new to site, and LSx motors in general

**vantheman44** · 01-20-2010, 08:09 AM

Hey hows it going? I was over on pirate4x4 and found a link that directed me here. I'm currently building a toyota truggy rock crawler, and a buddy of mine mentioned putting an LQ9 motor in it, so i'm going to research and educate myself as much as i can here to see what it would take to put one of these beasts in my current project.

Here is a couple pics and some specs on what i currently have, and where my projects should lead too, if everything goes somewhat smoothly. My first truck was this 1982 K5, that i got from a family member for free with a blown up 6.2 diesel. My grandpa, dad, and myself we ahead and built a decently powered small block 400 for it. After dropping the motor in i went ahead and converted it to 1-ton running aftermarket suspension springs and bracketry, and running 44's. I'm not gonna lie, the trucked looked cool driving down the highway, but that is all it really was, was a pavement princess. Since i never really took the truck offroad, and i couldnt bring myself to beat up a decently straight square body (and not to mention, my very first truck) i figured i would change some things and build a smaller rig to handle my fix for 4wheeling.

So that brings me to where i am today. I currently have plans to throw a set of 2.5ton rockwells under my K5, and running some 44" pitbull rockers (on 20" custom stazworks to clear the huge disc rotor i will be putting on). The truck will vertually be the same, just with some beefier axles. The reason i decided to put the rockwells under the K5 was for a couple reasons. First, i scored them for a realitively decent price, and second, i could take my already built up dana 60 and 14 bolt and put them under something like a toyota.

So i was on the hunt for a toyota pickup, and i found a straight cab and frame for 150 dollars locally. This was a perfect starting point for me because these were the only things on the truck i initially planned on keeping toyota. The plans for this thing are to sling the dana 60 and 14 bolt under it. The rear suspension will be a double triangulated 4-link, while running some RUF leaf springs in the front. This rig will also be getting the 44's off of the K5, but i think i'm going to downgrade to 42's. The main goal for this truck was to keep it as LOW as possible so i could have a decent wheeling ring.

With the suspension and running gear figured out, it was onto figuring out what kind of power plant i wanted to run. I want some that has decent power to be able to move the rig with ease and i figured i would look into some sbc stuff, and one thing lead to another and now i'm looking for all the info i can find to see what it would take to put an LQ9 between the frame rails of this pick up.

Here are a couple pics of my junk:

My K5 with the 1-tons:

Motor pic:

2.5ton axles for the k5:

Current stage of my toyota project:

Anyways, i guess that is my introduction, and i look forward to sharing information with you guys. I appreciate all help that i will encounter and i look forward to having a goodtime on this board.