LSX454 swapped 95 BASS burb.

[imiceman44]

Got it washed and aligned. Full tank of gas brought the rear down even more.

The driveway pic would be a pretty nice pic of it, if it wasn't for the ratty hood lol.

Also found that my bubble spot on the passenger front fender is more like a RUST HOLE, than a small bubble spot .

Then I let my wife drive it, so that she has emergency wheels while hers is getting repaired. That is kinda scary lol.


I got compliments on it 3 times between my shop and the alignment shop

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I think it looks good now.
Don't change anything

 

[shady]

Yeah. It's on to body work and finish the interior and stereo.
I have to paint it. I can't stand the green/blue thing.

 

[shady]

Lowering it help with cruising economy.
Knew it would but it's actually pretty consistently above 20.
System was corrected for the new tires.
Drops quite a bit when I step on it a couple minutes in lol.

 

[shady]

Well chit. Vid didn't load.

 

[shady]

 

[shady]

Advance auto parts has a smoking deal on motive gears at the moment. So I ordered a set of 4.56 to get this thing spinning em a little easier.

Got 36% off at the start, and a 20% off the final price with a code at checkout. $172 shipped to me.

In spring I'm going to get the trans built and have a 2500 stall converter done at the same time.

I had planned on building a MPFI 496 for it. But I'm sort of rethinking it.
I figure I planned to do the gears, trans and converter either way. So I'll do them, and swap the cam to a bigger one. If it STILL doesn't roast tires well enough for my wants, then ill do the big block.

 

[shady]

That was quick!

 

[shady]

Install kit just shipped, so it'll probably be here soon too.
If so I think I'll get started on it this weekend.

 

[centexk5]

That’s a helluva deal on gears. I just spent $800/axle for my tundra on the gears alone.

 

[shady]

Yeah I got the gears, and a Motive Gear install kit with timken bearings for $384 all together.

Hadn't planned on doing it yet, and was window shopping while bored. Seen that deal and just bought em lol

 

[shady]

I've been doing some digging through engine voids, just for the ell of it. And I may have stumbled across something I did wrong. Possibly attributing to my sluggish lower end.
Even in park and a quick pedal push the engine comes up sluggishly.

While researching I found a vid talking about the combustion chamber quench area.
The target number seems to be .035-.045 ish. For piston to flat area of head clearance.
I'm in the close to .060 area.
.055" compressed thickness gasket, and I didn't measure but did feel my deck clearance at what I'd guess.002-.005 ish. I know it wasn't proud, and it wasn't flush.

That prevents proper swirl and all that supposedly.
And doesn't cram everything in front of the spark like it should.
I used a gasket that thick to keep me under 10:1 with the flat tops.
Think when I cam swap I'm going to pull the heads and measure clearance. Then change gaskets and shoot for .040"
I'm not worried about having to use premium, in this, or even if the LS ends up in the olds.

Something else I'm debating is , do I need to stay in the truck cams, or will any cam do?
My heads will flow their best at .600-.650 lift.
The truck cams all stop in the .550 area.
I know that's part of keeping the low end torque up, but I'm not as worried about that as I used to be. Lol. It's not a DD.
With a 2500-2800 ish stall, that's really not gonna matter as much.
I'm thinking the normal cams will start pulling harder at around 4000, so when the pedals mashed, that little spot between 2800 and 4000 will suffer a few HP for a second maybe. I'd call that launch control or something lol.

But being a 5800+# beast it just makes me wonder

I've been looking at like the summit stage 3 or 4 truck cam.
Or bigger. I'll put the other spec sheet up in a minute

 

[shady]

Or the next level I contemplated was like the 8710, or and other brands similar equivalent. Since it's the size of an ls3 now.

One benefit to staying with the truck cams, is I already have springs good to .550. So I could just buy the stick and be done. Saves quite a bit of $$$.

 

[JoshHefnerX]

I cant give you specific info but sounds like you may need to have a look at your truck with a wholistic view. In general truck cams are good for fat torque curve, lower rpm , you're upping the gears, and the torque converter so you want to move your power band up to match.

 

[shady]

I've watched videos of dyno runs on the ones I'm looking at, and they pull hard all the way to 6500. My truck shifts at 5-6k.
That's one of the reasons I was thinking of those instead of messing with the bigger ones.

I'm not sure I want to shift the 4l80 at 6500+ lol.

 

[Chevy305]

What cam is in it now?
What does your current C/R come out to?

