Advanced Design
Task Force
Tall hoods
Squarest
Square
OBS
NBS
NNBS
NNNBS...
Advanced Design
Task Force
Tall hoods
Squarest
Square
OBS
NBS
NNBS
NNNBS...
Here in Columbus, we have what are called colloquially the "Main Post Office" (1968), the "Old Post Office" (1943), the "Old, Old Post Office" (1884), and the "Old, Old, Old Post Office (1807). All still stand. If a new main post office opens then you can picture what happens to the names of the previous ones.
fall in maine.
fall in north Carolina
Looks pretty solid.
Ahh fall. When the Chassis shed their beds and display their autumn colors!
(But seriously, the lack of crust is enviable)
I'll play. I love these trucks. A lot of my early driving experience before I had my own first car was behind the wheel of my parents' 94 K2500, and around two years ago I picked up my own 95 C1500 extended cab.
My uncle offered it to me for a price I couldn't refuse. 170k miles, with a glorious 150hp TBI 305 and 4l60e. The good news is that it came with nearly two decades worth of complete maintenance records from his ownership. The bad news is it was a Vermont truck, and as such the underside, fenders, bumpers, cab corners, rear wheel arches, ect. all displayed various levels of crustiness.
Drove it like that for about a year before our story starts to get interesting. Started noticing some drips of trans fluid underneath it, which led me to find the factory trans cooler lines leaking. I figured I may as well do a fluid and filter change on the original 4l60e too while replacing the lines, and then I got the bright idea that since I was dropping the trans pan anyway I may as well throw a shift kit in it too. You know, "While I'm in there..."
That process ultimately resulted in having to drop the transmission to get the stubborn 2-4 servo cover unstuck. Around this point, I begin to question the wisdom of my choices, however little did I know the situation would only continue to escalate from here. In the process of reinstalling the trans, I somehow mixed up one of the (longer) trans pan bolts with one of the (shorter) bolts for the heat shield over the cooler lines, drove it in with my air ratchet, and cracked a hotdog sized chunk out of the case. berkeley!
So at this point I decided to fully commit. Sourced a 5.3 out of a 2000 Suburban and a 4l80e out of a 99 or 2000 Express van last winter, did a mild refresh on the motor, threw a Summit truck cam in it (209/217, ~.550 lift), and swapped it all in. Also cleaned up and painted most of the frame and patched some new cab corners in. I did a piss por job of documenting the process, but here's where it is now:
Started it up for the first time late this spring, then ran into some issues tuning it (first time doing that) and my ADD pulled attention elsewhere the last few months. I've been back at it again the past few weeks and discovered 1) I had only 50psi fuel pressure and 2) I never wired in the heater ground for the wideband sensor 
.
Fixed that, threw a new FPR in, and now I'm getting somewhere. VE table is pretty well dialed in and I'm hoping to have the MAF and spark tables done today and it should be pretty much driveable again. Even with a not-quite-there tune in it, the truck scoots along much better than before.
Oh you probably just became a bad influence.
In reply to Furious_E (Forum Supporter) :
Sweet truck!
I keep dreaming of an LS upgrade and some workable brakes. After reading about the GMT-400 in Hot Rod this month I found a nice brake upgrade that is reasonable (Little Shop Manufacturing) I think I'll make it stop better before I make it go better, you did some serious work!
NYN
This thread was a bad influence on me. Just picked this up over the weekend. 98 c2500, 5.7 Vortec, 4L80e, with the GT4/G80 options, but that's about it. It's stupid how nice it drives though, and everything works.
It needs a deep clean and a hole patched in the driver's side floor. I'd love to figure out a cost effective brake upgrade, and a 2/4 drop, which nobody seems to make for the 8 lug trucks. I might make a build/maintenance thread about it soon. I love these trucks
In reply to John Welsh (Moderate Supporter) :
Yep! That's the one!
Turbine said:I'd love to figure out a cost effective brake upgrade, and a 2/4 drop, which nobody seems to make for the 8 lug trucks.
https://westernchassis.com/
New York Nick said:In reply to Furious_E (Forum Supporter) :
After reading about the GMT-400 in Hot Rod this month
OFF TO GOOGLE!
In reply to Turbine :
Welcome to the cult!
I refuse to buy djm ever again. But. In the process of doing a belltech 4 inch rear kit on my extended cab. Really, really nice kit! Im not ussd to hardware being included and of good quality, or parts fitting properly out of the box.
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :
How do these things tow, haul, and ride with a drop? I'm tempted to give mine a whack with the lowering stick, but then I think back to my Cherokee and how I ruined it in every practical aspect with the lift kit and would rather not repeat that experience.
Thanks for the kind words guys! It's been a bit of an effort in turd polishing, but it's getting there, slowly.
Little update since yesterday: Going over the data logs after doing some WOT runs for the MAF tuning, I noticed the injector duty cycles spiking up around 100%, so I think my fuel pressure issues are back again (still need to throw the gauge on and confirm, but I'm 99.9% sure that's what's going on.) Either that or I'm topping out the injectors, which seems unlikely on such a mild build. AFR is still well on the safe side, so no harm no foul, just really glad I hadn't raised the shift points yet.
