2 stupid questions, belts and tbi

[az_762_nato]

first off, anyone have a belt routing diagram for a 76 with a 350, I was drunk as all hell when I pulled my junk apart, and amazingly, the only thing I forgot was the belt routing. I have p/s and a/c, top mounted passenger side alternator.

Second question, neighbor rolled their 1998 Denali with vortec 5.7 TBI. it has the 747 ecm, can I use its tbi parts and harness? I wont be pulling the tranny or engine, but everything else I have open game to. I do plan on getting a chip burned so I dont have problems with my lack of egr and cats and crap.

 

[sweetk30]

1998 is full vortec efi not tbi system.

check to be sure its what you think it is first.

 

[az_762_nato]

hmm, coulda swore this thing was both a 1998 and a regular tbi. If not, can I use its efi setup in my k5?

 

[Jason4x4]

get the engine and all, swap whole thing, life easier.

1995 last year of TBI.

 

[az_762_nato]

OK, it definitely aint tbi got the belts back on too, all it took was to stop drinking for a little bit!

 

[4X4HIGH]

96 and later is OBD2 and it will not have the 7747 ECM. OBD2 does not have a removeable chip.

 

[pauly383]

The whole Vortec 350 swap is worthwhile . My 99 Suburban ( 88-98 body style ) pulled every hill with a truck in tow to Moab just fine .

 

[az_762_nato]

is there a parts list somewhere for what I would need to pull for the vortec swap?

 

[pauly383]

Pull it all , the whole nine yards , motor , trans , every harness , tank with pump , and the lines . .

You can swap the dash and gauges too if you feel like a little fabbing

 

[79rustyk10]

I have considered the 96-99 vortec 350 swap, still not sure about it, as putting intake gaskets in every 2 years kinda turns me off. and the fact that all of my friends who have these trucks, have all kinds of problems with them. however the truck at work is great its a 99 1ton with the 350. Im sure this would be a farily affordable swap now with the trucks getting older and the popularity of the LS series engines.

 

[pauly383]

Fel Pro makes a repair kit with gaskets that should last longer . I don't know why lots of people have problems with these trucks , replace the plugs and wires once in awhile , and change the oil and she runs like a top .

 

[79rustyk10]

Ive never had one myself, Im sure a big part is that most ive seen have been beaten mercilessly and neglected.

 

[dyeager535]

It does seem like there are some problems with the injection system itself. Why GM went with a poppet valve setup I'm not sure of, but it seems they and the "spider" are somewhat problem prone.

Probably no more so than anything else mechanical or electrical, but there would seem to be a better way of doing it, especially instead of adding parts, that CAN fail in the first place. Note that nothing uses that system anymore that I'm aware of, so it obviously wasn't the greatest out there. Better than TBI? Likely, although probably not MUCH better in regards to performance.

Personally I'd take the Vortec head (or at least the design if building without Vortec parts), the block, and go with it and TBI before I went with the entire Vortec setup. I'd say TBI or LSx, not the stop-gap. Give TBI the advantages that Vortecs had (roller cam, better heads) and I bet the "performance gap" between them is negligible. Then include the effort involved in a complete Vortec swap, and any advantages can't be as valuable.