Parked the truck, removed a few body panels. Disconnected the battery, drained the coolant. Removed the radiator hoses, removed the accessory brackets- Alt & PS pump. Unplugged all of the engine sensor harnesses, unhooked the Y-pipe from the headers. Removed all of the bell housing bolts, disconnected the torque converter from the flexplate.
This is where I am at, after a short break and cool down from the 90+ degree heat out there.
This afternoon/evening I plan to change the torque converter out for my 3000 stall unit, change the motor mount brackets for the V8 ones, and splice the V8 fuel injector plug in onto the 4.3L harness.
Cheers ~Mykk
04SilveradoMykk
09-06-2008, 09:59 PM
Finished up day one by:
tossing the V6 motor mount brackets and bolted in the new V8's
Lookin good so far. You are going to love the power of that motor compared to the V-6.
thunder550
09-07-2008, 01:45 AM
Looks great Mykk! I'm really excited to see how this thing comes together.
kbracing96
09-07-2008, 10:52 AM
VERY NICE! :D Can't wait to see how she runs! :D
7845
09-07-2008, 11:02 AM
very interesting on this whole concept/build.
one question comes to mind tho. with inspection/emissions. i wonder how the local laws will look at this
thunder550
09-07-2008, 11:17 AM
one question comes to mind tho. with inspection/emissions. i wonder how the local laws will look at this
In AZ, all OBDII vehicles are just a computer check and maybe a visual inspection. I have passed smog with my old Radix, long tubes and no cats once and with my turbo kit once. As long as his OBDII readiness tests are passed and there are no emissions related codes he will be fine. This year when I went they didn't even pop my hood :jest:
kbracing96
09-07-2008, 11:20 AM
He is in Phoenix and as long as it passes the OBDII plugin test, and has no codes, no problem. They don't really do a visual, not could they tell the motor is any different, :lol: Thunders truck just passed, :jest:
EDIT: Chris beat me to it, :lol:
04SilveradoMykk
09-07-2008, 11:41 AM
I'm in Prescott, there are no emissions tests.
thunder550
09-07-2008, 11:51 AM
I'm in Prescott, there are no emissions tests.
Even better :nod:
7845
09-07-2008, 11:55 AM
In AZ, all OBDII vehicles are just a computer check and maybe a visual inspection. I have passed smog with my old Radix, long tubes and no cats once and with my turbo kit once. As long as his OBDII readiness tests are passed and there are no emissions related codes he will be fine. This year when I went they didn't even pop my hood :jest:
i understand that which is here as well. but im just saying as its a generation motor that never came in this bodystyle thats all. and im aware of anything given right person can get stickers. just was curious being its a GenI motor in a GenIII truck. I didnt think you were allowed to step back in time with motors and still be legal. Or least thats law here
Mangled03gmc
09-07-2008, 01:51 PM
Wow Dare to be different, hope it all comes togather for ya, runs well... A touch of ole school in new bones... Keep us posted
John
kbracing96
09-07-2008, 03:03 PM
i understand that which is here as well. but im just saying as its a generation motor that never came in this bodystyle thats all. and im aware of anything given right person can get stickers. just was curious being its a GenI motor in a GenIII truck. I didnt think you were allowed to step back in time with motors and still be legal. Or least thats law here
You could still get the Vortec SB's in these trucks till 2000 and I think even 2001or2 in the van chassis. I know his truck is 04 but I don't think you would have a problem with it unless you took it some where that was VERY strict on emissions. If it passes a OBDII test, sniffer test and has cats, I think you could register it pretty much any ware.
Now if he ripped all the EFI stuff off and put a carb and HEI with long tubes and no cats, that would be another story. But seeing how he is using pretty much all factory equipment I don't think there would ever be an issue of it.
I didn't have any intention to get the motor in today, but my buddy and I watched this little cloud directly above us balloon into a massive thunderstorm and we got the engine sitting in the engine bay just as it started to down pour.
