GM crate engines

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rangrayy

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See my signature.
I installed a GMPP HT383E crate engine in my Suburban for exactly the reasons you're talking about. Yes, I wanted a little more power, but I mostly wanted something that would be bullet-proof reliable.
I have to report that after now having this engine for several years, I am VERY pleased with it and have no problem recommending it. It's pretty much everything I wanted in the swap. There are a few things I wish I'd known ahead of time, the main one being to replace more of the addons and engine accessories at the same time I did the swap. Eg, distributor, PCV, EGR, EVAP etc. but most of all the fuel injection spider. I recommend that upgrade to every Vortec owner, but especially engine swappers.
I can post more and answer questions, but I've already posted a LOT on this project over at GM-Truck Club (no offense to this forum, I've just been a member there a lot longer).
I found your thread on the other site while on google last night and read through it. Do you have any videos of it running with the exhaust? I am curious on how your setup sounds.
 

Unkel Dale

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We put a 5.7 vortek in 5,000 miles ago, we could NOT get the numbers correct for -/= 14 to satisfy the fuel computer. After a week of head scratching, we pulled the distributor out thinking we might be a tooth OFF, well the factory placed the bolt hole that holds the finger guy to lock the distributor in place, we had to manufacture our own finger guy to hold it correctly
 

Tachyon

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I found your thread on the other site while on google last night and read through it. Do you have any videos of it running with the exhaust? I am curious on how your setup sounds.

Not posted anywhere, but I do have some kicking around. I'll see if I can dig one up and post it somewhere.
Stay tuned.

Personally, I'm pretty happy with the sound. It has a nice rumble at idle and a nice bass bark under throttle without any of that crackly farty sounding nonsense some exhaust systems make.

Power wise, the exhaust system made a huge difference in every rev range and I don't regret it one bit. It also improved fuel economy. Well, assuming you can keep your foot out of it. ;')

Like I said in the other forum, it's a package thing. Swapping the HT383E straight in and leaving everything else stock is fine, but will give minimal power improvements and the engine will always feel like it's being choked, held back. If you can do a full package it's a really great swap. By full package I mean:

- HT383E engine
- Fuel Spider upgrade
- Cold air intake
- exhaust system upgrade
- Headers
- down-pipes and performance CATs
- CAT back system
- ECU tuning or chip.

Basically it's the old hotrod edict of letting the engine breathe and then giving it enough fuel. The HT383E pumps a lot more air than the stock L31 so you need to feed it.
 

shovelbill

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Not posted anywhere, but I do have some kicking around. I'll see if I can dig one up and post it somewhere.
Stay tuned.

Personally, I'm pretty happy with the sound. It has a nice rumble at idle and a nice bass bark under throttle without any of that crackly farty sounding nonsense some exhaust systems make.

Power wise, the exhaust system made a huge difference in every rev range and I don't regret it one bit. It also improved fuel economy. Well, assuming you can keep your foot out of it. ;')

Like I said in the other forum, it's a package thing. Swapping the HT383E straight in and leaving everything else stock is fine, but will give minimal power improvements and the engine will always feel like it's being choked, held back. If you can do a full package it's a really great swap. By full package I mean:

- HT383E engine
- Fuel Spider upgrade
- Cold air intake
- exhaust system upgrade
- Headers
- down-pipes and performance CATs
- CAT back system
- ECU tuning or chip.

Basically it's the old hotrod edict of letting the engine breathe and then giving it enough fuel. The HT383E pumps a lot more air than the stock L31 so you need to feed it.

when i was contemplating my replacement choices i found your thread on the other forum......very well written.....informative and intelligent. it helped me make my decision. thanks for that.

i didn't do the spider upgrade and looking back i probably should have........don't get me wrong, the truck runs great with the stock tune, but i KNOW i'll be doing the poppets when i get around to tuning her.

hindsight is always 20/20........

i did use JBA ceramic shorties, Magnaflow high flow CATS, JBA single sided cat-back and a Volant air box....she is ready to be tuned however i choose to do that........now i just need some money, LOL.
 

Tachyon

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when i was contemplating my replacement choices i found your thread on the other forum......very well written.....informative and intelligent. it helped me make my decision. thanks for that.

i didn't do the spider upgrade and looking back i probably should have........don't get me wrong, the truck runs great with the stock tune, but i KNOW i'll be doing the poppets when i get around to tuning her.

hindsight is always 20/20........

i did use JBA ceramic shorties, Magnaflow high flow CATS, JBA single sided cat-back and a Volant air box....she is ready to be tuned however i choose to do that........now i just need some money, LOL.

I'm glad my other posts were helpful. I know it was a big decision for me and it was expensive enough that I wanted to get it right and I wanted to let my experiences help anyone else from making a mistake by learning from any I made. Not everyone is rich so it's nice to have places you can go to get good advice and input from people with real experience to help you spend your very hard earned dollars wisely.

It sounds like you've got a nice setup going. I hope you're at least as happy with it as I am mine. These are great old trucks, and they're even greater with some wisely chosen upgrades.

The spider upgrade is probably my biggest "I wish I had known that" regret which is why I post encouraging people to do it any time it comes up.

As for your programming, I know that most people recommend a custom tune, but let's face it not everyone can afford to do that right (ie with a pro, and using chassis dyno runs to get it dialed in) and that's assuming you even have a reputable tuner shop anywhere near you. I know it's on my "would love to do" list, but for now the Hypertech programmer I used is much better than stock and I would recommend it if you want to take advantage of your other upgrades but don't have a custom tune on the near term to do list and want something that's plenty good enough for now.

Anyway, thanks for the positive feedback and keep on truckin' that GMT400.
 

Tachyon

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We put a 5.7 vortek in 5,000 miles ago, we could NOT get the numbers correct for -/= 14 to satisfy the fuel computer. After a week of head scratching, we pulled the distributor out thinking we might be a tooth OFF, well the factory placed the bolt hole that holds the finger guy to lock the distributor in place, we had to manufacture our own finger guy to hold it correctly

Yeah, when I did my fuel spider upgrade, I had a ***** of a time getting the distributor aligned and clocked right. It doesn't help that there's a LOT of conflicting advice out there on the net. In fact it was searching for legit tips on this that I found this forum.

I did find that a good distributor wrench helped. Plus I ended up buying an Android app to use with the Bluetooth ELM327 OBDII dongle that I already had in order to set the distributor timing right. I think it cost me less than $20 for both the wrench and the app so that was worth it.
 
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