1995 Silverado K1500 father/son build

[clgodwin79]

So, since I was an idiot and had to make an extra trip to the machine shop before my engine was ready, I got a sneak peek on the progress and got to take some pictures!! It's looking pretty amazing to me. I'm guessing it'll be ready for me to pick it up by the end of the week. You can still see where there's old cooked on oil in the valley. I'm guessing that it got hot a few times and that the dude didn't change the oil regularly at all!! But it must not have gotten too hot. My stock Vortec heads were still in good shape and passed the magnafluxing with flying colors and no cracks!! So since I'm going for a little more HP, I had him pull the stock press in rocker studs and turn them down for the beefier bolt in style, as well as turn down the valve guides for the matching valve seals!! I'm not going with any crazy rocker setup. When I talked to my machine shop guy, he said that for the cam I'm putting in it and the HP #'s that I'm looking for, that factory long slot rockers will work fine and make the engine more reliable over time since I won't have to worry about the possibility of a roller failing.

Yes, I'm staying with a hydraulic roller cam setup, but it's fairly mild. I guess what you'd call an RV cam. I'll post exact cam #'s when I get my engine and of course let you all know how it runs when I'm done.

I think that with the spider injector upgrade, my factory fuel injection should be good to around 350 HP or so, which should more than get me to my 300ish goal. However, to truly get the full potential out of how I'm building this engine, I'll have to do a 411 PCM swap for tunability purposes. Anyone know a reputable place to tune a 411 for a 5.7 L31 Vortec engine slightly built up?

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[clgodwin79]

The valves cleaned up REALLY well in my opinion and look amazing!! So, I obviously also had a basic valve job done keeping my factory valves on top of having the rocker arm stud and valve seal work done.

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[clgodwin79]

I mostly just have to clean up the outside of the block and heads now and they'll be ready for paint!! Can you tell that I'm excited?!?! But I think that my son is even more excited than I am for sure!! Understandably so!! I would have loved to have done this as a kid, but I didn't have that type of dad. You know, the kind who actually cares about his kids!! lol

Anyway, so I'm going overboard making up for it with mine. And the goal is to get this truck built and preserved well enough that one day he'll be able to work on it with his future kids. That's the one disadvantage to this, and I've already told him. And that's that while this is HIS truck, even though I'm funding it, he's not ever allowed to sell it or get rid of it. So when he's ready to move on and get his next vehicle I'll take this one back to my house until he's grown and has a place for it. And I also threatened his life for if he ever wrecks it!! Lol

 

[clgodwin79]

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[clgodwin79]

Ok, now we're all caught up. From now on all posts will be in real time. I'm also going to make my son sign up for the forum so he can update it and post as well.

 

[MrPink]

Nice build so far.

 

[clgodwin79]

Guess who just stopped by the machine shop for no apparent reason?!?!

Don’t those bolt in rocker studs and shiny valves look pretty??

I’m just waiting on the custom grind 4/7 swap cam to be finished and shipped and my stuff will be ready for me to pick it up. Apparently Covid is also causing a lot of engine part shortages as well. Who knew?

Anyway, if you don’t know, a 4/7 swap cam just gets your firing order almost to what modern LS engines use. And that by itself is good for around 12 HP of low end and mid range power. Which is exactly where you want it in a truck. Add that to my slightly more aggressive grind and I should be really close to my 300 HP goal!

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[clgodwin79]

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[clgodwin79]

Nice build so far.

Thanks!

 

[Frank Enstein]

Ask the machine shop guy how much to do a 30 degree back cut on the valves. It is usually very inexpensive and can be worth up to 25 ft. lbs. of torque especially on the low end of the range!