What can I get rid of off my 454, and a few questions???

[rdn2blazer]

I have a, if I remember correctly a 96' 454 out of a 4x4 burb I got from another member a few years ago. It's complete and I have the harness & ECU thingy. It's going in my 73' K5. I want to swap it to EFI using a FAST system. I want to run bolt on out of the box Aluminum heads, probably a pair or Edelbrock's if they have a set that is just that, I figure they do. Probably run an Edelbrock manifold too. I want to run headers of course. I know I can ditch the stock exhause manifolds, scrap'um for cash along with the rest of my pile I build up and take in every once in a while.

My question(s) is I have a complete new E-Z wireing harness for my K5, Headlights to taillights. Do I still need to keep & use harness that came with the motor? Or, can I get a new harness that will tie into my new complete E-Z harness and work? I want 100% NEW wireing in my K5.

Should I scrap the stock heads or try and sell them? Stock manifold as well? I want to strip the motor down and then wrap it up cause it will be stored for a while till I'm able to afford the parts I want/need.

The motor was suposed to have only about 60K on it. I pulled a valve cover and the top of the heads look nice and clean. Zero sluge or build up at all. Or should I just do a full tear down, check all the critical clearences, re-gasket and re-bearing it, bolt it back together and run it?

Should I do a piston swap and bump up the compression? I don't have smog to deal with of course. I want a decent cam in it to build torque, that works with the EFI swap. I want a good reliable motor with more HP then the stock motor puts out. Have not even gotten into the bottom end to see if it's a 4 bolt main block. I don't need 5/600 HP so it doesn't need to be a 4 bolt main of course. I wouldn't mind that kind of HP but I don't want terrible gas milage either. It's going to get bad enough just being a big block.

Not sure what direction to go with this thing.

 

[4X4HIGH]

If it's a late model like you say then why not just keep the factory injection. It might be a little harder to figure out how to wire it correctly but it would be better than any aftermarket FI system AND it would be all factory parts should a part ever fail and you needed to buy a part on the road somewhere.

 

[rdn2blazer]

If it's a late model like you say then why not just keep the factory injection. It might be a little harder to figure out how to wire it correctly but it would be better than any aftermarket FI system AND it would be all factory parts should a part ever fail and you needed to buy a part on the road somewhere.

Hmmm, good thinking. I do think I want to save as much weight as possible where I can, so going to Al. heads and intake and swapping to efi would accomplish that. Why do you feel factory parts are better then the seemingly quality aftermarket parts? I do understand the usfullness of being able to hit up ANY local auto parts store and buy what you need if something breaks down, but I'm not going to get more HP with stock parts. If I put even an aftermarket throttle body on it for more/better performance it's still aftermarket. You can but AL heads for less then what you can rebuild a set of stock heads for these day, or so I've herd.

Anything head related wouldn't make a difference weather it be stock or aftermarket I would think. Valves are valves, valve springs are valve springs, rocker arms are rocker arms. Same with cam, pistons.....stuff like that no?? Only electronic components that are brand spicific like EFI would be hard to get/find parts for at a local store. I'm not in any big hurry to do this. To damn broke lol, but I want a plan. Don't want to just wing a motor build and have it be wrong, or not what I wanted and waste a bunch of money when the time comes.

 

[4X4HIGH]

Rob, you said the engine is from a 96 and you have the harness and ECU. Is the rest of the EFI injection missing or is it all there? If everything is there you can make a ton more power from the factory stuff with just a PCM tune alone. Sure you can start swapping on aluminum heads and all but then you're changing the compression ratio and it might not be as compatable with the EFI as it was from the factory. You can do a cam swap and pick up a bunch of power where you want it but that will require a PCM tune (which you would be doing anyways). I would be talking differently if you did not have a complete factory EFI already but that will cost a bunch more money than using what you already have. Keep in mind that SBC stuff is cheap but when dealing with a BBC the aftermarket injection stuff IS NOT cheap at all. You could easily spend $3k on an EFI set-up alone.

 

[blazin_blazer]

subscribed, i want to learn how to swap over & keep efi....they are so easy to get anymore..

 

[Wyomingboy]

stay with your factory EFI if it's a Vortech ! If it's TBI, then you might be justified to change to a FAST. But that motor in a K-5 would be awesome with just some minor upgrades, like the PCM and maybe headers? Your going to need your oxygen sensors for the PCM to work. I think you can delete the back 2 O2 sensors after the cats, but that will have to done in the PCM tune.
BBC parts are expensive compared to SBC parts, especially heads ! Aftermarket heads probably won't work wtih your stock ECM, but the vortech heads were good.
I have a built sbc in my 90 K-5 with a FAST injection, but if I had to do it over again, I would go BBC too.

