S10/K5 Diesel Franken Truck

[Chevypoor]

Getting ready to put a 6.2L diesel in my wife's rig, a S10/K5 hybrid that we built back in 2008. Here is how it looked when it was together, running a mild 350 with a THM350.

 

[Chevypoor]

Just thought I'd give you some background on how it came to be.... In the summer of 2003, the frame of the S10 Baja buckled on the jack; the entire frame was pretty much rotted and rusted away from years of wheeling and life in the NY road salt. In addition to the frame, the brake lines and fuel lines were also suspect. I felt like the truck was no longer safe for my wife to drive on the road. She is from NY, where they keep driving them until they literally break in half.

Since all body parts except for cab itself had been replaced on the S10 Baja and the rare, hard to find front and rear baja tube bumpers were new and the roll bars were in good shape, it was worth finding a new frame for it.... She found a cheap 1976 K5 for a chassis donor with a low-mileage Jasper-rebuilt 350, THM350, unadulterated NP203 Full time 4wd transfer case, Dana 44 Front, GM Corporate 12 bolt rear. The frame was in good shape, but the body was shot (I know it doesn't look like it in the picture, but it is amazing how much bondo is in it... seriously, someone patched the holes in it with pieces of coolant bottles!)

Here is a picture of the two before the build began and a shot of that S10 frame when I started to cut it apart for disposable...

 

[NVW]

Looks nice:thumbsup:

 

[Chevypoor]

Here are a few pictures of the work to put it together... all the body and bed mounts had to be fabricated, along with the core support/front bumper bracket. The drive train was moved forward about 4 inches, so the cab could sit with the wheels about centered in the front fenders. A jeep steering shaft was modified to work with the K5's steering box, a master cylinder from a 80s Suburban was used with the S10 booster and the K5's brake lines, the whole truck was rewired using a summit wiring harness and a lokar floor shifter was installed since the column shift would have hit the valve cover.

 

[Chevypoor]

After I bought my 6.5L, my wife really liked the sound of it and decided a diesel would be a fitting motor for her truck. So, last year I bought a $1200 93 C2500 6.2L VIN J with a transmission stuck in first for her for Christmas to use as a motor donor.

I had gotten it running well enough and tried some frugal attempts to get the transmission to go into another gear, but finally the wife was getting pretty unhappy with me monkeying around with it instead of getting the motor out to go in her truck.

So, today I pulled it up to the garage and started to take it apart...

 

[btfarm]

I like it! :thumbsup: Cool project!

 

[Chevypoor]

Finally got the motor out of the donor and sitting in the BAJA yesterday. Now we have a whole new set of problems. Because we moved the motor forward 4 inches in the beginning so the factory log manifolds are a no go and the Hummer headers will not work either. The plan now is to use atleast the flanges from the Hummer headers and fab up our own headers going over the frame and run the exhaust down the outside of the frame. We also have issues with the steering shaft and the back to injector lines. Looks we might have to fab up injector lines as well. The valve cover is hitting the firewall on the drivers side as well. That looks to be an easy fix.... a little delicate BFH work!

 

[dangerousdave]

Hmmm, BFH...reminds me of the stuffing of my first Ford Courier with a 426 Hemi. I look forward to your beastie project installments.

 

[tanman_2006]

Now there was a 6.5l shoehorned into an actual lifted s10 awhile back. Now has a lb7. Took some frame mods to route the exhaust but since it was lifted he just droped the engine lower in the frame iirc.

Source Unknown

 

[Chevypoor]

We thought it would fit relatively well since the frame is a 76 k-5 and the later years of that series came with a 6.2. Maybe GM modified the frame slightly in a refresh or most likely we shot ourselves in the foot by moving the motor forward to get the wheelbase to work with the s10 fender openings. Should be fun now... if it was easy there would alot of dielel s10 franken trucks running around!

