SixSpeedSS
I'm Awesome
Poopy 2 - SixSpeedSS's K2500 ECSB
Actually the Poopy name was from my old 1990 K1500 ECLB turck. I bought it with 164k and the cab corners, fenders, and rear wheelwells were rotted out. When discussing rust on my truck with others, they would always ask if my SS had the rust, I would say no - my other truck. This is where the Poopy name was born. I had two trucks - my nice truck and my Poopy truck.
Fast forward about 10 years. Last summer I decided I needed another truck to use as a truck. My son got a 50cc dirtbike for his 5th birthday, and I'll probably be buying some type of dirtbike or quad for myself in the near future. I used my SS back when I had a Yamaha Banshee several years ago, and it was always a PITA to haul the quad without hurting my truck. Loading/unloading was a chore and generally parking it places where we would ride always had me worried. That is why I bought the first Poopy, but then I sold the Banshee a few months later. I also wanted a truck that could tow my GTO or SS if needed and I did not want a truck with rust. I do not normally drive around in hooptie type vehicles and the first Poopy ended up getting completely redone before all was said and done.
This truck needed to look decent (not perfect), be fairly decent inside, and it had to have an Automatic so the old lady could drive it thru the winter if necessary (she has a 2007 TL Type S and it doesn't get up our driveway too well in bad snow. I was back and forth between a V10 Dodge, and a Vortec Chevy/GMC. The Dodges that I found in my price range were all rusted out and the Chevys all had 200k miles or bad rust as well. I found a sweet 1997 K1500 ECSB with a 3rd door and the price was right but it ended up having a 305 - which was not an option. I drive a company vehicle most of the time, so I knew this wasn't going to be a Daily Driver for me.
After looking for a while, and letting people know what I was looking for, I get a text from a good friend of mine who buys wholesale salvage vehicles from car lots and auctions and it is the picture below:
I thought this truck was brown in the photo (on my cell phone) and it had all the junk I do not like on a truck. I call it the pap pap package - cap, running boards, and bug guard. When I showed up at his lot a day or two later I find the truck is not brown, but maroon and it looks alot better in person than it did in the cell phone picture. He tells me he'll actually sell it cheaper than the price he quoted over the phone since it needs so much work. The electronic 4wd did not work, none of the A/C, rear lights, turn signals/hazards, dome lights, driver's door latch, or tailgate handle wokred and the truck had a bad miss at idle and a very dirty interior. Otherwise it had no rust, looked decent, paint shined and went down the road pretty well.
I bought it on the spot and brought it home a day or two later. About an hour after I got home with the truck, it looked like this:
I couldn't be seen in a truck that was that ugly. I had to remove all that crap. Then a few days later I went to a local yard and picked up some stuff for cheap to fix all the little things wrong (drivers mirror was broken, taillight circuit board was bad, tailgate straps, trim rings, light/key buzzer module, etc) and generally went over everything (replaced bulbs & fuses, repaired a few wires, took the tailgate latches and handle apart and cleaned/lubricated) and basically did a PA state safety inspection on the truck. The rear brakes were shot, it needed the front sway bar end links, and a few wheel studs needed replaced. The front brakes were brand new, and eerything else looked great. The truck only had 6k miles since the last inspection almost 2 years ago.
This is how it looked for a little while:
I drove it for a little while and the miss started to get to me. The truck ran great and had plenty of power. I thought it was a bad spider in the manifold right from the start, but just didn't want to just throw parts at it. I did a compression test and found it only had 60 psi in #3 cylinder. All the others were 160-175 psi. I loaded the #3 cylinder with oil and got a little higher reading, but still not high enough for my tastes. I decided that I could just deal with it for a while until I took care of some other projects that I was working on at the time. I put about 1000 miles on it before I tore it apart:
Once I tore the engine apart, it was apparant what had happened. Someone had overheated this truck and got it pretty hot, possibly taking some water into the intake at one time. It looke like the intake gaskets were replaced fairly recently, the water pump was brand new and the radiator was new. Both heads were cracked and most of the combustion chambers were a blueish color and #2 connecting rod was bent and it looked like it just barely kissed the crank at one time in the past. Clearly it needed rebuilt.