 

[Stomis]

Im going to go the other way here on suggestion from everyone else. If you are willing to incur the expense of a FAST system then do it. The FAST self learning 4 barrel throttle body style fuel injection comes with a stand alone harness, so that solves that problem. It will support north of a 600 hp and uses carb'd components for everything else in the motor which is the nice thing.

You can run a nice hopped up HEI or MSD with a box and control the timing totally separate from the injection and it will adapt to the timing curve. No adjusting one to mesh with the other etc.


As far as hopping up the motor goes I hear you on ditching 200lbs off the front end with aluminum. Pick up the smallest runner size oval ports they make and run a mild roller cam. Dont forget to select your combustion chamber size in accordance with the cams recommended compression ratio if you're not going to touch the bottom end. Slap a dual plane on it and its difficult to not hit 500 ft/lbs of torque.

Its not offense to you so dont take it the wrong way but it sounds like you're stepping out of your comfort zone with what you know the ins and outs of. One of the best suggestions I can give you is to call up the companies and ask them for suggestions. Call comp cams say "Im shooting for torque in a wheeler. Its gonna have X efi setup, 454 ci, stock pistons, Im considering running these heads or close to them, I need drive-ability, no big lumpy cam." etc etc.

 

[rdn2blazer]

Im going to go the other way here on suggestion from everyone else. If you are willing to incur the expense of a FAST system then do it. The FAST self learning 4 barrel throttle body style fuel injection comes with a stand alone harness, so that solves that problem. It will support north of a 600 hp and uses carb'd components for everything else in the motor which is the nice thing.

You can run a nice hopped up HEI or MSD with a box and control the timing totally separate from the injection and it will adapt to the timing curve. No adjusting one to mesh with the other etc.


As far as hopping up the motor goes I hear you on ditching 200lbs off the front end with aluminum. Pick up the smallest runner size oval ports they make and run a mild roller cam. Dont forget to select your combustion chamber size in accordance with the cams recommended compression ratio if you're not going to touch the bottom end. Slap a dual plane on it and its difficult to not hit 500 ft/lbs of torque.

Its not offense to you so dont take it the wrong way but it sounds like you're stepping out of your comfort zone with what you know the ins and outs of. One of the best suggestions I can give you is to call up the companies and ask them for suggestions. Call comp cams say "Im shooting for torque in a wheeler. Its gonna have X efi setup, 454 ci, stock pistons, Im considering running these heads or close to them, I need drive-ability, no big lumpy cam." etc etc.

You are correct and by no means not offended at all. I've built one motor, my first motor, which was a 396 out of my 69' SS Chevelle back what I was 18. Some 27 years ago. With todays modern techology I am just out of the loop. This 96' motor is TBI stock. One of my best friends is totally up on ALL the latest stuff and can wire ANYTHING. Has done many cars for SEMA and knows his sh*t. He is all about the self learning FAST EFI system. Has done alot of research on it and knows people who have put in on their rods. All of those guys love it. He knows what I'm building and will be wiring my truck. I bought the E-Z wireing harness from him when he ran a street rod shop.

He's all about ditching the heads & manifold to reduce weight and swapping to a set of bolt on Al. BBC heads, even off brand heads are good heads these days he said. Like Summit, Pro Comp, and a few other head manufacturers that are basically making copies of the likes of Edelbrocks and other good head manufactures. He mentioned the FAST stand along harness will easily tie in to my harness without any issues. When he starts talking electrical my eyes just roll back in my head, I don't deal with it at all. He might as well be talking chinese.

He said most performance gains will come with the cam like Scott said. No need to run higher compression pistons IF the motor DOES have only 60K but has been well taken care of. Hone it to remove any ring ridge, re-ring and run the stock pistons. He said do a tear down to inspect the bearings or just re-bearing it so I know it has fresh bearings.

He said the same thing you did Stomis, to talk with companies and find a good cam combo, let them know I want a torque motor and what heads I want to run and blah blah blah. He thinks my Doug Thorley's from my 89' crew cab 454 will work but not exactly sure, would have to check it out. I told him I want to lay out a plan and do it right the first time, when it's time. I'm trying to learn thing for the build now, even though it may be a while till we are back on our feet financially from my health issues to do this.

I miss working on things so I want to get my hands dirty and do what I can do labor wise and do what doesn't cost any money right now. So removing stuff I don't and won't need off the 454 is fun for me and doesn't cost me a dime. It feels good to get out and do some wrenching after what I've been through ya'know. I'm still not very clear headed, so it being SOOO long since I've even played with motors I feel lost now.