Last year I attempted -- and failed -- to get to BlazerBash, for the second time running. In short, the towrig's motor seized. Following is the story of that motor snowballing into... well, ten months' worth of fixups 
I knew that bigblocks weren't cheap; if this had been a 350 I'd just go down to my local Chevy dealer and buy a new crate motor for $1500 or so, they have them in stock, done. Such is NOT the case for big blocks, however -- they stock them, sure, but to the tune of three grand and up. See, I always felt that the sixpack was a bit underpowered with the 454 it had, so I was looking lustfully at the various high power versions available through GM. (As it turns out it was a very *tired* 454, but that's the joy of hindsight. I guess 15-20PSI at idle is kinda weak!) Besides the stupid sticker price, however, of the high-torque 502ci flavour, you gotta use high-octane gas in the thing, which is hard to bear when the truck gets such low gas mileage, ya know?
In the interest of getting the truck back on the road cheap, I got a used motor to replace my seized one. As I was re-gasketing it I discovered that it too had issues, and finally decided I'd break down, do it right, and just throw money at a rebuild
I'd been talking to CK5's very own motor guru and actual professional builder, Scott "4X4HIGH", who happens to be local to me. After the second motor debacle and further discussion, I decided to have him do a rebuild. We decided to use the second block, as it was newer and a four-bolt main, with the original heads as they were a freer-flowing casting (333781.) In fact, another member here, Greg72, was having Scott re-do a set of '781 heads with big honking huge valves (that's a highly technical term) and I decided to jump on the bandwagon. The allure of high torque was just too great to pass up
For this motor, Scott designed a set up that will run on regular pump gas, i.e. not the high octane, and has similar horsepower and torque numbers to the GM HT502. And even with the fancy headwork, etc, it still rang in a coupla grand less than GM wanted, which worked out nicely. He says it should crank out 420hp and 568ft-lbs, wheeee!
There were some hiccups, particularly in scheduling. Scott was out for a while with a hand injury, which is kinda rough on machinists
and I tried to cheap out and do some of the work myself, which in retrospect I would heartily NOT recommend. Pay the professional and be done with it! I was very fortunate that Scott was local and was willing on more than one occasion to do housecalls, but he shouldn't have had to
The other problem is what we in the software world call "scope creep." This project snowballed from a seized motor, to also replacing the transmission (the old one was leaky as all get out, and I had this low-mile rebuilt that didn't go into my CUCV), to doing a mild performance build, and while I'm doing that, I should put on headers, and you know that tall air cleaner looks like a good mod, could do dual snorkels on it... oy. The truck languished for months under a tarp in my yard while Scott labored and the Summit tags piled up, but I think in the end it'll be one hell of a towrig.
So, the specs: 454, bored out .060" over, making 468ci. Comp Cams 11-231-3 cam, and their roller rockers. (Note I didn't go full roller on the cam and lifters for budget reasons ... Greg did, so you can check out his thread for the scoop.)
New internals: pistons, oil pump, lifters, pushrods, etc etc. It's kinda surprising how quickly you can spend a grand at Summit on little stuff -- but it's worth it!
Edelbrock Performer 2.0 intake manifold (came with motor #2, along with a Edelbrock Quadrajet which needed a rebuild kit and a little adjustment.)
I discovered that the stock valve covers didn't quite fit over those rockers, so I splurged on a pair of tall GMPP covers 'cuz I like orange [My Chevy dealer, oddly, was 'bout 10% cheaper than Summit and Jegs, even with sales tax. Weird.]
Thorley 303Y headers. I had some fun trying to finagle them into place (maybe I shoulda put them on before dropping the engine in) but once they were held there they fit just fine. I see why so many people say "Don't get cheap headers" -- I didn't have any of the fitment problems I hear so much about, and from the construction I doubt I'll see warpage in this century.
After watching Scott beadblast assorted accessory parts like the intake manifold, I fell in love with 'blasting and got a cabinet of my own. The problem with this is that every dang bracket that came off had to get cleaned blasted and painted, as the old engine had been leaking all over. What had started as a motor swap turned into quite the project. The tranny inspection cover, motor mount shells, accessory brackets, the oilpan, any little piece of metal was de-greased, blasted, and primed and/or painted as appropriate.
I told Scott that when I was done I'd post up some pretty pictures of the thing ... though you really gotta see/hear it to believe it, sounds like a freakin' musclecar and damn near moves like one now =)) I also owe him a blurb:
Though I'm sure all y'all locals know it, any of y'all in the greater San Francisco Bay area who are in need of motor work ... use Scott! This guy knows his stuff. He may be gruff but he's been kind enough to never actually call me an idiot to my face =)), and he does fantastic work. Those of you NOT local, if I catch you disagreeing with him I'm gonna be irked, 'cuz while he may be a bit terse, he knows his sh!t hands down.
So, enough babbling. The pictures:
I set up one of those car cover things (seeing as I had it and hadn't used it in the two years since I bought it =)).
That's a big hole under the hood!
Motor #1, original to the truck, seized.
Motor #2. Bent pushrods and starting to eat bearings and valve seals.
Right, good. Left, not so good =))
Doesn't look like it, but the parts are organized. Sort of.
I had this theory I was going to save a little $$ and assemble the motor myself. I can build computers with my eyes closed, but motors ... aargh. Specialized tools and knowledge are required. :|
After spilling two motors' worth of oil and coolant on my garage floor, the kittylitter was everywhere. I might have been better off working outside in the dust and wind
...more to come...
