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Thinking of building a K5 daily driver

79bonanza

79bonanza

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Just kinda been throwing around the idea of building me a 73-79 k5 for a every day driver.

I'm wanting to just do a kinda restoration/modernize it for creature comforts and all.

I know I'm gonna run a LS based engine. I'm thinking a lq9 or a ly6. L92 if I find a good deal.

I'm leaning torward a sm465 just because I like a manual trans and I don't wanna have to do a bunch of fab to shoe horn a nv4500 or a zf6 in there.

I'm thinking if I run a sm465 and a 33" tire I should be able to run about a 3.08 gear and be able to drive close to free way speeds without screaming the engine. And I think the new LS whatever will make enough power to counteract the high gear in the axle.

I'm gonna keep it about stock height and run 33". Maybe get some custom springs to make the ride a little better.

I'd like to do a two tone red/white or a black/ off white.

Whatcha think? Sound like a plan or what
 
hell yeah! Plan seems solid enough. I would reconsider the 3.08s though.

Mine was a daily driver for 5 years. I that sometimes.
 
That would be a great ride, except the part about the 33" tires, 3.08 gears, and a SM465.....

Why spend the time upgrading the motor and creature comforts and then ruin it with the gearing tranny combo?
 
I just bought a '87 K5 to do this very thing. Picked it up cheap with a blown up motor, but zero body rot. Going to build a mild TBI 350 to go back in it using a LT1 roller cam, TPI 083 heads, and mild tuning. It has a 700r4 with NP208 which happens to be the exact same length as the NV4500/NP208 setup I already have (NV might be 1/8 of an inch longer). No need to mess with drive shaft length changes. I also have a complete hydraulic clutch setup, pedals and all. I will only need to buy the advanced adapters bellhousing and slave cylinder bracket. The truck came with 3.73 gearing which I think will work out well with the NV4500 and 33 inch tires. I plan to go with a 2 inch lift to keep it from being too tall for a daily driver.

Mine came solid blue but I plan to two tone it blue/silver when it gets painted.

Mike
 
fyi nv4500 is a basic bolt in .

ether mech clutch with aa bell housing . or hydro with 85-91 master/pedal assembly and splice the line .

just got to change the position of shifter hole in floor.
 
I have the NV4500 bell housing from the 94 this came out of, and I have heard of people splicing the hose. I was worried that with only 2 inches of lift the front drive shaft would interfere with the slave cylinder.
 
I definitely wouldn't go with 3:08 gears.

My wife's previous and current vehicles:

2006 Tahoe (previous)
  • 4.8L engine
  • 116" wheelbase
  • 3.23 gears

2004 Yukon XL / Suburban (current)
  • 5.3L engine
  • 130" wheelbase
  • 3.73 gears

SAME fuel economy.

Even though the Tahoe was a shorter & lighter vehicle, it had to work harder to get down the road. On paper, the bigger & heavier Yukon's bigger engine turning faster due to the lower gears should burn more gas. It doesn't. That's because it's engine just has to putt/cruise along to accomplish the same thing. :D
 
When I had my '72 K5 I swapped in a SM465 in place of its ailing TH350,it had 3:08's factory...

I was very dissapointed with the gearing,it was way too high geared,even with 8.75x16.5 tires on it...it would scream in second gear,then dog in third,till you got it up to about 40-45 mph,and on the highway you could go 75 in fourth with it only running at about 2100 rpms..some hills I had to downshift into third to maintain 60 mph,and it had a healthy 350 in it too!..

I was able to use "granny low" to some advantage on steep hills when taking off from a dead stop,something you'd rarely use, if you had gear ratio of 3:73 or more..

I would use 3:73's with a non overdrive tranny,at least,if your going with 33's or larger,4:10's wouldn't hurt your fuel mileage much if any,and make it more pleasurable to drive..that wide gap between second and third gear was what I hated the most about the SM465...its geared more like a 3 on the tree in second,third and fourth..

You'd need a big block with a lot of low end torque to be able to run high ratio gears like 3:08's and not end up being unsatisfied...or a cummins !--maybe a 292 six!..small blocks like to wind up some,or else they dont have much torque..horsepower isn't whats needed,a longer stroke and peak torque at low RPM is what you need to run highway gears...but most engines will get worse gas mileage at lower RPMs if they are lugging all the time..
 
I'd go 2wd for a dd. Lowered just a little bit. I think that would be a great dd cruiser.
 
Okay I'm gonna reconsider the gear ratio, but I'm gonna stick with the sm465.

I thought about getting a 2wd and doing kind of a hot rod kinda daily driver but I want something I can drive in any weather without worrying, and go off road into a field or back yards or something. Just don't like the ball and chain of being stuck on pavement lol
 
I had a '75 2wd Blazer and a '79 C-10 Bonanza 2wd,they were much more comfortable on longer trips than any of my 4x4's were (all had stock suspension)...
---but there were always a time when I wished they were four wheel drive,like when I got them stuck on wet grass and mud in a field I parked in,or when we had a few inches of snow after taking a trip 80 miles to visit relatives,when it was bone dry and clear when I had left..a few times I wished I had a winch!..or tire chains maybe..

Other than those few times though,2wd was great for smoother cruising and a bit better gas mileage...

A 2wd can surprise you off road though,if you put some weight in the right spot in the bed,lower the tire pressure in the rear,and if it has a limited slip,so much the better..I took my '75 2wd Blazer up some dirt hills a lot of Jeeps couldn't climb back in the day...had to get a running start and HANG ON though!..it had an open diff too!..I put a 307 V8 in it along with a Saginaw 4 speed from a '74 Vega after its 250 six & three speed wiped the cam gear teeth off...thing was pretty peppy and still got 15 mpg..
 
