L29 454 ROUND 2........FIGHT!!!!

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marauderprime

Apprentice
Jun 21, 2016
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Well life is a series of peaks and valleys. As I was on my way to have my car looked at for an estimate to repair rear end collision damage done by a midget neckbeard Millenial with no brakes or sense in a nissan hardbody pickup, my lowered 4” in the front 3” in the rear cone filter L29 took a big drink of water during a flash monsoon. The motor Hydro-locked so bad that even after I pulled the plugs out and put and put a breaker bar with a fence post on the crank bolt, I could’t spin it forwards or backwards.

I am in the process of pulling the L29 4l80e combo as a unit, and hopefully on the ground, I’ll be able to separate the trans from the torque converter and then once the trans is out of the way, I can access the remaining bellhousing bolts.

Then the block is off to the Machine shop. Where I already have a set of Edelbrock Rovals being go e through, new seals, beehive valvesprings, Titanium retainers, etc.

Comp just came out with a new extreme Marine Efi cam that looks pretty nasty.


Xtreme Marine EFI Hydraulic Roller Camshaft
Lift: .610"/.627"
Duration: 289°/297°
RPM Range: 2500-6000

so coupled with the hollow forged pistons with valve reliefs cut in them, along with a GM forged 454 crank, and GM 454 rods, it should make for a pretty stout 468. I am hoping for 550 crank hp, and hopefully 440 to the tire by the time it runs through accessories and the 4l80e (which could eventually turn into a T56).
Also, I found the holy grail intake manifold tb setup for folks who are keeping the stock L29 wiring harness and connections. I bought a Holley Sniper EFI bbc oval port intake manifold setup. It is super bice 5.96” tall from the China Wall to the tb mount flange. It is a single plane style 4150 flange with fuel injector bungs on it, and it comes with super healthy fuel rails, and you can run either conventionalfuel injectors, or the new style ls3 short body injectors (I have traditional size 80 lb. injectors). If you are putting this in a C4 corvette and want to keep the stock hood, I believe you could get the short body injectors, then this would allow you to run a 2” drop base air cleaner, with a 2.5” round filter and an air filter 14” round flat lid, and I think it’ll fit.

I purchased an Edelbrock #4150 throttlebody (4150 is the part number in addition to the base flange pattern). It is a 1000 cfm throttlebody. It has an onboard gm style Map sensor, and it also works with the stock g-body Carbureted throttle cable. The Stock L29 Iac, Tps, and Map sensor harness plugs plug right into this throttlebody. I will attach a picture down below.

in the mean time, I discovered that my rotted rusty frame bent and tweaked in a couple of spots, one spot appears to be directly related to driveline stress, so........I picked up a new frame!!!!!

I also never really romped on it too hard because I was always afraid of destroying the 3.73 dying posi (alternating 1 wheel peel) 7.5, so I got an 8.5 3.42 posi rear from out of a buick grand national, that looks like gm made it last week!

I am going to have the frame sandblasted in the next couple of months, then I am going to have the Helwig frame fx kit put on it, as well as adding some tube steel across frame bars in a couple of strategic spots, specifically between the rear wheel arches because I am going to notch the frame all the way to the seam.
Once this is done, I am going to want to forever rustproof it.

I don’t mind spending some coin and time on Por-15, but if I sandblast this thing down to the bare metal, can I just rustoleum black the frame? Will that keep it forever safe from rust?

For the Rear end. Can I just rustoleum this bad boy for forever rust protection, or do I need to Por-15 it as well to be safe?

I live in East Central Florida 2 mins from the Intracoastal, and 10 mins from the beach, so Humid mildly salty conditions are constant.

Thanks in advance, and pictures attached below for your viewing pleasure!
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marauderprime

Apprentice
Jun 21, 2016
83
104
33
I threw some extra pictures in there. One is of the original L29 horrible common rail injection setup, that alternates between creating a very slight constant vacuum leak, and spraying fuel all over the engine bay. I finally got it to basically work, but it was terrible, and the stock L29 intake, I really wanted to keep, I had high aspirations for it in a turbocharged/forced induction setup where I thought it would keep the monster low end torque early, and as a result help spool a large frame turbo sooner, with the turbo providing the air at the top end to sort of ignore the runner length, but after alot of research, and N/A street driving I fogured out it wasn’t really going to do what I wanted it to, and with the unavailability of aftermarket fuel pressure regulators, coupled with how much trouble this intake was, I decided to ditch it. One of the pictures is of the stock L29 Map sensor that was poorly attached with a hold down clamp and was mounted with a rubber O-ring in a hole that was too big for the O-ring to seal.

