The Beast in Me...

I have a big block in my snow plow truck. I can back up to my car that I get stuck in waist high drifts (rather regularly) in my driveway, hook up to it, drop the plow and tow/plow at the same time without ever touching the gas pedal. I just let the carb sit on high-idle until its nice and warm in the cab. I wouldn't trade those cubic inches for anything in that truck.

94burbk1500 said:

Not really, they run wayyy hotter.

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I think the reason why is people don't buy big blocks to run them empty. Mine is solid though, I was in some nasty crosswinds in KS and I was WOT for a good 10-15 minutes straight to keep 55mph in 2nd gear and the needle never went over 210. Oil pressure dropped a little though, understandably as I'm sure it was heating up.

That truck is our tow pig, shags around a boat thats approx 4000lbs loaded on trailer or a toy hauler with RZR loaded inside thats approx 11000lbs.

Engine started up one morning with some banging and my heart just sank. My gut told me a lifter had given up the ghost. I had thought well here is that opportunity I had been looking for to do a cam swap. Then after a case a beer and a bunch of conversation, there was just no way I was gonna land a bunch of cash in just the top end of a 135,000 mile motor, so out it came for the works. Let me tell you what I found inside, yes a lifter had laid down internally, also the distributor drive gear was nearly completely eaten up by the cam gear, timing chain was as sloppy and loose as a ****** money maker, this made sense as about a month prior the computer gave a P1345 code.

Block:
.015 cut on the decks
.020 over bore with TQ plate,Speed Pro flat top hyper pistons with coated skirts
.010 turn and polish on the crank
factory rods reconditioned but beefed up with ARP hardware and fresh hone
rotating assembly then balanced with a new GM damper.
factory bolts cleaned and re used on mains
Clevitte 77 bearings
Hastings molly rings
Melling 77g oil pump
Cloyes c3213 timing set
Summit aluminum distributor with DUI control module and coil
Fel Pro gasket kit

Heads:
rebuild of factory L29 heads
milled flat
performance valve job on factory valves
new guides and seats
machined for positive stop valve seals
mild porting, bowls were blended and short turns cleaned up, runners were un touched
GM performance #12555728 .022 thick head gaskets
ARP head bolts

Comp valve train:
Cam Kit K01-412-8, as a note the timing set in the kit can not be used with factory reluctor wheel on crank, Jegs refunded me money for sending the timing set from kit back to them.
kit contained:
XR264HR-13, 212/218 .510/.510 @ .050
roller lifters
ARP head studs to eliminate factory net-lash setup
valve springs, locks, retainers, which require additional purchase of 2 sets of Comp 4779-8 rotator eliminators
factory style valve seals that got tossed in trash
larger 3/8 pushrods which require additional purchase of GM performance #12562369 guideplates, factory L29 is 5/16
rockers were not included in kit but I went with Comp Magnum roller tip

Exhaust:
Gibson 113 ceramic coated headers, they are very nice pieces, in my garage I have Hooker coated long tubes for C4 Vette and 3rd Gen F-body to compare against, these Gibsons include in the box new mandrel bent 3 inch crossover pipes that are very nice. The headers are mocked up on the motor now to check for flange clearance. Positively there is no clearance issue at all, they clear the ARP head bolts and the coolant temp sensor fine, Spark plugs go in and out real easy and the Delco wires I have now dont touch any of the tubes but are close and will likley burn. The factory heat shields for the plug boots will not fit with these. I plan to fire the motor up with the factory iron manifolds and then change out the exhaust after engine break in. At that time I will change the plug wires to Accell wires with ceramic boots.

End of day the full exhaust will be:
Gibson 113 ceramic coated headers
Gibson 3inch crossover pipes connected to Flowmaster Y300400 y-collector
Flowmaster Y300400 connected to Diamond Eye 4 inch K4108A
4 inch cat converter from Amazon.



Intake and Fuel:
The factory lower intake is pretty sloppy with a ton of casting flash and alot of irregularity in the runners , i cleaned all that mess up and smoothed out the runners with a gasket match to the upper intake, i did not cut away where the runner port hits the head as they were really well matched when I disassembled the motor. The factory upper intake had a much cleaner cast than the lower intake, all I did here was knock down what little casting flash there was and called it good. I will note that there were ugly rough edges and over hang casting on both the lower and upper intake at both the runner connections and plenum passage connections I did also smooth those edges down. Keeping the factory throttlbody. MAF was dissembled and the rough edges of the aluminum housing were smoothed out, the MAF will not be ported otherwise or will not be de-screened.

