Hi guys, I am attempting to build my first ever forced induction gas motor. I spent most of my life hooked on diesel and 4x4 and have been pretty ignorant otherwise. Anyhow, I stumbled on to the Sloppy Mechanics youtube page about 6 months ago and its been downhill since. Lol. I know Denmah hears this all the time but I would be even more confused with all this than I am now if it wasn't for all the great information he has posted over the years.

I'm here for some general advise, motivation, and also a nice place to document where I am at with this thing haha.

After wrapping my mind around what a spark plug is I decided to make this first project as easy as possible on both my wallet and my mind. I picked up an 88' C1500 step-side shortbox 2wd. 181,000 on the ticker. Figured that would be the easiest platform to stuff an ls motor in.....and it was cheap!









Has a burned up 700r4 and a 5.7.



I already have the motor and transmission pulled. Here's where I'm looking for some advice. This is going to be a toy, something to raise hell with and do awesome burnouts with, but would still like to cruise the streets on occasion.

Parts already acquired

2001 Tahoe 5.3 DBC with factory ECM and Wire harness

-Denmah VS racing Turbo Kit
-Pac 1218 valve springs
-Deka 80lb Injectors
-Going crazy and stuffing a
-Dirty Dingo LS swap mounts
-One Walbro 400 seems like I should be putting 2 in the stock tank since it was factory EFi?
-Universal 2.0" exhaust tubing kit to fab the hotside
-AEM Wideband
-IAT Sensor from 2001 S-10 V-6

Things I am having a hard time with

-I think the easiest/cost effective way to get a transmission to hold any power is a TH400? I had hopes of building the 700R4 but it seems like that's a lost cause? Would like a 4l80E but they are hard to find in my neck of the woods.

-At this piont I am leaning towards an MS3 Gold box, I guess the only reason is because tuning info seems to be readily available and HPTuners just doesn't seem as simple. I am struggling with the fact that I have a 411 PCM and wire harness that came with the motor so I feel guilty about not using it haha. Any pointers or words of wisdom on this?

Right now my biggest hurdle is which way to go on the engine managment system. My goal is to get this thing going to sway a few buddies to build a couple. It seems in the long run figuring out HPtuners would be the way to go as once you get over the initial cost of the software, it would be cheaper to tune multiple vehicle with?

I can't wait to fry the tires off this thing!!!

 

Finally found some time this weekend and made a little progress. I had already installed the valvesprings and trickflow cam, so it was time to throw the motor in.

I used dirty dingo mounts, and the thing basically fell into place.


I order a FTI reverse manual valve body TH400 from summit, along with a hughes performance TC 3200 RPM stall


Going in

Then jumped right on to building the Hotside.




I'm just leaving everything tacked together at this point. I want to mock up the intercooler piping and make sure everything fits before welding it together. I dropped the fuel tank last night and need to install my Walbro 400. Also, the powersteering lines bolted right in place, but they are also in the way of my turbo so i need to move them.

What are you guys doing with the coolant ports that run through the throttle body? Just blocking them off or drilling and tapping the water pump to circulate?

Also, I'm not sure what to do for the vaccum source for the power brakes? Obviously the line is there from the intake, but if I just hook that up will that turn into a giant boost leak when under boost?

On the transmission end of things, I have everything bolted up, but there is a reference line that i think is for line pressure. Can I just block this off or does it need to be vaccume referenced with a check valve to prevent positive pressure?

 

Personally, if you want to use it for more than a strip bruiser, Id have gone with the 4L80E. Youre gonna need to put a better rear end in it to-it will last about one burnout. Also, IMO, the 411 is the most advanced and versatile ECM out there. Plenty of people to tune it if you cant. But EFI live is fairly easy to learn-and you already have one.

 

Yes, the 4l80E would have been ideal but they are very expensive around here. I have a little over $1500 in the brand new th400, torque converter, and ratchet shifter. Also I decided to go with the MS3 box and save the 411 pcm for my next build. I have a 14 bolt laying around that I'll swap in once the rear end lets go.

 

Man i love these trucks, good luck on the build and cant wait to see how it turns out, ima keep updated on this

 

Been working on this thing after work and on the weekends.

Made some mounts to hold the radiator in


Drilled and tapped the oil pan for the turbo drain. I had a braided stainless line that came in the vsracing kit but it was to short. So i just made it out of hydraulic hose and fittings.

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My old man is a welder by trade, so he welded up the hotside for me and then we figured out where to put the wastegates.





Then I moved on to the intercooler



Getting closer! wiring in the gold box, fuel pump, and fans

 

So I finally got everything together close enough to where I could start the darn thing. I quickly realized I am in way over my head with the megasquirt lol. So i printed the manual off and have been scouring it trying to decipher what i need to change.

Basically the thing is running way rich at idle. Like 10.1:1 AFR. Plugs are blacker than hell lol. Anyway, was reading up on Tuning the VE table and ensuring all my settings were correct and decided to work on leaning the idle out. As luck would have it, my brand new AEM wideband that worked fine the first time I started it no longer lights ups. Verified power and grounds are good, just simply will not turn on or send info to the MS3 box.

So it runs (kinda) and moves, just need to work on the tune (ALOT). I am getting really anxious to drive this thing and it kills me I can't because I need to learn to tune!

 

Ok, spent a bunch more time on this thing over the weekend. Wired the alternator up and got it to charge, wired in the electric fans and they work properly.

The problem i'm having now is it still runs extremely rich. I had built a set of MSD wires in custom length to go around the truck manifolds and was worried that I had one that was not getting spark so I pulled all the plugs and sure enough # six was clean and wet with fuel. About this time it was starting to smoke out of the exhaust. I verified the coil was working and did a compression test. 160 #'s. So near as I can tell the injector is hung open and causing my my rich reading on the AFR gauge and making everything haywire.

Didn't have time to swap the injector with another hole to see if it follows the injector, but I want to be able to do some tuning on it this weekend so I went ahead and ordered another injector anyway. Must have gotten some junk in it at some point.

 

very cool project. it will definitely make for a fun ride once you get it all sorted.

 

What size is your oil drain line? It seems a little small in the pics.