The Angry Pig - The 454 TBI swap into the V2500 is now underway!

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So I believe I had made enough progress to post about my "now underway" engine swap into the V2500. I know this isn't a rare or radical swap - but felt that I should document out what I have done thus far and then pick up in real-time to the finish line ...

My goal is to have somewhat a low-cost torquey engine, as my truck's current mission is towing our camping and hauling trailers. The stock 350TBI is losing its power.

My initial plan was to swap in a Cummins 6bt but after starting to pull "all the costs" together, it just wasn't going to be in the cards ($$$, fabrication, time off the road, etc). My daily driver is a diesel BMW and always loved diesel engines. It was tough pill to swallow that this new swap wasn't going to be one, but it was the right decision. So at around that time, my wife's uncle come across a 454TBI out of another friends '90 SS Truck. He was doing an LS swap and had the 454 sitting on the garage floor. $500 later (including everything between fan and flex plate) I felt it was a really good deal and took it.

Half of the fun of building the engine is picking out all the parts for it. I followed loosely on what Harris Performance had listed for their recommended 454 builds. For the past 2-3 months, parts have been piling up - and now the swap has begun.

My 454 is a Gen/Mark IV 4-bolt main w/ Peanut port heads. Perfect for low-RPM torque. Engine didn't need any boring, so we did a new cross hatch and the heads got a valve job and decks resurfaced.

So without further ado, here are the details of the new parts thus far (most of them purchased from Summit):
* Comp Cams 260AH - .503 int valve lift. 260 int duration. 112 lobe separation. A nice step-up from the stock one. I got the kit that comes with valve springs and lifters. CCA-K11-302-4.
* Comp Cams Dual Roller timing kit - CCA-2210 w/ locking plate CCA-4605.
* Summit Main/Cam/Rod/Ring bearing sets. All stock sizes. SUM-172200, 173200, 171200, 133-683-00.
* Head bolts - GM perf #12367779.
* New water outlet and bolts - FSS-85160 & ARP-430-7402.
* New Oil pump and screen, Sealed Power - 224-142264, 224-4154G.
* Full Gasket kit, Sealed Power - 260-1418.
* Edelbrock TBI intake - #3764. It has provisions for an EGR, so I had to get a block-off plate.
* New intake/oil pan/harmonic balancer bolts - SUM-G1575HS, SUM-G1576HS, SUM-G1678.
* GM spark plugs, Taylor Wires & Mallory looms - 76602.
* Comp Cams Cam/Engine break-in additive, along with other assembly lubricants.

Other items:
* New EPROM chip from Harris Performance. Stage 2, Level 5. Matched against Cam w/ headers. Comp stated that it should work with a stock chip, but after a convo with Brian, we felt that a new programmed chip would be better overall. He also removed the EGR programming.
* Doug's Tri-Y Headers. D303Y.
* New GM Water pump.
* TBI full clean/rebuild/test from SPR Performance. I decided not to bore out to 54mm.
* Flowmaster Y-Pipe. Dual 2.5" in, 3" out. There is a exhaust shop down the road from where the swap is happening, so it will go there after this to get exhaust plumped in.
* New O2 heated sensor and bung. CEI-103025, SUM-G2990.
* New temp sensors (gauge, computer) & oil pressure sensor from NAPA. Reusing knock sensor.
* New Motor mounts.
* Going to reuse my distributor; has relatively new NAPA-Gold parts.

I will post some pictures here next.

 

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454 torn down.

 

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Engine reassembled and the new tri-y headers. A work of art, really.

 

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The 350TBI is out! This week will be spent by prepping the engine bay and getting little things done that are easier to do when the engine out of the bay. Hoping next Saturday the 454TBI will be ready to slide in.

 

[gonefishin]

Looking good. Eager to know how well the chip works with the cam.

 

[big-blue]

Looking good. Eager to know how well the chip works with the cam.

Me too, since Harris claims that this is the perfect combo (over the stock chip that Comp claims that it should work with).

