E85 500 HP 383 with a L31 truck intake

[alpinecrick]

Mind you I wont do this myself. I have neither the time or patience to do these mods. Most I will do is brakes, hoses, belts 7 sparkplugs cause I hate the 8th one by the starter. Fudge that.

So you're going to run a 7 cylinder truck?

I'm thinking adding that 8th cylinder would be worth all the other proposed upgrades combined..........










Cheaper too.

 

[PlayingWithTBI]

TX does a sniff test?!? Even NYS doesn't do that, and they are the strictest next to Commifornia.

Here in Maricopa county they do a rolling dyno sniff test for OBDI, for OBDII they only hook up to the PCM and look for codes or recent resets. Other counties don't care.

 

[L31MaxExpress]

TX does a sniff test?!? Even NYS doesn't do that, and they are the strictest next to Commifornia. Only thing here is the check engine light can't be on, and has to pass a safety inspection.

No sniff test, but kinda hard to pass a visual without EGR. For years they never looked, now with the EPA cracking down and Texas running alot of law enforcement vehicles through with inspectors facing large fines the inspectors are actually taking the time to look things over better. The stroker is visually no different than the 350, the aluminum heads are not an issue and the headers have a California EO number, EGR fitting and the cats are in the stock location. I still run 3" cats. The cam is also completely masked by the Rhoads lifters and quiet muffler, idles very smoothly with ZERO lope. Had very little noticeable lope with the previous 232/244 @ 0.050, 108 LSA, .640 lift cam and 1.7 rocker setup. They really don't care about cold air intake systems. I have heard you will also fail now with monitors that are disabled in the tune that should be otherwise ready for that year model. Monitors showing N/A rather than Complete when the EGR is disabled in the tuning for example.

 

[b454rat]

Wow, I think that is worse than NY!! Here it kinda depends who you know. But, if a station does the inspection “the right way” they would lose their ass. An inspection is $21, but to do it by NYS standards takes over 2 hours. At today’s current shop rate how they supposed to make money?? Place I still go to lost their license cause they did too many ina a day with only 2 inspectors. I plan on cat delete and EGR delete. Place I go doesn’t even open the hood lol. I’m not 100% bout the monitors, but seems it doesn’t affect it cause there is many LS’s running around with stuff turned off. I’ll have to find out tho....

 

[L31MaxExpress]

Spent my afternoon tearing apart the passenger side suspension. Replaced the ball joints. Also changing the ABS sensors. Ordered new tie rod ends. The energy suspension bushings are still in great shape although I did drive the center section out of them and covered them with the grease from energy before driving them back in. Hopefully fixes the annoying squeaking. Was reminded of how much of a PITA these control arms and springs are yet again.

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[L31MaxExpress]

Well I am waiting on a more solid spring compressor now.

Spent the afternoon finishing the intake manifold and painting it. Also painted the gold oil pan flat black. Took apart the accessory setup and have all the brackets soaking in a tub of simple green and water. Will be painting the brackets natural aluminum.

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[L31MaxExpress]

I also got some pictures of the manifold port work I have done on this. Also took comparison pictures vs the manifold I had smoothed out for the 305 in the Tahoe but had left the ports at the manifold flange almost stock. These manifolds have alot of material on the cylinder head flange end. The ports on the plenum end are already alot larger than the head end. Just need to clean up the radius up top and smooth out the casting flash. It looks rough to the camera but it is smooth to the finger. Best way to clean the carbon mess on this manifold is to hpse it down with brake parts cleaner a couple of times. Then once that dries up, drop it into a tub of simple green and water. Left it overnight and the carbon just melted off of it. Also took a picture of Lloyd Elliots port work vs the stock Vortec intake gasket. I could have gone more on the ports but they already outflow the valve throat, valve and seat. Even with the stock port at the manifold flange after cleaning the ports up and removing the casting flash they outflow the stock Vortec head.

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[L31MaxExpress]

This is what the plenum end looks like. I am waiting on narrow body non self aligning rocker arms, short poly locks and 3/8" studs. Will be attempting to fit the valvetrain under stock valve covers. The driverside valve cover came out really clean after some simple green soaking and elbow grease, despite having been on the van since 2006 when the crate engine went into it. The passenger side needs to be repainted since it is the stock one built for the van in 1996. I think I like the factory valve cover look better than the polished aluminum cover look.

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[L31MaxExpress]

New oil pan for this engine. 7qt capacity. Don't pay any mind to the LQ9 6.0L block in the corner. It is for another build.

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[Erik the Awful]

Wow, pic #4. It kills me how poorly GM cast these.