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rcfatcats 78k5- Boostedk5 2.0

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small update.
so things did not go well for the tough truck challenge. 30 seconds into my run my 6month old walbro fuel pump crapped out. wasn't to happy about it.
after the comp i did some forum searching and found a carter part number that a lot of people where having luck with. the summit racing part number is CRT-P5001.
The truck runs great now and i haven't had any issues. the reason i did get a pump for the tbi is i have a few more events going before i tear into it for winter projects.
took it out to Numidia drag way for a 500ft horseshoe mud bog.
truck ran great and i placed 5th out of 22 trucks. not bad considering im pretty sure i was the lowest horsepower there.
few pics.




all in all the event went well except for toasting the front u joint on my front drive shaft which unfortunately took the ear off the shaft when it went.
so im looking into stepping up to 1350 front joints along with a tom woods front driveshaft. ive been having good luck with ordering parts from denny's driveshafts.
im hoping to just throw together a spare front driveshaft for the seaside offroad truck show this weekend but we will see.

now ive been doing alot of research into the 5.3 swap and have figured out most of my answers except for one quetion. i cant seem to find a common answer for what people are using for an engine crossmember. i currently have ord's small block crossmember but it seems that the wont work with a ls based motor. if anyone has any info please chime in! thanks!
 
rcfatcat said:
small update.
so things did not go well for the tough truck challenge. 30 seconds into my run my 6month old walbro fuel pump crapped out. wasn't to happy about it.
after the comp i did some forum searching and found a carter part number that a lot of people where having luck with. the summit racing part number is CRT-P5001.
The truck runs great now and i haven't had any issues. the reason i did get a pump for the tbi is i have a few more events going before i tear into it for winter projects.
took it out to Numidia drag way for a 500ft horseshoe mud bog.
truck ran great and i placed 5th out of 22 trucks. not bad considering im pretty sure i was the lowest horsepower there.
few pics.




all in all the event went well except for toasting the front u joint on my front drive shaft which unfortunately took the ear off the shaft when it went.
so im looking into stepping up to 1350 front joints along with a tom woods front driveshaft. ive been having good luck with ordering parts from denny's driveshafts.
im hoping to just throw together a spare front driveshaft for the seaside offroad truck show this weekend but we will see.

now ive been doing alot of research into the 5.3 swap and have figured out most of my answers except for one quetion. i cant seem to find a common answer for what people are using for an engine crossmember. i currently have ord's small block crossmember but it seems that the wont work with a ls based motor. if anyone has any info please chime in! thanks!
Click to expand...


See you at seaside!
 
starting to make some progress in areas ive been ignoring. so the truck has always rode like crap and ive known for a while my front shocks where limiting the travel in the front. decided it was time to order some new ones and set them up properly. best way i know of for measuring out suspension travel is to put it at full flex. my buddy cord and i had two "flex" ramps that we brought to car shows so i took the two and built myself a folding 30 degree rti ramp.
folded upside down

unfolded upside down

from past experience my truck tends to flex the most when its backwards on the ramp so thats how i measured.



i picked a fixed point on the frame on both sides for the front and then two mating points for the rear.
after measuring i ended needing 11.5 inch travel shock in the rear and a 10.5 inch travel shock in the front. i was planning on going with bilstein 5125's they only offer a 10" and 12" travel so i went with 12" for all four corners ordered from ORD. ill be changing the shock mounts according to the amount of droop and compression i measured off of ride height to fit the extended and compressed length of the bilsteins. for the front i ordered the ford shock towers and the rear i be building a shock hoop up through the floor on each side.
also discovered i need to trim the rear quarters a little more on the ramp.

the truck absolutly stuffs the front tires now with the front end not being limited by the old pos ranchos.

so on order i have the 4 bilsteins and ford shock towers from ORD, then the rest of the mounts ill need from ruffstuff.
in other news in prep for the winter cage project and 5.3 swap ive ordered a few parts and gotten some direction on how i wanna proceed.
got the hydro ram mount for my jd2 from swag offroad and the air over hydraulic ram. no more muscling the bender.

now for the 5.3 ive been toying with the idea of turboing it. yes for a rock crawler its not really needed but for the mud racing and other events i do with the truck it would be helpful. after talking to a few people i know, im seeing that this might be a pretty realistic idea and more feasable than i thought. gonna be done on the cheap. small turbo, stock cam so it still runs like a stock 5.3 off boost which will be good for crawling, but looking at around 380 to 420 horse when i lay into it. stiffer valve springs, arp studs, and bigger injectors if needed. flipped truck manifolds and ill be building the piping for the intercooler and exhaust routing.
thats my idea so far. may change as i find out more info but we shall see.
stay tuned!!
 
