Our Dual-Sport GMC Sierra

[chaos616]

Hey Chilli,

Yeah, its pretty fast now, seems faster because of the short wheelbase but its awesome non-the less. I am getting the hang of this GM engine/transmission thing. I know this is expo, but now i want to do a gm muscle car (gto, or... not sure) i guess the old gto was maybe before gm? I am learning my muscle car history and facts so were still rough on that, but it would be fun to do a resto-mod with modern high horsepower gm powerplant and 6 speed manual.

Haha, yeah i think tackling the shotty electrical job i did earlier is next, nice fuse/relay panel.

SO on that note, i have been thinking about this little piece of equipment to tidy things up a bit:
Fuse/Relay Panel

And all of the other parts that keep it nice, like wire plugs and closed plugs, the micro relays, and mini fuses that are so popular, at least i can organize all my underhood electrical and not worry about dust getting it too rough like the stock fuse panel, plus with the dual bus bars, i can run some of my stuff off my winch battery, and some of it off the car battery depending on what my needs were for the particular application.

Cheers,

 

[Larry]

That is a cool project Chaos! A 5.3L in a K5 is a nice combo. I actually wrapped up a build on a 91 K5 with a 2003 LM7 5.3L for a buddy. Turned out pretty nice. It’s out getting the exhaust done now. Build thread HERE

How is your big Sierra doing? That thing is a brute!

 

[Flazer]

Man, this makes me want to swap out the 302 in the Bronco and swap in something else. That bearded hobo is gonna have a sweeeeeet Jimmy by the end of it. Transmission is still stock? Did you need a new bell housing, or did it bolt right up?

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[Buddha.]

Hey Chilli,

Yeah, its pretty fast now, seems faster because of the short wheelbase but its awesome non-the less. I am getting the hang of this GM engine/transmission thing. I know this is expo, but now i want to do a gm muscle car (gto, or... not sure) i guess the old gto was maybe before gm? I am learning my muscle car history and facts so were still rough on that, but it would be fun to do a resto-mod with modern high horsepower gm powerplant and 6 speed manual.

Haha, yeah i think tackling the shotty electrical job i did earlier is next, nice fuse/relay panel.

SO on that note, i have been thinking about this little piece of equipment to tidy things up a bit:
Fuse/Relay Panel

And all of the other parts that keep it nice, like wire plugs and closed plugs, the micro relays, and mini fuses that are so popular, at least i can organize all my underhood electrical and not worry about dust getting it too rough like the stock fuse panel, plus with the dual bus bars, i can run some of my stuff off my winch battery, and some of it off the car battery depending on what my needs were for the particular application.

Cheers,

The GTO was GM but in the era where Buick, olds, Pontiac, and Chevy all had different engines. I have a '69 Firebird with a 350 pontiac. It needs a few things before it's drivable, not sure what I'm going to do with it yet.

 

[chaos616]

Hey Larry,

Yeah, i read through that whole build as its pretty much the same thing i'm doing, i didn't spend as much time on the engine and has the PSI conversions wiring harness so i didn't have to mess with that. I've been following your burb 8.1 build and you had it on there. So far we seem to be getting decent milage and the engine doesn't really have to work hard while cruising. I think for the blazer/jimmy, the 5.3L vortec LM7 is the answer, much better than the old 350 (granted the one we had was pretty knackered). Thanks for the compliments, i take a lot of the ideas from your builds!!!

The beast is just that, nothing happening since last time i posted about it, its still holding up well after a rally and numerous rough off road trips plus long trips on pavement (1600 mile plus). NV4500 is doing good, i really like that transmission, although it took some getting used to from some of the lighter duty quicker shifting units. My sorting of electrical is next, pretty excited to get that organized and sorted, and will feel much better about it for longevity and reliability (although its not let us down ever).

Flazer,

I know right, well if your 302 ever goes bad thats the opportunity to do as such. He'll have a sweet jimmy...if i ever give it back to him! Yeah its the stock 700r4 4 speed OD transmission that came with the truck. It seems to accept the new found power really well, shifts a little hard in first and of course when its cold, but otherwise shifts like stock. The sweet part about most of the GM stuff is that it all bolts right up. The only issue we had was the 700r4 torque converter had a different bolt pattern than the 4L60E that was behind the 5.3 LM7. You can re drill holes and buy a crank spacer that bolts up, we ended up going with the advanced adapters kit and it came with a press in spacer and a re-drilled flexplate, seems to work really well. Bellhousing was the exact same boltholes and center pins, just didn't use one hole that was missing from the engine, no big deal.

