Quick background, truck is an '86 K30 crew cab with a 454. 73,000 ORIGINAL miles. Truck had small engine fire and destroyed much of the engine wiring loom, distributor, plugs wires, etc..
Now heres the deal, Im yanking the motor to at the very minimum swap cams (to a more computer friendly cam), new gaskets all the way around. New timing chain, new oil pump, and I will probably have the heads reworked with new seals, guides, etc. Edelbrock EFI intake, stockISH cam, and just do an overall internal inspection on the motor. I know I dont have to pull the motor to do this but I need to in order to paint the engine compartment and it will make it much easier to sort out that wiring mess with the motor out. I am trying to make this TBI swap as clean and stock looking as possible while retaining all factory emissions and controls.
1. Should I go all the way and mess with the bottom end with a motor that is lower mileage. The motor ran great prior to the fire, other than a little oil leak in the rear main the thing ran awesome.
2. Can I reuse the old head bolts, in my past rebuilds I was under the impression that you must buy new head bolts. I dont know if the stock bolts are torque to yield or not. If I need to I will buy new ones.
3. Cam bearings, ok with the stock ones, or replace with the new cam? Obviously I will have new lifters and valve springs to match the cam.
Anything else I should know? Im not worried about digging into this motor as this isnt my first. I just need a very reliable motor as this truck is my tow rig/ driver.
Now heres the deal, Im yanking the motor to at the very minimum swap cams (to a more computer friendly cam), new gaskets all the way around. New timing chain, new oil pump, and I will probably have the heads reworked with new seals, guides, etc. Edelbrock EFI intake, stockISH cam, and just do an overall internal inspection on the motor. I know I dont have to pull the motor to do this but I need to in order to paint the engine compartment and it will make it much easier to sort out that wiring mess with the motor out. I am trying to make this TBI swap as clean and stock looking as possible while retaining all factory emissions and controls.
1. Should I go all the way and mess with the bottom end with a motor that is lower mileage. The motor ran great prior to the fire, other than a little oil leak in the rear main the thing ran awesome.
2. Can I reuse the old head bolts, in my past rebuilds I was under the impression that you must buy new head bolts. I dont know if the stock bolts are torque to yield or not. If I need to I will buy new ones.
3. Cam bearings, ok with the stock ones, or replace with the new cam? Obviously I will have new lifters and valve springs to match the cam.
Anything else I should know? Im not worried about digging into this motor as this isnt my first. I just need a very reliable motor as this truck is my tow rig/ driver.
