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Shorty the crewcab. (Been saved from the chopping block)

81 CC short bed conversion
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OK. So I ordered five 40/13.5/17 Yokohama X-MTs for it.
Next I'm ordering a set of BattleBorn steel beadlocks in about a week.
I'm going to need gears. I See Yukon says it has 5.38s that fit 14 bolts now.
Infact they have a whole kit that has all the gears and install kits for a dana 60/ 14B package.
So I'm pretty sure I'm going that route. Has anyone else done 5.38s ? I was always told 5.13 was all you could get in a 14b. :dunno: Progress I guess lol.
Since I'm going to a 4L80e, the 5.38s should be perfect though.

Im also currently in an engine dilemma. I have the quite worn, already bored .040" 454 it has in it. Which has about 10psi oil pressure at idle. So it needs a going through at minimum. Its carbed and has angle issues that bring the suck.
Plus I have a gen VI vortec 454 that's not in bad shape sitting on a stand. And I have the newly built 6.0 in my burb that was bored 0.065" to a 6.2, and has an easily changeable mild cam. with a few other mo powa goodies sprinkled in there.
I keep thinking a very hot version of that gen VI would be amazing in the hotrod burb street truck. Where low end torque and take off is the main game.
Well, that and burnouts.... Can't forget burnouts.:waytogo:

And maybe an LS based high RPM beast, with a WIDE powerband, would be better in a low geared crawler....... :thinking:
Maybe throw a twin screw on it at a later date to up the ante if I feel the need...

Not really sure. I have a while before I need to repower and do the transmission swap. Much bigger changes are finally in the near future. Like a winch (Badlands apex 12k), frame cut/splice, and cage/bumper work.

It's finally time to build some chit and I'm so excited LOL.:woot:
 
I'd stay away from the 5.38's we have had a quite a few pinion failures with them .

5.13's are the sweet spot.

.040 on a big block is nothing some blocks you can .120 and still be good. I routinely go .110

the Vortec BBC is a good candidate,

Going 4L80E vs the SM465 you should consider a doubler of some sorts . if you do the gearing calculation you will find that even with a doubler and deep gear in the axle your current crawl ratio is probably lower . Now some will say the auto makes up for that with the torque convertor but that is at the expense of heat generated in the trans. without a doubler it will be even more noticeable.
 
I wondered if there were issues with the 5.38. I'll stick to the 5.13 then. thanks.
I intend to do a doubler, or magnum, or something else to get lower geared than the 205. Just haven't ran down that alley yet.

It has gobbs of power now. So I debated a basic rebuild, bore it one size larger, and add a proflow or something. Probably keep the same cam even. Or at least a new one the same grind.
I still think the vortecs gonna end up in the burb lol. Most likely built to a near 7k redline with coil near plug and such to be controlled like an LS off of my terminator max. Something with like 700-800 HP.

LSs can put down some sweet torque curves if built right. I don't have to have a 650 ftlb engine that carries for a couple thousand R's, when one that carries 500ftlb from 2500-7000 would suffice :dunno:. Thats just going off the thinking that the purpose of gearing is to keep you up in the Rpm so your where your power is, and LS based stuff can run at 4-5k all day long and be fine. Thats kind of why all the buggies and rock bouncers are using them now.
It's also just that if I keep the 2 454's, I wont have a use for the 6.2 I just built. lol. (going to sell the regal, so it cant go there).
 
i guess it can always get moth balled on a stand until something cool comes along :thinking:
 
700-800 Hp sounds awesome. and in a light weight buggy with all the super exotic high end cyro-billet-unobtanium parts it is.

But this is a budget concise family rig for mild wheeling and camping 12+ hours from home.

450-500Hp with with tons of low end torque that is uber reliable and simple to fix and get parts for at any local podunk NAPA would be king for me. not to mention low rpms and good torque is so much easier on the running gear and frames.

but i'm a diesel guy lol

In my mind High RPM screamers belong in light little street/strip vehicles .

keep the Regal , ditch the burb
 
I'm a burb guy, not really into regals lol. It was just a decent deal.
The 700-800 hp is for the burb. This truck doesn't really need that. Which was why I started contemplating the 6.2 going in it.

It dawned on me a little bit ago, that the LS short block could get a stroker crank for torque, and then put in my new tow rig after the other two trucks are done. :thinking: something to mull over for later.
Think I'll keep the engine it has now and just spruce it up.
 
I'm in the final stages of getting my stereo finished up for now in my burb. As soon as the subs are in and playing, this truck comes in the shop for the frame chop.
the winch and front bumper will be done at the same time. and cage measurements will begin.
I'm hoping to have it shortened up and drivable by the muddy season this spring. Even though I'm not huge into mud, I kind of want to go sling some around on the local roads for nostalgia's sake. It'll give me a chance to do some good shake down runs before I haul it somewhere too.
I may try to sneak the engine rebuild and trans swap in there at the same time. But there probably isnt enough time for all of it before spring.
 