Buddha,

Ahh, so it was GM, just varied engines and does that mean varied bellhousings too? 69' firebird! Thats a sweet looking ride. I've decided that besides the occasional exception here and there, 68' and 69' and sometimes 70' were great years for cars, sweet styling, decent engines, lots of power (sometimes) and generally built fairly tough. the 70's were ok, but by the 80's, with again the exception here and there, cars were...economical? trucks however, i like a lot of the 80's trucks, they were getting decent power and the looks weren't bad, they fit the work truck theme well.



The last project for me on the 88' jimmy before i sadly hand it over to its mostly rightful owner (as soon as i get some cash), is the oil pressure sensor. I have an adapter that i'll be using to adapt the stock oil sensor plug hold to the stock 88 jimmy sensor, that way i don't have to mess with varied resistance etc... It should plug and play and all my gauges will be working. As far as the interior, its a little nasty, but the agreement was that i would mechanically make it sound and the new owner would do the interior as he feels necessary, fine with me, i have my truck project and an 88 honda accord to work on.

Hopefully some progressive updates soon!!!

Cheers,

 

[Buddha.]

Buddha,
Ahh, so it was GM, just varied engines and does that mean varied bellhousings too? 69' firebird! Thats a sweet looking ride. I've decided that besides the occasional exception here and there, 68' and 69' and sometimes 70' were great years for cars, sweet styling, decent engines, lots of power (sometimes) and generally built fairly tough. the 70's were ok, but by the 80's, with again the exception here and there, cars were...economical? trucks however, i like a lot of the 80's trucks, they were getting decent power and the looks weren't bad, they fit the work truck theme well.

There is a BOP(buick olds pontiac) bellhousing pattern and a chevy. There are adapters to go between the two. I looked up the old specs for the Firebird, should run about the same 1/4 mile as my 2001 Mustang GT, not real fast but fun.

 

[chaos616]

For anyone who followed the build, our beloved dual-sport GMC Sierra is now for sale! Check out our ExPo sale thread. It was a tough decision because we have had so many awesome adventures in this thing, but we are embarking on an even bigger adventure on our Ducati E900s (Cagiva Elefants) down through South America. We have also gotten into paragliding so it's become a motorbiking and flying excursion, check it out at Follow the Elefant. We would love for the truck to continue providing awesome adventures for someone!

 

[RedF]

I am working on a very similar Chevy. What were your results with the Blackbear tune? I think that's the route I want to go, but I'm having a hard time spending the $600 USD (about $800 Canadian pesos); Especially when that's about 1/4 of what I paid for the truck.

It can be hard to move on from a project, but rewarding too. Best of luck!

 

[chaos616]

Hey RedF, the blackbear tune was good. I did the tune in person in sacramento california. It cleaned up a bit of rough idle but the main advantage was the transmission lockup timing being adjusted (from 10 seconds to full lock to 1 second). It made the truck feel less like it was always hard to pull itself around and more like it had no problem pulling itself around. We also adjusted the throttle responsiveness and shift down times (it would shift down sooner instead of having to hammer down to shift down). we also made the tow haul a fast shifting mode, so when engaged, it would shift quicker and much harder but there was no power drop from the engine or slip from the transmission. it was quite fast in that mode, but a bit hard on things, didn't really use it at all. I opted for the 87/89 octane tune because honestly i didn't want to afford 91 octane for the truck all the time with little power gain overall. To be honest, empty, the 6.0L has plenty of power. I think i paid about 250 for mine along with 90 dollars for an extra ECU for tuning.

After all the transmission swap (4L80E to NV4500), i still have the blackbear tune, it only works on the engine now.

Overall i would say the tunes are good, but getting a hold of and working out little details in the tune is tough because there is no phone number to call for blackbear and its difficult to discuss issues and or changes over email effectively.

Yeah, its hard to let it go, but, on to a new adventure and thats always fun too.

Cheers!

 

[mccustomize]

I had a local shop tune mine, turned off the EVAP and rear O2 sensors as well, greatly increased the drive ability of the truck and made it much easier on the transmission. By the way did you unplug the TCCM to get rid of the service 4WD light? That's all I did to mine.