Starting my engine build

[Grumpy old man]

A big sheet of plastic to cover the floor / SAFETY glasses / and a lot of elbow grease . Just as with ANY paint project PREP/PREP/PREP the longer you work on cleaning it the longer it will stay looking good . Remember you have a young family and I know everyone says "I'll never sell it " But in all reality these trucks are a considerable investment and a ton of fun BUT If you ever HAVE to sell one the time you spend building it right now could seriously pay off someday down the road .The prices are climbing to crazy levels for nice trucks .

[Tynee]

Originally Posted by tcrist

Matt,

Remember also that there are two little cutouts on the shaft of the torque converter that has to line up with the pump in the trans.

If you do not do this when installing the engine then you will be replacing the trans or have to have it fixed. When installing the torque converter, spin it and press it towards the back of the trans until it clicks in. I believe it will take two clicks / steps so seat it correctly. The torque converter should set inward of the bell housing about 3/4 to 1".

More later if needed.

This is good advice, not to be taken lightly. It's easy to seat it to the first notch, and think it's good to go. It ain't. A buddy I was helping install a TH400 got to buy a new one once because we didn't know this.

[ptc]

Originally Posted by Mrturner1

You can also see by the colors on the valves and combustion chambers just how far off the timing was. I hadn't bought a timing light yet and timed it by ear with the distributor. Some power to be gained there as well I'm sure.

The thing is though, as cool as all this stuff is to find, I had no idea what was in the motor before, I just knew it was fast and sounded really really awesome when it was idling and when you had the throttle wide open.

Now I have an opportunity to make it my own, and know every detail about it which is really what I wanted. I'm not an expert, but I think there's no way those GM heads can flow and make power like the Pro Toplines I got, even though they are way cool old school heads.

Just catching up here lately... this thread is moving at the speed of LITE!!!

I found a cool article on heads a while back when I was looking for the perfect matches for my build (A BBC but still the same info on building) Again not trying to harp on bigger is better, or more expensive is better or BEST.... but this shows proof that a $600 ProJUNK head can produce the same type of results as a HIGH DOLLAR Brodix.... This is a big deal considering the Pro Comp heads cost 3X LESS money and people would generally consider 3X less PERFORMANCE TOO!!!

With N/A Motors.... It is all about AIR FLOW.... and heads are where all that happens. I have a dual-quad tunnel ram on my boat engine and port matching and polishing that monster to 990 Iron-heads and polishing them made about a 25% gain over what it was originally in air flow numbers. Thats a good 'time investment'.... I think.

http://www.airflowresearch.com/super...-315cc-bbc.php

[Mrturner1]

Still scraping the old paint off, much harder than I though but a nice freshly painted engine will make me happy

[Mrturner1]

Opposite side, I put the pan and filter on to help with contamination

[Mrturner1]

Pic

[Mrturner1]

After 10 hours of prep, I finally got to hit it with a coat of primer, which took 10 minutes haha

[Mrturner1]

More pics

[Grumpy old man]

Good for you ! Are you happier now with taking it out ?

[Mrturner1]

Originally Posted by Grumpy old man

Good for you ! Are you happier now with taking it out ?

Very happy. And I'm glad I decided to let up a bit and really dig in to the prep, it makes a world of difference

[tcrist]

Matt,

Did you mask the seal in the timing chain cover? A bit hard to tell from the picture.

If not, you might need to change the seal. That paint can dry it out.

[toolboxchev]

Thinking forward a suggestion, pull those old freeze plugs, replace with brass. Also the 1/2 inch drain plug and put a good brass one in there. You will get a better idea of the water jackets by doing so.

You can clean a lot of debris out of the cooling system while you have it on the stand.


It may reveal something you do not wish to deal with in the future that can be remedied now.

[Average Joe]

Lookin' good!

[Mrturner1]

Originally Posted by tcrist

Matt,

Did you mask the seal in the timing chain cover? A bit hard to tell from the picture.

