Single Cab Pickups : Forbidden Fruit

[bdcardinal]

I picked up a 2003 Silverado 2500 reg cab long bed 2WD LQ4/4L80E for $1500 last month. It has 281K miles on it though. Needed and still needs some love but it has been a really fun truck. The water pump was leaking when I bought it, so I replaced that along with all the hoses, belts, tensioners, did the 145amp alternator upgrade. Put Bilstein HDs on along with new Toyo Open Country ATIIIs back to the stock size. Just replaced the knock sensors and oil pressure sender yesterday. The oil pressure gauge was pegged at 80psi and would drop to 0 when I floored it. Figured the sender was easier and cheaper than pulling the cluster and doing the stepper motors, and it was the fix.

I figure the worst case scenario if the truck falls apart I can sell the engine and trans to someone wanting to do a Sloppy build.

 

[Corbic]

That is the cool thing.

Like a SBC, if it's junk you can literally buy a brand new engine for $1,900 and drop it in over an afternoon.

Hell, upgrading from a 4.3 to 5.7 is easy, just change the frame mounts and the V6 accessories bolt to the SBC.

 

[tones_RS3]

Love my regular cab/short bed Ram Sport 4X4.

 

[gimmie11s]

Again, GM and their bagillion options packages. On one hand it's great, on the other it's a PITA.

Lmao!! Great video

But these platform gearing changes you speak of simply don’t exist.

Are you talking trans ratios or?


Sent from my iPhone using the svtperformance.com mobile app

 

[awful knawful]

best year silverado was 98-03 IMO and most of them are beat to **** with 200k miles. Are you looking for a newer truck ? Why not get a Hemi Ram or ecoboost F150 ?

My father had a 2000 with 4.8.
Giant POS!

 

[awful knawful]

Oh yell no.

5.4 is a turd. 4th Gen Rams are turds. 9k for either is just stupid. Si

4th gen is a pretty nice truck.

 

[Corbic]

4th gen is a pretty nice truck.

I met 3rd, I love me the 4ths.

 

[awful knawful]

I met 3rd, I love me the 4ths.

Ok. I'm a Toyota guy but own a 09 ram. Drove my buds 07 one day. Compared to mine it's a bucket of bolts.

 

[jeffh81]

That is the cool thing.

Like a SBC, if it's junk you can literally buy a brand new engine for $1,900 and drop it in over an afternoon.

Hell, upgrading from a 4.3 to 5.7 is easy, just change the frame mounts and the V6 accessories bolt to the SBC.

What we used to do is take the TPI motors and put vortec heads on them and swap out to carb setups. With a mild cam the trucks would run pretty damn good considering what it was. I ran 3.73 gears in mine and it was a pretty good runner. It wasn’t earth shattering, but hauled ass for the cheapness of the build

 

[DRTYAPE_SRT]

I love the OBS fords. I’m fond of the 7.3 but wouldn’t mind one with a 5.0 or 5.8.

I’d also like to find a retired U.S. forest service Bronco to mess around with

 

[Corbic]

What we used to do is take the TPI motors and put vortec heads on them and swap out to carb setups. With a mild cam the trucks would run pretty damn good considering what it was. I ran 3.73 gears in mine and it was a pretty good runner. It wasn’t earth shattering, but hauled ass for the cheapness of the build

Yeah, these days you can get aluminum heads (Speedmaster / China) for $500.

Pretty sure they are just vortec knock offs in aluminum, so drop 60lbs and run some extra timing.

 

[Corbic]

View attachment 1653925 View attachment 1653924 View attachment 1653926 I love the OBS fords. I’m fond of the 7.3 but wouldn’t mind one with a 5.0 or 5.8.

I’d also like to find a retired U.S. forest service Bronco to mess around with

OBS Fords are just weird to me. It's like a Square Body and OBS Chevy had a baby. To modern for the 80's, two dated for the 90's.

Some OBS down at SDHQ.

 

[jeffh81]

Yeah, these days you can get aluminum heads (Speedmaster / China) for $500.

Pretty sure they are just vortec knock offs in aluminum, so drop 60lbs and run some extra timing.

