K5_489
Member
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2019
- Posts
- 41
- Reaction score
- 25
- Location
- Arizona, USA
- First Name
- Eric
- Truck Year
- 1986
- Truck Model
- K5
- Engine Size
- 489 BBC
Picked up a '86 K5 this past summer with the usual PO cutting/hacking nightmares, and a plan to eventually do a BBC swap in it. Thankfully, the body is fairly clean, but the wiring was an absolute nightmare, along with the ever present hack the crap out of the bezel and dash to half-butt fit in a modern DIN radio...poorly.
Usual claims... "it has a Camaro 350 in it!"...it wasn't....Just a run of the mill TBI truck 350 long block, and an Edelbrock manifold hacked up to fit the TBI heads, along with surprisingly, a fresh Edelbrock 1406. "It has a freshly rebuilt trans in it!"...if it was rebuilt, whoever did it didn't have a clue what they were doing, and it took a permanent vacation shortly after buying it, which I replaced with a full manual 4L80E a couple weeks after that. It did have a fairly new 6" spring lift, and 33" MT/Rs on it, which was a plus.
So that BBC swap got pushed up sooner than planned...and I just finished a 489ci Mark IV a couple weeks ago, and got it bolted in this past weekend - Scat cast crank, Scat forged rods, Icon domed pistons, Summit 1796 cam single pattern 226 duration, .514" lift, 108LSA. Weiand dual plane intake, and run by that same Edelbrock 1406 through the break-in, then I'll decide what other carb to put on it based on how the engine responds. Sadly, I'll be running it on stock, untouched, peanut port heads for now, but that was largely due to budget reasons. I'll also be running it on stock truck cast log manifolds for now, but will likely be building a set of fenderwell headers later to clear the factory HVAC box, as I can't find anything off the shelf that will clear without paying a fab shop big money to make a one-off set.
Working on some wiring repairs now, and fingers crossed that I'll have it buttoned up and ready to prime & fire this coming weekend.
I've also since added front power & lumbar seats from a '95 Suburban, Tuffy stereo console with a new Kenwood stereo, Infinity Reference speakers all around, Art Carr Sidewinder shifter mounted to the Tuffy console, working on handbuilt stealth subwoofer boxes to go behind the front seats, and will be redoing much of the interior and paint once I get the engine going and fully broken in. Also will be doing an axle swap in the near future, once I decide how I want to play musical drivetrains with the rest of my trucks - a '85 K20 parts truck, '95 K2500 Suburban parts truck, '96 K2500 6.5TD daily driver, '90 Ford F350 7.3 CCLB previous daily/hauler, and a '59 International B-162 stakebed long term project. Present thinking is to pull the 14BSF rear and 10 bolt front from the K20, and put them in the Blazer. Then eventually pull the 7.3 from the Ford, and put it in the International. Ford axles to the K2500 for a SFA swap, then finally move the 14BFF from the K2500 to the K5.
As I know everyone always wants pictures, I'll get them when I get home from work...none of value on my work computer, lol.
Usual claims... "it has a Camaro 350 in it!"...it wasn't....Just a run of the mill TBI truck 350 long block, and an Edelbrock manifold hacked up to fit the TBI heads, along with surprisingly, a fresh Edelbrock 1406. "It has a freshly rebuilt trans in it!"...if it was rebuilt, whoever did it didn't have a clue what they were doing, and it took a permanent vacation shortly after buying it, which I replaced with a full manual 4L80E a couple weeks after that. It did have a fairly new 6" spring lift, and 33" MT/Rs on it, which was a plus.
So that BBC swap got pushed up sooner than planned...and I just finished a 489ci Mark IV a couple weeks ago, and got it bolted in this past weekend - Scat cast crank, Scat forged rods, Icon domed pistons, Summit 1796 cam single pattern 226 duration, .514" lift, 108LSA. Weiand dual plane intake, and run by that same Edelbrock 1406 through the break-in, then I'll decide what other carb to put on it based on how the engine responds. Sadly, I'll be running it on stock, untouched, peanut port heads for now, but that was largely due to budget reasons. I'll also be running it on stock truck cast log manifolds for now, but will likely be building a set of fenderwell headers later to clear the factory HVAC box, as I can't find anything off the shelf that will clear without paying a fab shop big money to make a one-off set.
Working on some wiring repairs now, and fingers crossed that I'll have it buttoned up and ready to prime & fire this coming weekend.
I've also since added front power & lumbar seats from a '95 Suburban, Tuffy stereo console with a new Kenwood stereo, Infinity Reference speakers all around, Art Carr Sidewinder shifter mounted to the Tuffy console, working on handbuilt stealth subwoofer boxes to go behind the front seats, and will be redoing much of the interior and paint once I get the engine going and fully broken in. Also will be doing an axle swap in the near future, once I decide how I want to play musical drivetrains with the rest of my trucks - a '85 K20 parts truck, '95 K2500 Suburban parts truck, '96 K2500 6.5TD daily driver, '90 Ford F350 7.3 CCLB previous daily/hauler, and a '59 International B-162 stakebed long term project. Present thinking is to pull the 14BSF rear and 10 bolt front from the K20, and put them in the Blazer. Then eventually pull the 7.3 from the Ford, and put it in the International. Ford axles to the K2500 for a SFA swap, then finally move the 14BFF from the K2500 to the K5.
As I know everyone always wants pictures, I'll get them when I get home from work...none of value on my work computer, lol.
