"area man" (hurrburgring)
03/03/2016 at 17:06 • Filed to: Mine! All mine!
5
13|
"area man" (hurrburgring)
03/03/2016 at 17:06 • Filed to: Mine! All mine! | 5
| 13 |
A couple of weeks ago I visited
!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!
out in Los Angeles. Pleased to report the old girl is still running strong!
Surprisingly strong, really. Sure, there are a lot of little bits that will need attention when we’re finally reunited on the same coast in a couple years. The power window and wiper motors are basically shot (though the power tailgate glass still works like a dream!), the gear selector is loose, the dash has a couple cracks, the horn isn’t hooked up, etc, etc. It’s a 30 year old truck that basically sat for the last 10+ years minus the odd trip around the block to keep the fluids moving, so all this is to be expected.
What’s not to be expected is that 350 feels like it’s holding on to almost all it’s original 200-odd horses. I mean, this thing pulls. It will idle down the street at 15 mph at normal RPMs. It will do 85 on a California freeway without complaint. It sounds great, feels great when you press the go pedal, looks great under the hood. Mechanically it’s just in super solid shape - my father in law has done a great job maintaining the important parts. And of course, being a Cali car means there’s not a spec of rust on the underbody.
This isn’t a full review at all, but I will mention some of the downsides as well in the interest of fairness in case you’re too jealous at this point (right). The steering is almost dangerously overboosted - makes parallel parking a breeze, but the previously-mentioned 85 mph (end of the speedo!) sprint was achieved with a white-knuckle grip and monk-like focus. And it’s the thin !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which feels... tenuous. It’s so thin! Not much to panic grip when the back end starts wandering at highway speeds. And nothing reminds you of the lack of an airbag like a big empty circle in front of your chest. But the newer 4-spoke model is so ugly, and I’m not big on diverging from the OEM look, so I guess it will stay.
My FIL and I took it to the San Gabriel Mountains for some riverbed 4-wheeling - when the trail turned out to be closed, we decided to drive some twisties instead and ended up climbing a mountain or two. No drama on the way up, no brake fade on the way down. Put the back+side windows down and it feels like you’re driving a large open-air porch through the canyons. I simply could not be happier with it.
Other than that I've been mostly MIA this year - crazy busy at work what with this whole collapse of civilization/presidential election, plus my phone camera got a bunch of junk in the lens and can't take good pictures anymore. Keep on keepin on gentlemen.
Tuned-Port-Injected-Rage
> area man
03/03/2016 at 17:36 |
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Nice ride! What year/motor?
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area man
> Tuned-Port-Injected-Rage
03/03/2016 at 17:44 |
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Thanks! It’s an ‘88, got the 350 5.7L V8.
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Tuned-Port-Injected-Rage
> area man
03/03/2016 at 17:54 |
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Nice! TBI 350's will pretty much run forever with normal maintenance, so it’ll be a killer ride for a long time.
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area man
> Tuned-Port-Injected-Rage
03/03/2016 at 18:19 |
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That’s the plan! Currently around 89K on the clock so plenty of life left too.
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Tuned-Port-Injected-Rage
> area man
03/03/2016 at 19:09 |
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Wow, that’s like ultra low for a K5. Must’ve been really well taken care of. That’ll be running for a LONG time.
shop-teacher
> area man
03/03/2016 at 19:52 |
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That K5 is just all kinds of cool!
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area man
> shop-teacher
03/03/2016 at 21:44 |
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thank you! i never thought i would be a truck guy but I’m running with it.
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shop-teacher
> area man
03/03/2016 at 23:21 |
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Well you got one of the all time great trucks to run with it in. I love cars as much as anyone, but I’ll never be without a truck as well. There’s something about them that’s fun in a very different way than a car.
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area man
> shop-teacher
03/04/2016 at 09:03 |
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What do you have?
dietryng
> area man
03/04/2016 at 13:29 |
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make sure you at some point swap out those stock nylon timing gears. they only last so long.
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shop-teacher
> area man
03/04/2016 at 14:36 |
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I have an ‘06 GMC Sierra crew cab 2wd that I bought new. I got it so cheaply that I can’t ever wrap my head around the idea of buying a new truck. It’s been reliable as the day is long, and taken me through more life changes than I can count. Living in Chocagoland, it’s not quite rust free. When people ask me how long I plan to keep it, I say, “Until the frame breaks in half from rust.” That’s going to be a long long time still. I’ve loved every vehicle I’ve ever owned to one extent or another, but my Sierra is the only one I’ve ever developed a sentimental attachment to.
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area man
> shop-teacher
03/04/2016 at 14:46 |
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Nice, I worked as a park ranger for a summer some years ago and one of our vehicles was an ‘06 GMC 3500HD dump truck. Loved that thing too!
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area man
> dietryng
03/07/2016 at 01:07 |
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Yeah I've heard about this. Who would have thought plastic gears would be a bad idea