so not sure what to do now, lots of issues running through my head. Guess I will start with what I know for sure, the 454 is going in the burban, the 4L80E is goin in, electric fuel pump is goin in. Now some issues, the headers might not fit, the fuel pressure regulator I got might not be what I really need, not sure the NP208 is gonna bolt up to the tranny, the plug wires I got are already cut to length, and I wont have enough left over to do the lift.
So let me rant about the plg wires!!! *&^%$ m)(*&^%ucker why in the **** would accel make plug wires that are universal and not put the distributor boots on, but pre cut the dam wires? I am so pissed about this, I wanted to custom fit my wires to the exact correct lenght for how I want to route them, it may work out fine but WTF. They are different lengths and some look really short to me and they pre stripped them too, so if they did all that to them why not just put the boots on and call it good..........Just not what I was expecting to get when I opened the box, I figured they would all be fairly long so you can cut them shorter to fit just right, not screw around trying to find a lenght that is gonna be close and screw with that. Just burns my ass........
now for the heders, they didnt offer them for a GEN V block for my year, so I picked the ones for an 88 thinking the frame and stuf is not that different....I may be very wrong un fortunatly wont find out until I stick the 454 in.
the fuel pump say to mount it below the tank.....well pretty much impossible in a suburban since the tank is below the frame for the most part so not sure how well it's gonna work? The regulator I got is a bypass return style so I guess if it get over 4-7 PSI it send the extra back tot the tank. So there are two line going to the mechanical pump on the small block a 3/8 (the supply line) and a 1/4 (prolly the vent line, I am thinking I can just hook the return to the 1/4" line, guess I will try that and see how it works. Has anybody else hooked up an electric pum that can give advise? (a no I cant keep the mechanical pump cause the GEN V block is not machined for one so have to go electric)
Also decided to do the swap at my buddies house so I can use his garage in case it rains, plus he has air tools! Any way he is tryin to talk me into taking the front core support out to make it easy to stab the engine with the tranny hooked up and prolly the t-case. dont have a tranny jack and the the 4L80E is about 2 inches longer than the TH400 and maybe another 80-100 Lbs heavier? so sounds like a good idea right, hook all the powertrain together and stab it all at once with the front off so easy access and dont have to lift very high. The plus side of this it lets me check the t-case fit before I am under the truck, so could swap the TH400 on easy at that point if I need to.
Last thing the lift. Do I really want to lift it? I will never wheel it hard or rock climb it or go through deep mud, sand it's man purpose is daily driver and to pull the camper so is a lift really needed......I could just trim the fenders a little bit and keep runnin the 33's without doing anything, then spend the 1000 bucks to put all new bushings and ball joints and tie rods and brake lines and u-joints in it then get it alligned........................but I really want the lift, it just looks so good, and I already got a set of 37's waitin to be put on.
Like I said a lot to stew on, oh and I got to get a tranny cooler and was thinkin a remote filter at the same time, and since I am doing the overhead console and got to pull the compass/clock/temp display out of it since I dont have all the sensors and crap I was thinking of getting a doulbe or tripple gauge cluster to put in there. So what ya think..tranny temp, oil temp or tranny temp and two other gauges (and which ones?)
Ok sorry for the long post and thanks for any input or ideas.
I cannot stress this enough, some people will listen to me and others will argue with me but i am telling you from years of experience building engines.
thats gonna be fun to try and fix, hope it goes well but if not and I got to pull the heads to take to machine shop I guess I will rebuild it. Anywaya couple pics of it.
