xbleedblackx's 97 K1500 Build

Hello everybody, Been working on bringing a truck back from the dead since September 15. Truck is a 97 K1500 4WD. Picked it up from a farmer who had blown the engine in it. It was originally a step-side truck however at some point the previous owner had a rear blowout and tore the passenger fender to shreds, I opted not to even take the bed when I bought the truck. Apparently, after the blowout the rear suspension got upgraded to 3\4 ton (have not verified yet) and a flat bed was put on the truck for hauling hay bails and other various farming work. Eventually the engine blew and I wound up with the truck.


This is from the evening I got it towed to the house and pushed into the garage.


Before I began pulling the engine.


Just another shot of the engine before I pulled it.


Getting the wiring harness out of the way.


Out she comes.


Empty (Filthy) engine bay. Cleaning this up was a nightmare.


Swapping the crank sensor off of the blown 5.7 to the 5.7 pulled from my Camaro. Also refreshing all gaskets while I had it out.


I originally built this engine in 07 and put it in my Camaro, the computer fried shortly after and I ended up parking the car due to financial restraints. I was pretty impressed with the condition of it after all these years. Probably doesn't even have 4,000 miles on it.


Completed and ready to get stabbed.


A different angle before it went in.


She went in easy enough




Blocked off EGR Valve


Installed the Runners, Fuel Rail, Plenum, and some vacuum lines. Modified the throttle and Cruise control cables to fit correctly.


The Headers I had installed prior to installing the engine didn't fit correctly (Wouldn't clear the drive shaft coming from the transfer case) So that's where these came in. They're not name brand but it will be a lot better than going back to the exhaust manifolds.


I will have to get some more recent pictures, the project really slowed down in December and January. But is close to getting off the ground.
I got a steal at U Pull N Pay in Denver. Electric Fan from a Mark IV, Neutral Safety Switch for the tranny (Mine broke when I was removing the wiring harness) a 0411 PCM ( I sent this off to Black Bear Performance to get tuned and has since returned and is ready to be installed pending pinouts) Fuel lines off a 80's camaro (has already been installed to feed the truck) and also some A/C Lines off an early 90's K1500 (since I have to retrofit this truck if I want A/C)

I will try to continue my progress and keep you all posed. Thanks for checking it out.

A little update for everyone. Work on the truck has been slow but I have accomplished a few thing in recent months.


Here I was re-pinning the wiring harness to accommodate the new 411 PCM



Here I was routing the harness back into position in the engine bay.



411 PCM, Fuse Block, and Wiring Installed



Finally got all 8 injector wires soldered in.

This is pretty much how I left it the other day. still got to re-route the alternator wire and A/C wires to accommodate the bracket setup. That along with lengthening some of the other wires and I should be getting close to having it whooped. I'll update more as I progress/get more time/warmer weather.

Another update for everybody, Ive been pretty busy but have managed to continue progress. At some point I would like to get the A/C in working order so I had to replace the damaged Evaporator Coil in the dash ( the line going through the firewall to connect to the dryer was damaged.) This required a complete dash removal . I didn't take a whole lot of pictures of this process however I did get it completed with some headache. I got the electric fan mounted to the new radiator (Not currently fully wired in yet) and installed. Routed all coolant lines, and filled with coolant. Installed duct for the air cleaner and cleaned, oiled, and installed the air filter (along with MAF sensor and air temperature sensor) It's not my favorite setup but will buy me time until I figure out something better. Filled the engine up with oil and primed the pump with a homemade primer made out of a old distributor. Got TDC on the engine and stabbed the new distributor. Plugged in the cam sensor, ran the plug wires, mounted the coil and I was pretty much ready to fire.

Here is the dash re-installed for the most part, this is really the only pic I took of the process. Not much I know but at-least its back together and complete.

Here is a photo of the fan/radiator installed. The Coolant hoses were yet to come but you will see them installed (kinda) in the following "complete" photo.

And here she is with the air cleaner installed as it is currently. This is the air filter that came with the truck when I purchased it. I did a little research on it and its just a $70 Cheapo K&N knockoff. I did clean it properly and oil it so that's where I'm at with it.

Like I said I did finish up running the plug wires. I had to get a battery charger on it (probably have to replace the current battery.) Ran into a problem with the ignition switch not priming gas or cranking over the starter so i bypassed the relay for the fuel pump (temporarily) and crossed over the connections on the starter and got it fired yesterday evening. She fired up! The truck has a aftermarket key-less entry and starter on it so I'm pretty sure that's where my problem resides. I have a 10 second video of it running but I don't currently have the video uploaded so I'll look into doing that at a later time.