Three Month Update on the Mayne Queen
Based on recommendations from people such as Eric the awful, and Brian at TBI Chips, I blew my budget out of the water at summit racing. This did not included the 500.00 CAD in coolant, oil, gaskets, fittings, and hoses required. It took nearly a month and a half for all the parts to arrive! I was luckily able to borrow our shop at school for a few weeks and dove into it right away. I was met with some disappointment with the bosses in the block not being drilled and tapped. From what I researched, I thought it was likely that they would be. An afternoon with a drill and a tap and die and the bosses were ready. I had one heck of a time removing the power steering pulley as the pulley was rusted onto the shaft. It ate through two pullers before it popped off. Once the accessories were all removed, I made my way underneath and removed the oil pan and fuel tank so I could install the timing set and fuel pump. I went with a Vortec Pump that I ordered from amazon a couple years ago. I had to modify the pump on the bottom to have it fit a TBI sending unit and rubber bumper on the bottom. I would recommend coming into the shop with an empty pan. As for the oil pan, I know I can loosen the pan and that's fine enough. I figured being a 25 year old truck that it was in need of a fresh gasket set. I wish you could have seen my face when I realized the challenge of pulling a oil pan on a 4wd. Down went the tranfercase, and out slipped the oil pan into the solvent tank to be degreased. I moved back into the timing cover to look at the timing set and water pump. Bosses were once again drilled and tapped and the trust plate was installed. I snugged up the two thrust plate bolts with an allen key and blue lock tightened them. ( I hope that snugging them is good enough) The chain was in great shape as were the gears, however, with the new roller set, it needed a matching timing gear as well. The set seemed a little on the cheap side even though it was Chevy Performance. Was quite shocked. The reviews online suggest it was a pretty good quality set. It was quite tricky finding a way to line it up perfectly. I suggest taking your time and playing around with the set. The new gears are very close together compared to the old set. I installed the damper and nearly stripped out the crank shaft threads. Make sure you use the correct puller. Lesson learned. Roller lifters, dog bones, spiders, were in next. No complaints and very easy to install. I locked tightened the spider tray to the bosses. Then came 3 hours of head prep. Head gaskets were the felpro 501sd gaskets. I saw Eric the car guy use these on his Dad's Truck and wanted to give them a try. Heads were cleaned up and resurfaced in down. Once all was said and done, the bill for the heads was 600.00 CAD. Yikes. I think I maintained my composure really well when I paid the bill. Protip: don't run your Arp bolts through the oil passage on your head.. its not a bolt hole! I think I peed my pants when my passenger side head did a bunny hop on the engine block. Woops, I hope there are no repercussions to that... too late now! I drilled the bypass on the passenger side earlier on and I hope that will be enough to stop any over heating issues. Thank you Eric, If I didn't know that, that would be an unpleasant surprise. Intake manifold went on.. twice as I was paranoid that I did not have enough RTV around the water passages and the rear china wall. I suspect that last time I did this I had an Oil leak. I thought it was a rear main seal but upon inspection, my hunch is Rear Intake. I hope I was right. A heads up the the intake manifold bolts are different than both TBI and SBC intake bolts. Be sure to purchase the correct bolt sets or you will be scrambling like me during the install process. Spark Plugs were 44LTS as recommended by Brain at TBI Chips. They were installed with MSD 8.5 spark plug wire that were custom cut and fit to the engine. I've come to realize that I had doing plug wires. I have never swore so much. Brake booster was re routed to the rear and the heater core lines were also modified. GRRR such a pain in the neck. I am going for first start up in a couple day and I am very nervous and excited. I have three big things that are keeping me up at night: The Valve Lash, the Ignition timing, and the pushrod length. If those are all good, I think we will have a successful start up with little to know diagnosing! Wish me luck!
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Based on recommendations from people such as Eric the awful, and Brian at TBI Chips, I blew my budget out of the water at summit racing. This did not included the 500.00 CAD in coolant, oil, gaskets, fittings, and hoses required. It took nearly a month and a half for all the parts to arrive! I was luckily able to borrow our shop at school for a few weeks and dove into it right away. I was met with some disappointment with the bosses in the block not being drilled and tapped. From what I researched, I thought it was likely that they would be. An afternoon with a drill and a tap and die and the bosses were ready. I had one heck of a time removing the power steering pulley as the pulley was rusted onto the shaft. It ate through two pullers before it popped off. Once the accessories were all removed, I made my way underneath and removed the oil pan and fuel tank so I could install the timing set and fuel pump. I went with a Vortec Pump that I ordered from amazon a couple years ago. I had to modify the pump on the bottom to have it fit a TBI sending unit and rubber bumper on the bottom. I would recommend coming into the shop with an empty pan. As for the oil pan, I know I can loosen the pan and that's fine enough. I figured being a 25 year old truck that it was in need of a fresh gasket set. I wish you could have seen my face when I realized the challenge of pulling a oil pan on a 4wd. Down went the tranfercase, and out slipped the oil pan into the solvent tank to be degreased. I moved back into the timing cover to look at the timing set and water pump. Bosses were once again drilled and tapped and the trust plate was installed. I snugged up the two thrust plate bolts with an allen key and blue lock tightened them. ( I hope that snugging them is good enough) The chain was in great shape as were the gears, however, with the new roller set, it needed a matching timing gear as well. The set seemed a little on the cheap side even though it was Chevy Performance. Was quite shocked. The reviews online suggest it was a pretty good quality set. It was quite tricky finding a way to line it up perfectly. I suggest taking your time and playing around with the set. The new gears are very close together compared to the old set. I installed the damper and nearly stripped out the crank shaft threads. Make sure you use the correct puller. Lesson learned. Roller lifters, dog bones, spiders, were in next. No complaints and very easy to install. I locked tightened the spider tray to the bosses. Then came 3 hours of head prep. Head gaskets were the felpro 501sd gaskets. I saw Eric the car guy use these on his Dad's Truck and wanted to give them a try. Heads were cleaned up and resurfaced in down. Once all was said and done, the bill for the heads was 600.00 CAD. Yikes. I think I maintained my composure really well when I paid the bill. Protip: don't run your Arp bolts through the oil passage on your head.. its not a bolt hole! I think I peed my pants when my passenger side head did a bunny hop on the engine block. Woops, I hope there are no repercussions to that... too late now! I drilled the bypass on the passenger side earlier on and I hope that will be enough to stop any over heating issues. Thank you Eric, If I didn't know that, that would be an unpleasant surprise. Intake manifold went on.. twice as I was paranoid that I did not have enough RTV around the water passages and the rear china wall. I suspect that last time I did this I had an Oil leak. I thought it was a rear main seal but upon inspection, my hunch is Rear Intake. I hope I was right. A heads up the the intake manifold bolts are different than both TBI and SBC intake bolts. Be sure to purchase the correct bolt sets or you will be scrambling like me during the install process. Spark Plugs were 44LTS as recommended by Brain at TBI Chips. They were installed with MSD 8.5 spark plug wire that were custom cut and fit to the engine. I've come to realize that I had doing plug wires. I have never swore so much. Brake booster was re routed to the rear and the heater core lines were also modified. GRRR such a pain in the neck. I am going for first start up in a couple day and I am very nervous and excited. I have three big things that are keeping me up at night: The Valve Lash, the Ignition timing, and the pushrod length. If those are all good, I think we will have a successful start up with little to know diagnosing! Wish me luck!
