It's been a while since I've actively posted on this board, been real busy with other turbo kits, tuning and my real job.

Now, it's time to start the build on my S10. First, the backstory - I bought this thing about 1.5 years ago as a pile of parts and paid a bit too much for it at 1,000$. It had a complete drivetrain, but it was critically injured..so, I proceeded to search for a good Vortec 350. FFWD to late last winter - I got it all running, moved into my new house, and at the same time found my fresh, junk parts 350 with my new Vortec heads had a flat cam. No biggie, took it back out of the truck, got a new cam, some break in additive, and a set of bearings just in case - come to find out, that was a good choice - the other 'new' bearings were trashed from the cam going flat. Got it all put back together and slowly (in between customer cars) put the interior, guages, and Ford explorer 8.8 in it. This video is running with that setup.



It was painfully obvious that there was something wrong with it - one, it had a wierd stumble (heard in video). Second, the converter was WAY too tight. I had an opportunity to sell the engine and trans AND stumbled across a 5.3L (L33) that had 'lifter noise". So, I did both - the engine out of the truck sold on the first day on craiglist and 93wannabe had the L33 at his place, so I picked it up as well.

I got the engine home, got it on a stand and started tearing into it - I didn't want to put it in the S10 without checking out the alleged lifter noise problem. I tore it down to the shortblock and didn't find anything wrong with it. The bearings looked as if it were brand new (the exterior looked like it was in the bottom of a lake though). I checked each lifter and found nothing wrong. Ok, no biggie. Couldn't go any further because I didn't have a way to get the balancer off (my puller was too big, doh).

It was time to get back to work on my customer's car anyways. So, FFWD another week or so - I got a puller today, took it the rest of the way apart and found the first lobe on the cam to be pretty ate up. Ah ha, now it makes sense. No bearing on the cam/lifter problem - but this engine had Royal purple in it, the insides were spotless. Supposedly this came from a fleet vehicle, and that was supposed to be all they ever ran in them.

Transmission time - backup a couple weeks, I was looking on CL again, but this time for a 200-R4 core...and ended up finding a virgin powerglide core that was about 3 miles from my trans guy's house. That was a monumental feat in itself, he lives out right in the MIDDLE of BFE. The guy I got the trans from had it in a shed that was in the middle of a pasture! I was certain we'd find bodies out there or something, he was a STRANGE dude. Anyways, picked up the trans and took it straight to the trans guy's place and took it apart. It wound up bieng a virgin 1.76 low gearset and appeared to have never been apart. Score @ 120$.

Since the engine was disassembled, I ordered a re-ring kit (500$!!!) for the 5.3L and also got a 'brake, and some other misc stuff ordered for the 5.3L/powerglide swap.

Now for the good part, the pictures. For the first few posts (maybe just the first one, not sure) the pics will be out of order - I've been holding out on a build thread till I had some worthy material.

*engine already sourced - 5.3L
*Trans already sourced - powerglide
*induction already sourced - I have choices, 2 X 76MM chinese turbos (just like what was used in the car craft build), single T6 83MM, or a single 76MM.
*I have almost all the tubing from previous kits, should be plenty enough to get me started.
*Megasquirt III with datalogging, boost control etc.
*Ford Explorer 8.8 with 31 spline axles and 3.73's.
*Fuel system was already installed for blowthrough on the GenI sbc, I just need to change regulators to work with the Aeromotive eliminator pump and EFI. (Truck has 132002 on it now)

The truck before and after lowering. This is with multileaf springs and blocks, before the calvert springs and sliders were installed.
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First, misc rear end build pics (more to come, or upon request). The calvert split leaf monoleaf springs and my custom made sliders.
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Interior. Showing the C2 guages and wideband.
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The 5.3L - looks like it came from the bottom of a lake.
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will be watching this one close... currently have an lq4 with single turbo running 10.82 on 10psi in a sonoma but wanna go L33 and bigger single for my t4 hotside and shed some weight.

looks like a good start man

 

Good project, keep it rolling.

 

I have a couple more random pictures...There's likely to be a mix of camera phone and then some halfway decent ones done with an actual camera. enjoy.

The old engine, GenI with Vortec 906 heads.

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The truck after the cal trac and split monoleaf install. Also, note stock shock location sucks. I have a fix for that, coming up soon.

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More of the L33.. first one is probably the 'lifter noise' they spoke of

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Minor amount of progress tonight, nothing exciting - got the crank sat down in the block and pistons cleaned up. Hopefully by this weekend, the engine will be done or close to done. The only holdup now is time - we have to dyno a couple of other cars this weekend... a couple of turbomustangs.

