FoamyPirate : 1987 Chevy Silverado

[foamypirate]

I've been aching to replace the stock steering wheel in my truck for a while now. The factory wheel is way too thin and HUGE in diamater.

Fortunately for me, while browsing the junkyard for a motor/regulator for my Accord, I scored a newer style truck steering wheel out of an 89' Suburban, and I even got the deluxe wheel with fake stitching!
The new wheel is a little bit smaller in diamater, but the rim is much thicker. It makes it so much more enjoyable to drive.






I've also been gathering information and building a parts list for my upcoming 6.0L swap. Plans at this point are for a factory LQ9 (345 HP) and a 4L80E trans. The rear end will be getting 3.90 Richmond gears and an Eaton Posi. I'm planning to leave the engine stock for a while and just enjoy it. In the future, I'll be putting L92 heads (they flow 320+ CFM, STOCK!) and a nice cam along with headers on the truck.

[Accrdwgnguy]

Lucky you, you got all the fancy brushed aluminum.

What no manual swap? c'mon, man up! I love my stick shift truck, like driving a mini semi when towing lol.

[foamypirate]

Lucky you, you got all the fancy brushed aluminum.

What no manual swap? c'mon, man up! I love my stick shift truck, like driving a mini semi when towing lol.

What can I say? My wife made a rule when I bought this truck, and that rule was that she had to be able to drive it, which rules out the stick shift! She already tore up 2 sets of motor mounts trying to drive my Accord, no way I'd let her drive a truck with 400HP+ and a stick shift! =P

Anyhow, got my tires mounted on the new rims today. Rims are Cragar Nomad IIs, 15x8, 3.75" backspacing. I think it definitely ups the looks of the truck about 10 fold! I'll post up pictures tomorrow afternoon!

With the 15x8s, I should be good to put on a 275/60/15 tire in the future. I'll definitely need the tire to handle the power the truck will be putting down. I have kind of swapped plans around a bit though. Since the 305/700R4 combo is working fine right now, I'm going to start doing bodywork/paint, since I'm starting to notice more surface rust. I'll be painting the truck solid Spruce Mica Metallic. I also ordered a custom vinyl dash cover. These are hand sewn by a guy on 67-72chevytrucks.com. I ordered mine in black, but I've posted a blue one below. I will also be getting the door panels covered in vinyl, along with a bench seat (still have to find one though).

[foamypirate]

New wheels!

[Accrdwgnguy]

Dude I hate you! I'm considering a 5.3 LS swap for my rig now. I already found out I can hook it up to the original 4 speed stick, I can cam it and call it fun.

BTW the rims kick ass

[foamypirate]

Dude I hate you! I'm considering a 5.3 LS swap for my rig now. I already found out I can hook it up to the original 4 speed stick, I can cam it and call it fun.

BTW the rims kick ass

Sounds like a killer plan! Would you stick with fuel injection, or go carb'd? MSD makes a controller to fire off the ignition coils if you do go carb. 5.3L's are dirt cheap around here, like $700 or so for a long block. It's crazy. Anymore, it's almost cheaper to swap in an LS than it is to rebuild an SBC unless you can do it all yourself.

[Accrdwgnguy]

Sounds like a killer plan! Would you stick with fuel injection, or go carb'd? MSD makes a controller to fire off the ignition coils if you do go carb. 5.3L's are dirt cheap around here, like $700 or so for a long block. It's crazy. Anymore, it's almost cheaper to swap in an LS than it is to rebuild an SBC unless you can do it all yourself.

EFI all day. I'd like to regularly see 20+mpg. I checked on car-part.com, 5.3's with around 100k miles were $450-700 complete, including accessories and wiring harness. Should be a fairly easy conversion. You use the LS flywheel and the 86 truck PP bolts up after enlarging the holes slightly.

[foamypirate]

EFI all day. I'd like to regularly see 20+mpg. I checked on car-part.com, 5.3's with around 100k miles were $450-700 complete, including accessories and wiring harness. Should be a fairly easy conversion. You use the LS flywheel and the 86 truck PP bolts up after enlarging the holes slightly.

Sweetness! Wait4Me performance will modify the harness to be a 4 or 5 wire hookup, and tune the ECU to remove VATS for around $360 or so, you can have them use a manual trans LS tune to work with your trans. Current Performance does awesome work too, but they are a little more expensive.

You're lucky, you don't have to mess with finding a good, working 88-91 Blazer/Burb cluster to use the electric output from the newer auto trans. It's hard to find a good working one in nice shape!

20+mpg should be no problem. There is a guy on 67-72chevytrucks (Glocksipc35 or something like that) average 19-22mpg with 3.42s. The new trucks can get 18-20mpg no problem, and ours weigh about 1500lbs less, so 20mpg shouldn't be too hard.

[Accrdwgnguy]

You swap this thing yet? I checked around the yards, a very reputable yard near me has 5.3's on pallets for $350 with 100K miles. Of course that doesn't include computer, harness, alternator, ps pump. I know of a local guy who parts out newer trucks, another hundred or so gets me a complete engine from him

[foamypirate]

You swap this thing yet? I checked around the yards, a very reputable yard near me has 5.3's on pallets for $350 with 100K miles. Of course that doesn't include computer, harness, alternator, ps pump. I know of a local guy who parts out newer trucks, another hundred or so gets me a complete engine from him

Haven't started the swap yet, but I have started tearing down the front end.
I will be powder coating the radiator core support, headlight buckets, battery tray, and miscellaneous brackets and doo-dads. Then I'm going to shoot a few test panels (on the back of some old street signs) to decide on a paint color, since I decided not to go with the Spruce Mica Metallic. Probably going to go with something blue. Then on to the body work and all that fun stuff. =P


Think my radiator has a leak or something?


Mad max-ish. Just need to add some rocket launchers!


Nasty, nasty battery tray. Getting this soda blasted and powder coated.


One of the better looking head light buckets. The rest are pretty rusty.

[Accrdwgnguy]

Not bad man. Found myself a dual headlight core support for 15 bucks, just a little rotted on the bottom.

[foamypirate]

Not bad man. Found myself a dual headlight core support for 15 bucks, just a little rotted on the bottom.

Sweet dude! Quad head light FTW.


Well, made a little bit of progress before the heat took its toll on me tonight! Got the hood off with the help of my brother, and then got the passenger fender and inner wheel well off.
I also finally got the truck moved into my (tiny) garage. You'll notice the sweet trimmer string holding the battery to the frame so I could move it around!




My garage...it's not so big. The truck baaaaarely fits length wise. This is with the front tires bumping the lip at the front of the garage. There is probably 2-3" between my bumper and the garage door.

[Accrdwgnguy]

Well man, more has been done with less. At least you have your own garage, I work out of my parents garage and a port-o-garage. lol

And yes, the sexist square body front end is definitely the 86/87 dual headlight front. The 88-91 front that everyone loves for some reason is ugly to me.

[foamypirate]

Well man, more has been done with less. At least you have your own garage, I work out of my parents garage and a port-o-garage. lol

And yes, the sexist square body front end is definitely the 86/87 dual headlight front. The 88-91 front that everyone loves for some reason is ugly to me.

Yeah, I'm just glad I HAVE a garage! I was stuck in an apartment when I bought the truck, which was a major bummer. Though, it's going to be all sorts of fun trying to fit all the stuff in and around. Just have to organize smart. I plan on building carts for the cab and bed so I can roll them around, so I should have enough room to keep them all in the garage for storage, and roll them out to work on.

[JoshM]

We've got one in our shop with a Cummins.
But it's black where yours is gray, and gray where yours is black.


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