Low Mile Vortec 454 swap

[tanman_2006]

My 97 K3500's 155k mile 454 has had the main bearings scabbed together too many times.

I am swapping in a low mile 454 (106k mile 00 take out). What cam can I get put in that will work well towing?

It will have long tubes, new high flow cat, new injectors, and 411 blackbear ecm. Taking suggestions on other mods but nothing too extreme, I need the truck back on the road.

 

[tanman_2006]

This is what I planned to go with unless there are major objections.

Compcam 01-412-8 [37]

 

[tanman_2006]

So this has been really helpful. Never had a single comment on a post....

 

[BNielsen]

That's the camshaft that's been recommended to me several times; are you just dropping the engine in or are you going to open it up first?

 

[tanman_2006]

After some checking around I ended up with a reman for almost the same price and 3yr unlimited mile warranty. Sticking that cam in the rebuilt engine as is.

 

[rowekmr]

Sorry I just saw this. Sorry I have no info on engine swaps. I love the 454's so keep us updated.

 

[tanman_2006]

I'll try to post back. I am going with the Extreme Energy Cam I posted above, gibson headers, 4" diamond eye, and I am waiting on Justin at Blackbear to get back to me to figure out if a black box tune will be enough and what injectors will work best.

If the exhaust is too loud, I have a couple ideas.

 

[LikeARock94]

I'm swapping the Vortec heads on my Gen V 454. Cam selection has been an issue for me too. I'm going to have between 9.0:1-9.5:1 compression. I think I'm going with the Summit Racing K1300 cam (208/218 @.050, .475"/.500", 112 LSA). Not a big cam by any means but it should wake up the 454 along with the boost in compression. I'm focusing on pulling power and fuel economy rather than peak power.

 

[Schurkey]

When I installed a hotter cam in an engine with L29 Vortec heads, I discovered that the new valve springs didn't get along with the crappy valve rotators, which means two sets of eight valve rotator eliminator shims. (Last I looked--and it's been years--there were two part numbers for the shims, based on which valve springs you were using (straight vs. beehive, if I remember right.)

Then I discovered that the shims fit perfectly on the exhaust side, but half (two per head, but not the same two) of the intake valve guide bosses interfered with the shims at the "corner" where the guide rises out of the valve spring pocket. I had to grind a little clearance into that radius to get the shims to sit flat in the pockets.

Simple, easy, not all that expensive.