383 Vortec/TBI Build Thread

[Daveo91Burb]

I'm sure you've seen the goof balls on YouTube firing up big blocks on engine stands and whacking the throttle. At least his is low to the ground.

I watched plenty of vids on YouTube to learn what not to do. Lot of em just have a guy holding the motor that’s sitting in the ground to steady it while the other guy is trying to film, start it and drink a beer at the same time


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[Honky Kong jr]

I watched plenty of vids on YouTube to learn what not to do. Lot of em just have a guy holding the motor that’s sitting in the ground to steady it while the other guy is trying to film, start it and drink a beer at the same time


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For sure, I got bored one night and built a mobile run stand from a 2 ton rig trans jack and an engine stand. Full gauges and radiator. Once I pulled the engine off it and put it in the truck it was just in the way. So I offered it to my friend to borrow for his 440 just to get it out of my way. Lol

 

[Daveo91Burb]

Here's a couple of good ones:

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[Daveo91Burb]

I got it to crank with plugs in tonight. I had one of those cheap mini starters and a matching 153 tooth flexplate (they came from the same '90 3/4 ton burb that the block came from) and put those on. Worked like a charm. I also doubled up on the ground cables from negative batt post to block. It's possible I just wasn't getting enough juice yesterday. Haven't fired it yet. It was getting late and didn't want to piss off the neighbors and my buddy wasn't over helping me like yesterday. Might not be till this weekend the way things are looking.

 

[Honky Kong jr]

Here's a couple of good ones:

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Hey if you play stupid games you win stupid prizes!!

 

[Daveo91Burb]

Got her going! A few false starts before I had a good siphon going on my fuel line, but seems to be running good. Biggest concern is I'm not sure I'm getting good top end oiling. 50 psi at idle seems pretty good (mechanical gauge connected to port at rear of block, right behind intake manifold), but I'm not seeing much oil squirting out of the pushrods when I lift up the valve covers to take a peak. Just dribbling. I ended up taking apart all 16 lifters to clean them, I'm worried something's not working right with them. I actually seemed to have better oiling at the pushrods when I was priming with an old distributor and drill. (was getting almost up to 80 psi at times and some pushrods were actually squirting). Thoughts?

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[Honky Kong jr]

Congrats!!!!!! It's always a good feeling when they run. Is there any top end noise?

 

[Daveo91Burb]

Congrats!!!!!! It's always a good feeling when they run. Is there any top end noise?

I'm not hearing anything unusual up top. Even taking the valve cover off not hearing anything weird, just not seeing squirts like I was expecting.

 

[Daveo91Burb]

I took both valve covers off today and put the priming tool (stripped down TBI distrib) back in. Primed/turned crank by hand until I saw oil coming out of each pushrod and marked them off as I did so. All 16 are pumping oil, it's just not as much as I thought it would be. I'm feeling better about it now and am moving on.

Also in the last few days got an old delco-remy (from when they called them that) starter, 168 tooth, on CL. $10. Guy said it was from a '72 truck. Cleaned it up and installed it today along with my new 168 tooth flex plate. Turns that motor over like a champ and sounds decent doing so.

'bout ready to start pulling the running motor from the burb, but plans changed as of today. My DD - 2012 Cruze - started throwing a code and running like ****. Googled the code and it sure sounds like the valve cover with stupid integral PCV valve is failing - sucking air for a massive vacuum leak. Only way to fix is to replace the entire valve cover/PCV/gasket. Easy fix, but gotta order parts and then do it. Have to keep the burb running till that's back on the road.

 

[Derick C.]

ah you can daily the burb. LOL. I do in the winter but have had to all summer because the trans went out in the other truck

 

[yevgenievich]

I took both valve covers off today and put the priming tool (stripped down TBI distrib) back in. Primed/turned crank by hand until I saw oil coming out of each pushrod and marked them off as I did so. All 16 are pumping oil, it's just not as much as I thought it would be. I'm feeling better about it now and am moving on.

Also in the last few days got an old delco-remy (from when they called them that) starter, 168 tooth, on CL. $10. Guy said it was from a '72 truck. Cleaned it up and installed it today along with my new 168 tooth flex plate. Turns that motor over like a champ and sounds decent doing so.

'bout ready to start pulling the running motor from the burb, but plans changed as of today. My DD - 2012 Cruze - started throwing a code and running like ****. Googled the code and it sure sounds like the valve cover with stupid integral PCV valve is failing - sucking air for a massive vacuum leak. Only way to fix is to replace the entire valve cover/PCV/gasket. Easy fix, but gotta order parts and then do it. Have to keep the burb running till that's back on the road.

Look in to external pcv mod on the cruze. If my Sonic ever acts up with built in pcv bs, it is getting external one installed.

 

[Daveo91Burb]

ah you can daily the burb. LOL. I do in the winter but have had to all summer because the trans went out in the other truck

I love using the burb as a daily - except when I have to put $70 or $80 in the tank!


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[Daveo91Burb]

Blank post.

 

[Daveo91Burb]

Look in to external pcv mod on the cruze. If my Sonic ever acts up with built in pcv bs, it is getting external one installed.

Thanks for the tip didn’t know that was an option. I replaced the valve cover/PCV with a new GM part (supposedly updated) today, but kept it as original. If it happens again I'll definitely be interested in trying something else. Do you have a link that explains the mod? I looked in my Cruze forum but didn't really find much on it.

 

[yevgenievich]

It originated on cruze forums. There are multiple variations of the fix. I was planning to tap the intake manifold instead of tb spacer to lower the cost.

http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/#/topics/189402

Thanks for the tip didn’t know that was an option. I replaced the valve cover/PCV with a new GM part (supposedly updated) today, but kept it as original. If it happens again I'll definitely be interested in trying something else. Do you have a link that explains the mod? I looked in my Cruze forum but didn't really find much on it.