1994Vmax

iTrader: (4)

Yep I would. Pull a few GMPP crate engines down and measure them.... might surprise you. I have and was less than impressed..... especially after the machine work to repair them.

No I wouldn't buy a crate engine and pull it apart though..... just wouldn't buy a crate engine period. I like the build from scratch and know what I have method. An oem junkyard runner that made it a few miles is probably a much better bet to run as is..... you know it made it "X" amount of time so far so that theme likely will continue.

That said it's not like it costs any money to take it apart and check.... unless you have no business in an engine and can't put it back together correctly lol.

The last "low mileage" 6 liter I got was a decent sounding runner.... checked it over and pulled the pan.... was nice and clean inside. Once I got the heads off though..... needed to be honed.... pistons were still round but were scuffing pretty bad.. bores were out of round a bit....... crank journals were bad enough to need to be turned .010" and 4 of the rods were out of round bad enough they would not clean up with a 2 thou overbore...... But hey... it ran good in the truck lol. Wouldn't surprise me if that one lost a cam lobe earlier in life and was "dealer repaired" lol.

jbaum02

That scares me a little.

With as busy as I've gotten lately I'm not in a big hurry to make the swap as long as the oil pressure on the current 5.3 doesn't give me major problems. It's be acting better this week for some reason.

I've slowly been researching checking out the bottom end. I see what you mean about not costing anything as it appears all the rod and main bolts are reusable. Do you have any links to good how-tos on the tear down and reassembly process?

I've picked up the injector adapters off eBay so that I can use the TBSS injectors. I noticed that the intake manifold I picked up used has some cracks so I ordered a new one. Kind of sucks. I should have looked it over closer, but was in a hurry that day. I guess getting the throttle body, fuel rails, injectors, and evap solenoid for what I paid still isn't too bad of a deal. I've also been talking with Blackbear about getting a tune for the new engine. That will probably be my next order.

I'm still lost on the cam selection. I think I want to keep a pretty smooth idle, but don't want to regret going too small either. I've just never been in a truck with a cam and so I don't have anything to base my selection on.

Wolftrk99

iTrader: (5)

http://www.pleasurecraft.com/manuals/L510016.pdf

Try that, step by step gm instructions!!!!

jbaum02

That has it all! Thanks!

madmann26

iTrader: (7)

Are we overthinking this?

I just did the same swap in Sept 2015 and all I did was have the mechanic move over all the tinware, intake, etc and drop the new motor in.

That's it. You don't need to mess with swapping PCM's or VINs or anything of the sort.

It really is that easy.

Wolftrk99

iTrader: (5)

It is madmann until you add a cam and injectors and possibly a tb to the mix then a tune is more than likely required....

jbaum02

Well, I'm still making slow progress on my swap. In the last few months I've picked up an AutoCal tune from Blackbear, I had a cam spec'd by Pat G and just got that in along with the gaskets, bolts, and a Trick Flow timing chain dampener bracket with the LS2 style dampener. I'm going to be doing the cam swap while the engine is on the stand.

Here's a pic of where I'm starting with the engine.


I ordered the cam through Cam Motion and right now I have the following:
Custom grind camshaft
Front timing cover gasket
Front cover seal
Water pump gaskets
ARP crank bolt
ARP cam gear bolts

One question I have is that the gaskets and seal I got from Cam Motion are not GM gaskets. They have a Cam Motion sticker and part number. The water pump gaskets are stamped Victor Reinz, but I don't see stamps on the other gasket or seal. When I ordered everything on the phone I gave GM part numbers to the sales rep so I was thinking they would be GM parts. Are these gaskets good to go or should I pick up GM ones if the quality is better?

jbaum02

A little more progress. Pulled the wiring harness and front accessories off.

I noticed some dirty areas so I spent a little time cleaning before I opened anything up. I'm not sure if this is just road grime or if a gasket is weeping a little.

Here some before pics:








Here's after I got it cleaned up a little:









Pulled the spark plugs out to see how they looked.
Passenger side, front plug is on the left side:



Driver side, front plug is on the right side:



Used the Chrysler Harmonic Balancer Pulley from Autozone's rent a tool program and got the crank pulley off:




Stopped there for the weekend. I've got a PI split beam torque wrench ordered for re-installing the crank bolt. Hopefully that shows up this week and I can get the cam in next weekend.

FFDP

iTrader: (2)

My impact gun with a few blaps makes short work of crank bolts lol.

Torque specs..........pffft lol.

jbaum02

Thinking about the cam swap a little and how to hold the lifters up with the heads on. I've read about the pen magnets and using 5/16" rods, but I started thinking with the engine out of the truck and on the stand couldn't I just flip the engine upside down? That way gravity would be holding them up and there wouldn't be any chance they could fall. Thoughts or are there other issues I'm not thinking of with the engine upside down?

Also, does anyone have any tips for alignment of the oil pan while the engine is on the stand and not bolted to the transmission. I read that the alignment is important so I had been planning to just not touch it, but I'm thinking that I should go ahead and replace the timining chain and maybe the oil pump while I'm in there.