1991 V3500 Project Heavy Hauler

[MTCK]

Did a little searching and sprocket on is correct. I had over tightened the cam sprocket and when I backed it off my end play was right at 5 thousandths.

Spent a lot of time doing my favorite thing today: cleaning. Lifters all looked great, pushrods, rockers, lifter retainers and pushrod guides all cleaned.

[MTCK]

I started to put together my #1 cylinder valvetrain so I could degree the cam and discovered I was missing the spacers required to let the lock nut sit above the rocker elbow with no slack. Back to Amazon...

[whitels1]

Good work! Bummer about the missing parts, but keep at it!

[watahyahknow]

wat i allways do with hydraulic lifters is compress them submerged in a bad of engineoil , gets the crud out of the inside of the lifters and you can see right away if there still working
leaving them in the engine oil till right before assembly is a good idea too

[MTCK]

Thanks Dave. Yeah the red solo cup in the pic is full of lifters and oil.

Degreed the cam last night using intake cl method. Hit the number exactly so that was cool. That was easier than I thought.

Installed the crank oil seal and timing cover and went to turn the motor over and it was harder to turn over. Pulled the timing cover back off and it spun freely. Hmmm. Took the crank reluctor ring off and reinstalled the timing cover. Spun freely.

One of two things was going on. Either I didn't press the crank sprocket on quite far enough, or the new timing set is thicker.

Grabbed my harmonic balancer installer and went to check that the crank sprocket was all the way on and it pulled the threads right out the end of the crank. Hardly took any force so there is no way the balancer would have gone on. Looks like another side project... Ream and tap or drill and helicoil?

[watahyahknow]

normally you use an install tool wish you screw in the crank and use the tread on the tool to press the balancer on
hope you get the helicoil in correctly

[68Timber]

Great truck and great build. I'd probably call the machine shop that did the work for you and see what they think. I'd be afraid a helicoil insert would pull out without talking to someone that'd done that repair before.

[MTCK]

Originally Posted by watahyahknow

normally you use an install tool wish you screw in the crank and use the tread on the tool to press the balancer on
hope you get the helicoil in correctly

Yep this is how my installer works.

Thanks Timber. I'm excited to get it all together. Chatted with our master mechanic and think I have a plan going forward. No helicoil.

Cleaned up inspected and reinstalled the oil pump, and my oil filter adapter, plug wires and throttle cable showed up from summit. I also ordered and received a new fuel rail, as mine had a broken injector lock tab. I'll get it all together with the new fuel pressure regulator soon.

[MTCK]

My fix on the stripped crank worked great. Reamed it out to 33/64" then tapped to 9/16-18. Balancer is on and torqued to 110 lb ft as specified.

I have another concern though. My reluctor right was contacting the timing cover (it's just outboard the crank timing sprocket) when I had the timing cover and no balancer installed. I gave the crank sprocket one more good game with the balancer installer then installed the balancer. Everything spins freely again now. I'm not sure if I got the sprocket on another fraction of an inch or if the balancer pressing the ring into the sprocket cleared up the rubbing. The balancer looks to me like it should go on a little further. My plan is to install the drive pulley and water pump and check alignment. If it is off the only thing I can think of is the comp cam timing set, specifically made for this motor is too thick??? Hope not...

[watahyahknow]

could be the cam cover bowed in a bit during installing due to the resistance of the sealring , might well be that it will spring back once you run the engine a little

[MTCK]

Not sure I follow. You talking about the timing cover or cam retaining ring? It is the crank sprocket with the issue and timing cover is cast aluminum so it is pretty stiff.

The crank pulley and wear line on the water pump line up as close as I can measure with my carpenters square. I sent a question to comp cams tech support so we will see if they answer.

[MTCK]

Comp cams tech support was essentially worthless. I have them the part number of my timing chain and they wrote back and said we don't recommend a double roller timing chain with this motor. No crap it's a single roller spec'd out for a gen 6 in stock configuration.

It spins freely so I buttoned up the rest of the motor. I installed the plugs in the oil cooler lines and removed a bypass valve that needs to come out to eliminate the cooler. Pained the long block, installed the intake and primed the oiling system. Confirmed oil to the rockers and continued with assembly.

[MTCK]

Painted

[MTCK]

Engine stand protesting loudly.

[whitels1]

Hell yes man! Keep up the good work!

[MTCK]

My right manifold showed up right away, but just got the left one today. Go figure. I threw the right one on and torqued it down to 20 ft-lbs as specified and worked on getting the front accessory brackets on. The jack stand looked like it was going to quit so I put a jack stand under the front of the motor for a little insurance.

A buddy stopped by and was looking at my handwork and said, you know you have a cracked manifold? No f-ing way. Sure enough. I pulled it off and one ear about fell off. I put a straight edge on the head and it is perfectly true. OK, must have got a bad casting. Napa had one for about $80 bucks so I picked it up the next day.

