Basket case ‘94 K2500

[fancyTBI]

Cool truck, reminds me of my 93 k2500.
Mine is a project too.

It should be a good project. I’m itching to get it up and going.

 

[DerekTheGreat]

I love it, especially the red interior. What do you want for it? I also enjoy seeing how each truck was optioned. Get your RPO sticker on here and lets see what it's got. My truck's interior is much like yours, tilt, A/C, cruise, manual windows & locks. Even has the elusive cargo light, wonder why that was such a rare option?

 

[Pro439]

So on a tbi the skip is an indication of a bad cylinder. I would bet if you did a compression check you would know immediately which one is the culprit. My father bought a truck doing this and when I tore it down #1 had a gouge down the cylinder wall. It cleaned up.030 over the heads were good just cleaned them with new seals. If you do tear it down I would tell you to really consider a hydraulic roller cam. You could put the smallest 1 available or close to stock and the reason why is the oil manufacturers have taken the elements out of the oil that are supposed to lubricate the cam lobes

 

[fancyTBI]

I love it, especially the red interior. What do you want for it? I also enjoy seeing how each truck was optioned. Get your RPO sticker on here and lets see what it's got. My truck's interior is much like yours, tilt, A/C, cruise, manual windows & locks. Even has the elusive cargo light, wonder why that was such a rare option?

I need to get to my parents this weekend to get a photo of the RPO sticker and run a compnine report on the vin. Does yours have a tach? I wish mine did, but easy enough to swap clusters. She’s not for sale haha. I gave $2,700 for it and feel like I did ok, even with the issues it has.

 

[fancyTBI]

So on a tbi the skip is an indication of a bad cylinder. I would bet if you did a compression check you would know immediately which one is the culprit. My father bought a truck doing this and when I tore it down #1 had a gouge down the cylinder wall. It cleaned up.030 over the heads were good just cleaned them with new seals. If you do tear it down I would tell you to really consider a hydraulic roller cam. You could put the smallest 1 available or close to stock and the reason why is the oil manufacturers have taken the elements out of the oil that are supposed to lubricate the cam lobes

Definitely going to run a compression test on it when the time comes. I’ve got 2 options for engines. I’m going to be retiring my ‘92 with a roller cam 350 out of a caprice. I could either put that in my ‘95 GMC that will be my summer cruiser I, lowered, and customized a bit or put it in this.

If I went the first route, I’d take the engine from the GMC and put it in this ‘94. Now I know that sounds confusing but the GMC’s engine has to come out anyways as I’m going to re-seal it since it needs a rear main, oil pan, and intake gaskets and valve seals. Runs good, just uses a bit of oil.

My reasoning for this is that the roller cam 350 runs so good. I want to put it in the truck I plan on driving more often when the weather is nice and take it to national parks, shows, etc. The ‘94 will be my work truck and winter vehicle and won’t necessarily benefit (in my mind) from the “hot” setup.

Am I crazy?

 

[DerekTheGreat]

I need to get to my parents this weekend to get a photo of the RPO sticker and run a compnine report on the vin. Does yours have a tach? I wish mine did, but easy enough to swap clusters. She’s not for sale haha. I gave $2,700 for it and feel like I did ok, even with the issues it has.

Seeing as the market is what it is these days, I'd say you did alright too. No, mine had moonies that I swapped out immediately. Fortunately in your case, the tach cluster is a direct swap. Just make sure you get one from a V8 truck and that you swap the odometers over. Check the trip odometer for cracks in the driven gear while you're at it, as they like to do that. Being that yours is a '94, you will need a cluster from a '94 if you want the oil pressure readings to be the same. I believe '94 is the year they went to 0-40-80 from 0-30-60.

 

[Erik the Awful]

Nice!

In case anyone wanted to hear how bad it was.

That dual exhaust is the exact same setup I see on every GMT400 in the junkyard here. Sounds just as bad as they did back then. The '90s was such a terrible era for performance.

 

[DerekTheGreat]

Definitely going to run a compression test on it when the time comes. I’ve got 2 options for engines. I’m going to be retiring my ‘92 with a roller cam 350 out of a caprice. I could either put that in my ‘95 GMC that will be my summer cruiser I, lowered, and customized a bit or put it in this.

If I went the first route, I’d take the engine from the GMC and put it in this ‘94. Now I know that sounds confusing but the GMC’s engine has to come out anyways as I’m going to re-seal it since it needs a rear main, oil pan, and intake gaskets and valve seals. Runs good, just uses a bit of oil.

My reasoning for this is that the roller cam 350 runs so good. I want to put it in the truck I plan on driving more often when the weather is nice and take it to national parks, shows, etc. The ‘94 will be my work truck and winter vehicle and won’t necessarily benefit (in my mind) from the “hot” setup.

Am I crazy?

I'd stab another tree-fiddy in it. The original(?) engine in my truck had a bum cylinder when I got it as well, seems cylinder #1 likes to phuck right off in these when one decides it's ready to retire. I suspect they don't take well to being run hot & cylinder #1 cools the poorest and so they burn up the exhaust valve? Anyway, 'new' engine went in and it's been great ever since. It's pokey, but it's pulled everything I've put behind it and cruises quite nice while delivering 19 and some change mpg on the expressway.

 

[fancyTBI]

Nice!


That dual exhaust is the exact same setup I see on every GMT400 in the junkyard here. Sounds just as bad as they did back then. The '90s was such a terrible era for performance.

Yes I’m going to be removing that and doing my standard single in dual out passenger side exit. Everyone around me still runs 2.5” straight pipes and they sound like garbage.

 

[fancyTBI]

I'd stab another tree-fiddy in it. The original(?) engine in my truck had a bum cylinder when I got it as well, seems cylinder #1 likes to phuck right off in these when one decides it's ready to retire. I suspect they don't take well to being run hot & cylinder #1 cools the poorest and so they burn up the exhaust valve? Anyway, 'new' engine went in and it's been great ever since. It's pokey, but it's pulled everything I've put behind it and cruises quite nice while delivering 19 and some change mpg on the expressway.

Yeah it will get another 350 for sure. Just need to decide which one. I’ll have to keep an eye on cylinder 1 when the tear down begins and see how bad it is. I doubt I’ll rebuild this one and reinstall it. I’ve got the one spare to toss in.