FORD...yes actual Ford parts getting installed, M-9593-LU24A injectors, @200$ these are best deal I could find for a new replacement part for injectors, they will require wiring in new pigtails to the injector harness as the connection type is the newer USCAR style, but I am willing to bet Ford will keep these in production for a long time to come considering they support nearly 20 years of Mustang application.

Cooling
I replaced the radiator a couple years back with a unit from NAPA which will stay
Upgrades to the build include:
180 degree t-stat
Hayden severe duty fan clutch
factory metal L29 fan is being discarded and replaced with a higher flow factory Duramax composite fan
Milodon high volume water pump
factory oil cooling setup will be aborted, oil circuit will be removed from entering radiator and routed to a stand alone stacked plate cooler with a thermostat in the circuit

Transmission
I found when detailing the engine bay with the motor out the trans is a Goodwrench service replacement transmission assembly, I assume to be a re manufactured unit installed at a dealer. I do not know how many miles are on the unit but I bought the truck in 2012 with 94,000 miles from the 2nd owner who bought it from our local Chevy Dealer with approx 32,000 miles and it now has in 2018 135,000 miles. I have never had any issue with the trans and have beat on it pretty good towing in Arizona and California mountains. For now I am leaving the trans alone but installing a Transtar Recon TQ converter with a billet clutch apply piston, as its a fair price at 300$. I would not consider spending any $$$ over that for a higher end converter until it is time to have the trans re built. Also hoping to shoe horn in a Derale 40 row Stacked Plate cooler in place of the factory auxiliary trans cooler.

Computer
Tune has been sourced to BlackBear Performance. Positively I just this morning recieved notice they have shipped out the ECM, yahoo...

My goal with this build is to gain 80-100HP starting at 3500RPM but keep that power usable through 4500RPM while not sacraficing any TQ off idle either, in factory form the L29 is a gutless wonder after 3500RPM. In full factory form the truck pulled 11000lbs at 65mph on flat highway satisfactorily in 3rd gear. Give some hills and there just wasnt enough TQ left to keep the converter from going in and out of lockup, which after tearing the motor apart was likely suffering from terrible timing with the sloppy chain and chewed up dizzy gear. However my biggest problem is mountains, I need another 100HP out of this thing starting at 3500RPM to keep speed when doing serious elevation climbing when pulling the camper, really need to be able to drop it down to 2nd and just let it rev in a few of the worst grades we travel against.

BowtieBrody said:

LS swaps are cool and all, and there's a few members on here who have some pretty badass trucks running LS engines, but I like my old caveman Vortec big block.
I've got a 96 454 as my daily and I love it. I dig your Suburban too, what's the plans for it?

How's the quality on those headers? I've been mulling around between shelling out for Gibsons or trying to make a set of Hedman headers work.

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The motor I am building is for my Tow Pig,

94burbk1500 said:

That's all fine and dandy, and would be great for a tow pig, but LS is the way to go for a modern hot rod. Big blocks used to be the way to go for a mean street machine, but LS motors are cheap power and there's a million different options for them. I'll concede that, if you are looking fro a good motor for towing, the big block is a good choice. I'd never put one in a performance oriented setup though.

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How does that 454HO 211/230 cam treat you on the street? I bet it treats you real good...!!!

And Yes, the Vortec 8100 is King of the Universe...!!!

In fact I almost went with that cam for my build, love that factory billet core on a 112 LSA with 4 degrees advance ground in. At the end of the day i just felt that the exhaust duration was too big of a spread VS the intake in a header application so I settled on the Comp Cam.

I was also intending originally to put a cast stroker crank into this build but it would have yielded compression well above my comfort level in a tow application as I was keeping the factory iron L29 heads with 99cc chambers which were getting milled. I paid 160$ to cut and polish my factory cast crank and a stroker crank would have been like 300$. I still lose sleep over giving away the basically free extra power, lol

L31MaxExpress said:

The 8.1 in my G20 van has the GMPP 454/502 HO camshaft. The one going into my Tahoe has the Mercruiser 420 HP 496 HO cam. In testing the 420 HP engine made 450 HP on an engine dyno at 5,100 rpm with the only addition being headers and exhaust.