It looked identical except it was in a Napa box instead of dorman. I put it on with no gasket and made sure it was perfectly true. Torqued it down using 4 passes and was doing final torque to 20 ft-lbs when I felt the same bolt get easier. Cracked that one too. My savings from ditching the header idea are rapidly going evaporating. The driver's side went on without incident, but I won't be buying any more Chinese exhaust manifolds. I'm going to the junk yard to see if I can find a straight, crack free passenger side manifold there.

[MTCK]

I've had a few more parts show up and have been plotting to stab this thing in now that our weather is improving. Harness and PCM arrived from Howell, and looks to be of good quality. There were a few quirks, but nothing terrible. The O2 sensors required are for a '96 1/2 ton 350. They are identical to the sensors you would buy for a 2000 1 ton 454, except female plug end instead of male. Returned those O2 sensors and picked up a pair a little motor.

One other point of interest is that the third VSS in the transfer case, the one that everybody pines after in a junk yard is not used. There is an input speed for the 4l80e, and output speed, and a switch for 4Lo which tells the PCM to adjust the speedo down. I've been reading and the output from the PCM is not the 4000 revolutions per mile that my speedo needs, so I'm going to try to retain the DRAC and VSS in the NP205. It is dead nuts on now and I don't want to screw with another side project.

I also ordered a Vintage Air HVAC system and am pretty excited to get that in. The folks in their tech support / sales were AWESOME. They made me a custom kit with the compressor that bolts in place of the factory unit and has cut to length lines to make sure it fits. Full disclosure - the kit only works up to '87 according to their catalog, so they were a little hesitant to send it for a '91. I'll document any customizations that need to happen.

[MTCK]

Alright enough talking, time to tear into this thing. During disassembly, I mocked up the auxiliary trans cooler and fan for the A/C condenser. I'm going to have to trim the brackets down slightly but I think they are going to fit great in the two openings in my core support.

Elected to remove the bumper and core support as my cherry picker can barely lift a 350 over it and the big block will hang quite a bit lower. Power washing, scrubbing and cleaning things up took a good chunk of time. Luckily weather has been great.

Real estate is getting to be scarce under the hood, and I'm having to relocate a few things. Washer fluid is being sent to the rear of the engine compartment on the driver's side. I'll make up a little bracket for it to live back there. My second battery, PCM, and pile of wiring trinkets will be residing where it was previously. The radiator overflow tank is also getting relocated to the rear on the passenger side. Once I remove the blower motor box (vintage air has all the components inside the cab), I think I can tuck it back there. This will make room for the factory air filter assembly. Induction noise and drone drives me nuts, so I want it to be as quiet as possible. Like most square body owners, the only sound I like is that of my wing windows howling as I go down the highway.

[watahyahknow]

maibe the flat spot where the nut pushes against isnt big enough and pushes the casting inward of the exhaustport breaking it in the process

maibe make youre own using steampipe pieces and thick flanges
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sskmMEekVlY
this stuff doesnt cost a lot compared to stainless and it stays together a whole lot better

[Greenlee]

Looking good Marcus! That's a bummer about the cracked manifolds. The mounting stud by the crack looks bent over just a bit in the picture? Maybe that's putting extra pressure when you tighten it up?

When I bought my Vintage Air, they said it would fit through 86'. I asked about that and they said it was because the under dash AC stuff might interfere with the location of the stock computer on the 87' and up TBI trucks. Probably no big deal for you since you are dumping the old TBI motor. I'm running the stock TBI, but my cab is an 83' and didn't have the mounting tabs for the computer anyway. After I got all the AC stuff in, there was barely enough space up top for the computer. I just zip tied it up there, but it fit tight and isn't going anywhere.

[MTCK]

Thanks guys. That makes sense about the tbi computer. The stud actually rolled over when the manifold cracked. I got a new one today and it bolted up without incident.

Got the last few pieces bolted up, cleaned and painted the rough spots in the engine bay.

[MTCK]

I had about three hours left to work and the engine was hanging on the hoist. Victory will be mine. Not so fast. These poly engine mounts are great when they are in but holy cow I could not get the motor to fall in to both at the same time. I'm a whipped puppy but I'll try some more things tomorrow. Anybody ever have luck swinging the motor in with the clamshells bolted to the mounts and set the whole assembly on the cross member? Am I missing some sort of bbc vs sbc trick? It's within 1/16" but just won't drop... PBR time.

[Greenlee]

That engine bay looks nice and clean! I wish I had some advice on getting that bad boy in there. 1/16th of an inch sounds awfully close, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

[whitels1]

Looking good! bummer about the manifold.

[Dieselwrencher]

Nice project and your engine looks great! I've had that same dilemma with the wrench before! I've had a lot of big blocks with those clam shells and it seems like some are pinched closed more than others. Maybe spreading them out with a pry bar will help the engine drop down some?