The engine isn't completely on it's mount brackets. I have a feeling the trans slid forward in it's elongated slot on the cross member, enough to misalign the motor mounts up front. And the engine will sit 1.5" lower once it's completely on the mount brackets.
I've got a couple more bell housing bolts to tackle, they needed to be changed out from metric bolts to 3/8" course. The TC needs to get bolted to the flex, started motor bolted up. Needed new starter bolts, from metric to standard.
Still need to finish wiring in the new fuel injection harness and plug in every sensor harness.
And,The K&N FIPK for 4.3L did not need to get modified at all to fit on the V8
We also mounted the secondary trans cooler. Yes I know, I have some aligning to do... of the bumper cover and the cooler.
Question. Where are you getting you ECT (engine coolant temp) input from for you PCM? Are you using a sensor in the head? I ask because all of the L31's I've seen, used the sensor in the thermostat location, but you have that port plugged.
04SilveradoMykk
09-08-2008, 01:18 AM
Question. Where are you getting you ECT (engine coolant temp) input from for you PCM? Are you using a sensor in the head? I ask because all of the L31's I've seen, used the sensor in the thermostat location, but you have that port plugged.
Yes, I transferred the coolant temp sensor from the head of the 4.3L over to the head of SBC.
Whippled2dr
09-08-2008, 11:44 AM
Yes, I transferred the coolant temp sensor from the head of the 4.3L over to the head of SBC.
Thats what I figured. Do you think it is better in the head over the spot in the intake manifold? On my engine the sensor in the head goes to the dummy gauge in the instrument cluster.
GMCtrk
09-08-2008, 11:46 AM
This has got to be one of the coolest swaps I've seen so far. But man, that old 350 just looks weird in there!
budhayes3
09-08-2008, 12:50 PM
Very cool, I've been following your engine build so I'm very interested in the swap too :thumb: That small block looks right at home in there :)
04SilveradoMykk
09-08-2008, 01:08 PM
Day 3. Sept 8th.
Just taking it easy and going slow. I have a few appointments today that are keeping me from completely dedicating myself to the truck today.
My hopes of just having the transmission mount slid forward and giving me the misaligned motor mounts were wrong. The trans was all the way back in the slot on the crossmember and I was about 1" from having the motor mount bolt holes line up.
So I went with the first idea that came to mind. Elongate the transmission crossmember hole even more so the entire rotating assembly can slide back enough to compensate for how far off the motor mounts were.
This is really frickin cool....let me know when you're ready to bring it back down to Phoenix, I'd love to check it out in person!
95 bright teal
09-08-2008, 07:27 PM
I wanna see it too, ive been following this build, and its looking great!
04SilveradoMykk
09-10-2008, 08:29 AM
Day 4: Sept 09.
I only had a couple of hours to work on the truck today. When my shift ended at my job tonight I rushed over to work on the truck with the intention to get as much done as possible, work all night if I had to. But I'm afraid mother nature had other plans, it was clear all day today untill I got to the truck and it began to storm, hard! Even though I am working under cover the ground under the truck floods quickly and the winds just about tear the make shift "Tarp Garage" apart.
While I was working, I did notice a few problems.
1) The driveshaft does seem to be binding. The yoke is pressed all the way in to the trans tail housing. I'll pull the driveshaft tomorrow to have it shortened & balanced, a local shop here does that for about $100.00
2) Because the engine is back a bit from an OE location, I can't get the trans dipstick tube back into place. So I'll be looking into an aftermarket piece, like a Lokar flexable.
3) With the engine mated to the trans, the flexplate is pushed right up onto the torque converter. And it's tight, so tight I can't spin either the torque converter or the engine over by hand I must not have the torque converter in all the way. While I have the driveshaft out I'll seperate the engine & trans a bit to see if I can't get the TC to slip in another click.
I'm beginning to think I should have used the adapter plates that had the LSx mounts & SBC mounts 1" away from each other, if I had I would run into major header & motor mount interference issues. Oh well, The majority of the weight behind the front wheels equals better weight distribution.. right?
