Carolina K10, 1979 Reg cab short bed.

[NastyBuzzard]

Couldn't Help it. Ran out and took a pic for you.

Sorry for the horrible quality.

[TheBlueBomber]

Originally Posted by rusty76

Looking good. Glad to see you making progress!

Thanks and me too! If it wasn't for 1963c-10 lending me his engine hoist I wouldn't have been able to get it done this holiday. I owe him big time.

Originally Posted by NastyBuzzard

Couldn't Help it. Ran out and took a pic for you.

Sorry for the horrible quality.

Okay that makes me feel better... so it looks like the only thing I need to get it at the right height is to get that crossmember you have or fab one up. Me going the modified stock route I'm going to try and track down that crossmember. Big difference in the angle of this tcase V.S. others. Thanks a lot for the picture!

[TheBlueBomber]

Bolted the tcase and transmission together this morning. Measured the output of the tcase to the rear axle and it came to be 46" measured my drive shaft and it came to be 46". Mocked It up and it looks like it's darn close. Going to wait until I get the cross member in before I go to a local driveline shop.

[TheBlueBomber]

Went to the junkyard today to see if I could find a cross member today... didn't find a cross member but I did find a lonely 4.8L that was just begging to have about 20 lbs of boost thrown at it! Also found the linkage for the new transfer case.


I can't remember if the 5.3 was this dirty or not when I got it... the motor spins freely and I know it's a 4.8L because I pulled the passenger side head off and there were flat top pistons. A good example of head gasket failure. Didn't grab a picture because at that time I wasn't planning on getting it.

The motor is from a 1999 silverado made from real tornadoes. Unknown miles... the fluid from the torque converter smelled good so I'll say it's a good investment :p




So there we have it... Two trucks, a boat, a future turbo motor, and a jealous ford watching in the background... today was a busy day and I can't wait to see what tomorrow yields.

[Hankster]

Sweet! I seen your post about the 4.8 on instagram, So I jumped online real quick to see what you posted about it here.. Can't wait to see what you do with it!

[TheBlueBomber]

Originally Posted by Hankster

Sweet! I seen your post about the 4.8 on instagram, So I jumped online real quick to see what you posted about it here.. Can't wait to see what you do with it!

Thanks. I'm excited myself to get this thing kicked off. Will be my first engine build ever... I don't know what I'm doing but hopefully by the end of it I might learn me something lets just hope It's not the same lesson I learned when fourwheeling with a hurt transmission by myself lol


I will be posting the turbo build here and on another thread in the High performance section. Most of my questions will be posted in there. Here is the link to the thread. http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=635010

[TheBlueBomber]

Of course I couldn't leave the 4.8 alone today. Here's some pics of my adventures...








Don't ask me why I plugged the motor... it was slap full of water anyways...






Inside the oil pan.



My beautiful helper.


Aaand this Is where I left off until next weekend


Dropped the wiring harness off at my buddies house today. Also plan on shipping the computer off to have it flashed/tuned. It's been a long weekend but I've gotten a lot of work done. Now time to help 1963c-10 put his 427 in his '63 this week.

[Hankster]

dang, lots of sludge build up..

[NastyBuzzard]

Nice!! Keep us posted!

[rusty76]

That thing has more grease on it than the 400 I pulled out of my old leaky truck. Geeez and it's a lot newer.!

[TheBlueBomber]

Originally Posted by Hankster

dang, lots of sludge build up..

Yeah I picked this motor for a reason. Head gasket is no problem but man does it stink. Excited to pull off the timing chain cover.

Originally Posted by NastyBuzzard

Nice!! Keep us posted!

Will do! Most of the heavy tech will be in the build thread for the motor but I will definitely post updates on it in here. The thread is in my sig.

Originally Posted by rusty76

That thing has more grease on it than the 400 I pulled out of my old leaky truck. Geeez and it's a lot newer.!

This thing has more grease on it that the 305 I pulled out of the k10 earlier this year!!! And I thought that was bad! Hell even my pressure washer was giving me funny looks when I pulled it out! Haha.

[83 Silverado]

It looks like you got a 5.3L from looking a the dished pistons, the 4.8 came with a flat top piston.

[TheBlueBomber]

Originally Posted by 83 Silverado

It looks like you got a 5.3L from looking a the dished pistons, the 4.8 came with a flat top piston.

Yes you are right... that will be fixed soon.

I don't know where I thought I had flat tops but yes those are definitely dished.

[83 Silverado]

Originally Posted by TheBlueBomber

Yes you are right... that will be fixed soon.

I don't know where I thought I had flat tops but yes those are definitely dished.

