LB9 to L31 swap about to happen

[John85SS]

Engine is out. I pulled the trans out with it to so I can clean the trans up. Took me six hours I am getting old lol. The damn headers were a pain I dread dealing with them going back in. Gotta clean the engine bay up and shoot with new paint. She is a dirty SS under the hood, that 305 leaked oil from everywhere... that’s going to change though🙂 Working on bead blasting and painting brackets and moving over to the l31. The shop is a disaster right now it rained all day here but clear tomorrow. Plan to push her outside and power wash the engine bay and do a quick shop clean then back at it.

 

[scoti]

Any updates on this swap?

 

[John85SS]

Yes, got it all finished. Runs great and very happy with it. Sadly the 200-4R with 120k miles did not like the HP and Torque upgrade. I had about 600 easy miles on the new engine and I put my foot in it hard when it shifted to 3rd it shuddered and I lost all forward gears. Fortunately I had reverse and backed it home. Pulled the trans and took it to a reputable guy and he rebuilt it to take up to 600hp, did all the upgrades, shift kit and since then I have about 2000 miles on the rebuild and I have beat on it a little here and there. I took it down to the shop this weekend and my buddy is going to paint it. Last year I put the rear quarters on and did most of the body work and painted it in epoxy black primer. Going with hotrod black for new paint. The matte black of the epoxy really grew on me and I got tons of comments on it people thought it was painted.

 

[John85SS]

 

[ttype]

Looks sharp!!!

 

[scoti]

Nice & thanks for the follow-up!

 

[John85SS]

Not all the pictures.. I am terrible about taking progress pictures but after spending 3.5 days prepping for paint it is ready for scuff and high build. Those 36 year old weather strips took 2 days to remove. Good news no rust or rot🙂. The TTop W strips HF…. LOL have a clean slate soon. Wanted matte black… HaHa changed my mind doing Shiny gloss black with some shade of red rally stripes on the partial front fascia, cowl hood and rear deck/spoiler. Pics to follow🙂

 

[scoti]

What cam did you swap to?

 

[John85SS]

What cam did you swap to?

I bought the GMPP 14097395 cam as it can be used without machining the valve seats down for extra clearance or changing springs and going to threaded rocker studs. That is the bad part about vortec heads they can only take so much lift in stock form. I really like it a lot. I get about 20 mpg and I don’t have a posi track but if you floor it.. it will spin the right rear tire from first to third and keep spinning until you let off. Lol I love it. I do plan on getting a posi at some point. I would like to see what it will do in the quarter and right now I can’t launch without blazing the right rear tire..

 

[scoti]

I bought the GMPP 14097395 cam as it can be used without machining the valve seats down for extra clearance or changing springs and going to threaded rocker studs. That is the bad part about vortec heads they can only take so much lift in stock form. I really like it a lot. I get about 20 mpg and I don’t have a posi track but if you floor it.. it will spin the right rear tire from first to third and keep spinning until you let off. Lol I love it. I do plan on getting a posi at some point. I would like to see what it will do in the quarter and right now I can’t launch without blazing the right rear tire..

Gotcha. I looked the cam up earlier & thought the numbers were L31 specs & thus the L31 cam. I guess I've seen the HT383 stuff lately & didn't realize the specs were for that cam (as well as the same cam for the Ramjet 350's).