I went with a complete engine kit with new pistons, all USA made good quality components (sealed power, melling, hastings, etc). I got a new connecting rod and had the block/crank all checked out at a reputable machine shop that I use quite often. Then I do all of the assembly work myself, checking everything as it goes together. Problem is that this project stalled about the time I got all of the components back from the machine shop. I run a small side business installing remote car starters. I get very busy right around Thanksgiving and stay busy until about the end of January. This did not leave much time to work on Poopy. The last few weekends I have been busy wth family stuff, but I managed to find some time to work on the motor. I had made the time to get the shortblock finished a few weeks ago, but I was waiting on my father to finish the heads (he won't let anyone touch his valve grinder setup). I also found some time to completely disassemble the intake manifold and clean it all up and reassemble it so it was ready for reinstall.
This afternoon I started with this:
Today I was able to get the entire engine assembled and ready for installation into the truck:
Once I get it back on the road, I plan to have an exhaust built for it - I want to use the Dynomax Ultra Flow X Muffler with two separate tailpipes, I want to find a set of wheels for it (maybe NBS PYOs or een Hummer H2 wheels with my center caps), and do some other small stuff to it to make it 'mine'. I would like to try a set of 285s on it (it has 245/75-16s and they look too small IMO).
I found an overhead console for it in tan and actually combined 3 different consoles to build what I want. I got the OEM homelink, a blank panel where the rear A/C would be, and 2 really nice doors for the other 2 locations. I'm looking for the proper tan buckets for this truck and center console. I also intend to so a sound system in it too. I still have the Amps and sub box left over from my last Ext Cab. I'll be upgrading the door speakers and probably goto a double DIN head unit (if I can find a nice place for the A/C controls). I'd relly like to keep them where they are and find some smaller controls that will do what the stock ones do.
Last thing on the list is possibly a supercharger. I know the Vortecs 5.7L run good stock, but I always want better. I like the Whipple setup the most, but they are really tough to find. I have installed a Vortech blower before and not been overly impressed. I still need to do some research on what I want.
Actually the Poopy name was from my old 1990 K1500 ECLB turck. I bought it with 164k and the cab corners, fenders, and rear wheelwells were rotted out. When discussing rust on my truck with others, they would always ask if my SS had the rust, I would say no - my other truck. This is where the Poopy name was born. I had two trucks - my nice truck and my Poopy truck.
Fast forward about 10 years. Last summer I decided I needed another truck to use as a truck. My son got a 50cc dirtbike for his 5th birthday, and I'll probably be buying some type of dirtbike or quad for myself in the near future. I used my SS back when I had a Yamaha Banshee several years ago, and it was always a PITA to haul the quad without hurting my truck. Loading/unloading was a chore and generally parking it places where we would ride always had me worried. That is why I bought the first Poopy, but then I sold the Banshee a few months later. I also wanted a truck that could tow my GTO or SS if needed and I did not want a truck with rust. I do not normally drive around in hooptie type vehicles and the first Poopy ended up getting completely redone before all was said and done.
This truck needed to look decent (not perfect), be fairly decent inside, and it had to have an Automatic so the old lady could drive it thru the winter if necessary (she has a 2007 TL Type S and it doesn't get up our driveway too well in bad snow. I was back and forth between a V10 Dodge, and a Vortec Chevy/GMC. The Dodges that I found in my price range were all rusted out and the Chevys all had 200k miles or bad rust as well. I found a sweet 1997 K1500 ECSB with a 3rd door and the price was right but it ended up having a 305 - which was not an option. I drive a company vehicle most of the time, so I knew this wasn't going to be a Daily Driver for me.
After looking for a while, and letting people know what I was looking for, I get a text from a good friend of mine who buys wholesale salvage vehicles from car lots and auctions and it is the picture below:
You must be registered for see images attach
I thought this truck was brown in the photo (on my cell phone) and it had all the junk I do not like on a truck. I call it the pap pap package - cap, running boards, and bug guard. When I showed up at his lot a day or two later I find the truck is not brown, but maroon and it looks alot better in person than it did in the cell phone picture. He tells me he'll actually sell it cheaper than the price he quoted over the phone since it needs so much work. The electronic 4wd did not work, none of the A/C, rear lights, turn signals/hazards, dome lights, driver's door latch, or tailgate handle wokred and the truck had a bad miss at idle and a very dirty interior. Otherwise it had no rust, looked decent, paint shined and went down the road pretty well.