I picked up a 4.8 for one of my trucks and remembered the flat tops from going thru it checking it over.

You got a cool build going, I'll need to follow this one.

[TheBlueBomber]

Originally Posted by 83 Silverado

I picked up a 4.8 for one of my trucks and remembered the flat tops from going thru it checking it over.

You got a cool build going, I'll need to follow this one.

Thanks. She's getting there slowly but surely. Are you going to start a thread up on your build?

[83 Silverado]

Originally Posted by TheBlueBomber

Thanks. She's getting there slowly but surely. Are you going to start a thread up on your build?

I'd like to start on a build for my 83 soon, seeing as it's not on the road right now. Just need to finish up a trailer project and make room in the garage.

[1963c-10]

Nice progress Austin.....looking forward to the boosted engine. Keep up the updates!!!

[TheBlueBomber]

Painted the new master cylinder and brake booster today. Also sent payment for the crossmember. Hopefully I'll have it by next weekend.

[TheBlueBomber]

Not much to report for the truck today. Mainly worked on the turbo motor. Got it all taken apart minus cam bearings.



I sprayed sea foam on the block to keep moisture and critters at bay. This is how it will sit until I get froggy and send it to the machine shop.


I'm kind of at a stopping point until my crossmember gets here which I ordered thanks to Speeding Dakota. Hopefully it'll be here sometime this week and this weekend I can bolt everything down.

My friend Warren just ordered a bunch of loom so as soon as that gets here he will finish up my harness. Then it will be down to fuel and linkage.

I haven't decided if I want to mount the computer inside the truck or under the hood. I'm leaning towards underneath the dash on the passenger side.

[Hankster]

I myself would go underneath the dash on the passenger side, the trucks that came with the computers for the emission crap have a hole in the fire-wall already (Mine had/has this) and the hole is just big enough for the main wires to go through. Plus it would look more factory under the dash.

[TheBlueBomber]

Originally Posted by Hankster

I myself would go underneath the dash on the passenger side, the trucks that came with the computers for the emission crap have a hole in the fire-wall already (Mine had/has this) and the hole is just big enough for the main wires to go through. Plus it would look more factory under the dash.

I told him to go ahead and wire it for under the dash... i still think it'll look cleaner that way.


The crossmember should be here sometime tomorrow... this weekend will be kind of hectic so I probably won't get much done. Hoping to at least get the cross member painted and under the truck. Again thanks Speeding Dakota for the cross member.

[Hankster]

Good deal, glad the crossmember will be there!

[TheBlueBomber]

So I've been searching for a tach cluster for a while now. Now my dilemma is this... I want all the factory gauges including the clock gauge and the only way to do that is getting a medium duty or rare diesel truck tach clusters with the fuel gauge inside the tach. The problem with that is the diesel tach only goes to 4000 rpms and the gas goes to 5 or 6000. My 5.3l is going to go well past that.

I found online at gmsports.com a tach gauge that replaces the factory gas gauge in my cluster now and allows me to keep the factory gas gauge wiring. It also goes up to 7000 rpms. So after wiring in the new gauge all I will have to do is convert the empty slot to the clock gauge.

This is the link to the gauge. http://gmsports.com/content/new-tach...and-gmc-trucks

The first picture is from the website and the last 2 are from homemade87. The gauge is plastic but looks factory when installed.

The gauge is $195 where as I could spend the same amount of money on a factory cluster and still need to mess with the gauges.

[TheBlueBomber]

Nothing done yesterday, was exhausted from the week so I made it into a lazy day. Good thing too because I got a lot done today after a good day of rest.

The cross member went in pretty smoothly. I had to trim the parking brake bracket just a little to get the cross member to clear. Drilled some pilot holes with a 1/4 drill bit and chased it with a 7/16th bit. Ran out of time before I could paint it so I'll do that next weekend.

Can see where I marked the bracket on where the cut would be made. I trimmed a little extra to make it look smooth all the way across.


Post cut and bolted down with new hardware




Everything measured out and looking good.


The bucket for the shifter is different than the NP203 shifter so I'll have to trim a little around the edges on the hump. Basically the bucket is too big and won't sit flush with the hump.


My apologies for the blurry picture


And of course... the bane of my existence reappeared... I've got something for it next time I mess with it. I'm just going to add some spacers to get that thing away from the crossmember.


Lots of hot metal went flying from the drilling and grinding. I kept getting stabbed in the back from all of the shavings so I grabbed a magnet and tried to pick up as much as I could before I resumed work... took some pictures because I thought it looked cool.

[1963c-10]

Nice job Austin. Seems like if its not one clearance issue its another. I'm in the same boat, but keep rowing....the water will pan out.