I drilled the heads out to 17/32" on a drill press. Wished I had a bigger press (only a 10", table is kind of small) but got the job done and the heads bolt up to the block fine. Bottom end is all buttoned up. Main seals, front cover, harmonic balancer (checked the timing marks), water pump, flex plate, block heating element. Injectors were all tested & bench cleaned. Tested new T-stat (192F). Installed a new old school oil pressure sender so I can do the oil pressure gauge mod. Checked distributor fit with the new ARP oil pump drive shaft.

I put the flex plate and that piece of sheet metal back on, so I could get an idea of header to starter clearance. It's terrible! I think I'll be cutting the primary tube for the #3 cylinder and modifying it quite a bit. I could dimple the primary for clearance, but it'd be about a 1" dimple in the primary tube to get it to fit, and barely fit at that point. I thought about bending the header to clear but it really seems like moving the primary around will be the best way to go. That might wait until I'm visiting family over the holidays, so I have access to a full fabrication shop, but I'm undecided at this point.

This week I'll reassemble the heads (new spring kit from Alex's Parts) and get them bolted to the block. That way I can get the rest of the valve train in, and figure out push rod length.

 

I'm starting to accept that the cheap flo teks are the best headers for these trucks....drivers side collector needs to be bent to clear driveshafts of lifted trucks, but they have no clearance issues at the plugs or starter.

 

Looking at a photo of the FloTeks, I can see how they'd clear the starter just fine. Almost like, they thought about the need for starter! Nearly the whole diameter of the #3 primary is in the way on my set. If you look them up on Ebay, you can see the problematic area. I imagine the Chinese factory has no jig for making these headers, so maybe some guys luck out? Haha. I would like to see the starter area of others' installs of these headers. I know one guy on here milled his flange, and another (Choate?) had a shop do the install. I'd like to see what the shop did.

 

I can replace my starter, even the big old style (pre 90?) Starters. No problems with gt40p heads either, no dimples.

 

I went caveman style on these SS headers...ooohh shiny. I should have gone with the flotechs. We don't use much road salt around here so I'm sure they'd last quite a while.

 

No harm in trying those speed daddy's...if they fit right they'd be the best 200 bucks ever spent.

 

For sure. I was hopeful, and there's not too much info out there on them (more now than when I was shopping). Hopefully I'm shedding more light on them to help others make a decision. I will make them fit and forget about it all, hopefully for many years to come, but it is pretty substantial modifications even for headers.

 

Yea that's the good thing, when something is a bitch....at least it's done when it's done.

 

The heads were cleaned once again, then all the valves went back in, new seals, springs, retainers and locks. Then they went on the block with 0.047" Felpro head gaskets and were torqued down.

Tonight I'll oil the new lifters and get those in with the dog bones and spider, slip push rods in, and start checking the rocker geometry.

 

Last night I got the valve train all buttoned up. Stock push rods worked fine, I used the 0.015" pedestal shims on two rockers, all the others met torque specs at 1/2 turn past zero lash with no shims. That sets everything up with about 0.030" lifter preload. Next I primed the oil system to ensure oil was going where it needed to. Oil comes out of all pushrods and feeds the roller rockers. Valve covers went on next. Followed by the lower intake, and then I set the distributor up for initial startup. I'll reprime the oil once the engine is in the truck.

Tonight I'll grind the exhaust manifolds to work with GT40P plug angles (temporary solution for the poor Speed Daddy header fitment at the starter). Clean them so they're ready to go on. Engine mounts will go tonight too.

I'll make guide studs for mating the block to bell housing. Tomorrow I'll begin plucking the old heap out of the truck. Hopefully slip this new motor in on Saturday.

 

Awesome. Good luck with it all. Bonus to the headers not fitting properly, is you will be able to see seat of the pants difference between manifolds and headers when you get them on. Been watching your build, my 5.8 swap went to the back burner because of life, but now that the 5.0 is starting to eat antifreeze its going to have to be moved up.

 

Thanks. It'll be my first engine swap on my own, but I feel like I have a good grasp of everything involved. It will be nice to have back to back comparisons on the headers. I'll probably put 2000 miles on the truck before I get to do the header install, so I'll have data on fuel mileage as well as butt-dyno data.

Hopefully your 5.0L doesn't bite the dust too soon. It's really nice not having to rush a build too much. Some pressure ensures it gets done, but walking isn't the pressure you want. I'm actually surprised my current 5.8L is still running so well. It will be interesting to see what's wrong with it once I get a chance to tear it down.

 

The heap is out. I cleaned the engine bay, flushed the radiator & heater core. Passenger side engine mount was completely torn, driver side hanging on by a thread.. off to pick up heater hose and new engine mounts.





Where I started this morning. My camera is broken and won't focus about half the time.

 

Well it doesn't look like I can't quite get the manifolds to work with GT40P heads. I ground out as much metal as I can, and the driver side front two plugs (cylinders 5 & 6) don't have enough space. A 90* boot is firmly against the manifold. Manifold is paper thin. Passenger side actually fits pretty well after removing the webbing of the cast iron manifolds. I'll be able to run the truck tomorrow and maybe to the grocery store or something, but next weekend I'll have to fix the SS headers and get them on, and make up a new exhaust system.

Today went by quickly, and the rebuilt engine is still in the garage. It's ready to go in the truck first thing in the morning. I'm sure reinstalling accessories will take me twice as long as I think it will, but it *should* be running by the afternoon.

 

I'll call it a success! I just got back from the ring seating drive. It pulls pretty hard. I put a mechanical oil pressure gauge on it before running it. Cold idle it was 60psi the first few minutes of running. Hot idle after 4 or 5 miles driving is 30psi. No noises except the quiet sewing machine sound of the valve train. I goofed up the distributor install the first time, it wouldn't start: I had it 180* out of time, but that was an easy fix and it fired right up. No leaks yet.

The GT40P & stock manifolds is not going to work. It's already melting #5 & #6 wires, the rest are fine. So I'll be putting headers on this upcoming weekend, which, isn't really a bad thing.

I replaced both engine mounts, and the trans mounts. That makes a surprising difference in vibrations.

I feel like I'm 16 again and just want to go drive my truck, haha.

I think the crank position sensor may be damaged because I have a code for a circuit failure of the crank sensor. It's the sensor that was on the used engine I bought. It may have been damaged. I'll swap my old sensor on and see if it fixes the issue.