1995 Chevy Tahoe 4X4 - Adventure Rig Build
- Thread starter Chevrolado
- Start date
Chevrolado
Cruisin'
So the new heart made it home yesterday.. 
Picked it up from the motor shop:
Then got it over to the shop and pulled it back out and got it down onto its 4 wheels.
Got it all unwrapped. It was like Christmas morning. hah.
Out with the old..... in with the new!
So first up I started to prep today by moving all the sensors and stuff over to the new setup.
So later today I'll probably work to really get everything bolted all the way in and secured. Then I'll start all the cleaning of the engine bay and we'll get the truck pulled back into the shop to start the install soon. We shall see how it goes! :victory:
Picked it up from the motor shop:
Then got it over to the shop and pulled it back out and got it down onto its 4 wheels.
Got it all unwrapped. It was like Christmas morning. hah.
Out with the old..... in with the new!
So first up I started to prep today by moving all the sensors and stuff over to the new setup.
So later today I'll probably work to really get everything bolted all the way in and secured. Then I'll start all the cleaning of the engine bay and we'll get the truck pulled back into the shop to start the install soon. We shall see how it goes! :victory:
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BBslider001
Diesel Head
Wooooo weeeee!! Looks amazing man!!
Chevrolado
Cruisin'
Thanks bud!
I ran into a little issue when putting all the fixin's on this weekend. I was about to install my new EGR valve and I looked down into the hole it plugs into in the new manifold and I noticed only about half of it is open.
So apparently, when they machined out the hole, it didn't clear the entire thing and nobody caught it until me now. So needless to say, its too think of a chunk of metal that I do NOT want to chance just running the thing and then a hunk of metal breaks off and goes through my brand new motor. But at the same time, if I were to pop anything in there to break it off, it falls into the intake. Grrr...
So I called Edelbrock up and the guy we have been working with for this build remembers my setup. Since they just went through the whole thing to burn my chip last week and all of that, he was like, "REALLY? Oh man.. that's no good. Pull your manifold off, bring it in to me here and let me get my hands on it. We'll get it fixed up for you here or if it doesn't look like it will be that easy, we'll give you a new one. Plus I want to comp you new gaskets too since you have to pull the thing off and all this. Very sorry. Let's handle this."
Gotta love Edelbrock customer service.. as well as the benefit of living in the same town as their main facility. haha. So I'm going to pull the manifold tonight after work and then Friday afternoon when I get off work, I'm going to Edelbrock to get it handled and then I'll be back on track.
I ran into a little issue when putting all the fixin's on this weekend. I was about to install my new EGR valve and I looked down into the hole it plugs into in the new manifold and I noticed only about half of it is open.
So apparently, when they machined out the hole, it didn't clear the entire thing and nobody caught it until me now. So needless to say, its too think of a chunk of metal that I do NOT want to chance just running the thing and then a hunk of metal breaks off and goes through my brand new motor. But at the same time, if I were to pop anything in there to break it off, it falls into the intake. Grrr...
So I called Edelbrock up and the guy we have been working with for this build remembers my setup. Since they just went through the whole thing to burn my chip last week and all of that, he was like, "REALLY? Oh man.. that's no good. Pull your manifold off, bring it in to me here and let me get my hands on it. We'll get it fixed up for you here or if it doesn't look like it will be that easy, we'll give you a new one. Plus I want to comp you new gaskets too since you have to pull the thing off and all this. Very sorry. Let's handle this."
Gotta love Edelbrock customer service.. as well as the benefit of living in the same town as their main facility. haha. So I'm going to pull the manifold tonight after work and then Friday afternoon when I get off work, I'm going to Edelbrock to get it handled and then I'll be back on track.
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Chevrolado
Cruisin'
So.. Edelbrock took it out to their floor, finished the machining off and handed it right back to me about 15 minutes later.. I didnt even have enough time to sit there and look through all of their little display motors they had in their lobby. haha. Oh well though. Glad they hooked me up and helped me out with it so quickly.
ANYway.. so I got the motor all back together and started test fitting all of my other components. Checking wires, clearance on lines, fitting brackets and making sure all the new parts mesh well with the old (cleaned and repainted) parts and all of that. So far, she's coming together! Hoping to be dropping her into the chassis this weekend. We'll see!
haha. Oh well though. Glad they hooked me up and helped me out with it so quickly.ANYway.. so I got the motor all back together and started test fitting all of my other components. Checking wires, clearance on lines, fitting brackets and making sure all the new parts mesh well with the old (cleaned and repainted) parts and all of that. So far, she's coming together! Hoping to be dropping her into the chassis this weekend. We'll see!
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Chevrolado
Cruisin'
Yep. Small subtle differences.. But yeah, I always enjoyed that things back when things didnt change all too much. Nowadays every single year a vehicle seems to go through a total overhaul. I'm glad I am still driving a vehicle where I can look for parts and see a range of fitment years from 87-99 and all this type of stuff. hah.
BBslider001
Diesel Head
So how's the new engine? Any luck getting it installed?
