1998 Chevy Z71

Chris Hamilton . July 08, 2022 . Features

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Dream It, Build It, Drive It!

We can all think back to when we were 15 years old, sitting in our rooms, looking at truck magazines, thinking of what we’d build if we could build anything. Was yours a slammed out, body-kit-having, bright-color-sporting sport truck? Or a massive tire, multi-shock monster truck more your action? Either way, we all loved the same thing: dreaming of crazy custom trucks.

what if you could reach back and tell your 15-year-old self that you not only built that truck yourself, but you also drive the hell out of it as often as possible Your kid version would be impressed…

Well, what if you could reach back and tell your 15-year-old self that you not only built that truck yourself, but you also drive the hell out of it as often as possible Your kid version would be impressed, and your adult version would stand proud knowing you realized a dream, no matter how impractical it may be for day-to-day use.

Silver Suit with a Bow Tie

That’s the situation Ryan Houeye from Louisiana. Ever since Ryan was 15 years old, he dreamed of owning a towering truck with a silver suit and a shiny Bow Tie. He bought this 1998 Chevy Z71 bone stock and built it from the ground up. Adding front and rear axles from a Ford F-250, a completely custom 4-link suspension with 28 inches of lift and 44-inch tires would satisfy the itch, right? Not even close.

Those Wheels!

To really stand out in the crowded OBS landscape, Ryan reached out to Specialty Forged Wheels and asked about ordering the largest wheel that’s practically possible for a true driver like this one. After some calculations were made, including offsets and production costs, they pulled the trigger on a set of fully polished 26×16 Specialty Forged wheels.

These unbelievable pieces of forged aluminum needed to be wrapped in the finest rubber allowed on the road, which in this case comes in the form of 44×19.50×26 Super Swamper Bogger tires from Interco. That’s a lot of rubber and a whole lot of weight that the factory engine just wasn’t meant for, so a motor swap was next on the list.

Cummins Under the Hood

With past experience in diesel engines and reliability versus affordability, the Cummins 12-valve is the premier name that comes up over and over with big daily-driven street trucks. That’s exactly what Ryan had installed in his ‘98 Chevy, along with a 5-speed NV450 transmission.

The final piece in the overall puzzle is a bright silver paint job that looks like it came from the factory.

what if you could reach back and tell your 15-year-old self that you not only built that truck yourself, but you also drive the hell out of it as often as possible Your kid version would be impressed…

TRUCK SPECS

Owner

Ryan Houeye
Louisiana
1998 Chevy Z71

Engine