Guess who's back!?! Atl-atl's K5 Blazer + Four Wheel Camper "The Crawlin Cabin" documentation thread!

[zoomad75]

Thanks for the info. The engine was in @zoomad75 truck running and driving about two weeks ago ha, so It has not been sitting very long at all. As for cooling, Im leaning towards electric. I have the big 6.2 diesel radiator and haven't looked into how big of a fan setup I can put on that. Being in Phoenix I want the most cooling I can get. I am aware of the broken manifold bolt, Rob told me about that when I picked it up. I have a plan to remedy it.

I'm a big fan of the KISS idea for the cooling system. This engine on a stock 350 size radiator and steel 7 blade fan would run hot at low speeds when ambient temps climbed above 90 degrees. I came home after the trip that exposed that weakness and stuffed in the biggest radiator GM put in these trucks which was the 6.2 diesel version. Combined with the correct shroud for that radiator and a 9 blade fan from a 2500 6.0 application and an HD fan clutch the cooling issues were fixed. I've personally seen this engine purring along in the Mojave desert at 10 mph with over 100 degrees of ambient heat and the temp is running below 180 degrees. Most of the time it ran at 160 at 90 degrees ambient or below. There were no electronics to fail. On the last trip I ran it on last month I never saw the gauge over 180. We saw high 90's to low 100's on the more southern part of our trip.

I'm old school in that thinking, but I've yet to see a problem with running a solid, basic, high capacity cooling system that has less possibility for failure. I haven't seen many electric fan failures at the dealership I work at, but I can say this I've seen less mechanical cooling system failures for sure. I'm not a fan of being deep in the desert and having cooling issues so the big radiator, fan and HD clutch might be a bit overkill for a 5.3, but it never ran hot in 3 years of hard use.

 

[zoomad75]

Talked to @zoomad75 for quite a while today. The pedal assembly is defenitely hydraulic and the bell housing I have is cable. Sounds like Ill have to run a Novak Conversions hydraulic slave cylinder adaptor. This should allow me to run the rest of the factory hydraulic clutch parts. I want to run hydraulic not mechanical. Its already going to be difficult enough to drive this damn thing. I also learned its a pedal assembly for vacuum braking which is unfortunate because it would be really nice to run a hydroboost setup. The current vacuum brakes are horrendous at best. I need to look further into this before I get extra power, lift and big tires on the truck. Its gonna need to stop.

Its so compact, I love it.

It doesn't look like a lot of work but I spent a solid 3 hours cleaning the engine today. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't really that dirty but there are so many little crevices. Thankfully the dirt was mostly dust, the engine is very dry. The only thing even close to what might be a leak is where the extended oil filler neck had popped its o-ring partially out you can see some black crud on the valve cover. I removed the neck and just screwed the cap right onto the valve cover and it looks much better. Also removed the idler pulley that sits where the new AC mounting bracket will go. Im not sure if the intake that came with the engine will work with AC in this location. Hopefully find out tomorrow. Its so damn hot out I cant work in the garage for more than a few hours a day.

Hopefully its obvious which side is the "after."

Removed all the coil packs and cleaned them as well as the valve covers and heads.

Cleaned the intake manifold, fuel rails, throttle body etc. Cleaned up the intake manifold gasket, its in good shape but I ordered a new one just in case.

Dropped the intake manifold onto the block just to see how it looks. Im waiting on some new sensors before I bolt it down. Also Im going to touch up the paint beforehand. Napa didnt call to tell me if my alternator came in so I didnt grab paint yet.

That cleaned up nice! You got all the Utah desert dust as a souvenir for free! I had hit the car wash and took a heavy layer off before I drove it to Bill's house to yank the engine out of it.

Killing it dude!

 

[nitro_rat]

For the hydroboost I'm pretty sure it's the brake pedal itself that's different, the hole spacing is different. You don't need the whole pedal box for that swap.

The issue that I have with aftermarket stuff is that if your Novak clutch slave takes a dump in the middle of nowhere on the Friday afternoon of a holiday weekend where are you gonna get a replacement? A stock part is on the shelf at an Autozone somewhere...

 

[nitro_rat]

So it would be possible to grab a pedal from any newer truck with hydroboost, even an automatic? And just replace the actual foot pad on the pedal so its a smaller one like a manual. It seems to me it will be incredibly hard to find a hydroboost manual trans brake pedal.

Im keeping my eye out for an SM465 hydraulic bell housing.

You need a brake pedal from any 73-87 c/k truck or 73-91 c/k or r/v Suburban/Blazer/Jimmy with hydroboost. Diesel rigs or 1 tons are a good place to look. If you score an automatic pedal you can just cut it down so the manual pad fits.

Today I drove up to a little bumblef*ck town about an hour north of Phoenix to pick up a different bellhousing for the SM465. I learned that I had the bellhousing for a mechanical clutch and it would be easier to make this all work if I could find one for a hydraulic clutch so I can use all factory GM parts. There are conversions available to run a hydro slave cylinder on the mechanical bellhousing but they are not "off the shelf" parts and Id rather have stock stuff. Apparently they are hard to find yet somehow I found one the first day I looked!

