1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox

[Smniekamp]

I finally have the passenger side rocker job finished up. I gave it the Bondo treatment to smooth out all of my poor welds. The can of Bondo I used was an old one my Dad had laying around. The copyright on the back of the can said 2002, so it was probably time to either get rid of it, or slap it on The Ox haha. It laid down well, after a little sanding I gave it a skim coat of paint. Lastly, I rolled on my bedliner. I like to use Herculiner on my vehicles, it seems to hold up well. I put it on my Nissan Frontier 3 years ago and it still looks great. Anyway...here are some progress pictures. Now all I have to fix is the driver's side and my truck will be rust free! Well.....for Alaskan standards that is...

[lowbrow454]

Good work, coming along nicely!

[Smniekamp]

Originally Posted by lowbrow454

Good work, coming along nicely!

Thank you! Hope you guys like the budget build.

[Smniekamp]

With a little more confidence in my sheet metal skills I attacked the driver side rocker panel and cab corner. It turned out to be in worse shape than the passenger side, however, it came together easier. I knew what to look for and how to make my cuts this time so I saved a lot of time. For The Ox I think it turned out pretty good.

I noticed that I keep getting water in my cab that leaks now the sides of my kick panels and onto the floor, does anybody have an idea where this would be coming from? Possibly a clogged weep hole somewhere? It happens on either side of the truck.... This is the next thing I want to get taken care of to prevent future rust issues.

[Man With A Gun]

Looks great!

[skyphix]

Love this project! Inspires me for mine since I've never welded anything like body panels before and only ever welded small square stock projects.

With regards to your ICM, I had a Honda that was killing them like yours is. Arctic Silver 5 solved that issue after trying all sorts of other products - Dia Grease, the cheap heat transfer sticky pads, etc. Did 50,000 miles on the ICM with Arctic Silver after losing 3 of the exact same brand/part number in a 1500 mile span.

[Smniekamp]

Its been quite a while since I have posted... I sold the Blue Ox back in 2018 (regretfully). Since then a lot has happened, married, new house, etc. I have been working on several other projects. Fixed up some other trucks, tractors, stuff like that, but no Chevys... until now!

Last weekend I picked myself up another Chevy Squarebody, and I couldn't be happier!

Its a 1982 Chevy K30, 350, automatic transmission, np 205, flatbed work truck. I normally don't keep my eye out for dually trucks, but this 4x4 caught my attention.

3 years ago, my Dad, brother, and I started hay farming in the summers. I thought this would be a fun truck to use for hauling hay, as well as misc. equipment around the farm.

Sorry for the poor photos, I will take more soon, but I am very excited to be back on the forum. My plan is to make another Blue Ox, on a budget of course, just like my last truck. I can call it the Blue Ox 2.0.... or the Blue.0... I guess I have time to think about that one...

[LT7A]

Congratulations, looks like a cool rig. And congratulations on all of the good life changes since you were last here. I remember the Blue Ox and it'll be cool to see what you do with this one.

[Smniekamp]

Originally Posted by LT7A

Congratulations, looks like a cool rig. And congratulations on all of the good life changes since you were last here. I remember the Blue Ox and it'll be cool to see what you do with this one.

Thanks man! I'm looking forward to the progress as well. I'll be sure to update the page whenever I am able to get something done on the truck.

[Smniekamp]

One of the first projects I had to take care of on the truck was a flat tire. I noticed that the rear passenger tire looked low, and was bulging out a bit at the bottom. Upon further investigation I found that the inner rear tire on that side was completely blown out. It had a 4 inch hole in the sidewall. My suspicion is that it had a slow leak of some sort, then was run flat until the sidewall gave way. Luckily the truck came with two brand new tires.

I thought the new tires would best be used on the front of the truck, so after playing musical chairs with the tires and wheels, I had a new set on the front, and four decent tires in the rear. I picked up an old manual tire machine a while back for $100, it has more than paid for itself doing changeovers. It takes a little effort, but I love thinking about how much money I'm saving every time I use it!

After that job was done, I went through and organized the snow plow pieces that came with the truck. It appears to be an old 7.5' Fisher plow with some sort of universal mount. I'm not sure if I want to plow with this truck though. I am a bit more inclined to try and sell the plow, then use the money to buy a winch for the truck. We'll see which way I end up going.

[Smniekamp]

I have done a couple little things to the truck in the last few weeks. The brake master cylinder was low in the rear brake revisor. I topped that off to see if it holds the fluid, or leaks back down. I'm guessing its the wheel cylinders, the rear brakes grab really hard when I'm braking.

Beyond that, I cleaned up a little wiring under the hood, and rebuilt the carburetor. The truck was running pretty well, however wasn't that easy to start (or restart for that matter). It took lots of pumps of the accelerator to cold start it. So I bought a carb kit at my local Napa, pulled the old Quadrajet from its resting spot, and dove in. I was not totally surprised with what I found inside. The bottom of the carb was coated in a healthy 1/8th inch of dirty crud. With some diligent cleaning and scrubbing I got all cleaned and put back together.