Once it got dark and the ground became flooded I switched to the topside of the engine and finished up the wiring of the V8 fuel injector harness as well as lengthened the A/C high pressure sensor leads. Pulled the temp sender harness out of the loom a bit, made new heater hoses and a crankcase air supply hose.
The old 4.3L throttle cable bracket will not work on the L31 intake manifold. GM needed to order the new bracket and I didn't want to wait, so instead I bent and modified the 4.3L bracket to bolt on to the V8 intake manifold. Seems to be working thus far.
Hopefully tomorrow will prove to more prosperous. I don't work at the job tomorrow.
This swap is taking a bit longer than I had hoped for, but I also knew I'd run into a few unforseen problems doing a swap like this.
Cheers ~Mykk
budhayes3
09-10-2008, 11:33 AM
Sounds like the normal kind of issues that you'd run into with this kind of swap, hopefully they can be remedied easily and painlessly. :angel:
Will that intake tube clear the hood, it looks kinda high from the pics?
Moving right along...
04SilveradoMykk
09-10-2008, 05:21 PM
Day 5, Sept 10th
Just taking a break, figured I'd post up todays progress while putting my feet up for a sec.
After talking to the shop that would do the driveshaft work for me, we agreed that based on the location of the yoke in the tailshaft we would not need to cut down the driveshaft... that was a relief.
I separated the trans from the engine to see if I couldn't get the torque converter to seat down another click, so far I haven't been able to make it move in anymore. But my buddy with much smaller hands will give it a shot this eve when he gets home from work. I only hope I didn't hurt the pump.
I put the A/C system back together, and wrapped up the cooling system. I ended up lifting the A/C compressor a hair higher and needed to go get a new serp belt.
The headers are a success, sort of. The drivers side sneaks in and clears the steering shaft.
the passenger side, however, fits just fine on the engine side and clears the frame... but the header does hit on the bottom corner of the cab and prevents from putting in the header bolts. I wasn't going to let that stop me, out came the cutting wheel to make clearance for the header.
Ran into a major dilemma. The torque converter doesn't fit.
The snout on the 3000 stall TC has a beveled edge that goes into the end of the crankshaft. That snout is far too long, the crank bottoms out on the snout before the engine can bolt up to the transmission... and if you try to force the bell housing bolts to close the gap the TC gets pinched between the engine adn the trans and the entire rotating assembly siezes.
I'm not sure what my solution is yet, I'll call the TC manufacturer tomorrow. I could very well just have a defect TC and just either need to replace it or have them machine that surface to the right dimensions. Either way it's set me back and is the last thing on this engine swap, I have a feeling I won't make it to the cruisin carshows this weekend.
Cheers ~Mykk
kbracing96
09-10-2008, 10:08 PM
That sucks Mykk :(
04SilveradoMykk
09-11-2008, 03:18 PM
Here is the story on the torque converter:
I just got off the phone with the manufacturer... (Backstory: I had the 350 crank & rods balanced with a 2004 4.3L flexplate and dampener and ordered the TC for a 2004 Silverado 4L60E 4.3L) according to the manufacturer the torque converter is correct for my application; 2004 Silverado 4l60E with a 4.3L. However I am running into a problem because the end of the crank on a modern 4.3L is different from a L31 350. At least that is what he told me. If indeed that is the case, it goes to show that a 350 is not a direct swap for the 4.3L in NBS trucks
I'll be putting my micrometer on both crank ends to compare them. I'll also mic both pilot snouts on the stock converter and the aftermarket.
The company is building me another torque converter with a roughly 1/8" shorter pilot snout and will trade me out for the other converter.
I do not know how far out it will be before I recieve the new converter
Cheers ~Mykk
04SilveradoMykk
09-25-2008, 08:30 AM
After waiting, and waiting, and waiting some more the new TC finally arrived.
That day I got the TC stabbed in the trans, bolted the trans to the engine, TC to Flex, headers, and finished up every other nut & bolt and put the truck back on the ground.
