The Z71's motor came back from the machine shop and is going together nicely. I had the block honed to clean things up and installed fresh pistons. They are stock HO 5.3L pistons with flat tops. It was a cost effective way to rebuild the motor and raise compression at the same time. We also decided to paint the motor while it was apart just to give it some bling factor since it won't have the HP it used to with the turbo.

Here is the block with polished timing cover


upsidedown block with painted oilpan


Block with GTP Stage2+ heads


Plans are to polish little things here and there and try to make it look nice. This is a first for me since I am usually all about ugly HP machines. LOL

So for right now my parts list looks like this:

5.3L block w/HO 5.3L flat top pistons
GTP Stage2+ heads 307cfm intake w/.650 lift double springs
Synergy Motorsports cam 226/.590/116
4L80E & HD T-case conversion
PI 3-plate 3000 stall
43lb injectors
255lph inline pump
Synergy custom dual exhaust
AS&M LTs
Home made intake system

 

Looking good!

I have a chrome Timing Cover here if you are interested.....Easier to maintain than the polished

 

Looking good man. You must be really excited. You are basically getting two new trucks with tons of performance parts on each

 

lookin clean. has he started on the 80e swap yet? ETA on the entire thing?

 

So which truck it the project truck and which one is the beater?

 

Damn you Brian! I wish i had known that before Rick polished this one. I;d feel bad swapping it out now so I'll just keep the polished one. Thanks for the offer though bro.

Green, Yeah it is really sweet but I'm only gonna be able to do this once. It's gonn abe a long time before I can play like this again so I want to take advantage of it. Kinda like a Coke addict snorting all he can before they **** him off to rehab. Hahahaha

Carlos, I don't think he has done the trans yet. The parts are sitting there though. That 80E is huge! I'm thinking maybe another 2-3weeks before everything is finished. The motor will be ready to slide in by Wed I think but then the fab works starts. He also had to build a new exhaust system since we hacked mine up pretty good. He is all giddy with his new welder and wants to build a custom true dual exhaust now.

GoldenShowers, I'm seriously confused as to which is which now. I can't call either abeater so maybe I'll have to go by a 81' Civic so I can truely have a beater.

 

nice Im really interested in seeing what it puts down with those heads and big cam. Its rare to see a nice NA build like that.

How much did those flat tops add to compression?

 

that thing is ganna be a beast!!

 

Ya but knowing you your 81's Civic would and a 10,000 watt stereo.

 

I think it's supposed to bring it up about .5 of a point so that would put me at 10:1 before the heads. Now the complicated part is figuing out CR after the heads. I lost the fax sheet that had my heads cc's so I can't calculate it right. I do know that on a 5.7L LS1 they would raise the CR to 11.4:1. So since the 5.3L has a smaller bore I would end up with less CR than I would on the LS1.. wait, umm ouch! I just thunk myself into a vortex. Someone help me figure it out.