Yea I mean I've daily driven 2wd trucks and they do ride smoother and get better mileage, I'm just not a 2wd kinda guy I guess lol
 
I'm gonna try to get some sound deadening done when I start the project.

I was thinking of lineX ing the under side of the body and putting a good solid layer of dynamat or hushmat down on the inside to try to keep the noise to a minimum.

I'm gonna keep the hard top on this one, I have a soft topper top on my 91 K5 and it's nice and all, just a little loud at freeway speeds

Ohh yea, do K5's have head liners in them? Idk if I've ever seen one without just a painted steel roof
 
79bonanza said:
I'm gonna try to get some sound deadening done when I start the project.

I was thinking of lineX ing the under side of the body and putting a good solid layer of dynamat or hushmat down on the inside to try to keep the noise to a minimum.

I'm gonna keep the hard top on this one, I have a soft topper top on my 91 K5 and it's nice and all, just a little loud at freeway speeds

Ohh yea, do K5's have head liners in them? Idk if I've ever seen one without just a painted steel roof
Click to expand...

Headliner shouldn't be that bad if you have to fab it.

The way I've seen form-fitting stuff like that done is to wipe on some fiberglass epoxy and then glass it to make a copy of the roof line. Popping it off would be the only challenge. I don't know how "sticky" a release agent (to prevent it from being permanently bonded to your roof) is. You'd need it sticky enough to keep the epoxy and glass up there until it dry, but un-sticky enough to get it back off.

Pull the newly formed panel off of the inner roof and then cover it with foam-backed cloth / vinyl / Naugahyde / etc. Screw it back in place using self-tapping metal screws with decorative button caps over the bolt heads.

Done.

Again, the hardest part will be finding the right release agent/barrier between the sheet metal and the fiberglass epoxy.
 
Personally the SM465 would be very low on my list of transmissions for a daily driver. They just don't shift very good and have crappy gear ratios. You need to keep a high rear end ratio to keep from screaming the engine on the freeway but then you sacrifice low end power.
 
I remember seeing some with that velour stuff on the ceiling,on the 76 and newer K5's..most of those sagged and ended up being removed when they would "balloon" at highway speeds and block your vision,after the roof got rusty enough to let moisture get in them...great place for mice to build nests too,had many a rat tird shampoo at the junkyard in GM's with saggy headliners..:doah:..

You could put some of that silvery bubble wrap insulation on the ceiling and floors to help reduce noise and heat transfer..

When I had my '79 Bonanza,I took the seat out and stripped the floors bare,so I could patch up a few quarter sized rot holes in the floors..

Despite that truck being the most rust free I had ever owned,I ended up just making a whole new floor from 16 gauge galvanized steel for both sides,rather than have a few band aid patches here and there--figured I'd be back at it again in a few years if I hadn't,things rot so fast here...

After I had the floors all patched up,I used rubberized undercoating ,then I put some industrial strength bubble wrap that had 3/8" "bubbles" and was high strength plastic,really hard to pop the bubbles on that stuff,that I had hanging around, underneath the jute pad,then put the original rug back in it..I also added another carpet under the seat,all the way up to the cab's rear window almost,(along with the bubble wrap),so the whole floor was covered..

That made a huge difference in the noise level in the cab,and that truck used to heat up in the winter very quickly and retained the heat longer than any other one I'd owned,that was not as airtight..you had to leave the windows open to get the doors to shut without slamming them !..you could actually hear the directional flasher clicking in that truck it was so quiet in the cab after that..no headliner in that truck either..
 
Yea that much sound deadening will make anything quite lol,

About the headliner thing, have you guys seen the guys putting that expanding foam between the two roof skins to quite it down and insulate it. They like drill a bunch of small holes and spray it in.

And I know I'm gonna keep hearing how bad the sm465 is for a driver but I kinda like the feel of them and if I go with any other trans I'm just gonna go with a auto 6L80 or 6L90. But I'd prefer the 4 speed personally.
 
It's too bad the few 5 speed manuals GM had with overdrive are so expensive used,and kind of a pain to adapt to older square body trucks..I've never had one ,I read the 1993 NV4500 had the lowest first gear ratio,and that the NV3500 doesn't always hold up well under a lot of torque..

The A-833 New Process 4 speed that GM borrowed from Chrysler was a so-so tranny,the gearing in them wasn't the greatest ,and they weren't exactly heavy duty,but GM did put some behind 6.2's in the early 80's,and 4th was overdrive..at least all 4 speeds were synchromesh..:rolleyes:..

The granny low in the SM465 and SM420's were a plus if you did any rock crawling ,towing,and stump pulling though..

Back when I had my '72 K5 ,I was tempted to buy one of those range splitters that bolt between the bellhousing and tranny,an underdrive version,so I could make up for the 3:08's --where I lived then had a lot of steep hills and I was constantly shifting down ,winding it out,then bogging when I put it in the next gear,with the engine pinging...it needed another gear between second and third!..
I also considered buying an Advance Adapters kit that would allow a Muncie 4 speed to be installed in a 4x4 ,to the NP-205...I had a nice M-22 out of a Camaro sitting in my garage at the time!..but it was almost as expensive as the range splitter was..nearly 800 bucks,that was a months pay in the 80's!..
 
Yea I know what you mean, I thought nv3500 for a second then decided against it. There's guys with s10 blowing them up :/

And a nv4500 would just be over kill in my blazer, plus around here it's like 500-1000 for a 200,000 mile trans
 
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