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Time for an overhaul

nc87k5

nc87k5

3/4 ton status
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Sep 23, 2003
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Well, old faithful has finally decidednto give me problems. I started hearing some piston slap and looks like a rear main seal leak. So, what do you guys think about a complete upgrade in horsepower? I seriously wanted to keep the numbers matching and stay stock, but the more i think about it, I want more ponies too. What do i need to consider with it being TBI? What say yea?

Oh, since its been awhile, its a 1987 Blazer, 350, 700R that was rebuilt 6 years ago.
 
The 700r4 is going to be your limiting factor for building horsepower. In stock form they get really upset with anything over about 300 hp. Now of course you can build it at the same time to take as much HP as you would like. The TBI isn't a limiting factor at all. It will flow a LOT of fuel for you with a tune on your factory ECM. just make your mind up what you want to do engine wise. Contact one of the companies that reflashes factory computers and give them the specs. They should be able to adjust the fuel curve and timing for you.
 
I've looked at some of the crate engines and nothing much over 360ish.

Budget wise, I'm still wanting to come out cheap as possible, but want more hp than stock.

Oh, the 700R had a corvette rebuild kit put in, according to the mechanic whonis a friend and i trust him.
 
I just priced though either building or buying and engine. Went with a GM crate engine, but it wasn’t cheap

I also committed myself to never running cast iron heads or flat tappet again.
 
Jon, I would pull your original TBI motor (longblock) and set it aside....your climate is mild enough that the body should stay in great shape, and if its original now, the possibility of an original resto in the future could be preserved. Machine work isn't cheap, and if it needs a lot of hard parts ( crank work, camshaft, lifters, pistons, valve train, etc.) it would probably be cheaper to go with a crate motor. If I remember you drive your truck frequently so reliability and simplicity of a bolt in swap would be ideal. I haven't researched whats out there, but Mark has, check his thread out for some ideas. Good luck Jon!
 
And I have a person who’s done great at tuning the chips for TBI as well
 
tRustyK5 said:
*cough* LS *cough*
Click to expand...


Yup. GO LS. Keep the stock motor and rebuild it for later if you pan a restoration. For the price of a decent set of aluminum heads you can be rocking 360hp LS that will essentially drop in. My swap will come in at just under 1000.00 for everything included. Wink wink, nudge nudge....
 
Depends on area. Wasn’t finding cheap LS stuff here
 
any more if its already tbi vehicle i would do this .

pic the motor you want .

swap the in tank pump for the 96 c3500 350 fuel pump for 60psi

drop on a aftermarket self tunning tbi like snipper or fitech

then have fun .

reason being is tbi needs a chip burnt every time there is a change in the engine basicly .

aftermarket unit that self tunes pay's for its self in the end with no down time waiting for a chip and hope its tuned right .

or just go ls swap
 
Have you looked onto West Coast Engines? they use top quality american made parts with a 50,000 mile warranty. I haven't found that good of warranty any where else.
 
If you just don't want to go LS, one consideration should probably be an L31 (5.7L Vortec) crate engine.

As with any mods, it's going to cost you some in parts (intake, probably the fuel pump, adjustable fuel pressure regulator, etc) but the long block itself is GTG out of the box. Roller cam, one piece rear main, warranty (depending), and you can get them for around $1800 online.(BTW, at 255HP and 330ft lbs, this engine works out to about $7/hp and $5.45/ft lb...run the numbers on others lol)

Throw some headers on it, have the PROM tuned, and be done with it. Probably near 100HP over the TBI engine.
 
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Don't have time to search for it, but my buddy tells me edelbrock sells a kit for TBI engines that includes cam, heads, intake, and the chip calibrated for those components. I understand they also tell you which short block to go with.

Not particularly cheap, but when considering chip burning, intake, heads, etc., the difference is really just paying for everything at once, instead of having to add it up independently.

Edit: Went and looked at summits website. According to that, even though there are EFI kits, there aren't. Edelbrock answered a bunch of the questions here: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/edl-2038 and one of them says it's not for TBI engines. The Edelbrock rep listed all the parts/numbers to make an Edelbrock "kit" for a TBI engine, but I didn't see the chip/PROM being one of them.
 
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