Chevrolado
Cruisin'
Yes it's all in and running! Let me get a new update all posted up here. See below.
Thanks! Oh I'm sure yours can be a keeper too! These things just need some time, love, and money.. hah.Great build Dave, much like our 95 but yours will be a real keeper! You'll need a bigger bow tie somewhere....
Chevrolado
Cruisin'
Alright, so sorry I haven't updated in a while. Been pretty busy.
So after we got the brackets all done up and things routed, we pulled the truck back inside the shop, did some serious cleaning and then dropped the new heart in!
Once it was in, it was just a matter of going through line by line, connecting everything, plugging things in, putting bolts back in.. all that business.
And this is where the Odometer got to before the new heart came in.
So then we were able to start it up! Ran well. Had a couple little coolant leaky spots so I had to replace a couple fittings that I THOUGHT would have been re-usable. :snorkel:
Then since it's the flat tappet cam, I was advised to run its break in process of running it at 1500 RPM for 20 minutes straight. Holding it there. So I did that! Man.. longest 20 mins of my life. hah.
After all of that, got it all buttoned up!
So at that point I went to drive it to the muffler shop down the street. It has an exhaust leak on the flange after the cat because of how rusty and old the pipes were back there. As I was driving there, I found out that it wont shift out of 2nd gear! :Wow1: So I took it back to the Transmission shop that I had rebuilt the tranny while the motor was out.
They drained the trans fluid, re-opened up the trans and had to go back through their work to find something they had messed up on. So they did it and got it all pulled back together and refilled fluid and it was all good after that! :smiley_drive:
Then I took it to the exhaust shop, had them cut and weld up the flange area that was causing me leak issues. Now that it seems pretty decent.. today was it's first day back to work with me! :wings:
It's running fairly well. Has some slight varying idle issues when cold that concerns me. I need to figure out why the idle keeps hopping from 500-700 when cold. Once its all heated up, runs totally normal.
So that being said.. I'm working on my 500 mile break in process and then I'll do the real TESTING of powerband and how well it's "officially" working. :victory:
So after we got the brackets all done up and things routed, we pulled the truck back inside the shop, did some serious cleaning and then dropped the new heart in!
Once it was in, it was just a matter of going through line by line, connecting everything, plugging things in, putting bolts back in.. all that business.
And this is where the Odometer got to before the new heart came in.
So then we were able to start it up! Ran well. Had a couple little coolant leaky spots so I had to replace a couple fittings that I THOUGHT would have been re-usable. :snorkel:
Then since it's the flat tappet cam, I was advised to run its break in process of running it at 1500 RPM for 20 minutes straight. Holding it there. So I did that! Man.. longest 20 mins of my life. hah.
After all of that, got it all buttoned up!
So at that point I went to drive it to the muffler shop down the street. It has an exhaust leak on the flange after the cat because of how rusty and old the pipes were back there. As I was driving there, I found out that it wont shift out of 2nd gear! :Wow1: So I took it back to the Transmission shop that I had rebuilt the tranny while the motor was out.
They drained the trans fluid, re-opened up the trans and had to go back through their work to find something they had messed up on. So they did it and got it all pulled back together and refilled fluid and it was all good after that!
:smiley_drive:Then I took it to the exhaust shop, had them cut and weld up the flange area that was causing me leak issues. Now that it seems pretty decent.. today was it's first day back to work with me! :wings:
It's running fairly well. Has some slight varying idle issues when cold that concerns me. I need to figure out why the idle keeps hopping from 500-700 when cold. Once its all heated up, runs totally normal.
So that being said.. I'm working on my 500 mile break in process and then I'll do the real TESTING of powerband and how well it's "officially" working. :victory:
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BBslider001
Diesel Head
Looks really good man! I am wondering if the warm up process causes the idle issue? I guess we'll see?
Chevrolado
Cruisin'
Thank you!
I'm not sure. Its still continuing though. Low/bouncing idle and hesitation on acceleration during the warm up. Then once everything is fully heated and its been running to operating temp.. runs great. I'm not sure! I'm going to need to do some more research or something. Cant seem to figure it out yet.
BBslider001
Diesel Head
Dave, any news on the idling/missing/hesitation issues? Hope all is well!
Larry
Bigassgas Explorer
WOW! That turned out great Dave! Looks awesome :drool:
By the looks of your work, you are not a rookie with a wrench so my .02 cents are probably things already on your to do list. Anyway, a few thoughts…… it sounds like the erratic idle and hesitation only occur before the engine comes up to operating temperature? If that is the case I would suspect a vacuum leak somewhere near the throttle body and intake. It is not uncommon for a vacuum leak to be present only when all the metal and aluminum things are cold. Once they heat up and expand the vacuum leak source can seal and symptoms go away. Spray some carb cleaner around the throttle body and intake when cold and see if you notice any changes in RPM. With the issues you had with the EGR valve port machining would be another great spot to inspect closely with some carb cleaner as well.