At first test fire, there was no fire. I plugged in my laptop and used HPTuners scanner to see that TPS was at 98% at idle and wasn't reacting to my right root. It turned out I had the TPS harness plugged into the A/C highside sensor. So I put the right harness in the right sensor and tried again, it wanted to fire up but popped, spit & sputtered... I must have the timing way out.
And this is what the CPS looks like after getting up close and personal to the firewall.
That was it, I had run out of time to complete the swap. My days off were over, I needed to return back to work. And my friend (who let me do the swap at his place) was getting anxious to get the vehicle out of there.
In the name of getting my truck running I had the truck towed to my friends shop were he will set the dist to a true 0 degree and make a new Y-pipe from the headers back.
We will also fix a newly found problem, one of the hardlines on the power steering rack was spewing PS fluid. (as seen in the photo getting loaded on the flatbed)
Looks good, hopefully your buddies shop gets it running nice. I'm anxious to see how this runs, I always liked the lower power band on a gen I to high rpms of a gen III motor in a truck.
04SilveradoMykk
09-29-2008, 09:22 PM
She's alive. it fires up, runs and is in desperate need of some computer tuning. Vids will be up soon.
And any help with the computer tuning is greatly appreciated, here is my thread on that:
Charlie @ Wheatley offered to help, I sent a PM and didn't get a responce. But I can understand that, I'm sure he's busy.
good deal, can't wait to see some video
04SilveradoMykk
10-01-2008, 04:11 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yby9TFEfB7I
kbracing96
10-01-2008, 04:26 PM
That sound AWESOME!!! :thumb: I love the sound of a cammed SBC :D:D:D Great job on pulling off the usual swap!!!
BlownHD
10-01-2008, 04:54 PM
Sounds real nice, makes me miss my old 383...
GMCtrk
10-09-2008, 05:34 AM
So? Have you got around to driving it? Any WOT? First impressions? Or is the tuning still pretty out of whack?
04SilveradoMykk
10-10-2008, 06:10 PM
Tuning is still out of whack
gmc6
10-11-2008, 07:54 AM
hey are you gonna sell any parts off the v6?
04SilveradoMykk
10-11-2008, 01:19 PM
hey are you gonna sell any parts off the v6?
Selling the V6 whole,including headers
sharpshooter
10-11-2008, 01:37 PM
Sounds awesome, what did the 350 originally come out of?
04SilveradoMykk
10-11-2008, 07:53 PM
Sounds awesome, what did the 350 originally come out of?
I don't know what it cam out of originally, the casting numbers were '86-'95 4 bolt main, roller cam block.
A machine shop already rebuilt it once, and bored it .030". Than the previous owner had it in a 80's TBI 1 ton with a dump bed, he pulled the TBI off and ran it carbed. He had either fuel delivery issues or ran the jets way lean and detonotated the hell out of the motor.
i have a question? how are you fueling the motor with the cam,and not having any issues with detonation or any issues with fuel period?
my stock motor with LTs, man some days are better than others.
the poppet fuel injectors are not the best as we all know.
some say the fuel system can handle 400hp "poppet fuel system"
which i call BS, mine is stock and it can barley handle what its got?
04SilveradoMykk
11-02-2008, 01:11 AM
i have a question? how are you fueling the motor with the cam,and not having any issues with detonation or any issues with fuel period?
my stock motor with LTs, man some days are better than others.
the poppet fuel injectors are not the best as we all know.
some say the fuel system can handle 400hp "poppet fuel system"
which i call BS, mine is stock and it can barley handle what its got?
I'm not completely understanding your question.
I am using the trucks factory fuel system, the GPH & PSI are plenty for my SBC.
I'm not using the "poppets" I am using the upgraded injector spider with the multec injectors at the cylinders. Granted they are still only 19lb/hr injectors and can not be changed out for a higher flow rate injector.
mred
11-02-2008, 01:22 AM
I'm not completely understanding your question.
I am using the trucks factory fuel system, the GPH & PSI are plenty for my SBC.
