well i've been waiting till i got some good amount of progress to do a "build" thread for my spring time project. i began at the end of February after building my new 350 TPI in the garage over the winter.

I picked up a used 350 crate motor, was told it had only 5000 miles on it, had no cylinder ridge which was a good sign. was basically the same exact motor as in these cars. had cast iron heads and not much power according to online


Put a Crane 2032 cam in, got some Summit aluminum heads (told theyre same as Patriot heads, just rebadged) and topped it off with some Corvette valve covers


also using an older style Accel intake manifold.


couldnt resist mocking it up with a couple bolts

My engine parts list:
5.7L motor
Summit Racing aluminum heads
Accel manifold base
SLP runners
Hooker Shorty headers
Catalytic converter delete + electronic exhaust cutout
Crane 2032 Cam
Tuned Performance Tuning
24lb Ford injectors
the almighty aerofoil
and a couple small unmentionable parts

 

at the end of February i brought the car to my parents house to start the work. i had a recurring issue with the A-pillar, it somehow kept getting damage and needed repainting. well this time i noticed some bubbling on the roof section of it and ran into a HUGE project, which i will defer to the post i made for it here if anyones interested:
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...ater-leak.html

 

after that was all fixed up finally, it was time to get back to the motor...


got a new water pump, and got the pulleys on, was ready to put in the car now



got the motor dumped in, 1 header mocked in place (after 3 times of dealing with the headers, i finally found out the precise order to put parts in to not have a huge issue)


headers in, AC pump, power steering pump and alternator in place.


finally the shiny parts got in place. i was making some decent progress.


which brings us up to date today, got the whole motor buttoned up, and started filling it with oil and coolant. thats where i hit another speed bump, this time a bit larger than all the little stuff not worth mentioning with putting in the motor.
I started filling the radiator with coolant, once full, it started pouring out the back of the motor, after checking it the best i could, found it was leaking at the back of the intake manifold. maybe in the area of the china wall. so after all this work, now i have to tear the top half of the motor down again. about a day set back.

I'm happy with the progress, i'd be even happier to just hear the damn thing run lol

 

That's going to be a nice package.

 

thanks, i'm trying to figure out why the coolant is just pouring out the back of the intake manifold. its only on the rear driver's side of the motor. still have to tear down the whole top end of the motor again, which between that and putting it back together will be about a day's project.

 

hmm thats strange. maybe you didn't get enough silicone in there. Not doubting your ability at all but we all make mistakes. hopefully it's just that and it will be somewhat of an easy fix

 

i'm gonna have to tear it down and find out, i'm hoping its a simple fix, i'll probably get a whole new gasket set just to be safe and silicone it better. someone on here spoke of a corvette coolant passage crossover which is supposed to have a bolt in it for these cars using the accel base...i dont remember looking for such a thing but its another possibility for when i get it torn down

86t/a where in brick are you? i just moved into brick 3 years ago.

 

I'm right off old hooper and mantoloking rd behind the weathered and young funeral home. Where are you?

Are you a member over at njfboa?

 

i'm over off the east side of jordan rd near princeton ave.

 

I used to know a chick that lived over there. She had a 84 t/a iirc. Def an early third gen t/a though

 

the other day i had taken apart the intake again, i found the gasket the guy recommended (felpro 1205) fit worse than a stock intake manifold gasket so i ditched it, going with a stock one, siliconed up around the water jackets and also found that where one of the runner bolts goes, apparently is tapped into the water jacket of the intake manifold, cuz water leaks from there too, so a little teflon tape on that bolt should solve that issue too....today is reassembly have to see how it goes

 

the other day i finally got it started, she's running on her own now, but the idle seems too slow for it with this cam. contacted Tuned Performance and he was kind enough to write up another chip with the fuel injectors at the right size and also kicked up the idle slightly. it tries to stall when i have it in drive with my foot on the brake. anyway, heres the startup, still open headers on it.

 

Sounds healthy. Idle is def too low though. Mine idles at 950-1000 with the cam I have. This is before I put the muffler on it

 

I must say...the ol' Tuned Port, stock, or especially as modified here, is just one cool looking intake system!

 

lol thanks, my friends all told me i should go with a non-computer controlled carb'd motor. saying i could get away with more, but i already had the wiring harness in the car, plus i just like how they look lol.

 

I prefer the FI look myself

 

definately, the TPI motor is a great looking motor anyway. how did you get your engine bay so clean looking?

 

Mine? I don't believe it's all that clean to be honest. My Harnesses are where they should be, I have one less cable to the TB cause my car is a stick. The upper strut mounts look better then the stockers IMO and are adjustable and I ran my plug wires under instead of over. I have Taylor wires on there now and they are WAYYY too long but it still looks ok. Believe me that's the clean side. All the action is happening on the other side lol

 

i got MSD super conductor 8.5mm wires, they were long enough to run underneath but the wires MSD said were a direct fit to this car w/ headers had all straight boots. I had tried to bend them, which led to the boot tearing and massive misfiring so i had to cut off all the straight boots and put on right angle boots, which made me lose some room. i think the shiny parts on here are distracting enough to take away from the clutter. your car just has a nice open looking engine bay compared to mine lol

 

I ran them mostly underneath. The edelbrock headers suck for routing wires so I almost had to run them down the inner fender and then to where they belong. I like the Taylor wires but they are entirely too long and t I really don't feel like chopping them apart.

Yeah the direct fit ones have straight boots cause with the manifolds you can do that but with headers you need 90* boots for sure