You painted the motor nice and black and left the janky water pump?
If you just want a factory big block for simplicity and cool factor, then 8.1 is an awesome choice as in factory trim its rated higher than any other factory BBC, plus it has a pretty cool factor with it too. ]



Funny you guys reference the L29 as that is the exact motor I picked up and is now in that green crew posted above. I decided to ditch the factory fuel injection and put a carb intake with an HEI distributor. I'm planning on running aftermarket EFI (either FItech or Summit racing brand, haven't decided yet). I mainly did that because I want to get this setup so when I do a top end kit on it, I don't have to change anything except heads and cam and that's it. So I'm gonna get it running like this first.
My big thing about the factory vortec 454 injection is you'd probably need to upgrade the factory fuel injectors to something that can handle more fuel, and those things are freaking expensive (I remember paying for factory replacement ones on my old 96 K2500 with the L29, and at the time I looked at upgrading and the price was crazy high...I was pissed at how much factory replacements cost). So that made it an easier choice for me to do carb intake with aftermarket injection...plus, I want this to be as simple as possible with wiring...minimal wiring really, so I didn't care to have a factory L29 wiring harness re-worked like I id on the 8.1 swap.
Again, I'll agree totally with beags86 that if you wanna build it at all, go 454 (of any generation really, L29's have some nice advantages to start with like factory roller cam, and better oiling, but really any 454 will do) since the aftermarket is huge which means it's affordable to make big power. If you just want a factory big block for simplicity and cool factor, then 8.1 is an awesome choice as in factory trim its rated higher than any other factory BBC, plus it has a pretty cool factor with it too. Just pick your poison really
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Got the hard parts. That could be fun. Who's manifold is it?
X2.Personally I had a hard time spending over $1k with Howell for harness work and a reworked PCM that would still need an additional investment for tuning later. I thought about going FiTech since I have plenty of experience with it but it’s hard to beat the sequential EFI option that comes with the manifold and distributor for $2k.
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You painted the motor nice and black and left the janky water pump?
Really ? more power the an L-71? LS6, or LS5?
Just busting your balls. I know you were referring to the truck stuff.
Personally I had a hard time spending over $1k with Howell for harness work and a reworked PCM that would still need an additional investment for tuning later. I thought about going FiTech since I have plenty of experience with it but it’s hard to beat the sequential EFI option that comes with the manifold and distributor for $2k.
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Can't you use ls1 injectors for an upgrade?My big thing about the factory vortec 454 injection is you'd probably need to upgrade the factory fuel injectors to something that can handle more fuel, and those things are freaking expensive (I remember paying for factory replacement ones on my old 96 K2500 with the L29, and at the time I looked at upgrading and the price was crazy high...I was pissed at how much factory replacements cost). So that made it an easier choice for me to do carb intake with aftermarket injection...plus, I want this to be as simple as possible with wiring...minimal wiring really, so I didn't care to have a factory L29 wiring harness re-worked like I id on the 8.1 swap.
Can't you use ls1 injectors for an upgrade?
It seems to me that the ls1/ls2/ls6 injectors are all higher fuel rates.
I have been doing some digging and I haven't verified it yet. I found a l29 for my k30 but I want to know before I buy it. Now granted it doesn't matter as its still a l29 I should grab regardless , but it would nice to know.It was a long time ago I did the research on that, but I seem to remember reading that the Vortec 454 injectors are they're own breed. And really you only have two options which are factory replacements (which aren't cheap by themselves) or IIRC Bosch made upgraded injectors that could handle more power, but I remember when I priced them out, I almost had a heart attack looking at the price of them.
Again, it was a long time ago that I did that research, so maybe things have changed since then, or maybe I missed if you could use LS1 injectors, but my memory is telling me it was a no. In the case of that L29 I put in that green crew, I wanted to go carb intake/HEI distributor the whole time for simplicity and least amount of wires as possible, so it was a really easy choice on that one.
I actually was just curious so googled, and it looks like the price has come down a bit for these:
https://www.fiveomotorsport.com/bosch-oem-454-j-code-884-black-knight/
Which makes sense cause that was 7 or 8 years ago I replaced those injectors on that old truck I had. Back then for some reason the price of $900 comes to mind, so looks like they've come down quite a bit.
I think the factory L29 intake is actually pretty good (kinda weird design, but flows well enough) and with those upgraded injectors, I bet @beags86 you could get the numbers you were wanting outta building an L29
Used the crew cab to tow the blazer to Idaho Tuff Truck Challenge. Worked great as usual. The thing I’m thinking of changing next on this is the exhaust. I bought really cheap BBC headers when I did the swap cause it fit in the budget at the time, but now it needs addressed. I have the factory manifolds still and am contemplating putting those back on and and redoing the exhaust all the way out the back again. We’ll see what I do
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Good looking setup!
I bet you get a lot of head turning driving down the road.