Very cool build.
Gotta ask what is this tool you have, circled in green
Gotta ask what is this tool you have, circled in green
CK5
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Pro-Tech Godfather Operator. I love it, very cool. Up there with my Microtech Dirac Delta and my Infidel
Nice taste. That infadel has been on my wish list for a while.
I recommend the Dirac Delta for everyday. The Infidel is very smooth, but it barely has the oomph to eject the blade. Any lint, dust, etc and it gets easily hung up. It must be perfectly clean at all times. My Dirac opens much more positively, very affirmative, never had a problem with it. Plus, you have more blade options with the Dirac Delta. I have a full serrated edge on one side, and a full smooth blade on the other.
Continuing the off-topicness, I have a handful of real auto knives four handfuls of fake ones. Do yourself a favor and buy a fake infidel or microtech copy if you THINK you want one. They are about $20-$40 on ali express. They are not "as good as the real thing" because the blade steels are definitely not the same high quality materials. However, you get the same size and same action style as the real thing. You can carry it around and test its usefulness to you as a tool and decide if it's worth buying the real thing for many hundreds of dollars. Then you can toss the fake ones around in the garage and not worry about them so much.
Well......
My oil pressure has been steadily dropping over the last couple months. Not very fast, but steadily. I decided to do an oil change, and all the stars in the milky way came pouring out the drain plug. Looked like Super Mario Galaxy.
My (I'm calling it stock plus) built 6.0 is on its last leg. I fed it some 20w50 VR1 as its final meal while I put together a suitable replacement. It got me through the summer, through several trips to the drag strip, countless WOT pulls, and served lengths wholesale on the streets.......
So! My next build (super secret ultra-cool stuff) is sacrificing its power plant for the K5. I have a .020 over LQ4 block, fresh crank, and fresh 243 heads with stainless valves laying around. I ordered 20cc dish pistons and forged rods today, looking for an even 9:1 compression, and I'm having the heads CNC ported once I measure my deck clearance with the new rotating assembly. I'm also gonna upgrade from my Holdener truck cam (basically a Truck Norris, .552/.552 212/22X 107LSA) to BTR's Hot Rod cam, .619/.607 217/23X 114LSA. More power, less (or equal) boost, and a PROPER engine for this beast. She's earned it. Here comes 900hp, lol.
After the heart transplant, if I don't go too crazy with it, I'm gonna break down and get a quality tube bender, notcher and some fab equipment. It's expensive af up front vs buying a pre-made cage, but the Camaro needs one too, the Nova should have a rollbar, the future truck will need a solid cage, and a side project I have needs a little tube as well. Making my own crossmembers sounds like fun too. I'll post pictures as I get the ball rolling and it's not just some parts laying around!
My oil pressure has been steadily dropping over the last couple months. Not very fast, but steadily. I decided to do an oil change, and all the stars in the milky way came pouring out the drain plug. Looked like Super Mario Galaxy.
My (I'm calling it stock plus) built 6.0 is on its last leg. I fed it some 20w50 VR1 as its final meal while I put together a suitable replacement. It got me through the summer, through several trips to the drag strip, countless WOT pulls, and served lengths wholesale on the streets.......
So! My next build (super secret ultra-cool stuff) is sacrificing its power plant for the K5. I have a .020 over LQ4 block, fresh crank, and fresh 243 heads with stainless valves laying around. I ordered 20cc dish pistons and forged rods today, looking for an even 9:1 compression, and I'm having the heads CNC ported once I measure my deck clearance with the new rotating assembly. I'm also gonna upgrade from my Holdener truck cam (basically a Truck Norris, .552/.552 212/22X 107LSA) to BTR's Hot Rod cam, .619/.607 217/23X 114LSA. More power, less (or equal) boost, and a PROPER engine for this beast. She's earned it. Here comes 900hp, lol.
After the heart transplant, if I don't go too crazy with it, I'm gonna break down and get a quality tube bender, notcher and some fab equipment. It's expensive af up front vs buying a pre-made cage, but the Camaro needs one too, the Nova should have a rollbar, the future truck will need a solid cage, and a side project I have needs a little tube as well. Making my own crossmembers sounds like fun too. I'll post pictures as I get the ball rolling and it's not just some parts laying around!
It still drives great with no knock or anything, so I'm guessing a cam bearing.
I was going to say that, usually the first to go from what I have seen.
I'm torn between babying it until I pull the 6.0 so I can rebuild it as a backup for my black square, or absolutely sending her into a gnarly burnout sesh until she let's go! I just worry about damaging the blower with a catastrophic engine failure. If I decided to send it, I'll have somebody film!
Does that blower have it's own oil supply or does it use the engine oil? It's not a turbo so no exhaust worries....
Kind of what I was thinking as well. Send her home.
It doesn't use any oil, and has its own coolant and reservoir for the intercoolers! My worry was turning the block into 2 pieces and somehow cracking the aluminum snout or blower housing... but as I type this it seems less likely on only 12psi. I'd just blow the bottom end out of anything
You arent messin around!
