L29 454 swap

[marauderprime]

Partial Update

Well, not a whole lot more pictures, but we are agonizingly closer. I imagine I must have purchased the same budget headers from speedway that I thought fit as 454 Grand Prix

I need different BBC 454 headers for my swap. Help?

I thought I had this base covered. This morning, I learned otherwise. :( Last Thursday, I spent all afternoon grinding my car and denting my (used, unknown brand, 1 3/4") header tubes in order to make them fit onto my engine. The driver's side now clears by a mile; the passenger side is...

gbodyforum.com

We got the fuel pump primed, and confirmed it works. We officially have pressure at the rail, and we were on a mad mission to complete everything, when I then spent the next 4 hours getting my butt kicked by the speedway headers. The 120 dollar speedway shorties do not fit. The driver side kind of fit after I "clearanced" the primary tube closest to the steering shaft, but I can't use the stock L29 oil filter (which admittedly is huge. I may explore using a smaller oil filter). The passenger side looked like a victim of angry vandalization by the time I got done with it, and it really still doesn't fit at all.

Since I am planning on going turbo after my yet to be born child stops crapping himself, and im not spending a fortune on Diapers, I procured a set of 1993 454 SS truck manifolds that I have been guaranteed will fit. Hopefully the next time I post, it will be with a video of the car Idling. I really miss driving the car. I was hoping that since I did so much reading and communicating with those that came before me that I would have been able to get this done pretty quickly, but I am on like full day #7 of the swap, and I still feel like I have another 2 full days left.

 

[Supercharged111]

Take how long you think it'll take, multiply by 3. This also works for projecting cost.

 

[marauderprime]

Amazingly, even though I beat the headers with a hammer, I think Speedway is going to take them back. I do think they were defective, because I was told by another G-body person who had performed the swap and presumably had these headers installed that they fit, and the headers actually had a clearance issue with the block itself. There was a casting lip in between the freeze plugs, or a casting tab or something, and one of the primary tubes contacted with it so much that I couldnt get the header flange flush on the manifold until after it had been clearanced. I explained this to them, and they are sending me a return label to send them back. That is excellent customer service. I had traditionally purchased from Jegs or Summit, but lately have been leaning on speedway more and more. This is the kind of service that will earn my continued business.

 

[marauderprime]

Oh. I also got a B&M shifter cable for the 4L80E. It is installed on the trans, but I havent figured out a way to hook it up to the stock shifter. I doubt it is going to without an amount of fabrication that makes me just want to put a B&M Stealth pistol grip rachet shifter on there anyway. Perhaps I will use the credit from the headers towards that.

 

[marauderprime]

FYI, it is customer appreciation days at autozone, so everything is 20% off through thursday.

I picked up Dorman 674-268, 674-267 , which was OEM equipment on the 1993 454 SS brand new, complete with heat shields, and spring loaded stainless collector bolts for $160 bucks yesterday.

These are tehcnically from the Gen V BBC, but some notable features are, no stupid giant EGR provisions to delete or cap, the ability to insert a heated 02 sensor directly into the manifold instead of having to mess with collector stuff, and it has a flat flange 3 bolt 2.5 inch exhaust outlet that plays super friendly with all of the aftermarket 3 bolt exhaust flanges, as opposed to the ball in socket, doughnut shim style the L29 uses.

I am going to install these this weekend, and hopefully this weekend will be what we in the power gen community refer to as "First Fire."

I want to hear the engine idle, hold an idle, check for leaks, rev it up a couple of times, and then once that is done, I'll shut it down, and start bolting it back together ("Final completion")

I want this car back so badly it is starting to consume all of my thoughts, but I am super excited.

 

[marauderprime]

She runs!!!!!!

 

[motorheadmike]

My original one had a Mike lis spec vortec headed 350 in it,

I never knew that was an actual thing.

 

[marauderprime]

I never knew that was an actual thing.

It was back when I was a wide eyed 16 year old in the late 90’s watching you close in on the 12’s with a vortec headed 350. You were moving!

 

[marauderprime]

First fire
First few revs

the engine is strong!!!! I was fully expecting it to be a little boggy and chuggy, when I blipped the throttle since it is basically almost completely stock with 80 lb. injectors and a mail order tune, but holy cow, that was probably the crispest throttle response I’ve felt or seen in a really long time.

still a lot to do, gotta start buttoning everything up, power steering lines, finalize fuel system, bolt front clip back on, install gauges and new driveshaft, but holy cow did it feel good to hear that thing turn over that cleanly. I upgraded the crap out of my grounds throughout, I think it shows in the cranking and the ignition.

I hope to have the car back on the road before the end of the month.

 

[motorheadmike]

It was back when I was a wide eyed 16 year old in the late 90’s watching you close in on the 12’s with a vortec headed 350. You were moving!

That's when I needed to make every penny count... now I am just old (literally), fat (figuratively), and uninspriring.

Glad to see this project is going well for you; also congrats on the impending rug rat - and no matter what: Don't stop wrenching, having kids is not the end of the world - it is just the beginning!