InchUp

I introduce to you my truck, his name is Max. My sister named him after the final stage of his lift (more on that later) because he is the max height MN lift laws allow (might be a little illegal actually), he goes to the max off-road and now has a self-made VortecMAX motor under the hood (more on that later as well). My truck is a 1996 GMC Sonoma that I got from my family as a birthday gift back in March of 2004 when the truck had 66k miles on it. It was my grandfather's truck before mine which I had helped him with many times prior to him giving me the keys, so I pretty much knew the truck inside and out before I got it.

Completely stock to the bone, it started out as a 2wd with a 4.3L V6 automatic with a fiberglass hard cover. This is one of the only pictures I have of it at stock height out at the farm, a few days after I had a Magnaflow cat back exhaust welded on. Tires at the time were stock size, 205/75R15 BF Goodrich All-Terrains which I don't think they even make anymore.



After that I got myself into a bit of mobile audio and made up a custom-fit fiberglass sub-woofer enclosure for two 12" Audiobahn subs ported to 32hz amped to 800 watts RMS each via the two amps on the rack between each enclosure.



Mobile audio includes:
-Optima Yellow top battery
-210 High output fullsize alternator
-Big 3 in 1/0 gauge
-Audiobahn 4x6 plates in dash, tweeters in A-pillars
-Pioneer DEH-480MP Premier deck
-Audiobahn ABC-6003V components
-Audiobahn A8002V 2 channel at 200 watts RMS x ohms for the components
-2 Audiobahn 12" Excursion subs amped at 800wats RMS x 2ohms in custom fiberglass enclosure
-2 Audiobahn A8001V mono amps at 800 watts RMS
-Rear Audiobahn 4x10 3 ways, cheapos that no one hears anyway
-Rear Optima Yellow top battery (now both are in bed)

After that I started getting into lifted trucks, where stage one of the lift was a simple 2" body lift and 31" tires on Black Cragar 15x8 rims.



After that I swapped in different rear leaf springs and made longer shackles for the rear which gave a mean looking rake, but only lasted so long. I consider this stage two of my lift, with the addition of Herculined rocker panels and fenders.



I got stuck once and only once, where that was enough for me and I ditched IFS and 2wd all together and did a solid front axle conversion (SFA sometimes called a solid axle swap SAS). This is most definitely stage 3, the last stage in my lift.

The main parts of the solid axle build:

Front
-1987 Jeep Grand Wagoneer Dana 44 front axle, driver side drop
-Flat top knuckles milled drilled and tapped for 1/2 high steer
-Bilstein 7100 shocks all 4 corners: 255/70 valving front, 14" travel
-Chevy dual steering stabilizers for front
-4" drop pitman arm from Jeep Cherokee
-Sky-Manufacturing high steering arm on passenger knuckle
-Sky Toyota full width crossmember
-Sky shackle mounts
-Sky axle flip kits
-3" Tuff Country EZ-Ride lift springs for 73-87 Full size Chevy
-Yukon Power-Lok limited slip differential for front
-4.30 Dana ring and pinion
-1/2 ton single piston calipers
-12" cross drilled and slotted rotors
-23" stainless brake lines
-Rock Crusher Dana 44 differential cover

Rear
-Spring over axle in rear (S-trucks come with leaf springs under the axle)
-Custom leaf spring pack, 2wd main leaf with #2 #3 and overload leafs from ZR2
-1.5" lift shackles
-2" steel lift block
-6 degree shim
-Rear Honda Passport Dana 44
-Yukon Power-Lok Limited slip differential for rear
-4.30 Dana gears
-Vented 12-1/4" rotors
-1/2 ton single piston calipers
-Rock Crusher Dana 44 differential cover
-Bilstein 7100 14" travel remote reservoir shocks, 170/60 valving rear

And a few pics of the process:






This is where Max sits now.






Trans:
I also had to swap out the 2wd 4L60E for a K1500 4x4 4L60E which I rebuilt with much stronger internals, and also swapped the weaker NP231 manual transfer case for a stronger NP241 with a 1:1 4HI gear and 2.72:1 4LO gear.