-- A
I knew that bigblocks weren't cheap; if this had been a 350 I'd just go down to my local Chevy dealer and buy a new crate motor for $1500 or so, they have them in stock, done. Such is NOT the case for big blocks, however -- they stock them, sure, but to the tune of three grand and up. See, I always felt that the sixpack was a bit underpowered with the 454 it had, so I was looking lustfully at the various high power versions available through GM. (As it turns out it was a very *tired* 454, but that's the joy of hindsight. I guess 15-20PSI at idle is kinda weak!) Besides the stupid sticker price, however, of the high-torque 502ci flavour, you gotta use high-octane gas in the thing, which is hard to bear when the truck gets such low gas mileage, ya know?
In the interest of getting the truck back on the road cheap, I got a used motor to replace my seized one. As I was re-gasketing it I discovered that it too had issues, and finally decided I'd break down, do it right, and just throw money at a rebuild
I'd been talking to CK5's very own motor guru and actual professional builder, Scott "4X4HIGH", who happens to be local to me. After the second motor debacle and further discussion, I decided to have him do a rebuild. We decided to use the second block, as it was newer and a four-bolt main, with the original heads as they were a freer-flowing casting (333781.) In fact, another member here, Greg72, was having Scott re-do a set of '781 heads with big honking huge valves (that's a highly technical term) and I decided to jump on the bandwagon. The allure of high torque was just too great to pass up
For this motor, Scott designed a set up that will run on regular pump gas, i.e. not the high octane, and has similar horsepower and torque numbers to the GM HT502. And even with the fancy headwork, etc, it still rang in a coupla grand less than GM wanted, which worked out nicely. He says it should crank out 420hp and 568ft-lbs, wheeee!
There were some hiccups, particularly in scheduling. Scott was out for a while with a hand injury, which is kinda rough on machinists
and I tried to cheap out and do some of the work myself, which in retrospect I would heartily NOT recommend. Pay the professional and be done with it! I was very fortunate that Scott was local and was willing on more than one occasion to do housecalls, but he shouldn't have had to The other problem is what we in the software world call "scope creep." This project snowballed from a seized motor, to also replacing the transmission (the old one was leaky as all get out, and I had this low-mile rebuilt that didn't go into my CUCV), to doing a mild performance build, and while I'm doing that, I should put on headers, and you know that tall air cleaner looks like a good mod, could do dual snorkels on it... oy. The truck languished for months under a tarp in my yard while Scott labored and the Summit tags piled up, but I think in the end it'll be one hell of a towrig.
So, the specs: 454, bored out .060" over, making 468ci. Comp Cams 11-231-3 cam, and their roller rockers. (Note I didn't go full roller on the cam and lifters for budget reasons ... Greg did, so you can check out his thread for the scoop.)
New internals: pistons, oil pump, lifters, pushrods, etc etc. It's kinda surprising how quickly you can spend a grand at Summit on little stuff -- but it's worth it!
Edelbrock Performer 2.0 intake manifold (came with motor #2, along with a Edelbrock Quadrajet which needed a rebuild kit and a little adjustment.)
I discovered that the stock valve covers didn't quite fit over those rockers, so I splurged on a pair of tall GMPP covers 'cuz I like orange
[My Chevy dealer, oddly, was 'bout 10% cheaper than Summit and Jegs, even with sales tax. Weird.]Thorley 303Y headers. I had some fun trying to finagle them into place (maybe I shoulda put them on before dropping the engine in) but once they were held there they fit just fine. I see why so many people say "Don't get cheap headers" -- I didn't have any of the fitment problems I hear so much about, and from the construction I doubt I'll see warpage in this century.
After watching Scott beadblast assorted accessory parts like the intake manifold, I fell in love with 'blasting and got a cabinet of my own. The problem with this is that every dang bracket that came off had to get cleaned blasted and painted, as the old engine had been leaking all over. What had started as a motor swap turned into quite the project.
The tranny inspection cover, motor mount shells, accessory brackets, the oilpan, any little piece of metal was de-greased, blasted, and primed and/or painted as appropriate.I told Scott that when I was done I'd post up some pretty pictures of the thing ... though you really gotta see/hear it to believe it, sounds like a freakin' musclecar and damn near moves like one now =)) I also owe him a blurb:
Though I'm sure all y'all locals know it, any of y'all in the greater San Francisco Bay area who are in need of motor work ... use Scott! This guy knows his stuff. He may be gruff but he's been kind enough to never actually call me an idiot to my face =)), and he does fantastic work. Those of you NOT local, if I catch you disagreeing with him I'm gonna be irked, 'cuz while he may be a bit terse, he knows his sh!t hands down.
So, enough babbling. The pictures:
I set up one of those car cover things (seeing as I had it and hadn't used it in the two years since I bought it =)).
That's a big hole under the hood!
Motor #1, original to the truck, seized.
Motor #2. Bent pushrods and starting to eat bearings and valve seals.
Right, good. Left, not so good =))
Doesn't look like it, but the parts are organized. Sort of.
I had this theory I was going to save a little $$ and assemble the motor myself. I can build computers with my eyes closed, but motors ... aargh. Specialized tools and knowledge are required. :|
After spilling two motors' worth of oil and coolant on my garage floor, the kittylitter was everywhere. I might have been better off working outside in the dust and wind
...more to come...
-- A
)
I too know how a project can grow. My simple sbc to bbc swap in my 69 K20 turned into a complete tear down of the K20 along with rust repairs and paint.