I bought it on the spot and brought it home a day or two later. About an hour after I got home with the truck, it looked like this:
You must be registered for see images attach
I couldn't be seen in a truck that was that ugly. I had to remove all that crap. Then a few days later I went to a local yard and picked up some stuff for cheap to fix all the little things wrong (drivers mirror was broken, taillight circuit board was bad, tailgate straps, trim rings, light/key buzzer module, etc) and generally went over everything (replaced bulbs & fuses, repaired a few wires, took the tailgate latches and handle apart and cleaned/lubricated) and basically did a PA state safety inspection on the truck. The rear brakes were shot, it needed the front sway bar end links, and a few wheel studs needed replaced. The front brakes were brand new, and eerything else looked great. The truck only had 6k miles since the last inspection almost 2 years ago.
This is how it looked for a little while:
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
I drove it for a little while and the miss started to get to me. The truck ran great and had plenty of power. I thought it was a bad spider in the manifold right from the start, but just didn't want to just throw parts at it. I did a compression test and found it only had 60 psi in #3 cylinder. All the others were 160-175 psi. I loaded the #3 cylinder with oil and got a little higher reading, but still not high enough for my tastes. I decided that I could just deal with it for a while until I took care of some other projects that I was working on at the time. I put about 1000 miles on it before I tore it apart:
You must be registered for see images
Once I tore the engine apart, it was apparant what had happened. Someone had overheated this truck and got it pretty hot, possibly taking some water into the intake at one time. It looke like the intake gaskets were replaced fairly recently, the water pump was brand new and the radiator was new. Both heads were cracked and most of the combustion chambers were a blueish color and #2 connecting rod was bent and it looked like it just barely kissed the crank at one time in the past. Clearly it needed rebuilt.
I went with a complete engine kit with new pistons, all USA made good quality components (sealed power, melling, hastings, etc). I got a new connecting rod and had the block/crank all checked out at a reputable machine shop that I use quite often. Then I do all of the assembly work myself, checking everything as it goes together. Problem is that this project stalled about the time I got all of the components back from the machine shop. I run a small side business installing remote car starters. I get very busy right around Thanksgiving and stay busy until about the end of January. This did not leave much time to work on Poopy. The last few weekends I have been busy wth family stuff, but I managed to find some time to work on the motor. I had made the time to get the shortblock finished a few weeks ago, but I was waiting on my father to finish the heads (he won't let anyone touch his valve grinder setup). I also found some time to completely disassemble the intake manifold and clean it all up and reassemble it so it was ready for reinstall.
This afternoon I started with this:
You must be registered for see images
Today I was able to get the entire engine assembled and ready for installation into the truck:
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
Once I get it back on the road, I plan to have an exhaust built for it - I want to use the Dynomax Ultra Flow X Muffler with two separate tailpipes, I want to find a set of wheels for it (maybe NBS PYOs or een Hummer H2 wheels with my center caps), and do some other small stuff to it to make it 'mine'. I would like to try a set of 285s on it (it has 245/75-16s and they look too small IMO).
I found an overhead console for it in tan and actually combined 3 different consoles to build what I want. I got the OEM homelink, a blank panel where the rear A/C would be, and 2 really nice doors for the other 2 locations. I'm looking for the proper tan buckets for this truck and center console. I also intend to so a sound system in it too. I still have the Amps and sub box left over from my last Ext Cab. I'll be upgrading the door speakers and probably goto a double DIN head unit (if I can find a nice place for the A/C controls). I'd relly like to keep them where they are and find some smaller controls that will do what the stock ones do.
Last thing on the list is possibly a supercharger. I know the Vortecs 5.7L run good stock, but I always want better. I like the Whipple setup the most, but they are really tough to find. I have installed a Vortech blower before and not been overly impressed. I still need to do some research on what I want.
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