LQ4 Power Makes Chevy K10 Pickup a Gem of a Daily: Track Time Tuesday
Owner of this vintage Chevy K10 pickup wasn’t even around in the ’80s, but he knows a cool rig when he sees one.
LS swaps are obviously all the rage these days, and that particular movement has grown by leaps and bounds with no signs of slowing down any time soon. Rather, instead of just swapping LS powerplants into vehicles in an attempt to make them faster, folks are also leaning on the iconic engine series for adding reliable power to vintage vehicles of all kinds – whether that be big trucks, SUVs, or just about anything else. Case in point – this 1984 Chevy K10 pickup owned by Nick Dressler that was recently featured by Off-Road Xtreme.
Dressler hadn’t even been born yet when the 1980s were already over, but he – like many people these days – has a soft spot in his heart for square body pickups. That’s precisely why he jumped at the chance to buy this Chevy K10 back in 2019, even though it was a bit of a mess, having sat out in a field for some time. Regardless, it had no visible body damage or other nasty stuff, so he took the plunge and got to work making the old truck roadworthy.
Since he planned on lifting the K10 and adding a set of 35-inch tires, Dressler also knew that he needed something powerful enough to move the heavy rig down the road with modern traffic, yet he also wanted to make it more reliable. Enter the LQ4, yet when Dressler fired it up for the first time, it locked up after a fuel injector stuck open and flooded cylinder number seven.
Undaunted, Dressler took his new paperweight to a local machine shop and had it rebuilt, but also fitted with a host of upgrades including 34 lb-hr injectors, dual 255 lph fuel pumps, and a set of Schoenfeld headers, which breathe through a 3-inch dual exhaust system. The result is 413 solid horsepower – nothing too crazy, but more than enough to get this K10 moving.
Otherwise, Dressler polished up his pickup and called it a day. He loves the fact that the old square body is brown, a color that most people despise, and he simply finds it to be perfect as-is. We certainly can’t blame him, and we imagine that anyone who has an affinity for these old trucks feels exactly the same way, too – whether they were around in the ’80s or not.
Photos: Off-Road Xtreme
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