You may want to spend some time watching Richard Holner's YouTube channel. He does tons of back to back cam tests on LS platforms. I think the BTR truck Norris cam is the best all around cam with gains everywhere and no compromises. Sloppy stage 2 or Sloppy Best Cam are also solid choices.

 

[shady]

I've watched a lot of his videos.
The truck Norris was my first choice, but I want a tad more I think.
I'm only looking at the power they make at around 6200, since I probably won't go out past that much if ever. That's why I thought of some of the bigger 'car' cams. Some of them pass the truck cams at around 4000 . I just wasn't sure if what I'd get above 4k would be worth the trade off in what I'd lose below that.


Current CR is estimated at around 9.7-9.8. That will definitely get closer if not over 10 though. When I swap the cam I'm pulling the heads and using the thinner head gaskets.
It has the summit 8719. Their 'stage 1 high lift'

this thing would have gotten done differently if I had been able to predict the future.
It started out as being built for a tow rig. Then I decided it was going in my DD, and couldn't get my head away from the mild thing.
Somehow, being built specifically with low end torque and power in mind, that is the one thing it doesn't have
So now that I bought the 2016, this thing is neither a DD or a tow rig, it NEEDS to do big crazy violent burnouts lol.

 

[shady]

Last night I got it stripped and cleaned.
Got the new bearings and seal in the pinion carrier.
And now I'm ready to actually tighten the yoke nut to spec.
I just don't think I can do that part at home. Not sure if I have the tools for it.
Also have to find a puller that will get the carrier bearings off. My weak chit isn't doing it lol.

 

[folkenheath]

I'm not a fan of the stage cams, you can get cams more specific to your application and the cost difference is not that much, I feel worth it.

Also, on your quench, yes, I prefer to deck the block and/or get the proper thickness gasket to have the ideal quench, but that is not always cost effective. Yes, it can make a difference, but it's usually not going to make the engine a pig if that's the only thing you change. For example, the last big block I built made 610 lb-ft of torque and 555 HP with a mild cam (220 @ .050), and the quench was far from perfect because it was a brand new ZZ502 short block and the pistons were .025 in the hole! I don't trust super thin gaskets long term so the quench on this one was over .060, not ideal at all, but it still performed just fine. Would it be a little better with better quench, and more compression, yes, but that's not always worth it depending on what you are starting with and what your budget is, sometimes you are better off spending it elsewhere. Though if you are doing everything then yes, set the quench ideal if you can.

As for the puller, I bought a carrier bearing puller like this probably 15 years ago for maybe $400, was totally worth it. You can install and remove the bearings (carrier and pinion) without damaging them, which is good for setting up axles with preload shims. Maybe they make less expensive units now? I used some plywood and a toolbox to make a case for it. Search for a "carrier bearing puller"...

 

[mrk5]

I'm not a fan of the stage cams, you can get cams more specific to your application and the cost difference is not that much, I feel worth it.

Also, on your quench, yes, I prefer to deck the block and/or get the proper thickness gasket to have the ideal quench, but that is not always cost effective. Yes, it can make a difference, but it's usually not going to make the engine a pig if that's the only thing you change. For example, the last big block I built made 610 lb-ft of torque and 555 HP with a mild cam (220 @ .050), and the quench was far from perfect because it was a brand new ZZ502 short block and the pistons were .025 in the hole! I don't trust super thin gaskets long term so the quench on this one was over .060, not ideal at all, but it still performed just fine. Would it be a little better with better quench, and more compression, yes, but that's not always worth it depending on what you are starting with and what your budget is, sometimes you are better off spending it elsewhere. Though if you are doing everything then yes, set the quench ideal if you can.

As for the puller, I bought a carrier bearing puller like this probably 15 years ago for maybe $400, was totally worth it. You can install and remove the bearings (carrier and pinion) without damaging them, which is good for setting up axles with preload shims. Maybe they make less expensive units now? I used some plywood and a toolbox to make a case for it. Search for a "carrier bearing puller"...

Next time I do gears, I want to set aside some money to buy one of those pullers.

 

[shady]

I ended up using a rented 2 jaw from O'Reilly's. Then kind of bought it, because it needed some mild clearancing lol.

For the head gaskets, they make a bunch in the .040 area. Any one of them will help a bunch and I won't have to do any more really. The .055 ones I bought were on the thicker end of what was available. I'm guessing dudes with pistons poking out of the hole a few thou use those mostly.