I'm not using the "poppets" I am using the upgraded injector spider with the multec injectors at the cylinders. Granted they are still only 19lb/hr injectors and can not be changed out for a higher flow rate injector.
i guess im a idiot,
the stock fuel system.
on the L31 motors.
how does it manage to handle ALL mods that you have?
at the same time, manage to fuel the motor?
my L31 is STOCK, i have long tube headers,and my truck detonates frequently.
i could not imagine what kind of problems i would have if i was to do some mods and n2o.
GMCtrk
11-04-2008, 08:59 PM
Awesome Mykk! How is the torque on that SBC?
cttandy
11-04-2008, 09:25 PM
I like everything about your build, well the verdict is still out on the exhaust exiting through the body. I like the exhaust not hanging down, don't like the hole in the body, like the way it looks, don't like the hole in the body. Engine sounds sweet, looks like it makes good power down low. The truck is sharp. Looks strong and beefy.
04SilveradoMykk
11-11-2008, 06:06 PM
Another hurdle cleared. Due to the different PCMs and the features between the two I had to revamp the starter relay. but the good news is I no longer need to open the hood to start the truck via the push button wired directly on the starter solenoid and best of all I've got my remote start back
Another feature lost with the PCM swap was the oil pressure gauge ( which always has me nervous while driving and looking down at no oil pressure reading) I decided to go with an old school approach. Mechanical gauges
yes I know... the triple gauge panel is a little "backyard mullet machine". But look at it this way, not only will I get my oil pressure gauge back but I will no longer need the "lieing" GM coolant temp gauge that is programmed to not read over 210 untill it hits 240. I figured I could pull the needles on the existing gauges and black them out.
04SilveradoMykk
11-19-2008, 09:03 AM
Today I had the valve covers off to inspect the rockers after 500+ miles of daily driving. Everything looked great, was still nice & clean. No debris or metal shavings.
I decided to make a short little vid to show just how fast rockers operate while running
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L7Q5_upgAI
Remember, in the time it takes one rocker arm to close and than open again three more strokes & 1.5 more revolutions of the crank have occured
Cheers ~Mykk
Raz Sonoma
11-20-2008, 08:12 PM
traditional sbc in a new truck im a big fan
AV8R27
02-09-2009, 11:46 PM
Was really curious to see an update of this project. Also, tried to check out the videos you had up of "in progress" tuning, etc...all vids have been removed by you (so it says)...anything new for those of us interested? Thanks!!
04SilveradoMykk
02-17-2009, 08:01 AM
Was really curious to see an update of this project. Also, tried to check out the videos you had up of "in progress" tuning, etc...all vids have been removed by you (so it says)...anything new for those of us interested? Thanks!!
It lost weight with a bigger engine?! Well, I did take off the snugtop bed cover but that doesn't explain exactly 300lbs less
lsx10
02-24-2009, 05:53 PM
when I first opened this all I could think was WTF? but its pretty cool, and very well done, sweet truck man!
I have no idea about the weight, makes no sence to me either.
dkota1968
02-24-2009, 10:13 PM
I like the old school meets new, you always see just the opposite. If i could id drop in a BBC haha. Big props to you for get n it all swapped. I love that old school sound too!
s10_onbagz
02-26-2009, 12:55 AM
It seems like you spent a whole bunch of money and way too much time to swap in a motor that isn't even looking to be as quick as a 5.3L. brownie points for being unique, but unless it performs it wasn't even worth your time. swap a 5.3 or 6.0L in that truck and call it a day.
cttandy
02-26-2009, 01:03 AM
It seems like you spent a whole bunch of money and way too much time to swap in a motor that isn't even looking to be as quick as a 5.3L. brownie points for being unique, but unless it performs it wasn't even worth your time. swap a 5.3 or 6.0L in that truck and call it a day.
I am really hoping that was a sad attempt at a joke!
The low and mid range torque of this motor should well exceed a stock 5.3L.
Mad props to yeh, Love the new setup. Looks clean, sounds strong. Wierd about the weight. Would have been interesting to weigh the motors to see a weight comparison between them directly.