No, sir! Initial build was proof of concept, I didn't wanna invest a lot of extra money just to have the added leverage from the LS pulley spacing destroy the blower bearings. But it has held up great and I've worked out the few bugs I've come across, now she is ready for a PROPER engine! More parts arrived today as well
It has been so long! I haven't made a lot of progress on the K5, it fell to the back burner. I had 1 car space in my garage where I was working, but I had to bring 2 cars home and lost the space. My Nova (stripped for wiring and paint, not driving right now) had to come home because we needed the space in the shop, took up my free space. Then my grandfather called to say he hasn't been doing so well and wanted me to come grab his Corvette, and I was immediately overbooked. Had to stop all projects and build some more space.
Leveled ground and laid gravel, almost done with one of the buildings. 14x23 feet? Or close to that. 6.5 ft tall by 8.5 or 9 ft wide front door, 1 man back door
View attachment Screen_Recording_20260405_143731_Gallery.mp4
The Corvette needed a few things, maintenance stuff etc. as it has only been driven a handful of times in the last 10 years, mostly by me. Now she's doing great, and I ordered a TKX 5 speed conversion for it for that .68 overdrive. It's going to be a fantastic summer car, and the girlfriend loves it so it'll be getting some good miles. It immediately kicked the Camaro out of the garage and into the barn, though.
BDS rebuilt the engine with a high vacuum cam way back on the 80's, and custom built this gold plated 7380 Rochester injection system for it. Grandfather never got it running right and preferred a carb, so he removed it. I've been cleaning the 30 years of dust and dirt off of it. I'd really like to figure it out and get it on the car when it is down for the transmission swap at the end of the year, because you NEVER see a mechanical injection car at the shows. I'm gonna pull the engine too and reseal it because she's seeping oil from everywhere, lol.
BUT the buildings and the K5 come before all that! Once the first building is up, the vette will hang out there while I get the new engine put together. I found an already ported set of 243's off of a Texas 2k car for what I was gonna spend having mine ported, big valves and springs already in them! Snagged them, only have 2 dyno runs for testing on them.
Got the whole rotating assembly balanced and ready to go in, just need the space in the garage to get everything together. We have a wholesale account with TireRack through work, and I found an INSANE deal I just couldn't pass up! Brand new set of 17" Raceline's and 35" Wrangler Territory MT's for $1500 mounted and balanced, so the K5 got a well deserved upgrade!
View attachment VID_20260402_113143_065.mp4
At this rate, I'm gonna do the bodywork and paint it. Might as well, I'll just chip away at it until it's straight and give it a quick spray. I was thinking black with the red two-tone side stripe, but now I'm leaning light blue (around Marina blue) with the titanium two tone and hard top to match the wheels. Also considered going silver, with the grey side stripe and wheels. Open to ideas! Girlfriend likes the idea of orange, too.
Somewhere in all this, I gotta figure out time to fab and weld headers. It will be my first time doing that, too, so that'll be a process. Hopefully that goes well. I sure know how to bury myself in work, not to mention wiring/painting the Nova. I'm gonna try and have the K5 up for this summer, though! Almost out of time, so I gotta pull less overtime at work and more in my garage! I want to have it for DuneFest (if they don't cancel it again) in late July - early August.
If I can lock-in, it's only:
Long-block build and swap
Design/fab headers
Bigger/better exhaust
Engine bay spray
Heat exchanger
Wheel/tires
Engine mounts
Rad fans
I can probably handle most of that in 3-4 weekends. I can worry about gauges/digital dash and the cage later, that's much lower on my priority list now. If I can manage to consistently get out of work by 5 (a miracle) I can get one building finished this week and get the engine built/prepped this weekend! Maybe even start disassembly of the K5, if all goes well. Until then, I've been having a lot of fun on the property with it!
View attachment Snapchat-585257051.mp4
Leveled ground and laid gravel, almost done with one of the buildings. 14x23 feet? Or close to that. 6.5 ft tall by 8.5 or 9 ft wide front door, 1 man back door
View attachment Screen_Recording_20260405_143731_Gallery.mp4
The Corvette needed a few things, maintenance stuff etc. as it has only been driven a handful of times in the last 10 years, mostly by me. Now she's doing great, and I ordered a TKX 5 speed conversion for it for that .68 overdrive. It's going to be a fantastic summer car, and the girlfriend loves it so it'll be getting some good miles. It immediately kicked the Camaro out of the garage and into the barn, though.
BDS rebuilt the engine with a high vacuum cam way back on the 80's, and custom built this gold plated 7380 Rochester injection system for it. Grandfather never got it running right and preferred a carb, so he removed it. I've been cleaning the 30 years of dust and dirt off of it. I'd really like to figure it out and get it on the car when it is down for the transmission swap at the end of the year, because you NEVER see a mechanical injection car at the shows. I'm gonna pull the engine too and reseal it because she's seeping oil from everywhere, lol.
BUT the buildings and the K5 come before all that! Once the first building is up, the vette will hang out there while I get the new engine put together. I found an already ported set of 243's off of a Texas 2k car for what I was gonna spend having mine ported, big valves and springs already in them! Snagged them, only have 2 dyno runs for testing on them.