GWeakland620 said:
It flexes really well for factory length leafs. Not too sure mine would flex that well. Lookin good man.
Click to expand...
Yeah I can't lie. I've pulled the overload leafs from the rear and removed another leaf. Helps a lot. Also why my truck sits so low. I've left the front rancho Spring packs completely alone.
 
Boosting the 5.3L can be done real cheap. Especially if you go with Ebay turbos, if you do just make sure to tear them apart upon arrival and check to see if all the casting slag has been removed. Usually this is the case for their failures. Also when you get ready for boost need to check out www.theturboforums.com TONS of info especially for LS motors. Been looking to boost my Mopars and this place has been my go to source for ideas.
 
stump_puller said:
Boosting the 5.3L can be done real cheap. Especially if you go with Ebay turbos, if you do just make sure to tear them apart upon arrival and check to see if all the casting slag has been removed. Usually this is the case for their failures. Also when you get ready for boost need to check out www.theturboforums.com TONS of info especially for LS motors. Been looking to boost my Mopars and this place has been my go to source for ideas.
Click to expand...
Good to know about the turbo forums I haven't checked them out yet. Yeah an eBay turbo is most likely the route I'm going to take
 
Tracking says I should be getting all my tabs, mounts, and shocks in tomorrow. Looking to get that set up this weekend. Won't be getting the kit from swag till Tuesday so looks like I'll be bending the shock hoops on the jd2 by hand one last time :doah:
 
parts! parts! parts!

got all my shock tabs, 4 bilsteins, 2 ford shock towers, the swag ram mount, replacement tie rods for my front steering, and filler panels for my rear taillights which is for a small project down the road.



i kinda already had an idea on how i wanted to set up my front shocks so i dove into modifying the ford shock towers.





i then tacked the mount in place and tabs on the axle for the night just to get an idea. im going to need to move the upper mount higher up. the truck has about 6.5- 7 inches of compression off of ride height and 1.5 inches of drop from ride height. so from where its set in this pic it needs to go up about 3 more inches.


that will be saturdays project as i will most likely need to add to the ford mount to reinforce it because i will be sitting higher on the frame.
stay tuned
 
Let me know if you ever need a hand bud. I'm doing the same thing on the front and rear of mine while I can get into it.
 
Any plans for bump stops? Quick way to kill those shocks is to not have bumps. Ask me how I know. :doah:
 
GWeakland620 said:
Yep, same here.

What route are you going with steering upgrades?
Click to expand...
i already have cross over steering with psc hydro assist. just ordered the other tie rod ends from ruffstuff as replacements.

swettysblazer said:
Let me know if you ever need a hand bud. I'm doing the same thing on the front and rear of mine while I can get into it.
Click to expand...
will do brian, ive been working so off and on that its hard to commit to the truck. hoping to get a solid days worth of work on it next weekend ill let you know.

jekquistk5 said:
Any plans for bump stops? Quick way to kill those shocks is to not have bumps. Ask me how I know. :doah:
Click to expand...
was working on that today. im going to reuse the stock bump stop mounts

and i have a set of these to bolt up to them.

not sure what im gonna do for the rear yet.
 
got the front shock set up finished up today.
welded a piece of angle to the back of each shock tower. and drilled a whole through each.


then naturally painted them the VHT copper.

i made them so that they bolt up to one of the two bolts here that hold the motor plates to the frame.

so it bolts up like so



finished setup

 
im now going to be looking into setting up the front bump stops. gonna keep it simple and reuse the stock mounting plates.

i removed them a long time ago but luckily held onto them.
ill be replacing the rubber though with a set of these

i just have to figure out what to do for a bump pad on top of the ubolts.

i have the bump stops and two new u-bolts on order from ruffstuff to replace the two bent ones on the driver side.
was thinking about welding a plate raised above the u-bolt plate with 4 holes big enough to fit a socket through for the u-bolts. we will see.
going to start looking into the rear shock set up. going to be a little more complicated then the front setup. we shall see.
 
Did you cycle the suspension to see if the shock body is going to get into the steering shaft on the driver's side?
 
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