Once I had it back on the truck I tried to fire it up for the first time with the refreshed Q-Jet. I cranked, stomped on the gas, cranked, stomped on the gas, cranked, stomped on the gas, and cranked some more for the better part of ten minutes... Maybe I'd lost my touch rebuilding Chevy carbs?.... Thankfully, no.... I was just out of gas... rookie mistake! Five fresh gallons in the tank and the old Chevy barked right to life! Its running much smoother now, the idle circuit must have been slightly clogged because now it sounds really nice at idle.

One job done, many more to go!

[classicsteel75]

Looking good!

[Smniekamp]

Been a fun couple weeks getting to know this new truck. I've been using it around the farm lately, here is a picture of it hauling a load of cottonwood branches. I like the low height of the flatbed, it makes loading easy.

I do have a slight concern... but maybe this is normal... When I cold start the truck up, the left tail pipe always steams. It has a lot of moisture in it. Once it warms up, its no different than the right pipe, but do you think this is just condensation in the exhaust? If it is condensation, I would think both pipes would be blowing steam... I am hopeful its not burning coolant. It doesn't smell sweet to me, and it isn't a thick white smoke like I have seen with blown head gaskets. What are your thoughts? Hopefully the picture does it justice.

[classicsteel75]

Well, IIRC the passenger side has a heat riser so you will get a lot more exhaust out of the driver's side until the engine warms up.

It'd probably be a good idea to check the heat riser (mine had a bimetallic spring that controlled it and had been stuck when I got the truck. I freed it up using WD-40 or something similar). Yours probably has one controlled in a different way but I would expect the effect to be the same.

[Smniekamp]

Thanks for the tip! I'll take a look at that tonight and see if a little lubrication helps things.

I broke down and ordered a new vinyl kit for my bench seat. I couldn't stand the tears, as well as the mismatched colors. $260 shipped to Alaska was a little on the steep side, but the end result was worth it to me. This is the first time I have recovered a seat myself. I feel like it makes a big difference for the overall appeal of the truck. It fit pretty well, seemed like a quality product.

[Shifty One]

Looks good!

[Smniekamp]

SOS

Have you ever had a 5 minute project turn into a major catastrophe? Well... that was me this weekend.

I was doing a routine intake manifold gasket replacement on the new flatbed, as I was removing parts, I noticed that the oil pressure sensor on the back of the block was in the way of the back driver's side intake manifold bolt. When I went to remove the sensor, it broke off flush with the block. It took almost no force to do this, which surprised me a little (I have removed many of these sensors in the past without a problem). I looked down the hole and saw the brass fitting stuck firmly in the hole. I didn't feel like dealing with it at the moment, so I continued on with my intake gasket replacement.

Once I got the intake back on and sealed, I decided to direct my attention back to the broken off brass fitting. I grabbed a trusty easy out, a small torch, and a 6" crescent wrench. I heated up the block to help expand the hole, tapped the easy out into place, and began cautiously backing the bras fitting out of the hole. With some mild pressure I began to feel the brass fitting breaking loose. "Awesome!" I thought to myself as I crawled further into the engine bay to get a better view of my victory. Upon better inspection however, my excitement quickly turned into a nightmare... THE BLOCK CRACKED AND GAVE WAY?!

How could I have let this happen?... I never would have expected the cast iron block to give way before a brass fitting. I guess you learn something new everyday.

This brings me to my main point, what's the plan from here? Here are my next potential avenues for progress that seem within reason, in no particular order...

1. Plug hole with JB Weld and a bolt (not advisable...)
2. Try to thread a new fitting into what is left of the hole, and cover with RTV to try and prevent leaks (man I hope I can do this, simplest fix).
3.Pull motor and find a new 350 block that I can swap my engine internals into (expensive).
4. Garage rebuild the 283 I have sitting in my garage on an engine stand and plop in the truck (weaker hp and tq ratings, especially for a 1 ton).

If option 2 fails, I think option 4 is the next answer for me... I know a 283 in a one ton dually is going to make some people's skin crawl, but I have it sitting in my garage already.

I know these trucks did come with 292 inline sixes which made less power and torque than a 283. However the torque curve is quite different...

What are your guys overall thoughts on my situation, and what would you do next? I always like to see how I can do things cheaply. I have the money to buy another 350, but that kind of goes against the original spirit of working on these trucks like I did back in college when I built the first Blue Ox (with no money to my name). I enjoy the process of working with what I have, and spending as little money as possible to get the best result. Going out and just buying a new motor wouldn't have been an option back in the day.. but a tired 283 for $150 may have been!

[classicsteel75]

I'm no engine expert but to me it appears you have plenty of thread left to ensure that the new sensor won't come loose. Hard to tell from the pic but there are at least a few threads down under where it's broken off? If that's the case I would screw in the new sensor using thread seal, then use JB Weld to fill in the missing cast iron some. If you use the right JB Weld type, it's amazing how strong that stuff can be. Be sure to clean the area well probably with acetone or something similar before applying.