Still managed to get most of the MAF table good enough for now, and threw that and my VE tables back in the base tune. Overall, it's driving pretty well, just a little doggy below 2k rpm. Thought that was a tuning issue at first, but probably just the interaction of the cam and tight converter. Pulls great above that.
The other issue I'm having is it wants to die in drive at idle, which made driving through the crowded Sheetz parking lot to get gas an interesting experience. I raised the base set point to ~950rpm or so then tried to dial in the timing advance. End result was a noticeable improvement in P/N idle quality, but it still wants to die in D. Reverse is oddly just fine. Not sure what to make of this, VE table might just need more work in that region.
Back to the fuel pressure issue, I'm picking up an intake manifold after work just to get the injectors and fuel rail it comes with. I'm skeptical of the cheap looking parts store regulator I threw in the old rails a few weeks back, so hoping used OEM is better for less money. Pump is a new 96-98 unit and dead heads at 70+psi no problem, filter is new, lines are new AN6 from about halfway forward ...Could also be leaky injectors I guess, but then I'd think it would have shown rich...
In reply to Furious_E (Forum Supporter) :
It truly depends.
My sample size is 3 so far. Two i did, one i bought done.
My 89 extended cab long bed was done with 2 inch front spring, hangars, shackles, and monroe shocks. It did everything I asked of it. Bottomed a bit up front more than i liked. And rear travel was limited. In hindsight, i never changed the bump stops. It was a 6cyl truck as well, and i never towed with it. The ride quality was superb on the 235/75/15 with the long wheelbase. It only bottomed over big dips and such, and the combination of the crap shocks and tall bumpstops is what i believe caused it.
Next: 95 reg cab short bed. Bought with a "4/6". It was really bad. Between no name shocks, and the notches in the rear in the wrong place, and sacked rear leafs, and.... it was a culmination of the cheapest parts and a rushed installation. Dropped with front coils and spindles, rear flip kit.
Same 95 reg cab short bed. I re-notched it in proper location. Added djm flip kit and fresher rear leaf springs with shock extenders and the overload leaf removed (dont). Used stock bilstein shocks. Djm two inch drop control arms and stock springs and the spindles (NOT RECCOMENDED). Changed wheel spacers for the camaro 18s to fit better. Added Firestone ride right bags and 3/4 ton light duty brakes. Gmt800 master. It tows way better than it has any right to. Has hauled big blocks, small blocks, scrap metal, railroad ties, cars on dolly and trailer. Fantastic piece of equipment. Rubs tires before it bottoms. Ride quality leaves a bit to be desired, honestly. I blame the wheelbase, runflat michilen tires, and stupid heavy wheels. The used million mile bilstein shocks probably aren't helping.
The new extended cab short bed is getting a belltech rear kit of hangers, shackles, bumpstops and shocks along with the driveline alignment kit. Front will just be spindles. On 255/70/15 tires. With Firestone ride right bags, front and rear sway bars, and a gmt800 master on stock half ton brakes. Well see if i feel the need to notch it later for ride quality. I really hope not.
Dies that help?
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :
Super helpful, that's a ton of great info!
Sounds like helper bags would be the ticket for preserving load capacity. C notch is out for sure, so I'll be interested to see how your 2/4 drop goes. How's the geometry up front with drop springs?
GMT800 master has been on my junk yard shopping list for a while, just haven't made it there yet with the junk yard runner out of commission. I'll have to look into the light duty 3/4 ton bits.
My 88 Silverado c2500 is one of the light duty versions.
The tech at the tire shop where I get my work done used what he called "fleet brakes" when I told him I would be towing.
It already had a recent master cylinder, then with new front pads and new drums, cylinders and shoes, it stops surprisingly well.
In reply to Furious_E (Forum Supporter) :
As far as geometry goes with front drop Springs, it aligned okay. Other than that don't really know. And I do believe set the load bags are crucial 2 being able to use these trucks as trucks when lowered. I may be wrong, but I'm also a belt and suspenders kind of guy
In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :
Our old K2500 was a light duty as well and I never had any complaints about the braking power. Pulled great too, first time I ever towed anything was with that truck and my dad had me drive pulling a decent sized compact rental tractor with it. My mom did quite a few miles pulling a horse trailer too.
God I miss that truck.
One option that I saw in a GMT forum was to use the 3500 brake shoes with the stock 2500 rear drums. The former are wider than the standard shoe, and the drum is wide enough for them to fit with no modifications. I have no personal experience to confirm this.
I've been GMT400-less for a few months now, but I've had a couple in the past and loved them. The only one of note was a '94 C2500HD Suburban with the 6.5TD that we used as a tow a roadtrip vehicle for 5 or 6 years. It had a (couple of) relocated PMDs, larger crossover pipe and DiamondEye exhaust, slightly upgraded lift pump, and I loved it dearly. We worked it very hard and it never came home on a trailer.
Anyone have some of the torx head screws that go here?
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