Click to expand...

Fez_Jet_Az said:

That truck is our tow pig, shags around a boat thats approx 4000lbs loaded on trailer or a toy hauler with RZR loaded inside thats approx 11000lbs.

Engine started up one morning with some banging and my heart just sank. My gut told me a lifter had given up the ghost. I had thought well here is that opportunity I had been looking for to do a cam swap. Then after a case a beer and a bunch of conversation, there was just no way I was gonna land a bunch of cash in just the top end of a 135,000 mile motor, so out it came for the works. Let me tell you what I found inside, yes a lifter had laid down internally, also the distributor drive gear was nearly completely eaten up by the cam gear, timing chain was as sloppy and loose as a ****** money maker, this made sense as about a month prior the computer gave a P1345 code.

Block:
.015 cut on the decks
.020 over bore with TQ plate,Speed Pro flat top hyper pistons with coated skirts
.010 turn and polish on the crank
factory rods reconditioned but beefed up with ARP hardware and fresh hone
rotating assembly then balanced with a new GM damper.
factory bolts cleaned and re used on mains
Clevitte 77 bearings
Hastings molly rings
Melling 77g oil pump
Cloyes c3213 timing set
Summit aluminum distributor with DUI control module and coil
Fel Pro gasket kit

Heads:
rebuild of factory L29 heads
milled flat
performance valve job on factory valves
new guides and seats
machined for positive stop valve seals
mild porting, bowls were blended and short turns cleaned up, runners were un touched
GM performance #12555728 .022 thick head gaskets
ARP head bolts

Comp valve train:
Cam Kit K01-412-8, as a note the timing set in the kit can not be used with factory reluctor wheel on crank, Jegs refunded me money for sending the timing set from kit back to them.
kit contained:
XR264HR-13, 212/218 .510/.510 @ .050
roller lifters
ARP head studs to eliminate factory net-lash setup
valve springs, locks, retainers, which require additional purchase of 2 sets of Comp 4779-8 rotator eliminators
factory style valve seals that got tossed in trash
larger 3/8 pushrods which require additional purchase of GM performance #12562369 guideplates, factory L29 is 5/16
rockers were not included in kit but I went with Comp Magnum roller tip

Exhaust:
Gibson 113 ceramic coated headers, they are very nice pieces, in my garage I have Hooker coated long tubes for C4 Vette and 3rd Gen F-body to compare against, these Gibsons include in the box new mandrel bent 3 inch crossover pipes that are very nice. The headers are mocked up on the motor now to check for flange clearance. Positively there is no clearance issue at all, they clear the ARP head bolts and the coolant temp sensor fine, Spark plugs go in and out real easy and the Delco wires I have now dont touch any of the tubes but are close and will likley burn. The factory heat shields for the plug boots will not fit with these. I plan to fire the motor up with the factory iron manifolds and then change out the exhaust after engine break in. At that time I will change the plug wires to Accell wires with ceramic boots.

End of day the full exhaust will be:
Gibson 113 ceramic coated headers
Gibson 3inch crossover pipes connected to Flowmaster Y300400 y-collector
Flowmaster Y300400 connected to Diamond Eye 4 inch K4108A
4 inch cat converter from Amazon.



Intake and Fuel:
The factory lower intake is pretty sloppy with a ton of casting flash and alot of irregularity in the runners , i cleaned all that mess up and smoothed out the runners with a gasket match to the upper intake, i did not cut away where the runner port hits the head as they were really well matched when I disassembled the motor. The factory upper intake had a much cleaner cast than the lower intake, all I did here was knock down what little casting flash there was and called it good. I will note that there were ugly rough edges and over hang casting on both the lower and upper intake at both the runner connections and plenum passage connections I did also smooth those edges down. Keeping the factory throttlbody. MAF was dissembled and the rough edges of the aluminum housing were smoothed out, the MAF will not be ported otherwise or will not be de-screened.

