Big Red: 1991 K1500HD

[Sean McDonough]

Specs as of 9/23/2018:
Engine: very mild 350 SBC with long tube headers, carb swapped and stock chevelle camshaft
Transmission: TH700R4 with burnt out OD
Gears: 3 42s
Chassis: F44 package heavy duty suspension
Axle: 9.5in semi float w/g80
Tires: 31.5" Milestar Patagonia All Terrains


My build starts all the way back in April of 2018 when I first bought the truck. Bought from my best friends dad for 250$. No motor, beat up body, bad trans, wire harness chopped to bits, no interior parts left, passenger window won't go up, gas tank removed, mediocre off brand ATs that don't really hold air with one tire on the front axle that is a hair smaller, no working 4 wheel drive and last but not least very rusty frame. Those are just some of the issues with it when I bought it. I didn't care what my other friends thought when i bought this pos roller, i fell in love with its looks and faded rattle can paint job and the personality the truck gave off.

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[Sean McDonough]

Me and my friend got the top end of the motor taken off cleaning and checking everything. We were very fortunate that we had a mechanic friend across the street that used to race circle track and build sbc for a living. He helped us from time to time on motor work, but mostly to tell is what we did wrong . He talked me out of an online electric fuel pump and suggested I go with a mechanical fuel pump for simplicity. He had the rod and plate for just 20 bucks. Helped us install it and we found that the cam's fuel pump lobs was not in the greatest of condition.

Ended up buying a camshaft from a stock 1970 chevelle from AAP along with a comp cams double roller timing chain. We ended up registering every gasket besides the head gaskets on the motor.

I finally got my transmission back as the guy grew shadier and shadier by the day, saying at one point he lost my number. With the transmission back we were ready to drop the engine and trans into the truck. We were able to get it all in one the first try, wasn't too bad. Left the grill on and tilted the trans down to clear the firewall.

Bolted everything down where they needed except for a motor mount nut, that I still have not gotten around to yet. Reinstalled transfer case along with all the drive shafts.

The next part was to make this motor run

 

[Sean McDonough]

We made the motor run on our first try, not too bad for 2 kids one without mechanical experience (me). Took a spray bottle poured some gas in it and ran a rubber fuel line to it. Carb would run off it not too bad.

Later we ran all new fuel lines using 1/2 rubber hose from the gas tank all the way to the mechanical fuel pump on the passenger side of the block. Ran it along the frame rails to keep it out of the way. Installed fuel filter on the rear axle, will have to take a picture as my friend made it look like art. Put the gas tank back up and strapped it in place.
We finally had the truck running off of it's own gas supply.

Eager for a test drive we quickly fixed the rotted away front brake lines pinching off the rear lines for a quick neighborhood drive. Well she started, ran and drove. Stopping was terrible because our brake booster had no vaccum to it. We did the test with open long tube headers I bought from headman made "specifically" for offroading, sounded amazing. Trans seemed fine and so did the engine.

We ended up grabbing the grommet we were missing and slapped that on the brake booster to have somewhat good brakes. Reran beak lines for the rear, but bleed screws were too rusty to use so rear brakes are not great.

Took it for another test drive and found out there was an intake manifold leak. Fixed that and regasketed it to make sure we were good. Installed a new radiator from AAP as the old one had a leak and was much too small.

 

[Sean McDonough]

We needed to get the timing right as the truck would randomly die while driving which is never good especially when your exhaust consists of long tube headers into 2 purple hornie glasspacks and nothing else.

Timing was perfected after some trial and error. She was almost ready for the journey 20 minutes of back roads to my house.

During that time we repainted the truck the exact same color of red just newer without the sun faded look I fell in love with.

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On the big maiden voyage through the back roads to my house tragedy struck. Since none of my gauges worked I had a jimmy rigged temp gauge from Bosch that ran me 20 bucks. This temp gauge shot up to the mid 240s after me and my buddy's little brother heard something in the engine bay that sounded like a bag getting swooped up.

Ironically we stopped at our old high schools parking lot to check it out. The belt was shredded and the engine was overheating. We figured the fan clutch was loose and caused it to move and fall off track. So I ran to autozone to grab ththe right size wrench and a new belt so we could fix it. Put the new belt on and turned the key and heard a crashing sound, my buddy in my GMC envoy saw the puddle before I did. The water pump press in stud was so loose it threw the fan clutch into my radiator tearing a huge whole in the radiator. Ended up pulling her home with my Envoy.

Took it back to AAP and with some help from the mechanic, who is a large personal use customer with a corporate account, got a replacement for everything including a large discount on coolant and a new electric fan.

Reinstalled everything and took her for a spin. Everything seemed fine.

Went to test the 4wd and like an idiot didn't check the fuses for it so I thought my actuator was bad so I bought a posi lok cable. Still have yet to install it.

Drove her on the way back to my buddy's house and lost 3rd and 4th gear because I did not know about the trans adjustment bracket. Had to wait a few weeks to put a new trans in and put the bracket on.

Finally she was driveable ! Wrong again.

My truck eats starters for breakfast so I should've started there but went ahead and replaced all the ignition wiring and battery wiring to fresh cables and connections. Replaced starter again and hoping this one lasts.

Started driving the truck everywhere, including the highway.... well with no tcc the truck doesnt like anything over 60, starting to bog down and shut down past 70 mph. Well on a rainy day I was following a friend to another friends house and my brakes locked up and i ended up going off the road. I dropped into a 6 foot deep ditch, came out of the bottom caught 3 feet of air and landed. Only issue was the positive wire on my battery got disconnected. Drove right out.

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