Beelzeburb, The Story More Than a Decade in the Making

[Beelzeburb]

I still had to overcome the radiator hose situation, replace the hose that connected the intake to the water pump, then find another hose that channeled coolant to under the throttle body and locate a serpentine belt that'd work with my engine. Around this time I discovered the NATC forums over at 454ss.com. They have since been indispensable as a source of information about my engine and popular modifications / adaptations for them. For instance, I was able to find part numbers for a shorter serpentine belt and determine which narrowband O2 sensor would work best on my setup. I ordered a heated O2 sensor and adapter wiring from the local Chevy dealership and placed an order for the special bolts which fit the oil cooler sandwich adapter (GM p/n 9421634 in case you were wondering) at the same time.
A local parts store had the 97.5" belt my engine needed. I found the original radiator hoses from my grandfather's rolled truck, and the upper hose would work with some wiggling despite its smaller ID.



You can see where some of the fragile original plastic vacuum lines had to be replaced. Others were blocked off because this engine no longer had the A.I.R. system or vacuum canister. I had also bolted in the special throttle bracket Edelbrock recommends with their aluminum TBI intake manifold. The throttle cable was already on order at this point.

The intake manifold rear coolant outlet that would have lead to the heater core would need to be either blocked off or re-routed to the radiator until an aftermarket A/C unit was sourced.

The old lower radiator hose from when my Suburban had the SBC seemed to fit and contour pretty well. It looked like it might need some sheathing where the hose rested on the frame to help prevent excessive rubbing.



I ordered a power steering pressure hose from another auto parts store in town, then filled the pump and had it circulating in short order. I had to bend and flare my own return hose, but it was relatively easy to do because I had the Blazer to use as reference.




I experienced a self inflicted minor disaster when routing the serpentine belt. While prying up on the belt tensioner with a long bar in one hand and reaching for the belt with the other the prybar slipped. The force of the tensioner springing back into position broke its locator tab on the back clean off.



A new one from the parts counter would have run upwards of $45 which I did not want to spend for such a simple mistake on my part. Instead I drilled and tapped the backside of the tensioner to accept a bolt. Clocked over a few degrees it became a little less strenuous to slip the shorter belt in place.



I had cut the smog pump mount off of the accessory bracket with a sawzall. To take up slack in that long stretch of belt between the crank pulley and A/C compressor I bolted a smooth pulley to what was left of the bracket with a spacer that let it sit out far enough to be in the middle of the belt. That was probably why my belt seemed a little tighter than it needed to be in the first place.

The good guys at the local parts counter found a replacement for that goofy little hose which ran from the water pump to the intake.



Having a pre-bent angle to the hose really helped installation compared with wrestling a straight hose into position like a previous mechanic had obviously done.

My parts came in at the Chevy dealership too.

Special oil filter sandwich adapter bolts:


Heated O2 sensor and 3 wire adapter (the engine harness only has one wire and this made it easier to run power and a ground to the sensor):


I was mocking up the Innovate Motorsports O2 bung placement before drilling a hole and welding it on. I had ordered the spare bung when I installed a wideband on my Z car.

Finally, some progress was happening with all of these little niggling tasks.


Then I was made aware that the u-joints in my front Dana 44 were disintegrating.