What are you going to do the her that you need a big block? With a 2 door and a 5.7, you should have plenty of power. Is the old powerplant dieing on you? I see that you have put a lot of flet and travel into your suspen/lift, are you looking at some really rocky trails or rock crawling?
The 5.7 may be enough at sea level, but it suffers at altitude. I have put a big block in my other truck and will never go back. Same economy, better power with my heavy truck. The old powerplant is doing fine and I won't swap the 489 in until I'm ready, either old one dead or frustrated with the power. It isn't bad actually right now, but it struggles to maintain speed on any grade and there are a lot out here.
The flex actually wasn't the main goal. The main goal was smooth ride, stable at highway speeds and handling, and low lift height.
That required custom springs for me. I have used most leaf manufacturers and was not happy with any of the off-the-shelf recipes. My springs were made for my trucks weight and the ORU hangers. I only added an inch for better shackle angle and moved the axle one inch forward for fenderwell clearance. I did not mess with super long springs or orbit eyes. The flex it has should be expected from any decent leaf not just mine. The travel was a combination of what the springs will do and the 14" shocks were all that bilstein had in stock and take less than 2 months to get.
As far as why SAS in the first place. I weighed experimenting with the IFS and adding beefy cvs with 8 lug hubs and the 3/4 ton center section, but in the end the cost was near the same and I figured the straight axle was more of a sure thing. I am tempted to take all of the info I have gathered and try to build a single cab/short bed with upgraded IFS. Maybe a go fast project, but I'm curious what I can make the IFS achieve. In my stock trim when I got the truck the front end was clean but needed to be overhauled, so I added that to the reason to do the SAS.
Very nice build, but I don't think you want that much negative arch flexed.
The springs are designed to go negative. They arch negative at ride height to get the desired ride height. It looks weird but is normal, and ALCAN confirmed it.
Look'in good Adam!
I don't see the negative arch as an issue. Springs are made to flex. How else is one to get any articulation if the spring doesn't flex negatively.
Come on Larry, it's Alex. Need to start signing all my posts? Just kidding, no one at work gets my name right either...Eric, Alec, Louie