86 K10 5.3 swap

[Camar068]

I'm curious to know if you set up your power steering like blueox said in an earlier post.

post reference? Sorry if I missed it.

Had a scare with the trans this week. It would not shift into 3rd gear. Turns out the VSS sensor was not in far enough. That settles the "gap" question I had earlier. When I got back from the test drive I about puked cuz of the "transmission" voodoo doll following me for life.

Anyway, I dropped it off today for the exhaust. I'll need to have torque management turned back on, had it turned off by my misunderstanding of it. Gotta help the 4l60e/3.08 combo as much as I can.

I used bright yellow zip ties to tie everything into place that needs a permanent home (fuse box, fan relay box, various wiring, etc). I didn't want to tie everything up until I was done troubleshooting and getting everything running right. I've already been through a bit of "un-doing" in the harness lol.

I need an adapter to push out the air intake about 3" to get past the alternator as I left the battery on the passenger side to save money on hard wiring. I'll get that from HF tomorrow (vacuum line adapter......$5). Gotta get rid of the long ass filter too.....but that may happen later because it may work for the time being.

 

[Camar068]

noticed the tach doesn't work as well. I want to watch that for shift points and such.

Now that I think about it, I wish there where a "gauge" that was the proper thickness to put on the end of the VSS sensor (superglue) so you could tighten it down and would wear off after the first run. It's a magneto sensor so a plastic washer wouldn't deflect anything.

That or another idea would have been to setup the engine/trans on a test stand with wiring and all. Then hook up your scanner and put a drill on the output shaft, in neutral, so you could spin it looking for a MPH reading. I could have set this up a long time ago for nothing instead of the pain.

 

[Camar068]

Got the air intake on today. Still runs really rough. Noticed some condensation coming out of the exhaust. Drained the oil since I can't use the dipstick yet. Sure enough, milky.

Looks like I might be doing a gasket swap this weekend.

Felpro bolts and head gaskets good? i would assume so on the gasket, just not sure about the bolts. Nobody has ARP bolts locally.

 

[Honky Kong jr]

Got the air intake on today. Still runs really rough. Noticed some condensation coming out of the exhaust. Drained the oil since I can't use the dipstick yet. Sure enough, milky.

Looks like I might be doing a gasket swap this weekend.

Felpro bolts and head gaskets good? i would assume so on the gasket, just not sure about the bolts. Nobody has ARP bolts locally.

I vote LS9 gaskets

 

[Camar068]

curious why? googled it, more layers. But more expensive too though. Already had to hear it from the wife about that DAMN truck (thats what she calls it).

Thanks

 

[Camar068]

drivers side off. No evidence of leaking between channels looking at both sides of the gasket, the head and the block. Really hope it's the passenger side, most other things involve paying someone labor or replacing the heads/block.

 

[Honky Kong jr]

drivers side off. No evidence of leaking between channels looking at both sides of the gasket, the head and the block. Really hope it's the passenger side, most other things involve paying someone labor or replacing the heads/block.

Are they battery heads?

 

[Camar068]

Don't get it lol. Got the 2nd one out and glanced for a few, no evidence.

There is plenty of that orange gunk in the cooling passages.

Going to bed lol.

 

[Camar068]

Are they battery heads?

yeh they are Castech 706's.

 

[Honky Kong jr]

yeh they are Castech 706's.

You know they are prone to internal leaks do to poor castings

 

[Camar068]

Gonna have them tested for cracks on Tuesday. Guess I'll check the cylinders for visual cracks until then.

See what you mean by battery also lol. It was late and I was tired and sore. I knew about the 706's and the possible issues.

 

[Camar068]

Well after my wife's comment of "why wouldn't you check the gaskets and the heads before you went through all this", I'll be pulling the heads and having them rebuilt on every engine swap until I die. She can kiss my ass when I tell her how much it's gonna be on the next job.

Anyway lol, the cylinders look good and still have cross hatch pattern. Not seeing any askew (lol random) or vertical scratches.

Hope it's the heads and maybe get a set of used 799's rebuilt. Sucks I'm this far along on the project and so close (physically) to a cam swap lol. Wanna get it on the road so I'll suck it up and not do it.

 

[Crispy]

post reference? Sorry if I missed it.

Post 160
http://www.gmsquarebody.com/threads/86-k10-5-3-swap.15397/page-11#post-357367

Looking at it again I realized it was a copy from another thread.

 

[Camar068]

yeh I just took the fitting off and installed.

 

[Honky Kong jr]

yeh I just took the fitting off and installed.

Hey I was just at that K5 because it’s going to it’s final resting place. Are you sure the wiper control wasn’t still attached to the column I sent. I’m thinking it was.