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In the upcoming weeks, I have to decide on what turbo to use, or turbos. As I mentioned before, I have a couple of the chinese 76MM T4's. As soon as I got them home, I took them apart to check them out. The only thing I saw that I didn't care for was the heavy metal balancing pieces that are in the tip of the compressor wheel, under the nut. (the look like 3 or 4 dots in the pics). I can't remember if I mentioend it above, I have an 83MM T6 Garret turbo that's pushed my friends car to 5.20's... that's also an option.

Enjoy.

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Sounds like a lot of fun. Maybe I missed it, what are your plans for your hotside?

 

I vaguely mentioned it, but I probalby won't know for sure till the engine is actually sitting in the truck. As seen in the picture of the engine, I have the manifolds - but it's a matter of if they will fit the way I want to use them. Making headers is not out of the question, I have all of the primary tubing already, along with collectors. Not even totally sure if I'll end up with an intercooler or not...

 

Share the difference that the sliders/monos made.
What seats are those?
What did you do to her hand in the pic with the turbo apart?
Whos blood stain in the pic of the truck in 4wd mode?
I would like to see you stuff two 76s in there with the radiator in stock location intercooled if you got the....

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I didn't get a good comparison as to what difference the sliders/mono's made because the stock shock location sucks and they bottom at the slightest bump - that will be fixed before the spring time and documented in this thread. I have a pretty slick solution that will incorporate stock type shocks, or possibly mustang shocks.

LOL, her hand was cut up by a soup can of all things - not me.

Blood stain is actually rusty water out of her car (has a bad waterpump gasket). It's getting a new engine this winter I hope.

The 76's got sold tonight, but it's still gonna be twins. Those 76's are just too much for this motor (compressor wise) and the turbines were .81's. It was easier to sell them and get some 61's with a .69 turbine. The intercooler, if I use one, will have to go horizontally under the front. There's just no room in front of the radiator.

 

Why not go A/W behing the firewall, or in the bed? I'd prob just put it in the passenger floor well, then through the ice/water tank in the box. Could be done on a budget.

 

Budget is a small concern, I don't want to go wild with it - That's what the car is for. (build thread on that this winter)

I'm not overly excited about air/water on this particular setup - trying to keep it fairly low maintenance. I drive this thing everywhere, so it has to be semi-comfortable for myself and a passenger - so having an air/water intercooler in the passenger foot well probably won't happen... Now, behind the dash.... maybe someday, but probably not this time around.

Oh, and found some 76's with a smaller turbine - may end up with a different pair after all.. hmmm..

 

I'll be watching this build. got a s10 project myself.
now as for the lifter problem. ive been working as a tech for GM for a lil while now and see this a lot. i would suggest getting rid of those liter trays because they are the cause of the problem. what happens is the lifter twist in that plastic sleeve and cause the roller to be perpendicular to the lobe and to dig into the cam. Lunati and a few other companies make lifters that use the traditional bar to keep each set of lifters true

 

I'll check into the lifter trays, but the lifters themselves were spotless and the cam doesn't really show any signs of a lifter that was spun - more like one that the roller just went on break temporarily.

I have some progress pics to post up, but the camera is outside. I'll post them up later today.

 

Ah ah oh oh powder powder powder!!!! Sandblast sanblast!!

I think I know the female in the background too!

 

yup yup. Looks like no updates till this coming weekend most likely. I have to order the new turbos, manual brake conversion kit, and FPR. :raz:

 

that thing is gonna fly! i had sliders on my old camaro, worked very well

 

Do the LS motors have forged pistons,I love the sliders I was thinking of makeing some for my car,nice build looking forward to seeing more !!

 

Not that I'm really worried about it - Man, I hope you're right!

No forged pistons here, or at least not that I'm aware of.

sometime after this weekend I hope to be getting back after it - the car I was working on is finally done and due to be dyno'd and picked up this weekend.

 

I don't have much progress to report other than the new turbos came in. I sold the original ones posted above because they had huge .81 a/r turbine and a huge wheel. Their replacements have the same 76mm compressor, but a .68 a/r turbine and a much smaller wheel. Not sure how the 5.3 is going to like that..

These turbos came from the same vendor I got the last ones from, but they have a gold back plate, and metric fasteners this time around. Looks like they have some sort of serial number too.
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Not a expert but I thought if it had flat top pistons then its a 4.8....?