DEATHTRAP's new daily/tow rig '95 c1500

So I sold my Typhoon a couple of months ago. Which meant, I need something else to drive. Searched craigslist for a couple of days and found this fairly clean 1995 GMC C1500. [URL=http://s829.photobucket.com/user/YOTA81UNDERTHEKNIFE/media/20160430_133051_zpsa7ngap7n.jpg.html][/URL][URL=http://s829.photobucket.com/user/YOTA81UNDERTHEKNIFE/media/20160430_133110_zpsgkdpqhen.jpg.html][/URL] This truck like any 20+ year old vehicle has its minor improfections. But I must say it is really clean. It had about 98k on it and after getting it up on a rack at work, it is clean underneith. No leaks! Man I got lucky. It had the classic gramdpa look, cab lenght running boards and chrome trim over the finder wells. Bug guard included. That stuff was the first to go! Now that it has been de-grampa'd, I through on a set of lowering shackles so it doesn't look like and armidillo in heat. Tinted the windows a little and now I have been driving it since. It seems like every tank of gas, has had some towing time in it. So i still don't know what kind of gas mileage i get. But I can say that it sucks pulling something. I towed my corolla to a dyno day and to the drag strip, and it doesn't have much get and go. I have been doing some research and have determined that I am not the only one who has experiecned this. Several websites and forums backing up what I have been experiencing. In my research, I have found that the exhaust is terrible. Restrictive y-pipe, restrictive cat converter, restrictive muffler. I have read that the muffler is 3" going in (whick I can vouch for), but it necks down to 1 7/8" inside! This i will verify later. But for now, things are going to remain stock. But not for long! As soon as i round up some cash, a "full" custom exhaust is in order, longtube headers included. Headers, 3" pipe into a y-pipe and into a single in/out muffler and out the back. Simple. I have heard that a good free flowing exhaust can be worth 40 -60 hp, there are conflicting results depending where you look. This coupled with injector spacer, ported throttle body, and a bump in fuel pressure should be enough to make this feel like a truck. Future plans include head swap from Patriot Performance, camshaft upgrade, and intake swap which should wake this thing up. But thats a lot of money and as we all know...a lot of money = not right now. So far I have been calling it just "the truck". But my friends and corworkers have called it "Green Lightening", "Bad Grandpa", and "Dirty Gramdpa". Haven't decided on a name just yet, but I'm sure something will stick. We'll see.

Love the old GMT-400s, among the best trucks ever built. Glad to see one getting built up, looks real clean.

I'm of the opinion that the GMT400 is the last proper truck GM built.

Which engine/trans/rear end? Had a few GMT400's in the family. None were fast, but they were all dependable. Well, except the one dad picked up used that had a blown head gasket and hydrolocked the engine. But he only paid $1k for it...

Ultimate tbi mods, mid length headers, true duals with x pipe, high flow cats, and an electric fan. Bump base timing and few degrees. It'll feel like a whole different truck.

Well as it turns out, the ad only said a V8. But after decoding the VIN at work this has a 350 TBI motor, 4L60E trans, and a 3.42 rear gear. Non-limited slip. I attempted to bump the timing up this weekend, but i bought a cheap POS tool years ago and I went all gorilla hands and bent it before it broke the dist. bolt loose. So gonna have to buy a different one.

In reply to DEATHTRAP:

Hey on the bright side it could have been a 305 with 3.08 or some other ridiculous gearing.

Yeah, a 350 with a 3.42 is about what I'd want in a small truck for general daily use. Good engine, deep enough gear to pull okay without wrecking your empty mileage. Non-LSD isn't that big of a handicap either as long as you're smart about where you put the truck and keep good tires on it.

It's not really a grandpa truck, either. That would be the extended cab, long bed model. Particularly with aluminum running boards and a hi-top camper shell. This is more of the blue-collar Joe version.