 

[DieselSlug]

Very cool project, i know exactly where your coming from with the driving trucks till they break in half. Its pretty easy to do here in central NY.

 

[Chevypoor]

Well it has been awhile since we have done anything with this truck- my wife is getting anxious to get the wheels spinning again so we are planning to get this ol girl running again!

Plans are to re-ring the 6.2 (again, did not take the first whack) using gapless 2nd rings. It is a 599 block with no cracks.
For heads we are going to use the passenger side heads from a couple of motors that are crack free. Will be doing a bowl blend and gasket matching with Diamond Cups.
Will run high pops from an as yet undetermined source.
Bull Moose or an Omega Moose IP.
Tank sock delete and a Walbro Fr5. Also planning FTB and may run another filter set up.
Batteries will be mounted big truck style in a box on the frame.
Center mount turbo with custom exhaust- may have to build the manifolds since we moved the motor mounts forward to help clear the cab.
Dual 4" stacks with rain caps- no mufflers.
Turbo 400 with a manual valvebody shifted via a Lokar.
14 Bolt FF rear with 4.10s
New 8lug axles for the Dana 44 in the front
4.10s in the front axle
Probably keeping the 37" tires
Minimal body work- will rework the bed cutting for the fender flares
Swap out the transfer case from a 203 to a 205
Convert the front auto hubs to manual

Not looking for a concourse resto or a street princess, just a solid blue collar, home built rig that may on occasion find some mud, crash cruise ins, and roll some coal for fun!

May try to get the 6.2 fitted this weekend to know what mods we will have to do to clear everything.

 

[btfarm]

Glad to see it's back on!

 

[tanman_2006]

Looking forward to this!

 

[Burning oil]

Looks like fun.

On a side note I hope the pixelated/grainy pics is not going to be an ongoing thing

 

[Chevypoor]

Got the block in the truck yesterday afternoon. So far so good!





Now we have some issues! The steering shaft top u-joint is laying on the valve cover and the exhaust manifold is hitting a gusset plate we added to the frame.



Passenger side looks to be good!



Decided to try the turbo exhaust manifold to evaluate all my options- it fits!



Checking downpipe/ crossover turbo feed pipe diameter. 3" fits with no issues, 4" would clear with no oil pump drive.



Looks like the factory side mount set up would easily fit.



Here is what I am thinking- mount the turbo on top the intake. Could make a bracket that utilizes the four holes on the manifold intended for the factory top cover. Shift the turbo over to the passenger , cut the factory upper intake ala ATT, and then clock the compressor out feed so that one 90^ elbow with a roll to the cab would connect the dots from the turbo to the intake. Then 2.5" from the right and left manifold merged into a t3/ t4 flange. The downpipe (4" hopefully) could then exit over the valve cover (no inner fenders!) and then down the outside of the frame. Sounds plausible?

As for steering shaft looks like I am going to have cut and paste the firewall. Should be able to go up an 1" and over an 1" or so without modifying anything other attachment points. The exhaust manifold is hitting the frame because we removed a crossmember that linked the motor mounts together. So we chose to box the frame with some 1/4 steel plate for a couple of inches. Then I welded the plate to the motor mounts that bolt to the frame. Then the motor effectively becomes the structural crossmember since the mounts now will not flex or move. Worked great with the 350. Might look into boxing the bottom of the mount or maybe a homemade crossmember with the torque and weight of the diesel.

 

[DieselCash]

Looks like fun.

On a side note I hope the pixelated/grainy pics is not going to be an ongoing thing

If you click on the picture it gets rid of the graininess.

 

[Burning oil]

If you click on the picture it gets rid of the graininess.

I know, but seeing the grainy picture sucks. Chances are I'll just skip them if they are grainy as I don't want to look at them unless they intrest me.

 

[DieselCash]

I know, but seeing the grainy picture sucks. Chances are I'll just skip them if they are grainy as I don't want to look at them unless they intrest me.

That makes sense.