Sorry guys, im totally noob here so bear with me please.

I acquired an engine from a 99 Tahoe, im told its a 5.7 but i thought they only had 5.3... I dont even know how to tell the difference.

At any rate... my question is what I can do with this engine... I want to do some work to it before putting it in but I do not want a crazy *** project car, i dont want to run a standalone or nothing... I am not sure how much HP the stock MAF and ECU and fuel injection system can support... and I am also not sure what parts are compatable with this engine... for example if i wanted to do a cam or roller rockers or what... or what the hell should I even do with it? I have built plenty of import engines but I have never built an engine like this and I know very little about it... I have yet to see a pushrod with my own eyes!

All it comes down to is the engine needs a rebuild i dont know why yet but it has no compression in 1 cylinder... i am hoping its just a toast piston or something... kinda wierd tho its out of a daily driver stock tahoe im not sure what happened to it yet... but either way im swapping it into my S10... I am not looking to build a dragster just something decent, low 14s or high 13's would be more than enough for my S10.

Thanks in advance.

 

the 99 Hoe's came with the 5.7. We do make a supercharger system for the 5.7 if you are interested. Check with the Sponsors on the right-------------->

 

yea i did verify that it is a 5.7L...

I was looking up some specs and it looks like this motor is pretty dang weak...

I appreciate letting me know about your supercharger kit however I am not looking to get that kinda crazy with this project... i already have 2 fast cars and this is just my winter truck... i would like it to be decently quick... from what I am seeing these things make for power tho I bet I would be lucky to run a high 14 with this swap.

being that its a chevy 350, there has got to be a million parts for this thing to get some pretty wicked NA power?

Can anyone tell me if I can treat this vortech engine like any other chevy 350? Like when I am looking at pistons, rockers, push rods, etc that say they are for a chevy 350... does that include my 350?

 

(I responded to yuor PM with this but added a few more thing here. I think everyone should get to read it...)

The Vortec 350 (aka L31) is mostly a plain old Small Block Chevy, but there are exceptions. It is a 1-piece rear seal factory roller cam block. This is important to know when purchasing a crank or a cam.
These motors have iron Vortec heads. In stock form they flow extremely well but only tollerate low lift. Many places will re-work Vortec heads with seals to allow more lift, larger valves, and stronger springs. (Stock springs start floating valves at 5000) The factory rocker studs are just pressed in and will pull out with too much spring or RPM, so threading those holes and putting in aftermarket screw-in studs is popular. Re-worked Vortec heads are better than just about anything in the after market for the price. These heads are set up for self-aligning narrow-body rockers. It's possible to install guide plates and use hardened pushrods with them, but there is a difference between self-aligning and guide-plate rockers at the tip where they contact the valve stem, so make sure everything matches. 1.6:1 Rockers can be used on Vortec heads but the insides of the pushrod holes must be clearanced for the pushrods that end up closer to the rocker studs. Stock pushrods are 7.195" long, this dimension will change with even the slightest modification of the heads, so get an adjustable pushrod and get your contact pattern right before ordering replacements.
When you get head gaskets for these you have to get ones compatible with Vortec heads. Reason being the combustion chambers are larger than the bore. Cometic makes some - I use them on mine. Conventional SBC fasteners can be used throughout most of everything, including heads, caps, flexplate, crank, etc.
The stock crank and bottom end is just as capable as the stuff in Gen-III motors. SBC have more headbolts too - they will take more power than a Gen-III motor without lifting the heads. The crank, rods, pistons, everything in the Tahoe's bottom end is 100% stock and I drive it hard every day. It will take the power, but not RPM. If you want to to be getting more than 5500 out of it better go for a forged steel crank. Any bottom end kit will work as long as it is a for a 1-piece rear main seal block, unfortunately most of the cool stuff is for the older two-piece seals. Not much to pick from for a 1-piece seal stroker kit either.
The fuel system is a pain in the ***. The injectors are proprietary. The easiest thing for you to do with that would be to throw a Vortec-pattern intake manifold onto it with a carb. Of course there are EFI manifold kits available too. (Ignore Edelbrock for this application!) There are two intake manifold types - standard SBC which is held down by 12 bolts at an angle and Vortec which has 8 low-torque bolts straight up and down. The intake port patterns are also different, so stick with Vortec stuff.
It will take any SBC or BBC distributor, but if you are going to use the factory PCM you'll need to stay with the factory dist with the sensor in it. Check the gear over - they notoriously wear out.
Depending on what you do with fuel and PCM, you might have to keep the stock timing cover if you want that stuff to stay factory. The stock cover has a CPS in it. There is a reluctor wheel on the crank which will prevent you from using aftermarket double-roller timing sets if you go that route. If you ditch the factory PCM and injection youo can use an aftermarket roller cam timing set and aftermarket cover.
I'm not sure what you'll do for an upper radiator hose, but the stock thermostat housing might actually help since it routes to hose rearward. I figure in an S-10 clearance up front is going to be tight anyway. If you do decide to gt an aftermarket housing to give you more option in hose routing you will find they all have o-rings. Vortec housing needs to be flat metal on the bottom. The easiest way to adapt aftermarket housings to the Vortec manifold is to fab up a spacer. Stock t-stat gromet seals the bottom, aftermarket housing o-ring seals top.
Headers will be conventional SBC. The Vortec 350 does have an EGR bung in the rear of the drive-side manifold. For your purpose I think you should ditch EGR. Being a 99 it may also have A.I.R. injection. If it has small pipes going into the fronts of the exh manifolds, that's it. Get rid of it. The AIR system is completely external.
Good luck with this. The Vortec 350 has a bad rap because of its injection setup. Underneath all that it is really a solid capable motor.

 

If I can run 13s with a 100% stock bottom-ended L31 with stock injection in a 6000-pound SUV, YOU can do MUCH better in an S10.

 

thanks man i appreciate your time!

would you have any recommendations for what I should do with the thing? I was thinking of just getting some halfway decent pistons and rods and a cam, maybe pushrods or rockers or whatever else i need... this is my first domestic build so i dont know what to plan on getting... what would it take to get a decent 350rwhp out of this engine? i dont know if that is a lot to ask or what... i mean i just had a C6 with LS2 on my dyno a few hours ago and it was laying down 355rwhp stock... and isnt that a 6.0? Apparently the massive displacement doesnt exactly mean massive HP with these engines? Surely that LS2 engine has gotta be 20x the engine this old Vortech motor is? Maybe not, but I definatly dont want to learn all the trivia, I would just like to know what I can expect out of this engine with what mods...

I see everyone recommends FLP for trans work... they are seriously like 20 min from me so that makes my life easier.... so I just need to pick up some parts and get this thing to the machine shop.

thanks again man... words from someone with experience mean a lot more.