The beauty *N* the beast

[VA72C10]

Thanks for sharing the pics! Always nice rides in TX!

[67cheby]

HOLY SMOKES....thats a bunch of super cool trucks !!

[jbice70gmc]

Originally Posted by VA72C10

Thanks for sharing the pics! Always nice rides in TX!

My pleasure.

[jbice70gmc]

Originally Posted by 67cheby

HOLY SMOKES....thats a bunch of super cool trucks !!

Saturday was nice and my buddy said there was lots more there. I did'nt get over until today.

[Bus flyer]

Originally Posted by jbice70gmc

My pleasure.

Ya thanks for the pics I bought a 1970 2500 its in rough shape but I want resurrect it any help on finding parts for it in the H town would help I live in Montgomery. I will set up pics when I start the build.

[jbice70gmc]

Outback truck parts in Spring has just about everything you need to restore your truck, they have a web site. And of course there is always the internet.

[slick copper]

Nice trucks! Bet you can't wait till your's is there!

[jbice70gmc]

I just hope my truck looks half as good as some of those trucks.

[jbice70gmc]

Oh yea I thought this was odd but kinda cool.

[crappiewrangler]

Man I'm digging your build.

subscribed...

[jbice70gmc]

Thanks Most of the work that I've done has been rust repair. The rest of this build will be real slow. Hopefully I will be able to order my new axles next week.

[jbice70gmc]

Ok I've got a small update on the build. I got my rotors back from the chopper shop. They had to turn the O.D. of the hubs down so my wheel caps would fit. Here is a couple of update pics.

[slick copper]

NICE! Can't wait to get my chassis that clean! Glad the rotor/wheel cap worked out for ya. Just curious if you don't mind, how much did it cost to get that done (future reference)?

[jbice70gmc]

When I took them over to the guy at the cycle shop the dude told me 30 for both. When I went to pick em up he said it would be 40 bucks. I did'nt have a prob with that since everywhere else I went wanted at least 100 dollars.

[jbice70gmc]

As you can see in my later post and in the pics here I have a 5.3 on the engine stand. I paid $500 for it. All I know about the motor is that its from a 2004 escalade. I don't know how many miles is on it and I don't have much knowledge about working on motors at all but I plan on doing every bit of the work I can possibly do. I just need a little direction here. What should I use to clean/strip the motor with? I guess after a good degreasing maybe some paint thinner I don't know any advice would be deeply appreciated. I think I will get some of the 243 heads its got the 706 heads now, a different intake and throttle body, different cam and a set of Doug Thorley headers. Wondering if I should tear it apart and replace the rings and bearings. Any thoughts on this? The motor came with all the accesories excluding the AC compressor. Looking to get as close to 400HP as possible. Also the guy I bought this engine from has the 4l60E that was in the escalade. I have the ECM that was in the escalade but not the foot throttle pedal or the wiring harness. Can someone tell me if I need the one that was with this particular motor or can I use any one. One other question. This motor is drive by wire and I'm not sure if that is what I want here. My wife has a 5.3 2007 Tahoe that is drive by wire and the throttle response is so slow. I here you can adjust this during tuning but I don't know this for sure. How much trouble would it be to convert this to cable style throttle assembly? Thanks for any help you can give me.

[67cheby]

well you might try to get the vin of the vehicle because you could only get the Escalade with a 6.0 in it (unless i am mistaken ) , not the 5.3 , just for your parts info you might clarify what the motor reallly is, i bought a 6.0 a year ago it was supposed to be a 2007 with 70 k miles, when we got it hooked up to the computer it was an 04 with 150k miles, you got to watch people they will tell you whatever they think you want to hear !

[jbice70gmc]

Oh yea I will be ordering my axles, 2" lowereing blocks and Ubolts, super trac bar next week.

[jbice70gmc]

2004 was supposed to be the last year they put these motors in the escalades and then they went to the 6.0. When I first got it here I couldn't really tell if it was a 5.3 or 4.8 but I pulled a couple of spark plugs to see the cupped pistons. The 5.3s are cupped and the 4.8s are flat top pistons. But you did bring some lite to my situation. So I guess I can get the computer looked at and be able to get quit a bit of info on this motor assuming this is the ECM that went with it.

[slick copper]

Can't tell you much on the engine itself, other than I saw an episode of Extreme 4x4 and he did some really cool things to one of those motors and got a lot of power out of it.
As far as cleaning it up for paint I used Purple Power (Simple Green is good too) and scrubbed it with a brush good. Then blasted it with brake parts cleaner. That stuff is awesome at blasting away grease! I used like 3 cans of the cheap stuff. Then wiped it down with some PPG wax and grease remover then primed and painted! Course it was a lil different application being a 250 straight six. Maybe this'll help a lil though.

[slick copper]

Before and After. You can't see all the oil/grease, but trust me it was there.

[jbice70gmc]

Originally Posted by slick copper

Before and After. You can't see all the oil/grease, but trust me it was there.
Attachment 816516Attachment 816517

Man that looks really good. Well just like my mechanical knowledge of these motors I have know experience with paint either. I was going to just leave the heads the bare aluminum as clean as I can get them. Maybe I could spray a high temp clear on them. I'm affraid all the paint I will be using will probably be out of a spray can. Is ther a particular brand anyone here recommends? Don't really know what color I will paint the block, oil pan and valve covers. I guess maybe a combination of gray and black maybe a dash of red.

[jbice70gmc]

I had my bags all installed but when I went to connect my front lines to the fittings I realized I was going to have to go with 90 degree fittings. Once I got them in with the new fittings I had to pull them out again and put extensions on them to keep the tubing from rubbing on the LCA. (PITA) Also be sure to leak test your fittings on your bags before you install them.

[jbice70gmc]

I picked up some rear F-body calipers from a local salvage yard for $75.00 cleaned em up and painted them with some high temp caliper paint.

[jbice70gmc]

Got a few things in the mail. Got my captainfab rear caliper brackets, deluxe pan hard bar, eaton posi, moser 5x5 axels, also got all moog tie rod ends, and my bushing kit.

[jbice70gmc]

Got the rear end put together new posi diff, axels, bearings, and seals.