If not, you might need to change the seal. That paint can dry it out.

I masked the crank nose coming out of the block but not the seal. I'll see if I can get the paint off and hopefully it doesn't dry it out

[Mrturner1]

Originally Posted by toolboxchev

Thinking forward a suggestion, pull those old freeze plugs, replace with brass. Also the 1/2 inch drain plug and put a good brass one in there. You will get a better idea of the water jackets by doing so.

You can clean a lot of debris out of the cooling system while you have it on the stand.


It may reveal something you do not wish to deal with in the future that can be remedied now.

I'm picking up some brass plugs tomarrow, I'll have to find a brass drain plug as well, thanks for the tip!

[Mrturner1]

Originally Posted by Average Joe

Lookin' good!

Thanks!

[Mrturner1]

Painting the oil pan was a last minute decision, it's chrome and I cleaned it up nice, but after seeing pics of davepl's engine and Grumpy's, I decided to rough it up a bit and spray it. I'm thinking I want to do the water pump as well so tomorrow I'll have to clean it. It's the nastiest part I removed.

[Mrturner1]

Is there a particular kind of paint to use on the engine bay? That's going to be quite a project. The PO made a rats nest out of the wiring harness

[swamp rat]

High temp engine enamel like VHT brand but there are others at hardware stores like Dupli color Rustolium ect..

High temp chevy orange, high temp chevy red or high temp black. Talk to the auto parts store

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skxUcDGZNX4

http://www.autozone.com/paint-and-body/engine-paint

http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/se...0487/C0171.oap

http://duplicolor.com/product/engine...l-with-ceramic
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[BrianG]

Originally Posted by Mrturner1

Painting the oil pan was a last minute decision, it's chrome and I cleaned it up nice, but after seeing pics of davepl's engine and Grumpy's, I decided to rough it up a bit and spray it. I'm thinking I want to do the water pump as well so tomorrow I'll have to clean it. It's the nastiest part I removed.

Just a thought on the water pump, I'm pretty sure that they are fairly cheap. You may want to look into just replacing it. You would use your old one as a core. Just another little bit of insurance of one more thing being new.

[Mrturner1]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

High temp engine enamel like VHT brand but there are others at hardware stores like Dupli color Rustolium ect..

High temp chevy orange, high temp chevy red or high temp black. Talk to the auto parts store

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skxUcDGZNX4

http://www.autozone.com/paint-and-body/engine-paint

http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/se...0487/C0171.oap

http://duplicolor.com/product/engine...l-with-ceramic
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.

I grabbed some Chevy orange when I picked up the primer. I was thinking of doing the short block Chevy orange and the engine bay black as it is already. Been looking at Google images and seeing a lot of nice engine color combos. I like simple but clean, and just a touch of chrome

[Mrturner1]

Another thing I'm worried about is the balancer. Mine is definitely very old and the rubber is in bad shape around the circumference. Can you just buy a balancer and install or is that something that needs to be balanced by a shop? Never replaced one.

[GRX]

Originally Posted by Mrturner1

Another thing I'm worried about is the balancer. Mine is definitely very old and the rubber is in bad shape around the circumference. Can you just buy a balancer and install or is that something that needs to be balanced by a shop? Never replaced one.

Yes. Definitely replace it. The Dorman brand are good for a stock application. Your engine is internally balanced so no need taking it to the shop. There are 8" and 6.75" diameter units. Use the 8" if you can. Being a truck engine it probably had the larger, but you never know.

[slotard]

I know it was a while ago that you said it, but...

You said you have a torque wrench rated at 25-250ft*lb. I don't tend to trust them under about 1/4 of their maximum rating, even if their minimum rating is fairly low. If you have a reasonable way of testing it and it tests good that's a different story.

What brand is it?

Good luck with everything. I hope reassembly goes well.

[Mrturner1]

Color is done, just waiting for it to dry