derekderek

Plus you get any LS in it and running, you can swap in the 6.0 LQ-9 or whatever falls in your lap later. Hone it and run it.

army

You are the stubbornest Vette owner on this site . I've had my 76 C3 for 10 years. All I ever had to do to it was replace a brake line. Whenever I feel like I'm not appreciating that enough I think of your epic struggle

PeteZO6

As always Danpo, your posts are enlightening and entertaining. You add to the Corvette Forum experience.

Denpo

The move is more about having a modern and lighter engine. I live in an urban area, so smoking and reeking unburnt fuel is frown upon (which I can understand). I even have a stock C5 exhaust coming, my plan is to have the cats installed in the exhaust line.
If I can reach my goal before ICE engine get banned, I will probably turbo the 5.3. Grew up in the 80's and love those laggy pant kicker.
I would never go back to an iron block. Sure if I can ****** a LS1 on the cheap this will be another story.


Thanks.
It's called the Concorde Fallacy, the irrational thinking that because you've already poured time and money into a failing project it makes sense to keep digging deeper into the money pit. Since I'm french I'm ok with that, I'll get my supersonic Vette.... one day.

Thank you sir, posts like yours is part of what makes me carry on.

Denpo

Guys, what's you take on the main bearings, do you think I should replace them?

AirborneSilva

New main bearings are cheap insurance as are rod bearings. Just my opinion...

Denpo

So I did some measuring on the piston and bore.
GM call for a maximum piston-bore clearance of 0.0028 in, and some piston are already way past the 0.003 mark. So honing the scratches is probably a bad idea.
My machinist buddy put his machinist nail on the deepest scratch and told me they are easily 0.015 deep, that's how 50 years of experience pays off.
So I considered reboring 0.030 or 0.060 over, but I found out there is not such oversize piston, unless you're buying forged pistons ($$$).
So right now I have two options :
-Leave it alone, just change the bearings and rings, and live with the scratch.
-Have the block overbore to stock LS1 3.898" dimension and find low mileage stock LS1/LS3/LS6 pistons. I gonna search the forums for that.

Denpo

I might have found a set of inexpensive stock LS1 pistons, but is still adds up significantly to the budget considering the rebore job, and I'm losing the floating pin pistons.
So I asked local engine rebuild company if they'd resleeve the one score piston, and for how much.
It may be more expensive than rebore but I'd keep the piston. All in all it might be cheaper on the long run. Let's see.

Denpo

Alright, so after a little sharpening of my google-fu skills I was able to find a set of oversized pistons for the 5.3L for good price. They are of the generic enginetech brand. I took them 1mm over, making the engine 5.4L.
I'm gonna get my block bored. Not sure if I will get the rotating assembly rebalanced, it depends if :
1. replacement pistons have a big weight difference compared to stock ones.
2. the crank came out originally with the Gen IV connecting rod it has now.
I think I'm gonna wait for the pistons to arrive to get the block bored, to minimize surprises.

Richard454

What you don't like surprises?

I too love surprises and spending MORE money!!!

Enjoy AND feel the pain following your build!!!

Richard

Denpo

And chances are your surprises are 50% worse.

After some more searching I came to the conclusion that the L33 came from factory with the Gen4 heavier connecting rods/floating pin piston setup. So given the replacement piston are of similar weight I can bypass the costly balancing job.

Denpo

I did a little 'resurfacing' of the block. A thick piece of glass and some sanding paper can do wonder.





The horizontal line is a camera artefact, because the surface was too shiny.











I went 120 - 320 - 600 - 1200 grit on them.

I also received my bearing removal tool, so now the block is absolutely bare, reading to get bored and cleaned.


All my orders should be delivered at my border PO box by tuesday. Maybe I can get it bored before next weekend. *finger crossed*

Denpo

Dropped the bare engine block in a shop for overboring, I should get it back beginning of next week. Turn out you need to provide the pistons for such job.
Can't wait starting the build.
On top of a complete set of bearing (rod/cam/crank) and new piston rings I also bought a trunion retrofit kit for my rockers arm, so at least I have something to keep me busy this WE.

doorgunner

That's a sharp LOOKING block!

Denpo

Tonight I upgraded my rocker arms.


Pressing off the stock setup





Pressing in the new stuff






And done!










Not much of a performance issue, rather a insurance I won't get the engine stuffed with bearing needles in case of catastrophic rocket arm failure.

Richard454

Love those Husky sockets for doing stuff like that!!!

Did you know they now have a lifetime warranty- so you can beat the snot out of them and they'll give you a new one!!!

Glad your still making steps forward...I hope to do the same this weekend!!

Richard

Denpo

I keep all my discarded bearing races in the same tool cabinet drawer than the socket for that reason, they're all fancy press tools.
It first I was a bit worried, the installation manual calling for specifically sized races. but in the end sockets did the job as always.

I didn't, good to know.

I hope you do and entertain us with pics afterward .

I will be making a big push in the home renovation section this weekend, so when I pick my engine beginning of next week, I have all the time I need to do a proper rebuild.

Denpo

Just got the block back from the shop. They were awesome, for the price of the boring, they've thrown in the honing and the washing.
Now it's a 5.4L.

doorgunner

Now.......stuff it full with pistons!

Denpo

I will, but first :

Install cam bearing (started yesterday)
Check new bearing clearance for crank and rods
Gap the rings. I'm shooting for 0.20 - 0.22 (1rst ring-2nd ring)