these engines are so phenomenal, and there is so much potential, but man, GM made some bonehead decisions in some places that really makes me wonder how these things ran at all. They definitely had alot of dumb nickel and dime problems that you can search about over on the gmt400 forums (and are the best source of info available for these motors). 85% of all of the problems these engines had can ultimately be traced back to the Intake Manifold.

so if you are considering one of these swaps and want the EFI, your 2 options for oval port efi setups are either this one for a multiport setup, or you can do what 454 grand prix did and run the top mount tb style fast, holley, or fi-tech, which will allow you to run any carbed intake you want.
I also attached a picture of an edelbrock plenum/tb adapter that would have worked. You can bolt an lsx truck cable throtte body setup to that (almost identical to L29 just bigger) with an adapter plate and that would allow you to use all of your L29 stuff down to the intake elbow........HOWEVER!!!!!!!

you would have to run the Narrow body ls3 style injectors because as it sits that plenum adapter contacts the fuel rails with standard height injectors, so I can’t use it.

when I make the move to forced induction, I will probably revisit it and install even larger ls3 style injectors.

the 80Lb. Siemens injectors appear to have a ceiling of around 750ish at the crank on pump gas. I may step up to 125 lb.ls3 style injectors, that way I can hit 4 digit hp numbers on E85.
 

marauderprime

Apprentice
Jun 21, 2016
83
104
33
So, it's a boat motor that sucked water? I'm confused.
Hahahahaha, that technically is not an inaccurate description, since the L29 was also rebranded as the mercruiser 300hp 7.4

no, my car is super low, I drove through a lower part of the road that I couldn’t see was way more flooded than I thought, and I ended up driving t ough water that was higher than the bottom of my door, and apparently it created a small pool in my engine bay, and my low mounted giant cone filter in my super low car took a drink and hydro locked
 
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pontiacgp

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Mar 31, 2006
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It was more than hydro locked , I've seen more than one engine hydro locked and once the water removed the engines fired right up
 
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scoti

Royal Smart Person
Sep 5, 2019
1,959
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Dang.... Rear ended. Salty frame falling apart. Then the water boarding treatment (wait.... Monte Carlo SS or 'The SS MonteCarlo' ?).
Talk about a rough 2020.
 
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marauderprime

Apprentice
Jun 21, 2016
83
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Dang.... Rear ended. Salty frame falling apart. Then the water boarding treatment (wait.... Monte Carlo SS or 'The SS MonteCarlo' ?).
Talk about a rough 2020.
You have no Idea. My first daughter was born under quarantine protocols May 30th, and then I lost my dad August 16th to Covid. He was only 67 with no pre-existing conditions. He was a grandfather for 2 and a half months. Wrenching takes my mind off of all of this BS, so The more I have to work on, the better.
 
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mc1984ss

Master Mechanic
May 18, 2020
293
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I am terribly sorry to hear about your dad. Congratulations on being a new dad, nothing could be better. I'm looking forward to the efi BBC, thinking of doing the same in the future
 

scoti

Royal Smart Person
Sep 5, 2019
1,959
3,365
113
Texas
You have no Idea. My first daughter was born under quarantine protocols May 30th, and then I lost my dad August 16th to Covid. He was only 67 with no pre-existing conditions. He was a grandfather for 2 and a half months. Wrenching takes my mind off of all of this BS, so The more I have to work on, the better.
Congrats & condolences. I lost a parent (my mom) in this mess as well.

Hopefully your daughter & significant other are doing well.
 

marauderprime

Apprentice
Jun 21, 2016
83
104
33
Dang.... Rear ended. Salty frame falling apart. Then the water boarding treatment (wait.... Monte Carlo SS or 'The SS MonteCarlo' ?).
Talk about a rough 2020.
Oh, and speaking of a rotten 2020, this happened too! Before pictures the day I bought it the evening before I dropped it off at The Vette Doctor Inc.

scroll down towards the bottom for the after pictures.

 
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