Ok, picked up the motor, out of a 1996 Chev van; paid $750 as a running engine. Pulled it apart yesterday, had the correct head casting numbers for the Vortec heads - see www.mortec.com for the numbers. Also turned out to have four bolt mains - *very* nice! Off to the machine shop for reworking of the block & install of a 383 rotating assembly - should run around $1600. Meanwhile, cleaning up the heads, porting & polishing, valve grind - using stock valves. Supposedly, little gain to be had from larger valves, and this IS supposed to be a budget project.....yeah, right.... Plan is a supercharger - I'm done w/ turbos - preferrably a Whipple, second choice is a centrifugal - dunno at this point.
Most of the conversion is covered in the book "Chevrolet S10 Truck V-8 Conversion Manual", available from www.V8S10.com.
Fabbing up the motro mounts now. Need to use mounts from a 2.8 V6, got a pair from NAPA for $16 - seems cheap to me. Got the poly inserts for this mount from JTR - formerly JagsThatRun. Need to drill out the rivets in the stock mounts - use 7/16" drill, put in polys, then bolt back together - 7/16" again, real short ones. Have to grind off part of lower bolt head for frame clearance. Engine-side mounts are custom from JTR - www.jagsthatrun.com. Pass side mounts removed easily w/ 15mm socket on easy side, 15mm on hidden side - need both box & open end here. Driver's side might be more of a bitch, might need to bend some wrenches to clear front diff housing to R&R.
Ditched the AC, as I never used it anyhow. Planning on getting a non-AC blower housing from the j-yard & pick up yet some more room.
That's where things stand now. There will be lots of SyTy engine parts up on eBay soon's I get all the bank account, etc stuff straightned out.
I'll keep ya'all posted.....
Most of the conversion is covered in the book "Chevrolet S10 Truck V-8 Conversion Manual", available from www.V8S10.com.
Fabbing up the motro mounts now. Need to use mounts from a 2.8 V6, got a pair from NAPA for $16 - seems cheap to me. Got the poly inserts for this mount from JTR - formerly JagsThatRun. Need to drill out the rivets in the stock mounts - use 7/16" drill, put in polys, then bolt back together - 7/16" again, real short ones. Have to grind off part of lower bolt head for frame clearance. Engine-side mounts are custom from JTR - www.jagsthatrun.com. Pass side mounts removed easily w/ 15mm socket on easy side, 15mm on hidden side - need both box & open end here. Driver's side might be more of a bitch, might need to bend some wrenches to clear front diff housing to R&R.
Ditched the AC, as I never used it anyhow. Planning on getting a non-AC blower housing from the j-yard & pick up yet some more room.
That's where things stand now. There will be lots of SyTy engine parts up on eBay soon's I get all the bank account, etc stuff straightned out.
I'll keep ya'all posted.....
