my first ls swap 1996 2 door Tahoe 4wd 385 Stroker to LQ4 cam headers **pics**

[myzterray]

i only have a few tips, and they seem stupid, but it works a lot better...

first as far as what little masking you have, raping everything in aluminum foil is 10x faster then masking tape and paper.

also, even on the frame, fire wall, and wheel wells, use engine paint, its a lot stronger, will not fade nearly as much with the heat of the engine, and just over all look better, longer...

also, for the grinder there is a wheel thats black (lol, like every other one...) but it looks like cheese on cartoons, where is has a tone of holes/boubles and its 1/8"-1/4" thick, and it is parfect for stripping anything other then mettle brackets them selfs. its like $8 i think, you should only need 3 at most for that entire engine bay (but probably 1 or 2), frame wells, and innerfenders. sorry, i really dont remember what its called...

one more thing, just for cleaning, if you don't have one, buy a cheap steamer, just for cleaning gunk in the engine bay, boiling water and staem do great with getting 15 years worth of dirt, mud, and grime out.

so yeah, they seem kinda dumb, but will save you a lot of time and frustration.

oh ok coool! i will definately try that! the foil sounds like a great idea and should be pretty easy to install. any idea on paint the wheel wells? which sandpaper to use andd stuff?

[smithkid1996]

oh ok coool! i will definately try that! the foil sounds like a great idea and should be pretty easy to install. any idea on paint the wheel wells? which sandpaper to use andd stuff?

inner, or outer wheel whells?

PS:sorry, i have to go to school, i will reply more when i get home, but yeah, you rap hoses and stuff in foil, and it just kinda stays there...

[myzterray]

i removed the wheel well from the fender. i was planning on doing the outer wheel well in flat black and do the inner in a gloss black to match the firewall and frame

[Paulster2]

wow, a 100 shot? lol. ok, so i was talking a some 75 year old guy, and i guess he was one of the original hot rodders, and i learned A LOT from him- balacne the pistons (i can tell you how), get the lightest valves possible, same with the pushrods and rockers, get springs with just enough tention to close the valve, you want as little tention as possible, port and polish the heads, balance the valves, and where the fuel goes in is a small tube (i think is what he told me) and that needs to be as smooth at possible, so the fuel is more of a mist when it gets in the combustion chamber. he also told me how to rase the compresion, without replaceing the pistons, but thats a huge pain in the but... but that should help to get a few more RWHP, and help the mileage some.

hahaha, our daily driver for 6 months was the 65' olds, 7MPG, it runs on premium gas ONLY, and lead additives... that thing went through SO MUCH gas...

You don't need to do all of this to get 350whp out of a 5.3L LM7 engine. Check this thread here. While 322 is not quite 350, it wouldn't take much more to get you to 350. This is a very street/wallet friendly build.

Another thing with the above statement is: there is a lot more to selecting valve springs than just "get springs with just enough tention to close the valve", as there is such a thing as harmonics. I agree you don't want to get a spring with so much pressure it's overkill, but throwing a general statement out there like that will bring bad results.

[myzterray]

what do you suggest? so far im ordering the schenfeild lt headers. i was talking with someone else as far as the intake because i need to convert from dbw to dbc. so i was planning on changing the intake to a car intake. with the lm7 heads what intake would work well?

[smithkid1996]

thats what i would do... allthough, powder coating the inners would work alot better, because it will stand up to the elements WAY better.

[pl4yboy]

I don't think Shoenfields fit 4x4s... Sorry.

[PitchBlackC3]

Your 2005 DBW truck intake is exactly the same as the DBC 99-02 truck intake. You just need the throttle cable bracket to bolt on to it.

[myzterray]

ok so i picked up a couple supplies from home depot last night to help me with the clean up of the frame firewall and fenders etc. i started of with a wire brush but i was getting no where. so i decided to slap on the wire brush attachment onto my angle grinder and went to work..

before:


after


still got some work to do on this side but i was running out of light








i even sanded and painted the fire wall and cleaned up the harness a little.



so thats all for today. wednesday ill probably finish cleaning up the frame and the firewall. then next up is the wheel wells. i like the way the flat black paint looks on there so i might go ahead and leave everything flat black and put gloss black on the engine

[myzterray]

I don't think Shoenfields fit 4x4s... Sorry.

really???????!!!! that sucks it really does. anyone else run into this problem?