I had an extended cab, long bed, 4.3 5 speed, 3.08 89. You have a rocket compared to that.

Dusterbd13 wrote: I had an extended cab, long bed, 4.3 5 speed, 3.08 89. You have a rocket compared to that.

Had two, a 93 ECSB and an 89 RCSB both 4.3/5spd and the 3.08. Cruising at 80mph was just above idle and would knock down 25mpg on the highway but damn.... 17.90 @ 76mph. That was after all the free TBI mods, 3" single catback and Hypertech PROM.

Nice that you went for a 95 with the much improved interior ergonomics. I have a '94 and it's seats are less than supportive and none of the switches fall to hand easily.

Good luck with the project. I'm gonna bet that most of the front suspension stuff is gonna need to be changed soon given it's age.

I have finally remembered to reset my trip when I got gas last. I am gonna find out what my mpg is, real world style. I am not changing any driving habits one bit, still flying down the highway at about 75-80, and the a/c blowing. I am thinking it is in the 15-16 range just from the approximate total mileage per tank. But I can say that I am not used to having something this slow. I think I got spoiled to the faster car from my past and now I am driving a "normal" persons daily driver. It kinda drives me crazy trying to merge onto the highway, and listening to this thing wheezing like an old man. I keep telling myself that I am going to make it better. I am going to make it better. I am going to make it better.

Hahaha try going from a 01 Audi S8 to a 90 vw vanagon with a automatic. I get to watch the weeds grow while trying to merge into traffic.

brad131a4 wrote: Hahaha try going from a 01 Audi S8 to a 90 vw vanagon with a automatic. I get to watch the weeds grow while trying to merge into traffic.

C55 AMG to K1500 6.5L TD. I'm in hell lol.

Ahhh yeah. I ordered this a few days ago and it came in yesterday after much anticipation. [URL=http://s829.photobucket.com/user/YOTA81UNDERTHEKNIFE/media/20160510_191400_zps3lsornqb.jpg.html][/URL] This is an injector pod spacer. It lifts the injectors up out of the throttle body bore just a bit. They say it helps quite a bit. A lot, I doubt it. We will see using the seat of the pants method after I run through the rest of my tank of gas. I am fighting back putting it on today so bad I can't stand it!

If you do a little clearancing, you can run the spacer and a pair of gaskets.

From what I gather from other sources raising the injectors helps with atomization of the gas in the runners. This helps for better ignition and better burn which equals better gas mileage and more hp. That's the short version of how it was explained. Engineers are sometimes a hard bunch to get them to explain things in a easy straight forward way.

So I installed my injector pod spacer last weekend, which was very easy and staright forward. No instruction reading required. And thank you Dusterbd13 for the heads up about possibly having to clearance a little. As it turns out I did have to remove a little bit of metal. I ended up reusing the gasket and used the spacer. Once it was all back together, I found it would not start. Maybe just needed to prime the fuel pod? A couple of key cycles, still no start. Hmmm. Cranked with some throttle input and found it to start up. And then die. Hmmm. After a couple of these, it hit me. Maybe I need to do an idle reset. How do I do that? Lets try unhooking the battery for a couple of minutes. All buttoned back up, I tried cranking and it fired up. yessss. (in your best Napoleon Dynamite voice) It had a bit of a stumble but kept improving. Took a spin around the block, part throttle, full throttle, cycled the A/C, etc. Finally learned an idle. And after a couple of days driving, I can actually feel a difference. Now this is no hotrod, but it feels smoother. Especially during take off and light acceleration. But from 2500 rpms and up, it still wheezes like and out man. I am hoping that the exhaust in the future will take care of most of this. I have noticed that while on the highway, I can feel it surge. Kind of hard to explain. I can feel it accelerate at times with out any extra throttle input, then backs back off. Weird. I am thinking it is fuel pressure related. Going to hook up a gage here in the near future and see what kind of little demons may be lurking. But for now, very worthy $24 investment!