The Cheap auction find

[78K30]

Enough high jacking of this thread...what are the overall plans for this truck again? SAS and use for farm stuff, or wheeling, or? I love me some 90's style Chevy's. I'm heavily contemplating using one as a platform to throw all the good parts from my blazer into after I beat the livin' crap out of my blazer some more

I’m a huge fan of the GMT400 trucks, they’re tough to kill and about everybody around here had one so I had tons of exposure to them growing up. And they’re getting cheap as hell so buying one after the blazer has been beaten is a good option!

This truck is going to be a low lift height SAS on 285’s or 315’s and be used for some mild wheeling/back country travel as well as general farm usage and winter driving. Should I start with something cleaner? You bet. but this way I won’t feel bad about what I do to it either. Everything I do suspension wise will go right on the 2000 K2500 of my dads at some point if I kill this one.

 

[78K30]

And before I forget, ordered these cheap fellas the other day so hopefully be here end of the week. Normally I’m not a fan of cheap headers but a friend of mine has these and the flanges are stupid thick so they sealed up good and they don’t use donuts. Since this things budget is dried up for awhile these coupled to a new factory downpipe should get me back up and runner sooner rather than later. Only been a week of driving the 78 and I miss the 92 already

 

[GWeakland620]

So is this going to be the official build thread?

 

[78K30]

So is this going to be the official build thread?

Oh it is! It’ll just move at a snails pace! The next installment will begin here directly.

 

[78K30]

After getting frustrated at the Hobart and then running it out of wire I figured why not mess with the truck a little since the headers are in the mail (Fedex )

Somehow I got lucky and all of the bolts are loose except the last one on the drivers side that’s gone so I’m assuming it’s already broken.

The only sockets to use on rotten manifold bolts



The only casualty I caused was hitting the temp sensor driving it only the front studs. The twist off sockets were a godsend



Below is a closeup of the crack in the previous picture. Both manifolds are broken clear through in two places



Never had an issue with header bolts loosening on the 78 when it had headers but knowing my luck I ordered these to keep it from happening on this truck

 

[TreeFarm]

Im looking forward to watching you do this since I am about to tear into my 98 in a few weeks

 

[78K30]

Im looking forward to watching you do this since I am about to tear into my 98 in a few weeks

You’re probably going to beat my broke/slow pace sadly. I’d much rather be doing your truck than mine!

 

[TreeFarm]

You’re probably going to beat my broke/slow pace sadly. I’d much rather be doing your truck than mine!

Maybe. I’m not trying to spend a bunch on the build but really I already have everything but the brackets, t case, and drive shafts. I think my buddy is going to buy the 454 off of me so that will pay for the brackets

 

[78K30]

Sad to hear you’re pulling the 454, I always wanted an L29 454 truck but have never came across the right deal for one when I had the funding. So TBI will have to do for now! I’m actually thinking of going backwards by most people’s standard, there’s a 6.2 and all the necessary turbo parts for sale at a friend of a friends place for $500. May be axing gas power all-together once the 350 blows

 

[78K30]

Well fed-ex pulled through and dropped off some shiny things so I may actually be able to drive this again before the weekend is out!

For $124 stainless headers the initial impression is that they are well made. They even came with a plug for the O2 sensor hole which most reviews said they don’t.



Closeup of the ports, didn’t find in pinholes in the welds hopefully that holds true under pressure



Flange thickness- around .375 or so judging by the steel ruler (didn’t grab the caliper for some reason). Hopefully no warpage of the flange this way


Got the old rusted junk out. Got lucky and the back left bolt that was gone and I assumed broken was actually just missing so no broken bolts for me to drill out!



In a final note, these are some header gaskets I had given to me some time ago and since all the reviews state to avoid using the ones that came with the headers I figured I’d ask here. I’m assuming with the poor matching of the ports and gaskets I’d be asking for trouble? Remember this isn’t a hot rod, just a beaten oil burning farm truck so they shouldn’t be under too much pressure.

 

[LNielson]

Not sure on that gasket issue, but i’d probably just run them if it was mine.

$124 seems like a great deal for those, they look nice.

 

[GWeakland620]

Yeah I’d probably run them.

 

[78K30]

Not sure on that gasket issue, but i’d probably just run them if it was mine.

$124 seems like a great deal for those, they look nice.

Yeah I’d probably run them.

Hopefully by the end of the day I can report back with either success or failure thanks guys

 

[78K30]

It was one long hot day here but that didn’t stand in the way of progress!

Only issues I ran into were poor plug/wire clearance on the #8 cylinder and the parts store Y-pipe was 1.25” too wide. Not sure if the fitment issue was the cheap headers, parts store Y-pipe, or both (most likely).

Anyway enough blabbing and some photos








I had initially planned on a cheap glass pack for now but all my local oreillys had on hand for 3” was this Flowmaster which like an idiot I didn’t realize was dual outlet at the store (hence the turn downs not rear exit). Also visible in the middle picture is the Y-pipe chop job. Truck sounds great and I’m glad to be driving it again.

Headers also seem worth the $124 so far. Construction is very good and other than plug clearance there are zero fitment issues.

 

[78K30]

Slightly visible in the middle picture is the leak from the rear skip yoke on the 241 that handily just started recently. It’s not the seal it’s acrually puking ATF out of the U-joint end of the yoke so I’ll have to check the vent tube and pull the yoke to fix the hole.

 

[Bent77]

Is it loud AF?

 

[78K30]

Is it loud AF?

Actually no, when it’s not hotter than the surface of the sun out I’ll take a drive with the windows up to see if I need to run the exhaust out the back. It has a nice deep rumble but is actually rather quiet. Only having 350 cubes and 3” exhaust helps probably

 

[GWeakland620]

Nice work!

 

[diesel4me]

I like those headers--for $125 they are better looking and better built than most of the big brand name ones I've seen,none I know of have flanges that thick,or stainless ,for that price..
Those would put an end to the rotted cast iron manifold issues up here,especially on plow trucks like mine..wish they sold some for 6.2's for that price..

 

[78K30]

Nice work!

Thanks Greg!!

I like those headers--for $125 they are better looking and better built than most of the big brand name ones I've seen,none I know of have flanges that thick,or stainless ,for that price..
Those would put an end to the rotted cast iron manifold issues up here,especially on plow trucks like mine..wish they sold some for 6.2's for that price..

We followed the same thought process, I wish they made them for more stuff. Which they might I haven’t looked. I just googled “88-94 K2500 headers” or something like that