My '91 s10

Pulled my project blazer out of the shop today since my step-dad brought his '79 spirit home from storage. Thought he needed it, turns out I'm using the shop to do my v8 swap too so don't need to use house garage which is nice, mainly because I can work until 4am like today instead of being kicked out at 11 when they go to bed..

Got the truck into the shop, this is the perfect size for one vehicle at a time.


I'll skip the middle stuff, a couple buddies and I stripped the front clip and pulled the motor/tranny out. Turns out that whoever built this truck moved the motor and trans back about an inch by cutting the mounts... Better for handling, hmm. Will try and match the positioning with the 350 to keep it a little better balanced.



Motor is definitely ****ed, oil pan was full of coolant and when I turned the exhaust upside down, oil/coolant came pouring out...


gonna pull the heads and see what the hell happened. Lots of minor stuff to do to the truck before new motor goes in, major thing is wiring.

Headgasket is my vote.  If that is the case the rest of the carnage is likely due to coolant contaminating the oil.

Headgasket could be the underlying cause, but there's gotta be some serious damage now as well... clunks like a SOB when I was turning it over haha

Any time you get a significant amount of coolant in the oil you will spin and chew up bearings.

I'll find out soon enough!

effed up my back pretty bad last night, my massage therapist says I may have torn a muscle in my shoulder... FUN. Took it easy today, tore apart the old motor with a buddy.

Not 100% sure how to verify a spun bearing but if I did, it didn't do much damage to the crank/rod/bearing. All I know for sure is that sometime between when it started knocking and when it went boom is that:

- bent #4 intake pushrod
- #4 piston hit exhaust valve
- piston cracked, broke skirts, broke off of the rod
- bent #4 connecting rod

headgasket looked okay so I'm not sure how the coolant got into the oil pan... forget if I mentioned it, but when we drained the oil... it was green. Dipstick was several inches over "full" line, mainly coolant. Keep in mind I'm definitely not knowledgeable in motors..

Here's the glory pictures!

rod isn't TOO bent, but it is. Hard to see




took a look at my v8 swap mounts which came into work yesterday. they're made from 1/4" plate, include all 4 mounts and hardware for $130. not terrible. cam, lifters, oil and and gasket set are waiting to be picked up. short block should be done tomorrow, have plans to pick it up if all goes well.

Alright, need some suggestions. I was told this is a centreforce clutch, but it's fucked. pressure plate is burnt, and the disk is pretty worn, nevermind being completely blue.



Would centreforce be a good brand to go with again or should I be looking elsewhere? It's a 10.5" 26 spline GM clutch if anyone's curious.

The flywheel is a whopping 45 lbs, whereas all of the flywheels that my buddy has kicking around for smallblocks are 18-25 lbs. from what i've read, light flywheels are for acceleration, such as tight autocross courses, and heavy flywheels are for drag racing and daily driving because they hold engine momentum and torque. May sound like a stupid question but would a 25lbs flywheel be a good weight? It will obviously see the track, but mainly full road courses, not much parking lot/tight autocross stuff. Thanks in advance.

missed something last night... stepdad pointed it out today. rod knocked a nice hole in the cylinder wall, cracked it from top of stroke to bottom of stroke. impressive, fuck.

picked up my short block today, also grabbed my stock heads and some parts from work.

Wish I would have thought of this earlier, but I strongly suggest using different frame mounts than the factory 2.8.  While they are better than the factory 4.3 they are still soft and have known to bend.

Get some of these:

http://carshop.carshopinc.com/product_info.php/products_id/104232/CSP2375

It will be worth the wait and extra cost.

Or see if you can get GC to make you a set, his are pretty bomb IMHO.

Well if we're going custom... how about one of these?


ISO - Driver Mount by TheHarley, on Flickr

I still haven't got a laser or water cutter to reply to me with a reasonable quote to get them made.  Given I've only contacted a handful.

Or see if you can get GC to make you a set, his are pretty bomb IMHO.

mine were based on Harley's set of what i think he linked, with a couple tweaks here and there.

Harley's new design is most likely an evolution of that, with weight in mind (something most swap kits dont really think about)

They will probably end up weighing the same, but will certainly be stronger with the built in gussets.  I should see if I can sweet talk my way into a class to learn how to use some of the CAE tools in our CAD software here.

Thanks for the concern guys, gonna give these a try as I've heard they're pretty good. They're beefy, made from 1/4" plate... I don't see that bending easily, not to be rude or anything.

Started cleaning the frame last night and then remembered I had to pull the coils to install the frame side of the motor mounts, so tonight a buddy and I pulled off everything anyway just to be able to clean it up proper while I'm into it this far.


Before:


After firewall cleaning and suspension disassembly:


After some more frame cleaning. Scraped off most of the grime with a scraper then attacked it with a wire wheel, so easy. So clean.



Gonna be doing some body work on the firewall soon, as well as finishing up the frame. Once I lay down the rocker guard on the frame and it cures, i'll hit the firewall and frame with a basic durable satin black.

Any idea if the firewall should be high heat paint or if regular paint would be okay?

Oh, forgot to mention my shocks are fucked. I was planning on switching to coilovers eventually anyway so don't really want to buy new shocks right now. It rode fine so I'll probably just stuff them back in and see how bad it gets.

Is it worth getting the "economy" coilovers for $300? they're basically just a non-adjustable shock version of the good ones. The dual-adjustable kit is $600 US, and I have a $100 gift card for Summit so would be around 600-650 canadian at my door I hope.. I already have ART LCA's with brand new balljoints, plus I could sell the drop coils to help cover the cost. Opinions?

Adjustable shocks are a god send if you can afford it.

I can get bilsteins for $90 a piece from work, that's retail price since our discount is on hold at the moment (someone is stealing product and returning it at other stores)

worth it, or just run blown shocks until I can afford adjustable coilovers?

The bilsteins are a great shock, probably better than most other non-adjustables IMHO, but still no substitute for true adjustable shocks. In terms of a stop-gap they are ideal, it would depend on how long they would push back your ability to get the adjustable coil overs.

I'm looking at about $620 to my door for the dual adjustable kit from Summit, that's including the duties/shipping fees (calculated on the site, probably not accurate) and including the $100 off for my gift card. I've spent about $4000 on this motor so far since i'm having most of it built and buying mostly new parts... coilovers really aren't in the budget right now, but neither are ANY shocks haha

Thanks for the concern guys, gonna give these a try as I've heard they're pretty good. They're beefy, made from 1/4" plate... I don't see that bending easily, not to be rude or anything.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you are thinking of the engine mount.  We are talking about the clamshell/rubber piece that bolts to the frame.  The engine side looks plenty strong enough.  1/4" is pretty typical for those and I have never heard a complaint of those breaking or bending.  I have seen pictures of the clamshell bent up.

Our very own VortecBlazer has wrecked a set as well as others.

You are correct, I am mislead on these mounts. I read on v8s10 that they are prone to bending but when I had them in my hand I was stunned as I didn't see how 1/4" plate could be bent. It makes more sense now that you mention it, the cage is pretty thin. Any idea if the 2.8 block adapters can be used on stock 350 frame side mounts? I guess I could send these back and order the style that bolts a relocator plate to the frame and moves a stock mount forward.. they clear longtubes but i'd have to relocate my oil filter to do so which i'm not keen on doing, not this time around anyway.

Over on v8s10.org they said if i'm going to use the 2.8 mounts, atleast upgrade to poly. Still not worth it? I can't find a part number for the frame style

edit: TRD-4689 is the summit number for the adapter plates which use the stock v8 mounts on both sides. I may end up going this route.