FORD...yes actual Ford parts getting installed, M-9593-LU24A injectors, @200$ these are best deal I could find for a new replacement part for injectors, they will require wiring in new pigtails to the injector harness as the connection type is the newer USCAR style, but I am willing to bet Ford will keep these in production for a long time to come considering they support nearly 20 years of Mustang application.

Cooling
I replaced the radiator a couple years back with a unit from NAPA which will stay
Upgrades to the build include:
180 degree t-stat
Hayden severe duty fan clutch
factory metal L29 fan is being discarded and replaced with a higher flow factory Duramax composite fan
Milodon high volume water pump
factory oil cooling setup will be aborted, oil circuit will be removed from entering radiator and routed to a stand alone stacked plate cooler with a thermostat in the circuit

Transmission
I found when detailing the engine bay with the motor out the trans is a Goodwrench service replacement transmission assembly, I assume to be a re manufactured unit installed at a dealer. I do not know how many miles are on the unit but I bought the truck in 2012 with 94,000 miles from the 2nd owner who bought it from our local Chevy Dealer with approx 32,000 miles and it now has in 2018 135,000 miles. I have never had any issue with the trans and have beat on it pretty good towing in Arizona and California mountains. For now I am leaving the trans alone but installing a Transtar Recon TQ converter with a billet clutch apply piston, as its a fair price at 300$. I would not consider spending any $$$ over that for a higher end converter until it is time to have the trans re built. Also hoping to shoe horn in a Derale 40 row Stacked Plate cooler in place of the factory auxiliary trans cooler.

Computer
Tune has been sourced to BlackBear Performance. Positively I just this morning recieved notice they have shipped out the ECM, yahoo...

My goal with this build is to gain 80-100HP starting at 3500RPM but keep that power usable through 4500RPM while not sacraficing any TQ off idle either, in factory form the L29 is a gutless wonder after 3500RPM. In full factory form the truck pulled 11000lbs at 65mph on flat highway satisfactorily in 3rd gear. Give some hills and there just wasnt enough TQ left to keep the converter from going in and out of lockup, which after tearing the motor apart was likely suffering from terrible timing with the sloppy chain and chewed up dizzy gear. However my biggest problem is mountains, I need another 100HP out of this thing starting at 3500RPM to keep speed when doing serious elevation climbing when pulling the camper, really need to be able to drop it down to 2nd and just let it rev in a few of the worst grades we travel against.

Click to expand...

I'm looking forward to this; everything you've listed in what you're doing is about what I had in mind for mine.
Why not repin to the 0411?

Eventually I will likely have my tune transfered to a 411, but at this point I just don't have the motivation for the swap . Its brutally hot here in AZ so drive way work is very un appealing.
I am however very interested in the tow/haul mode in the 411 and will eventually swap out. But in all honesty this is a purpose driven build that a carb could run. Blackbear I assume will deliver a nice black box tune to get me on the road. Truck will be hitting a dyno too once broken in and the exhaust is replaced, I am gonna try to work with the dyno shop for a before and after run of factory exhaust vs my system

BowtieBrody said:

I'm looking forward to this; everything you've listed in what you're doing is about what I had in mind for mine.
Why not repin to the 0411?

Click to expand...

This truck is running.

Broke it in with full factory exhaust, put 500 miles on her and have been working out odds and ends like brakes overhaul and a few other house keeping tasks. Cam and BlackBear tune with factory exhaust passed AZ emissions with flying colors.

Exhaust to bolt up within a couple of weeks then off to a dyno. But at this point i am already tickled, pulls my toy hauler loaded with RZR and full water at idle, so no apparent loss of bottom end with the cam but the big change is that it just flat out pulls through the RPM band till 5k RPM shift points are hit building power the whole way through.

Fez_Jet_Az said:

This truck is running.

Broke it in with full factory exhaust, put 500 miles on her and have been working out odds and ends like brakes overhaul and a few other house keeping tasks. Cam and BlackBear tune with factory exhaust passed AZ emissions with flying colors.

Exhaust to bolt up within a couple of weeks then off to a dyno. But at this point i am already tickled, pulls my toy hauler loaded with RZR and full water at idle, so no apparent loss of bottom end with the cam but the big change is that it just flat out pulls through the RPM band till 5k RPM shift points are hit building power the whole way through.

Click to expand...

Glad to hear it! Definitely report back on the dyno!

Weird, nine still seems done at 4500.