I'm just used to all my other stuff being higher. I know they say 10psi per 1000 rpm, and it actually holds to that I believe. No tach, but I'd say it's not far off.
Just seemed low at idle to me.
Maybe I'll just proflo it for now, and worry about rebuild later then.
It'd be nice to get the trans swap/Tcase done at the same time as the shortening. That way I can just order a drive shaft and be done. But really, shortening the one I have and getting it balanced for now won't cost much.
 
shady said:
I'm just used to all my other stuff being higher. I know they say 10psi per 1000 rpm, and it actually holds to that I believe. No tach, but I'd say it's not far off.
Just seemed low at idle to me.
Maybe I'll just proflo it for now, and worry about rebuild later then.
It'd be nice to get the trans swap/Tcase done at the same time as the shortening. That way I can just order a drive shaft and be done. But really, shortening the one I have and getting it balanced for now won't cost much.
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throw some 15/40 Delo in it and run it until the bottom end gets noisy lol
 
The 454 in Twinkie has more quarts of Restore then oil in it for years, as well as 20w50 being the oil weight.
 
I have coil near plug on a big block in my regal, where the redline is 7500 RPM, works awesome. It's much easier to do with a Gen VI BBC because you can get the 58x conversion kit that includes a timing set, timing cover, and cam and crank sensors. I did it on an old Mark IV style and it requires an external target wheel on the crank, but it works just as good, as long as you don't put anything near the 35 metal teeth spinning in front of the balancer. I think if it was an offroad rig I would use the 4 magnet style target wheel for safety, if I couldn't use an internal 58x Gen VI setup. I will warn you, spinning a splayed valve BBC to 7500 gets expensivem and astronomically expensive to spin it above that as you start needing titanium valves and such. You can get to 7500 with stainless valves, titanium retainers, good springs, tapered pushrods and shaft rockers. You could also do it with full roller rockers and stud girdles, but it won't be as stable since you need guide plates which limits your pushrod size.

BTW, a 7000 RPM LS for a crawler seems totally backwards, crawlers don't even need HP. I would just use an almost stock EFI engine for a crawler so its reliable, idles smooth, and doesn't care about angles.

A proper big block will produce more torque than an LS easily. The same HP BBC will have about 100 - 125 more lb-ft of torque than a comparable HP LS. LS is awesome but it does not feel like a BBC when you drive it.

A 4" stroke LS is awesome too, good power and better torque, 4" stroke is the same as a stock 454 stroke and LS heads flow well for the smaller bore. I am currently building a 4.100 stroke 427 LS3 from a 6.2L block, that will be a bitchin pump gas ride. But then you get into bigger big blocks and it leaves the LS torque in the dust. Like anything, do the same tricks to both engines and the larger engine will have more potential.
 
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I was actually going to leave the 6700ish rpm limiter in the terminator for the gen 6 if putting it in the burb. Used 7k as a quick number lol. Was thinking of whatever safe rpm I could get from a forged and balanced rotating assembly and a full roller valvetrain.

You telling me about the coil on plug thing for the gen6 in a different thread a long time ago is what made me look that direction. Already found the stuff from an L21 that I'd need. Just haven't bought it. That's the route I'm going with that engine no matter what it goes in though.

The more I thought about it while typing it in that post, the more I leaned towards big block for the trucks. My LS does awesome above 3k. Comes alive like crazy and pulls HARD to 6k
I had it in my mind that if I was in low enough gear, to be crawling at 3-4 k it would have MORE than enough power and torque. With a different cam mine could easily hit 500 ftlbs in that zone. 500 ftlbs is 500ftlb, no matter what is making it. Lol. And really all that's actually needed for wheeling.
But yeah, I'm still thinking BB will stay. I love the fact that with 35" tires and 3.73s I can do a burnout while rolling 5mph in 1rst, (not granny) with just a blip of the pedal. And my semi built LS can't hardly do one power braking lol.

I originally built the LS with turbo in mind. Hence the terminator setup.
Wanted it for the electronic boost control part. But the more videos I watch of turbo setups I realized turbo sounds piss me off. The stu stu stu, flutter, and whine make me angry for some reason. Not sure why :dunno: . But I figure having a 6000# machine with MASSIVE power at my control, and going into a rage is a bad idea lol. So I just kind of quit thinking of doing it.
Twin screws don't seem to bother me though lol. :D
 
A frame chop, trans/ transfer case, doubler, gearing, etc, etc is plenty of work. The best engine is the one that is in it and running. Get the truck rolling with the big tires, drive it, do burnouts and worry about engine swaps or rebuilds later. Those tires look cool.
 
Well, I got my stack of wheels. But I still don't have the balancing beads. They won't be here till next week I guess.
So for now, I started figuring up what to do for a winch mount.
This was just getting eye balls on what I want to cut and where it'd fit and such.

Still not sure if I want to build it, or get an A-bomb. I want to do 52"s later,so the A-bomb would kill 2 birds. Just don't have $600 now since I bought wheels, tires, and a couch lol.

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