I had a 89 extended cab long bed. We ran 10* advanced on ours at the time with gutted mufflers and stock manifolds. For the airfilter we flipped the lid as a poor man’s cold air intake and it was a stout combo backed with 3.42 gearing and the 700R4. I ran it against vortec powered trucks and hung door to door with them. Granted this was the first one and we fine tuned our setups over time.

one we built was put in a obs suburban had been converted over to a edelbrock intake and 4barrel, long tubes, glasspacks and 4.10 gears. For the converter he stuck the corvette servos in and ran a 500 over stall converter.

the last one i had was in a 92 extended cab short bed. It was equipped with the upgraded sprayermod, no cats and gutted glasspacks. The heads were vortec heads and with 3.73 gears it stayed with 5.3 trucks without sweating.

i did a regular cab 4.8/4l60 with a modified stock air box that had been made to no fully close and ran it with a flowmaster. With 3.42 gears it ran like a scalded dog and beat a couple 5.3 trucks.

none of them were fast as the new trucks but they were a blast to drive and stoplight monsters.

 

[CompOrange04GT]

I picked up a 2003 Silverado 2500 reg cab long bed 2WD LQ4/4L80E for $1500 last month. It has 281K miles on it though. Needed and still needs some love but it has been a really fun truck. The water pump was leaking when I bought it, so I replaced that along with all the hoses, belts, tensioners, did the 145amp alternator upgrade. Put Bilstein HDs on along with new Toyo Open Country ATIIIs back to the stock size. Just replaced the knock sensors and oil pressure sender yesterday. The oil pressure gauge was pegged at 80psi and would drop to 0 when I floored it. Figured the sender was easier and cheaper than pulling the cluster and doing the stepper motors, and it was the fix.

I figure the worst case scenario if the truck falls apart I can sell the engine and trans to someone wanting to do a Sloppy build.

same in a way. Bought one of my bosses trucks. Beat up Silverado with the vortec.

$1800, only 150k miles. Interior was trashed.

but for that price you can’t go wrong

 

[zak88lx]

How old are you willing to go?
Will this be your daily driver?

1976 Ford F-250 (4x4)
390 V8 4-speed

1987 GMC 1/2 Ton (4x4)
350 V8 4-speed (Fuel Injection)

 

[gimmie11s]

Problem with modding the TBI trucks is the tbi itself. It’s a low pressure injection system (13 or psi) and it is EASY to get more air into the motor than the fuel you have to match.

Too much air Creates a huge 3500 rpm flat spot that makes them run like shit.

An edelbrock tbi Intake mani helps ... vortec heads also help.

Bump the fuel pressure to 15 or so psi and run the 454 injectors and you can make a tbi 350 run very good.

They’re great tire burners


Sent from my iPhone using svtperformance.com

 

[jeffh81]

Problem with modding the TBI trucks is the tbi itself. It’s a low pressure injection system (13 or psi) and it is EASY to get more air into the motor than the fuel you have to match.

Too much air Creates a huge 3500 rpm flat spot that makes them run like shit.

An edelbrock tbi Intake mani helps ... vortec heads also help.

Bump the fuel pressure to 15 or so psi and run the 454 injectors and you can make a tbi 350 run very good.

They’re great tire burners


Sent from my iPhone using svtperformance.com

That’s all the ones we did were good for. Smokeshows for days

 

[Corbic]

Whelp, shit happens. My brother needs a new truck for his business and looks like he is going to get the family discount on the Taco.


Budget just shrank to $4k. Been following FB Market and lots of over priced (IMHO) trash. Craig's is a ghost town.

Any other suggestions for hunting a deal?

 

[jeffh81]

Whelp, shit happens. My brother a new truck for his business and looks like he ms going to get the family discount on the Taco.


Budget just shrank to $4k. Been following FB Market and lots of over priced (IMHO) trash. Craig's is a ghost town.

Any other suggestions for hunting a deal?

Autotrader

 

[bdcardinal]

Whelp, shit happens. My brother a new truck for his business and looks like he ms going to get the family discount on the Taco.


Budget just shrank to $4k. Been following FB Market and lots of over priced (IMHO) trash. Craig's is a ghost town.

Any other suggestions for hunting a deal?

Follow the local tow companies social media. I got mine after one of the tow companies a friend works at posted it on FB as a lien sale.