
Well after a few good wheeling trips to go hunting and weekend fun I had blown up the factory gov lock in the rear 10 bolt so I opted for a Auburn posi unit. the 700-r4 was dying so figured since i replaced the engine how hard could a tranny be
it wasn't to bad with the help of a friend and the rental of a tranny jack we had it at a local shop that day and told him to go hard on it and told him that its gonna be in a k5 with at least 35" tires. Well a week later i picked it up with all the goodies hardened sprag, bigger pump, heavy duty sunshell, shift kit lvl2, corvette servo... Soon after I traded a buddy a built up computer system for his 14bolt FF and 10 bolt 8 lug with 4.10's
We totally rebuilt the front axle with all new bearings, premium ball joints, new u joints, warn premo hubs, and brakes. and sprayed some rustoleum black on em.
Bought the disk brake kit for the 14 form Ruff Stuff and still need to do that. Also bit the bullet and got a set of BFG mud terrain KM 35X12.50 on some steel 15X10's. Had lots of fun with it like this for a couple of years but always was wanted to lift it up to help clear the 35"s that i had to cut alot of fender to run.
So since I had other vehicles to drive I figured it was time to add a cam and intake to her and take it off the road to replace the rad support as it was cracked badly and once sent my battery into it during a hard stop. so for the winter in the small single car garage it went. That was back in January 2009 and been put off since I didn't have heat and then moved to a new place this novemeber with a 2 car garage. Russell and I just got it running a few weekends ago with his help and knowledge we had installed the new cam and timmed it up. The Break in was great
nothing like the smell of fresh motor reving for 30 mins. Went with the Edelbrock TBI cam and intake since its supposed to be computer friendly.
So now im ready to start lifting it and its gonna be a daily driver at times but mostly a toy to take hunting and go camping with so I got a ecobit shackle flip to install as well as some 56" springs for the rear which should net me around 5.5" i've been told. so just gonna have to get some 6" front springs and some zero rate's to help position the axle and level it out.
Hope to start working on the floor pan under the front seats soon as its cracked from stress and loose seat mounts. Got a nice pair of newer chevy seats with the seat belts on them going in. Also itching to start on the rear shackle flip and 56"s and the disk brake swap as well.
Last edited:
