1991 V3500 Project Heavy Hauler

[Greenlee]

Looking good!

That is cool that you were able to find an original looking metal radiator. I just bought a radiator and the local auto parts stores told me that all that is available today are the ones with the tanks made of plastic. I resorted to a nice clean one I found on Craisglist, but got it home and it was a few inches shorter than the one in my truck. Long story short, I ended up buying a new plastic and aluminum radiator from O'Rielly's. It is a 4 core equivalent, with 2 large aluminum cores.

[MTCK]

Thanks Greenlee. I was a little bummed that it was made in China, but that is the way of the world I suppose.

Ran across a little problem tonight when I was installing piston rings. I must have bashed or dropped the #7 piston because it has a dent. I'm going to get a new one. No rolling the dice.

[watahyahknow]

the dent can be filed and sanded out , only need to check if the ringgroove has been hit too
new piston is better just a bit cumbersome with putting the piston pin in the conrod and all that

[MTCK]

Factory service manuals arrived. Literally shipped book rate I think.

[DirtyLarry]

Originally Posted by MTCK

Made in China.

WOW! Made in China!? (this world is going to be in so much trouble when we finally have a military stand off with China and North Korea) I wonder when Specra made that change?? I just got the CU774 for my Burb last Feb and it was still made in Canada, eh. It took 3 attempts to get one that wasn’t smashed to smithereens. Even the last one needed to be fixed at the local radiator shop because I was tired of dealing with returning damaged ones and waiting another 2 weeks just go get another smashed one. At least the made in China radiator showed up in one piece.

Nice score on the books! I have the same set for a 98 (but mine don't say second edition). If you lived closer I could have lent them to you.

[watahyahknow]

maibe china has the shipping under better controll than the canoeks had
you know the radiator had a better chance on ariving in one piece if they used two pieces of thin tripple ply and a few blocks of wood with the radiator wedged in between

worked for DHL and DPD the packages get unloaded from the distributiontruck and comes down a rollertrack it passes through all the deliverydrivers untill the driver that delivers at the district picks it up and scans it , stuff like metal racks or tentpoles packed in cardboard punches through the cardboard in about 2 feet from all the rattling across the rollers .... electronics ..... glass . forget it unless its packed realy good

[MTCK]

At least it was intact, and the quality looks good, at least on the surface. The thing is HEAVY. It wouldn't be hard for them to beef up packaging around the intake and outlet, but it was obviously a cheap packaging job.

I like having factory service manuals for whatever rigs I own. I needed this set for all the torque specs and sequences, so I got the whole set. Lord knows they won't get easier to find as time goes on... Hopefully I can get some work done this weekend.

[MTCK]

Made my own timing sprocket out of my balancer installer and a piece of copper pipe. I also installed the even numbered pistons. Ring compressor worked great.

[MTCK]

Installing

[MTCK]

One side done

[whitels1]

Looking good Marcus!

[y5mgisi]

Nice! I forget already, but did you just keep the standard bore and have it honed?

[MTCK]

Thanks guys. Yes bores cleaned up with just a hone and crank with a polish. Makes it easy to figure out what parts to order.

[y5mgisi]

Nice!! There is a vortec 454 on Craigslist locally for $300 but says it needs rebuilt. I want to pick it up and rebuild it!

[MTCK]

Do it. This one had 186k miles in a k3500 work truck. Guy at the machine shop was surprised it was in such good shape. If this cam and associated valvetrain components end up making good torque I'll have the recipe figured out.

[MTCK]

One step closer.

[y5mgisi]

Sweeet!

[MTCK]

Miniscual updates, but I've never done this before so it's all fun to me.

[MTCK]

Time for heads.

[MTCK]

Quality looking made in the USA felpro head gaskets.

[MTCK]

One down.

[y5mgisi]

Man that's exciting!

[watahyahknow]

if the heads are skimmed take the time to break the edges on the combustionchambers and the sides of the heads themselves
the sides because you will rip the skin of youre hands while moving them around if you dont
the combustion chambers to prevent hotspots causing detonation
just use a small coneshaped stone in a dril on the sides of the head and some emory cloth on edges in the combustion chambers (dont go wild just take the sharpness off)

[MTCK]

Heads are on. This thing is heavy as heck and pretty hard to turn over on the engine stand now. Last update for about a week. Time for some vitamin D.

[watahyahknow]

most of the time we start with the camshaft as you can reach in from the bottom to guide it past the bearings before the crank goes in
another trick is to lay the engine and the stand down on its back , you can allost drop the cam in vertically , like you said the engine is pretty heavy at the moment so thats not a real option now unless you use a crane