Carolina K10, 1979 Reg cab short bed.

[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.

[TheBlueBomber]

Thanks to my good friend Jon (1963c-10) and his sharp eyes I'm am a proud owner of a 1963 shortbed fleetside. Looks like I'll have a new parts getter for the K10!!

Should have it street legal and on the road this week.









Hopefully this weekend I'll get the linkage in for the tcase. Going to order my fuel system stuff and bumper brackets for the front clip so I can get that bolted down so I can pull off the bed.

Once the bed is off I'll prep the frame and paint it/replace the bed brackets which are riveted in and get my fuel system taken care of.

Lots of work ahead of me. Main thing is to focus on the k10 and what's needed on the fleetside c10 to get it legal. I have to be careful now because I've got 3 trucks and a turbo motor. Don't want to get to crazy and try to do all at once otherwise nothing will be finished.

[C@rnut001]

Wow, your '63 looks pretty good. Good luck with it. I just bought a '77 Chevy K5 Blazer, so I know what you mean on getting it going and all that. Anyway, thanks for sharing pictures of your new truck.

[rusty76]

Man I'm jealous now.....grrrrrrr....I've been thinking a lot about '60-'66 trucks here lately, but honestly a lot of them have been way out of my budget, but that's ok too. Cool truck.!

[TheBlueBomber]

Originally Posted by C@rnut001

Wow, your '63 looks pretty good. Good luck with it. I just bought a '77 Chevy K5 Blazer, so I know what you mean on getting it going and all that. Anyway, thanks for sharing pictures of your new truck.

Thanks for the kind words I'm looking forward to driving this puppy.

Originally Posted by rusty76

Man I'm jealous now.....grrrrrrr....I've been thinking a lot about '60-'66 trucks here lately, but honestly a lot of them have been way out of my budget, but that's ok too. Cool truck.!

This was a freak occurrence. It started when I was contemplating on buying a 64 impala 4 door and Jon turned me onto this. 2 days later I had a handshake and a title. I'll be hitting it with some CLR later today and try to bring some paint back.

[Hankster]

I love the patina on that ole' truck!

[TheBlueBomber]

Originally Posted by Hankster

I love the patina on that ole' truck!

Me too. I'm going to hit it with CLR tonight and try to give it a nice sunburnt look.