Vortec350ss

iTrader: (20)

Thats right. Even still just being a tad looser should help a lot! I'm excited to see how much you can get out of this!

vettelovralexand

The goal was to get something just slightly more aggressive but that I would let my grandma drive without having to explain anything.

vettelovralexand

Had 2 setbacks tonight. First, the water pump neck where it presses into the pump housing leaked as soon as I got a few gallons in the system. I pinched the upper hose and pulled it off, and used vice grips to yank out the neck. I scuffed the lower portion, dried it and the pump off as good as possible and put it back in with JB weld as a sealant. Once I let that set some, I put the idler back on and routed the belt again only to notice that the belt hits the thermostat housing at the innermost rib. Luckily the tensioner will rotate and so now I have my fingers crossed that the slightly shorter belt I ordered will be short enough. If not, I may be stuck using a 6 rib belt for a few days on the middle grooves until I get a shorter 8 rib belt. Either way, I could have fired it tonight, but thought better of it for my neighbor's sake.

Vortec350ss

iTrader: (20)

What made you go with this water pump? Fear of shearing off a stock style pulley set up?

vettelovralexand

That was it. I can only blame the bolts on the back on them though. The leak is no doubt from having to spin the outlet and the belt contact is from the slight change in position from the new era lsa tensioner bracket. It definitely would have been easier if they made one that was actually the right outlet, but it's obvious they only make the old truck style with the long outlet(what I have) and the car style with the front exit.

vettelovralexand

Alright, the moment of truth was today. I connected everything up, turned the key on and...fuel leak on cylinder 4 injector to the rail! Took 10 or 15 minutes to clean it up and replace the o-ring that I apparently pinched and then fired it up. Fired off on the second crank (seems like the tune is a bit off at idle right now) but ran and let it get up to temp. Backed it out, checked all the fluids and then drove it to get gas and back to take a quick log file.

I gave it literally less than 40% throttle according to the log file the whole time and it never even got off of vacuum, so I don't really know what to say yet other than that I can hear it whine now and the idle isn't as choppy as I expected. Either way, I am thrilled to have this thing finally running again. I'll keep everyone posted as I drive it more and finally give it some throttle.

Vortec350ss

iTrader: (20)

Excellent! Great work. It will run very strong with that last 60%

vettelovralexand

Vortec350ss

iTrader: (20)

sounds good! You must be thrilled its finally good to go!

Vortec350ss

iTrader: (20)

Have you made any progress? Any joy rides?