93 K2500 Suburban 454 Holley Sniper Upgrade

[LC2NLS6]

Ok, further research, those cavities are blind, all good.

"All production big-block heads had an exhaust crossover passage between the two pairs of siamesed intake ports. The casting cavities above and below the center exhaust crossover are blind cavities that don’t connect to anything. Some aftermarket intake manifolds don’t cover the upper opening, which does not cause any problems."

 

[LC2NLS6]

Some progress. Took death wheel to trim the timing cover ears on the back, maybe half an inch, forgot to get a pic, but went maybe a little towards center so that I could throw it back under the block without removing the oil pan. Brakekleen and silicone (ultra grey). Installed timing cover and balancer and crank pulley. Tightened up the front accessory bracket as you have to take it loose or death wheel the thing to get the balancer off. Hint, make sure the timing tabs (mine had 2) are clear of the balancer on the way back on.

Death wheel clearanced the front of the intake. to fit the factory mega steel hold down for the pulley bracket. Had to unbolt to rear lifting eye as well to get the intake to dry fit, it was only one bolt - odd.

Now waiting on a 1/2 npt tap on order to clean up the threads so I can bottom the hex cap deep in the intake (I'll loctite/sealer it so it doesn't move)

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[LC2NLS6]

Ok on the parts front, got the efi fast bracket for the throttle cable, $75, then another $100 in paint, gloves, thermostat (stock one didn't fit, guessing its older mark IV size tstat), the 1/2 npt tap, and more brake cleaner spray cans. So add $175. I'll revise final spreadsheet at the end when she is running. Oh, and battery sawzall to "replace" muffler with the summit welded straight thru and "replace" the cat. I had pipe and clamps etc, laying around, but that's another few bucks and Ithink the sawzall is 129 right now from home depot for my M18 milwalkee batteries.

 

[LC2NLS6]

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[Schurkey]

1. "Thanks", Weiand, for offshoring the intake manifolds to The Most Reprehensible Nation on Earth; where "quality' and "integrity" are extremely optional. Fookin' Chinese.

2. If you're using non-stock valve springs, you probably want to re-think those valve rotators. The part of the rotator that the valve spring sits on isn't "flat", it's got a slight angle to it, and I don't think stiffer springs would appreciate being parked on top of a slight "cone". At least, my Gen 6 / L29 valve spring rotators were angled, and hit the scrap metal bin in favor of rotator eliminator shims.

3. Is your valve lift going to be greater than those spring-steel sleeves around the valve springs will allow?

4. I'm glad I'm not the only person that uses a torque-wrench on intake bolts. Thanks for that.

And don't buy a cheap compression tester to hack into a valve spring inflator tool, they use some cheap chinese fittings that aren't going to go into a regular air hose.

I ended up with three Chinese compression testers in an eBay lot I purchased. Grabbed one, screwed the hose into the spark plug hole, connected the gauge, cranked the engine. Cylinder turned out to be OK.

Then I tried to get the hose back out of the spark plug hole. The threaded metal fitting was "seized" in the plug hole, while the crimped-on rubber hose just spun on the fitting. I had to rip the crimped-on hose off the fitting, then vice-grip/EZ-Out the threaded fitting from the spark plug hole.

Fookin' Chinese AND the Communist Collaborators in this country.

 

[CrustyJunker]

Looks great. Finished assembly looks right at the edge of your hood clearance, too!

 

[LC2NLS6]

Yeah, the hood insulation hits, I'll have to run a 2 inch filter, and shorten the cleaner stud.

Coil bind, I think you are looking at the pic before I removed the stock springs. I measured installed height with the rotator on teh comp springs that came with the 'kit'. It was I think 1.95, whatever it was .05 ish taller than they said, which is perfect since its a flat tappet and lighter than spec installed height seat pressure. .503 lift should be fine, no coil bind or piston supposedly, but I didn't pull a head to check.

I'm perfectly fine grinding parts, nothing ever fits everything, not stock. Case in point, new custom race SS hand welded headers for my turbo race car. Fit perfect, until I went to put the downpipe on. Argh, needs to move out half inch to clear the new bigger up pipe, ok, fixed that, and now that hits the firewall, out comes the torch, hammer and deathwheel, then that hits the plastic inner fender...then the exhaust hangar needs to move up and over a lot as the downpipe is 4 ft long ish and half inch there is a lot more than that 4 feet out. I think they call this "clearancing" lol

 

[LC2NLS6]

Did I mention I spent an hour or more running a tap through the water jacket holes in the manifold (ran out of wd-40 in the process yikes). 1/2 npt, they must have used a worn out tap that day. I took a ton of metal running taps. All good though.

Hyperspark is set at #1 with the clear cap trick. I don't know why there was a huge oring in the dizzy kit, didn't use that, just the two small ones at the bottom.

Radiator, coolant, oil change (to install the CompCams break-in oil) and stock wiring gets hooked up today, then I'll start finding +12v switched while cranking sorted out.

 

[LC2NLS6]

I can't decide if I want to snip all the factory unused plugs off, or leave them in case I yank the holley and slap the stock tbi back on when I buy another one. Let me answer it, have I ever unmodified anything back to stock? No. Time to snip and tuck.

 

[Erik the Awful]

I did the same. There's always another harness at the junkyard.