What cam did you ultimately go with?

 

Congrats! Glad to hear it went smoothly. Too bad to hear about the manifolds melting the wires. If you lived closer I have some heat barrier insulation you could squeeze between the wires and manifold to get by till the headers are ready.
I enjoy hearing about the first drive when a build is finished!

 

id run 3.73 gears in the rear and then maybe a mild cam 252H by Comp and the Heads are a good choice very sought after and look into banks ram air intakes for that year they are a good choice if your sticking with EFI and id go long tube headers more air coming in better sound going out.

 

Stock 96 roller cam with 1.7 roller rockers. It looked to be in good shape, & the machine shop agreed. Everything I read made it sound like it fits my goals pretty well. Free was a good bonus too.

 

Thanks! Oh, I don't think I could squeeze a sheet of paper between the plug boots and manifolds they're so tight. I don't need to drive where I live, everything is easily in biking distance, so I can wait on the exhaust fix. It'll be a good project for next weekend anyway.

I drove it for break in the way I drive a new snowmobile engine build: cylinder pressure seats rings and deceleration cleans that out. I've seen first hand the difference in blow by on my pistons of "babying it" and flogging it for break in, so once an engine is warmed and timed it gets some varying hard loads. And that's way more fun! Haha

 

Shops like lingenfelter and Hennessey break their engines in on a dyno for a reason, tuning at the same time. Babying for break in is not how to do it.

I just picked up a bone stock 97 351 2wd, and I've taken a strong liking to the stock cam pedal feel. I've never driven a roller 5.8 for any real period of time, just older 5.8s. I'll be getting some afr's and either the xe258 or crane 444211 to keep the pedal nice and crispy.

 

Long tubes will go on this weekend, I have a set but the starter clearance was abysmal. Stainless flux core welding wire is on its way so I can tackle that soon, or they're going in the scrap bin if there are more clearance issues and I'll run painted steel FloTechs.

If I regear I'll go to 4.10 since this truck is on 33s, has overdrive, and I don't drive over 70 mph often.

If I am left wanting more, I may put a different cam in, but for now the stock roller cam is what I'm going to use. I do have better springs in the heads, so I can go up to 0.540" lift. If I were to put a cam in it, I'd go with Comp Cams 35-510-8 (use 1.7 rockers for 0.510" lift I/E, 114 LSA, 258/264 I/E duration @ 0.006" lift). That works with my spring upgrade and roller rockers, for more area under the curve but still retain good low end.

 

Yep I think that XE258 would be the ticket, its basically a better flowing version of that stocker. Well suited for AFR's with more flow than the GT series heads. I noticed last night how responsive the engine is. The trans shifts like I'm back at sea level: firm & pulls after each shift instead of the engine falling out of its torque range after each shift. I think a one word description is: lively. I've been driving a mystery cam'd flat tappet for nearly 80k miles, it doesn't come on until 2600RPM or so and the response was poor.

 

Yea I don't care about much of anything except responsiveness in my truck, I don't want to downshift....ever....

they still make good power even with the off idle cams, I've seen some dyno charts well over 300+ whp for people with the small cams and good flowing heads.

 

My biggest complaint about the Flowtechs is that I thought they were just a bit too long.. the collector ends up too close to the trans cross member so getting the exhaust up over it require a tight bend. Cut 4-6" off and it's not such a big deal. Strangely the very first Flowtechs I bought back in the '90s fit perfectly in all regards but then the company was bought by Accel and the headers changed completely.

 

That's good to know. That's crazy long if they're near the trans cross member. For reference, the Chinese stainless headers end about 7" back from the engine on passenger side, and around 3" on the driver side. Driver side looks like it will fit nicely. Passenger side has starter issues & the HEGO bung is probably too close to the trans to work. I'll figure this out and post up my findings & fixes after this next weekend.

 

I dug into the old motor some tonight. Pulled the pan and checked one rod bearing, and the #3 main bearing. Both are showing copper and the main has some junk embedded in it. The oil filter has fairly large pieces of metal, both magnetic & non-magnetic. I would have expected worse looking bearings considering what the filter looks like. Crank journals look like they would polish clean. There wasn't much on the magnetic drain plug. The compression issue was evident though, #5 had some scoring & pitting on the cylinder wall.

The old engine has 0.010" undersized rod & main bearings in it. I measured a piston skirt at 4.028" so I'm thinking it was last built 0.040" over bore. Or is it more likely it's a 0.060" over bore? I couldn't get a snap gauge into the bore without pulling a head, only a caliper on the protruding piston skirt at bottom dead center.

I'll try to sell it as a builder for $100. I don't want to keep it, but would prefer not to scrap it if it's usable for someone.

 

If its on a stand, and you can easily rotate the engine, if you are real curious try shining a flashlight up the bore. The may be a part number cast into the bottom side of the piston crown.

 

If the speed daddy stainless headers fit flawlessly, they'd be the best intro option out there. But like their Ford product, the gm require some persuasion to fit, albeit minor. But if a person's able to modify the product without much drama and expense, as we were, they are totally worth it.

 

Good idea to look for a part number on the bottom of the piston. Thanks.