Happy with my 6.2

[jcomp]

Last week, I went on vacation around Colorado. I drove 1160 miles and went over 11 mountain passes over 9000 ft (most were over 10K ft). I also drove down and up a 5 mile stretch of 16% grade :eek: paved road. My new engine performed perfectly, in fact the thing that slowed me down on some of the passes was high transmission temps. The engine always had power to spare. I guess its time to install a second aux cooler. I did have an engine overheating issue at one point, I hit a stretch of washboard road that shook my battery cable into the engine fan! It stopped the fan, but the cable wasn't damaged (it is 4/0 cable). A new fan clutch is coming soon, just in case the old one was damaged. There were other failures during the trip, the vac. pump died, the fuel gauge quit and the rear window EXPLODED, but none were very serious.

Anyway, the best part is that I averaged around 19 MPG over the entire trip. Not bad for a 7 foot tall truck full of camping gear.

[G. Gearloose]

Your K5 resembles mine in gears, tranny and turbo, cept I run 35's but bet yours is prettier...
Its a lovely combination..

Did you have to beef up your frame near the steering box yet?

I'm going to try those zero-rate leafs that move your front axle forward 1 or 1.5", to move some more weight to the rear, the K5 with diesel and 8' plow is somewhat nose heavy redface.gif

I have to extend the front propshaft anyway, it would be good to only do it once..

[jcomp]

Well, I don't know if I would say my truck is prettier, I get a lot of strange looks in it. Something about the peeling rattle can paint job and the chopped out fender openings seem to draw attention. :D

I had to repair the frame a few years ago. Most of the steering box bolt holes had cracks radiating from them, the longest was about 6 inches. The previous owner ran 33s on the truck and he broke the frame.

I'm also considering the zero rates. I've got a dana 60 (finally) to put in so I'll be redoing the front suspension soon anyway. I don't have a plow, but I've got around 350lbs of winch and bumper bolted to the front.

My next big project is to convert the rear drums to discs. I've got most of the parts, I'm just waiting for the caliper brackets to show up.

After that will be a WVO conversion and then the D60 sometime this winter. The madness never ends. tongue.gif