Tires:
-325/70R17 Nitto Terra Grapplers (35x13R17)
-315/75R16 BFGoodrich Mud-Terrain KM2's
-17x9 American Racing Black Chamber rims, 4.5" of backspacing, 6x5.5" bolt pattern
-17x9 Cragar Black Soft 8 steel rims for winter, 5" of backspacing 6x5.5" bolt pattern
-16x8.5" Cragar Soft 8 wheels for off-road, custom bead locks, 4" of backspacing 6x5.5" bolt pattern

Motor Swap
The 4.3L V6 had ok power for average use but I geared my Dana 44's knowing that the 4.30's would some day be accompanied by a V8. I planned this V8 swap 2 years ago knowing I'm just going to swap in a 6.0L with torquey cam and be done with it. After talking with my grandfather about it, we discussed numerous times about GM's V8 decisions in their 1/2 ton pickups. Being the old school fella he is, he was displeased with when GM replaced the tried and true 5.7L "Chevy 350ci" with the 5.3L, even though the 5.3L is far superior in every way. He wanted to see the 5.7L come back. GM could advertise the hell out of a new 5.7L with claims that they're bringing back the "350" 5.7L truck motor. As my grandfather and I continued ironing out the details of our "dream motor", we began to make a list of goals the motor must do in order to become the new flagship V8 in all the trucks.

Those goals are:

-5.7L displacement, preferably ~350 cubic inches

-Make 1hp per cubic inch displacement

-Retain 20mpg highway in the stock 1/2 ton trucks

-Have at least a 200k mile life with only oil, spark plugs, air intake filter and coolant maintenance

4 goals. All relatively simple by today's standards. On Easter Sunday around noon, my grandfather passed away. His sudden passing was a huge blow to my mom's side of the family, and my sadness turned into determination. So, I built that "dream motor". I have been bashed left and right on how I should have stuck with the 6.0L since I have all the parts for it already, it's a hefty waste of money, it'll make more power and torque and bla bla bla. I don't care.

Here's my motor.
-2001 5.3L from a donor Tahoe bored over to 99mm
-Block was sonic tested prior to bore and hone, magnafluxed, hot tanked and cleaned with new cam bearings
-Replacement Speed-Pro LS1 hypereutectic aluminum pistons
-Rotating assembly balance within 1.5oz all machine work done by B&A Cylinder Head here in Blaine MN.
-241 heads milled down for 10.3:1 compression, port matched intake, port matched + ported and polished exhaust, smoothed out bowl and combustion chambers, dye tested for cracks and all new intake and exhaust valves and seals from Lingenfelter
-2002+ LS6 yellow springs
-Stock .052" compressed GM replacement head gasket
-CompCams XR259 camshaft 206/212, .515/.522 on a 112LSA for brute low end torque, superior mid range and 6000rpm red line in my 5.7L. Good gas mileage
-Stock length pushrods
-LS6 timing chain
-'99 LS1 f-body exhaust manifolds due to the cramped Sonoma engine bay, exhaust flanges cut off and lengthened, new O2 bungs welded in
-True 2.5" exhaust
-3 muffler exhaust, single 22" Magnaflow 2.5in/2.5out with internal crossover X-pipe inside, followed by two 4" round 14" long 2.5in/2.5out round Magnaflow mufflers for quiet exhaust note idle-red line
-Stock 6qt oil pan with notched frame for clearance
-1500HD oil cooler adapter on pan with 15x7" oil cooler
-1.7kw high output starter
-280-300 amp alternator

A few pics:





I did not have time to snap pictures of the engine bay or exhaust piping but this is the exhaust draw up I threw together to give you an idea of what's under the truck.



VortecMAX engine covers: (I think GM should make a VortecMAX 5.7L for the trucks)



And a little touch for the doors



And finally to cool this bad boy I have gone the extra mile to put the radiator into my core support for added room, along with an 18" electric fan.I took advantage of my 2" body lift and extended my core support down 1.5" and stuffed in there the largest radiator I could. It's a 30x19" all-aluminum Summit brand dual core radiator with built in transmission cooler. The fan you see is from a Lincoln Mark VIII V8. It's an 18" electric fan that pulls the most CFM of any fan on the market for under $100 bucks at the junkyard. It pulls 5500 CFM at max speed, is a dual speed fan and on low does about 2000-2500 CFM. I trimmed the shroud down so it would clear my water pump pulley, and put the radiator into the core support for extra room. The fan requires 100 Amps on startup, and 33-36 Amps continuously on high speed. See why I opted for the high output alternator?



That should just about do it. Thanks to all who vote for me and thanks for reading about Max.

Thank you to all who made this thread possible.