Got the whole rotating assembly balanced and ready to go in, just need the space in the garage to get everything together. We have a wholesale account with TireRack through work, and I found an INSANE deal I just couldn't pass up! Brand new set of 17" Raceline's and 35" Wrangler Territory MT's for $1500 mounted and balanced, so the K5 got a well deserved upgrade!
View attachment VID_20260402_113143_065.mp4
At this rate, I'm gonna do the bodywork and paint it. Might as well, I'll just chip away at it until it's straight and give it a quick spray. I was thinking black with the red two-tone side stripe, but now I'm leaning light blue (around Marina blue) with the titanium two tone and hard top to match the wheels. Also considered going silver, with the grey side stripe and wheels. Open to ideas! Girlfriend likes the idea of orange, too.
Somewhere in all this, I gotta figure out time to fab and weld headers. It will be my first time doing that, too, so that'll be a process. Hopefully that goes well. I sure know how to bury myself in work, not to mention wiring/painting the Nova. I'm gonna try and have the K5 up for this summer, though! Almost out of time, so I gotta pull less overtime at work and more in my garage! I want to have it for DuneFest (if they don't cancel it again) in late July - early August.
If I can lock-in, it's only:
Long-block build and swap
Design/fab headers
Bigger/better exhaust
Engine bay spray
Heat exchanger
Wheel/tires
Engine mounts
Rad fans
I can probably handle most of that in 3-4 weekends. I can worry about gauges/digital dash and the cage later, that's much lower on my priority list now. If I can manage to consistently get out of work by 5 (a miracle) I can get one building finished this week and get the engine built/prepped this weekend! Maybe even start disassembly of the K5, if all goes well. Until then, I've been having a lot of fun on the property with it!
View attachment Snapchat-585257051.mp4
Do you ever sleep? That’s a ton of work and projects. Love the vette.
Finished building garage #1 on Thursday, FULL STEAM AHEAD FOR THE REDEYE BLAZER! The long block is together, just waiting on cam bolts! Rockers and top end covers go on tomorrow after work, and when the rain slows down I'll be pulling the fenders to start header fab.
View attachment Snapchat-2112154641.mp4
View attachment Snapchat-899714633.mp4
I ordered all the header parts, should be here next weekend! I'm ecstatic to finally be moving forward on this project.
I am looking for a good place near my house to send the current 6.0 off with a wiiiicked burnout. If I can find a good location, I'll rip one for you guys!
View attachment Snapchat-2112154641.mp4
View attachment Snapchat-899714633.mp4
I ordered all the header parts, should be here next weekend! I'm ecstatic to finally be moving forward on this project.
I am looking for a good place near my house to send the current 6.0 off with a wiiiicked burnout. If I can find a good location, I'll rip one for you guys!
Header fab stuff got here today, SUPER stoked to use the header fab tools from Centurial Inc! It has been in the 30s-40s and windy outside though, and supposed to rain Mon-Wed next week. So, I have to decide whether I want to suffer to hurry the project up, or put it off for ANOTHER week. If I delay any more, I'll miss the opportunity to enjoy it for the summer.
View attachment Snapchat-1215496792.mp4
I'm thinking that I want to strip the engine bay when the engine is out and spray it. Nothing crazy, I was pondering some dark grey rhino liner or something? Open to ideas, I want it durable and at least DECENTLY clean looking. The engine bay isn't great looking, we're gonna fix that. I also have a pretty cool idea for the new exhaust that I think is gonna work great, but we shall see! Lol. Hopefully it's not obnoxiously loud, my goal here is 'enjoyable and livable' but 800hp makes 800hp noise.
As I type this, I'm realizing the huge amount of work I have to do and I'm gonna probably rough it and get the K5 ready for header work tomorrow or Saturday. I'm going to a private property tomorrow after work that allegedly has some good stuff stashed away around the property. Hopefully I don't come home with another project, but some of these old timers around here have dozens of pre-90s cars and trucks just sitting on their property. My buddy is looking at a straight, 7/10 clean "ran when parked" 77 F150 and the guy only wants $2500. If all the deals are that good, I'm in trouble
View attachment Snapchat-1215496792.mp4
I'm thinking that I want to strip the engine bay when the engine is out and spray it. Nothing crazy, I was pondering some dark grey rhino liner or something? Open to ideas, I want it durable and at least DECENTLY clean looking. The engine bay isn't great looking, we're gonna fix that. I also have a pretty cool idea for the new exhaust that I think is gonna work great, but we shall see! Lol. Hopefully it's not obnoxiously loud, my goal here is 'enjoyable and livable' but 800hp makes 800hp noise.
As I type this, I'm realizing the huge amount of work I have to do and I'm gonna probably rough it and get the K5 ready for header work tomorrow or Saturday. I'm going to a private property tomorrow after work that allegedly has some good stuff stashed away around the property. Hopefully I don't come home with another project, but some of these old timers around here have dozens of pre-90s cars and trucks just sitting on their property. My buddy is looking at a straight, 7/10 clean "ran when parked" 77 F150 and the guy only wants $2500. If all the deals are that good, I'm in trouble