As you are most likely aware, when the engine is started cold the ECM operates in Open Loop status and ignores the O2 and loosely calculates the air fuel ratio based on inputs from only the coolant temp sensor and MAP. Much of the engine operation calibrations in Open Loop are predetermined by ECM PROM programming. Once the engine comes up to temperature, starts reading the O2 and goes into Closed Loop the ECM takes inputs from all sensors more seriously to make adjustments to the air/fuel mixtures, ignition timing, etc. With that, it is possible there is nothing actually wrong with the engine but something out of whack with Edelbrock’s ECM prom tuning (I saw an earlier post where Edelbrock did the prom tuning). Who knows, they may have the engine going into Closed Loop too soon or something along those lines. But before reaching out to Edelbrock check for vacuum leaks as mentioned above as well as verify the MAP sensor is receiving the proper manifold vacuum signal. I played hell with a TBI 7.4L swap not long ago and made a total rookie mistake by plumbing the MAP to ported vacuum but I played bigger hell pulling my hair out trying to find the root cause of a rolling stop dying problem. Come to find out, there was nothing wrong with anything on the engine it was the prom tuners mistake by calibrating it to an automatic instead of a manual trans plus they had it programmed to always run in Closed Loop, even ice cool! My point is, once ECM work has been done don’t always assume the tuners don’t make mistakes too. When doing major engine work and ECM tuning at the same time makes it hard to separate the straw from the manure chasing drivability issues afterwards to figure out what is tuning related and what is not. If you have access to a scan tool to monitor what the sensors are doing would make diagnosing this much easier and verify if the issue is only present during open vs. close loop and determine if there is a real issue with the engine or just a ECM tuning issue.
Say, how do you like that K&N air intake? I used that same one on a TBI 4.3L V6 to TBI 7.4L swap recently and the air horn that mounts to the throttle body doesn’t seem to fit very well as it seems to move those three studs around and keeps squeezing out the foam seal between the air horn and TB. K&N was nice enough to send me a couple extra foam seals but I am still not happy the way the air horn seals. To me it seems like the 3 holes in the air horn are not drilled in the right spots.
The little ½ ton short bed Sportside runs like a scaled dog with a big block though.
Your work looks great! Keep us posted
By the looks of your work, you are not a rookie with a wrench so my .02 cents are probably things already on your to do list. Anyway, a few thoughts…… it sounds like the erratic idle and hesitation only occur before the engine comes up to operating temperature? If that is the case I would suspect a vacuum leak somewhere near the throttle body and intake. It is not uncommon for a vacuum leak to be present only when all the metal and aluminum things are cold. Once they heat up and expand the vacuum leak source can seal and symptoms go away. Spray some carb cleaner around the throttle body and intake when cold and see if you notice any changes in RPM. With the issues you had with the EGR valve port machining would be another great spot to inspect closely with some carb cleaner as well.
As you are most likely aware, when the engine is started cold the ECM operates in Open Loop status and ignores the O2 and loosely calculates the air fuel ratio based on inputs from only the coolant temp sensor and MAP. Much of the engine operation calibrations in Open Loop are predetermined by ECM PROM programming. Once the engine comes up to temperature, starts reading the O2 and goes into Closed Loop the ECM takes inputs from all sensors more seriously to make adjustments to the air/fuel mixtures, ignition timing, etc. With that, it is possible there is nothing actually wrong with the engine but something out of whack with Edelbrock’s ECM prom tuning (I saw an earlier post where Edelbrock did the prom tuning). Who knows, they may have the engine going into Closed Loop too soon or something along those lines. But before reaching out to Edelbrock check for vacuum leaks as mentioned above as well as verify the MAP sensor is receiving the proper manifold vacuum signal. I played hell with a TBI 7.4L swap not long ago and made a total rookie mistake by plumbing the MAP to ported vacuum but I played bigger hell pulling my hair out trying to find the root cause of a rolling stop dying problem. Come to find out, there was nothing wrong with anything on the engine it was the prom tuners mistake by calibrating it to an automatic instead of a manual trans plus they had it programmed to always run in Closed Loop, even ice cool! My point is, once ECM work has been done don’t always assume the tuners don’t make mistakes too. When doing major engine work and ECM tuning at the same time makes it hard to separate the straw from the manure chasing drivability issues afterwards to figure out what is tuning related and what is not. If you have access to a scan tool to monitor what the sensors are doing would make diagnosing this much easier and verify if the issue is only present during open vs. close loop and determine if there is a real issue with the engine or just a ECM tuning issue.
Say, how do you like that K&N air intake? I used that same one on a TBI 4.3L V6 to TBI 7.4L swap recently and the air horn that mounts to the throttle body doesn’t seem to fit very well as it seems to move those three studs around and keeps squeezing out the foam seal between the air horn and TB. K&N was nice enough to send me a couple extra foam seals but I am still not happy the way the air horn seals. To me it seems like the 3 holes in the air horn are not drilled in the right spots.
The little ½ ton short bed Sportside runs like a scaled dog with a big block though.
Your work looks great! Keep us posted
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