When I pull up to the house its a typical "unincorporated such-n-such county" type place and there are cars everywhere. Definitely in the right place. (Spoiler alert, I dont die) Guy comes out and invites me over to the garage where there is a literal assembly line of transmissions. Turns out he "retired" from his lifelong business rebuilding transmissions and just cant let it go. So I grab the bellhousing and then think hey, I need a 2WD output shaft and tail housing for the 700r4 to throw in my bosses C10. Of course he has about 73 to choose from! So I grab those parts too and after about an hour and a half talking about everything going on in the modern world, Im finally back on the road. I call my boss with the good news, swing by his house, the two of us take the trans and parts over to the shop that did the current driveline on his truck and we drop everything off. The 700 is getting the 2WD treatment, new internals, new dipstick and a higher stall converter. I was promised burnouts when its done. :laugh:

Im not 100% sure this bellhousing will work, most of the holes line up but I think it might have been bolted to a Dodge motor not a Chevy. The two bottom holes on the loose housing are angled backwards about 45 degrees and dont line up with the two lower holes on the housing thats mounted to the trans. Can anyone tell from these pictures if thats accurate? Is there a difference between Chevy bellhousing bolt patterns and others? Everything else lines up. How many bolts need to match between the bellhousing and the block to be acceptable?

The LS bolt pattern is a little different from the traditional Chevy SB/BB pattern. The lower 2 bolts on each side should line up.



I'm a lazy bastard and I don't use the top bolts anyway, never had a transmission fall out on the road. Did bust an aluminum bell once with a SM465 trans but it was behind a 450 hp small block and I was power shifting so... Don't think the extra bolts would have helped.

You can buy an "adapter plate" that will require a flywheel spacer. It will let you put all the bolts in if that will make you sleep better.

 

[zoomad75]

You need a brake pedal from any 73-87 c/k truck or 73-91 c/k or r/v Suburban/Blazer/Jimmy with hydroboost. Diesel rigs or 1 tons are a good place to look. If you score an automatic pedal you can just cut it down so the manual pad fits.



The LS bolt pattern is a little different from the traditional Chevy SB/BB pattern. The lower 2 bolts on each side should line up.

View attachment 599195

I'm a lazy bastard and I don't use the top bolts anyway, never had a transmission fall out on the road. Did bust an aluminum bell once with a SM465 trans but it was behind a 450 hp small block and I was power shifting so... Don't think the extra bolts would have helped.

You can buy an "adapter plate" that will require a flywheel spacer. It will let you put all the bolts in if that will make you sleep better.

LS bell pattern is identical to the original small block pattern except one bolt on the passenger side between the center peak and the two vertical bolts is not used. Don't try to drill it out to use it as it will go right into the water jacket of the #8 cylinder.

 

[Hillbilly Heaven]

Someone makes a small drill fixture for drilling out the broken bolt with head on engine in the vehicle. Should work out great for you.

 

[OverlandNA]

Since @zoomad75
Also ruined one of my plug wires taking it off. :banghead:

You can slide the boot up and re-crimp the connector.

 

[zoomad75]

Looks like its made by Lisle Corp. Very slick setup and not super expensive at ~$100. Very cool, thanks for the suggestion. Im going to try an old fashioned left hand drill bit and see if that works. If not, or I run into more broken studs as I pull them to install the ARPs I got, I might give the Lisle kit a try.

I'm pretty sure we put those studs in with anti-seize so I'm going to bet the rest of them come out without too much hassle. It was 4 years ago, but there isn't a fastener that goes in anything over at Larry's place that doesn't get coated with the stuff. The heat from the heads might have cooked it off, but I think they should come out ok.

 

[nitro_rat]

I always weld a washer over those studs, then weld a nut to the washer. They come out easy then! Maybe a left hand drill bit?

 

[Hillbilly Heaven]

A mans got to do what a mans got to.

 

[warrpath4x4]

so often a swap turns into some unfinished project that either costs WAY more than originally anticipated, or it ends up getting sold off in pieces.

 

[nitro_rat]

How is it sad? You have the means to have what you want done. As long as they do a good job in a reasonable amount of time it's a win-win!

 

[toddz69]

Bummer that you have to sell it after all the work you put into it - a friend sent me the WTW link this morning which led me over here to this thread - not sure how I missed it initially. I didn't realize fourtillfour was doing the meet ups again or I would've come seen it this morning.

I hope the Harley can disappear first so the Blazer saga can continue! You need to be able to enjoy this truck a bit with EFI and not worry about vapor locking for once!

Todd Z.

 

[ajmaudio]

I hope you don't sell it.. if you don't be sure to put in a new "barbell" in the LS motor, and think about front and rear mains since its out! Just make sure you use an installation tool on the weals to get alignment right

 

[zoomad75]

Slight necro-bump with an interesting story. I received a message on Wander the West, out of the blue, from someone who saw my old Blazer for sale at a local used car lot. They googled and found my build thread, then messaged me to say they were thinking of buying it but backed out. He then proceeded to give me his contact info and the dealers and well...you can probably see where this is going!!! ?

More info coming soon
View attachment 708069

So I didn’t ask this over on the other thread, where was it at for sale? Last I had found it was in Tennessee at a jeep dealer a year ago.