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Should I DD my restored K-5?

Cornfield creations

Cornfield creations

1/2 ton status
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Jasper, Indiana
I have a low mileage high optioned K-5 that I have owned for 12 years. It was my first vehicle and has been babied and never offroaded by anyone. The original owner special ordered it from the factory and I have all documentation and she never even drove it in the rain until I bought it. I restored it a few years ago and have been barely driven since then.

Soo here is the issue. It takes up half of my garage. Gets 8 mpg which is pathetic from what I read others are getting on here. It has a TC 4 inch lift with 33's. Being in southern Indiana, I am afraid of rust more than anything. It tows like a turd and I can't haul anything in it. So what do I do? If I sold it I would get nothing for it considering what I have invested. But if I keep it and drive it I will continue to spend money and then eventually be dealing with rust.

Should I suck it up and just drive it, or should I trade it up for a truck that I can use?
 
DRIVE IT! Just remember to wash it. Spray the undercarriage once or twice a year with a mix of ATF and diesel fuel after washing the underside good. We use this treatment for our 93 Silverado truck and farm equipment. No rust issues as of yet!
 
Depending on what year it is, 8mpg is pretty bad. It probably needs a serious tuneup.

Id say it all depends on what you want from the truck in the future. If you like driving it but don't like the gas mileage, fix the gas mileage. Depending on the details, you should be able to get 12+ out of it.

If you want to free up space in the garage, but can't part with the truck for sentimental reasons, find ways to keep rust at bay and enjoy it. There's all kinds of oil treatments available to delay the process. Everything on the planet decays eventually, so it's futile to expect it won't.

If your trying to save it for investment purposes, probably not a great plan in the long term.
 
Well it's not for investment reasons. More or less I love it but can't figure out away to use it and not ruin it. Idk why the MPG stinks so bad. It has a new GMPP 350 HO with like 5,000 miles on it. Everything is new on it. I have the original quadrajet with a stage 2 rebuilt setup on it and it runs awesome. I put the windstar fans on it and gained more power and about .5 mpg, maybe more on highway but it never sees highway. I think the best it ever saw was 11 before the old motor came out. I think the gears are killing it with 3.08's and 33's. I want 3:73 gears but there comes more money invested and still not driving it. Maybe I'll look into swapping gears and maybe putting some headers on it eventually.
 
Two words UNDER COATING! I had a rust free from North Dakota and three years in OHIO it now is on verge of rusting away. As for the MPG we need more info year truck gear ration, motor size and what you have done to the motor.

I have a 1987 305 tbi with spacer plate, true OEM duals no cats and get 13.8 in city and 17.5 Hwy for MPG and am dam happy.
 
Tough one there. I drive my K5 year round and only because I just moved south of the hard salt belt. I figure in a few years I'll pick up a small pickup truck or something as a DD.

I take it you have a DD now? If so, what's stopping you from driving this around during the good months?
 
It's a 79, GMPP350 HO, original TH350, NP203 with part time kit, 12b rear 3:08, Corp10 front 3:08. 33's, 4"TC lift.

Windstar fans, GMPP HEI with performance curve, at 12*, the original quadrajet with a stage 2 kit from Cliffshp.com, it does have A/C, original exhaust manifolds with duals, dual in dual out cat, with magnaflow mufflers. It runs great except at WOT it needs headers.

I thought about (if I kept it), Swapping out the TH350 for a 700r4 with a NP241 SYE, and some 3:73 gears. At 55 this thing runs at 2500 RPM, at 70 its around 3200 RPM. So IDK. Everything on the engine is new, and the carb works awesome, I rebuilt it so I know it wasn't half-way done by someone who just tanks it and blows it out.


As far as undercoating, when it was new the dealership did the ziebart and undercoating, and as I went along I sprayed the runny waxy stuff everywhere I could and undercoated everything as much as I could. But I know the inevitable will happen eventually.
 
Cornfield creations said:
It's a 79, GMPP350 HO, original TH350, NP203 with part time kit, 12b rear 3:08, Corp10 front 3:08. 33's, 4"TC lift.

I thought about (if I kept it), Swapping out the TH350 for a 700r4 with a NP241 SYE, and some 3:73 gears. At 55 this thing runs at 2500 RPM, at 70 its around 3200 RPM. So IDK. .
Click to expand...

No way...those gears and those tires it'd be turning 1800 rpm at 55 mph and loafing along at 2300 rpm at 70 mph.

I'd think part of your poor mileage could be the speedo/odo being inaccurate with the larger tires

Rene
 
If you want to keep it rust free its going to take some money and alot of work but I certainly think its possible. I plan on taking the body off my crew cab when I get ready for paint and undercoating the entire thing with a bedliner type of system whether it be a diy one or professional system. I will do the entire underside and then up the rockers a couple inches. This should help a ton.


As far as mileage goes you need better gears that is all

or possibly to keep your foot out of it :D:D:D
 
I was running a similar setup with 12b rear with 3.08s on 33" tires and I was easily getting 15mpg on the highway with my th350. The motor was a 327 though so not an exact comparison. Assuming you are compensating for the tire size change in your mpg numbers like Rene mentioned to do, getting deeper gears is more likely going to worsen your mileage. If mileage is really what your after, going back to smaller, lighter tires is a better answer than regearing.
 
I don't understand people who dump money into a vehicle then never want to drive it. :crazy:

If you like the vehicle (assuming you do since you choose to restore it) then drive the piss out of it and if or when it needs another restore job either restore it again or start with another vehicle.

For the record, a "restored" vehicle (in many peoples eyes) means bringing it back to STOCK. What you have done was actually rebuilt the vehicle not restored it.
 
Hmmm, yeah I never did think about the speedometer being off. But since I always drive in town with it that isn't helping either. Yeah I'm just gonna drive it when it isn't snowing. No point in not getting my use out of the money I invested in it. I do have a 96 2-dr s-10 blazer to drive in the nasty months.
 
OK here is how I checked my odometer. I took my lap top with GPS (streets and trips) drove the highway to check speed vs the speedometer. Then got on a back road and played to see how far it was off at various speeds.

I filled the tank up and drove the Highway using 10 MPG as my base estimate. 31 gallon tank equals 310 miles as my range. I used my GPS and kept track of the distance. When I had gone 300 miles driving at 60 mph I filled up. This gave me a base line of highway.

I took a 6,600 mile trip in 2008 and keep track of my fuel and mileage. I got some great mileage using Shell fuel and synthetic oil. Any help I can be let me know.
 
Drive it when it's nice out and clean it good, the rust attacks when salt ect gets to sit, some exposure to water won't kill the truck so fast. As far as people suggesting raising the gearing to improve mpg, unless your only stop and go around town higher gears will hurt you... lower gears highway mpg and higher gears for tow/stop and go mpg...
 
Lower gears (3.73) will raise your RPMS. Overdrive is what it will take to lower them at highway speeds. Your milage may not be as bad as you think if the speedo is off.

I have a 383/700r4/5.13's/39" tires and got 10mpg. It turned about 2000rpms @ 70 mph. So you should be able to get better than that with the right gearing.

3200 rpm @ 70 is what is killing your milage.
 
I say drive it. Do not undercoat it. If anything I would strip the undercoating and paint it. Undercoating just hides rust. My 92 Ford has no undercoating and almost no rust under it. It just has a little scale here and there and it has lived in Pa all its life. With living in the salt belt and working in a bodyshop for years I found that most vehicles with undercoating rust more then ones that don't. As far as better MPG I would do the 700r4 swap and put 4.10's in it. It sounds like a nice ride.
 
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