Well….the 8.1L swap is done, she runs but has some teething issues as to be expected with a major repower project.
Current issues as of this evening.
1) TPS issue is fixed. I had two TPS codes and she was really running like dog meat once you tip into the throttle. I ran though GM Strategy Based Diagnostics for the P0122 and P1122 codes and found the new TPS I got off EBay was defective. A quick run into town for a new Napa TPS…problem solved.
2) ECM needs some tuning badly to accommodate the RayLar cam. She runs like crap and the fuel trims are all maxed out at 25 while the ECM tries to compensate for the cam. It does not have any codes…. In speaking to Larry at RayLar that is indicative of needing a tune to accommodate the cam. Kinda bums me out as I was under the impression this cam was smaller and worked with a stockish tune. Ah, nope. Speaking of nope….she does have a pretty nice cam lope and perhaps more lope than I wanted in a quazi daily driver SUV. We’ll see once it gets a decent tune.
3) Still waiting on a new Spectra Premium CU774 4 core radiator. I ordered one from Pepboys EBay store on 2-14. It arrived 2-20 via FedEx Ground all beat to hell. The lower radiator snout was bent, twisted and shoved into the tank. Got the run around from Pepboys several weeks and finally told them to stick it up there ass and got my money back then reordered from another EBay store. The next one arrived 3-19 via UPS in the same condition. Lower rad hose snout bent and shoved into the tank. It is obvious Spectra is doing a less than sterling job of packing their radiators. There is a replacement on the way to me directly from Spectra in Canada now but don’t have an ETA as to when it will arrive. I have my doubts it will be in much better shape. We’ll see!
4) Because of the radiator debacle above I threw the little 5.7L radiator in it just to be able to run it on the car trailer to get over to the exhaust shop but it will not run more than 10 minutes or so and gets hotter than hell. I am fairly certain that issue is a rag I stuck in the old radiator when I pulled it out to keep it from leaking on the floor. I guess I forgot to pull it out when I decided to reuse it. Where ever it is stuck in the radiator it is preventing cross flow as one side of the rad is hot and the other is cold. I pulled the upper hose off of the engine and spun the water pump which it flowed great so I am not concerned that the flow issue is in the engine itself. It has to be the radiator.
5) Lastly and she is pumping oil out of the bell housing like the BP Deep Water Horizon. It’s either the rear main seal or Cam plug and I’m betting cam plug. I was nervous I did a sucktastic job installing it and I suspect that is the case. So….the NV4500 is coming out in the next week or so to see WTF is going on. The good in this is the fact this NV4500 has a 5th gear synchro problem where it won’t accept 5th gear until it gets pretty high RPM’s. So since it needs to come out I’ll send it to my guy to have fixed up. The other good news is this NV4500/241 pop out quick and easy just due to the exhaust configuration. I bet I can have it on the floor in under and hour unlike the K10 with the NV4500/205 and its particular exhaust configuration requires at least 4 hours go get out.
On to the story….
I started prepping the 5.7L for removal on the afternoon of the February 25th. It was ready to start on about 1 AM on March 12th but I was missing the new 4 core radiator and a few air induction pieces. In all reality, 2 weeks for the swap working from 9 PM to midnight and a few afternoons was pretty quick. Had the issues not came up it would have been a nice record. The K10 had some major teething issues at first 7 years ago when it got its 8.1L as well.
3fidy before plucking!
Mileage at swap time for future reference. 142,063 Not sure how many miles the old 5.7L had on it but I don’t think it was more than 50K as looks like a GM service replacement engine.