 

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Motor is in and fitting the headers. Also inserted the chip. Hoping to be able to fire it up on Saturday.

 

[RubberFloorMat]

thats a pretty healthy cam, I agree with the decision to get a chip made, other than that a pretty solid group of parts. I might have had a little work done on the peanut port, they do make good tq but with that cam, i bet theres 25 hp and 40ft lbs hidden in there. but, probably wont miss it.

you should spend the money for a couple dyno pulls once its broken in, see what its making.

 

[nvrenuf]

Hot dog! Somehow I missed this thread, looking good! You know, all engine build threads have a video requirement.

On the throttle body, isn't there a plug that's different from sbc to bbc (AIC or TPS)? Seems like there's a conversion pigtail offered by Painless Wiring.

 

[skunked]

What's the compression at?

 

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Hot dog! Somehow I missed this thread, looking good! You know, all engine build threads have a video requirement.

On the throttle body, isn't there a plug that's different from sbc to bbc (AIC or TPS)? Seems like there's a conversion pigtail offered by Painless Wiring.

Yup, I forgot to list them. Both the IAC and TPS needed new plugs. I have them - got them off a vendor on eBay. I am sure to be doing a video for the light-off!

 

[big-blue]

What's the compression at?

Good question. It's the stock pistons and the deck really didn't change much so whatever the stock was at? 8:1?

 

[1-ton]

The SS Chevy truck is a rare enough truck not to be parted out like that. The LS swap craze is so big that the next thing I am going see is someone taking a 1963 fuel injected 327 split window stingray, and swapping out the 327 for an LS motor. That 454 engine will motivate your rig down the road with ease.

 

[1-ton]

Because your engine is a Mark IV it is probably somewhere in the 8:1 or 8:25 range. If it where a one year newer Mark V block then it would have probably been in the 8:75 to 9:1 range

 

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[black dawg]

I see that you mentioned using the knock sensor with the big block, will the prom you are using use the knock circuit?
When I originally did my 350tbi to 454 tbi swap, I hunted down a 454 prom that used knock, but it caused me trouble because the 454 would pass the knock circuit test (it wouldn't knock when ecm way over advances timing to check knock circuit.) Ended up with a prom that didn't use knock.

 

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I see that you mentioned using the knock sensor with the big block, will the prom you are using use the knock circuit?
When I originally did my 350tbi to 454 tbi swap, I hunted down a 454 prom that used knock, but it caused me trouble because the 454 would pass the knock circuit test (it wouldn't knock when ecm way over advances timing to check knock circuit.) Ended up with a prom that didn't use knock.

As of right now, I am reusing the memcal from the 350 with Harris's chip 'cut in' over the stock one. The knock sensor chip of the memcal is intact and I presume the Harris chip will be using it. We'll see I guess.

 

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Got alot done yesterday. Transmission is connected along with the tc bolted. Re-tapped all the wiring and moved the oil-pressure circuit to the front of the engine. What's left is to finish the accessories in the front, vacuum lines, put back in radiator & fill. The starter wiring looks to be out of the way of the headers but a 2nd look at that maybe in order. Hopefully we will be able to fire it up this week, based on scheduling and weather.

 

[1-ton]

Got alot done yesterday. Transmission is connected along with the tc bolted. Re-tapped all the wiring and moved the oil-pressure circuit to the front of the engine. What's left is to finish the accessories in the front, vacuum lines, put back in radiator & fill. The starter wiring looks to be out of the way of the headers but a 2nd look at that maybe in order. Hopefully we will be able to fire it up this week, based on scheduling and weather.

View attachment 221131

Looking pretty good. Isn't there supposed to be a spark control module. MAF, and EGR in there some where? Your wire harness job looks to clean with out that mess of stuff.

 

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The '91 350TBI doesn't have a separate module for the spark control - it's actually a chip on the memcal that controls the knock sensor. So no wires for that. I do have the EGR wires tapped off, since Harris programmed my chip to have that disabled. I re-used the MAF sensor from the 454TBI. Plugs right up.