Firewood truck
OBS Enthusiast
Hello everyone,
I've been doing my due diligence by reading all that I can find on the topic, quiet a few threads have popped up with a ton of solid tech information. A quick summary of what I need to do: my '88 K2500 needs a heart transplant. IN October I did a HC test, the fluid turned green almost instantly. The engine urinates oil from every place that it could possible leak oil out of. I get the tell tale smoke generator from the tail pipe after starting it up and it runs for a few minutes. Since the engine would have to come out to reseal it and the heads need to come off and get checked for cracks, I started looking for alternatives. I've found a few low mileage '98 Vortecs locally, one of them stands out as a factory warranty replacement crate engine that only has about 55K on it.
The 1st thought was to use the Vortec as a short block, have the TBI heads rebuilt and use the TBI upper end. Once I started reading through some of the info in here, it started to seem that it isn't quiet as simple as that, so the next idea is to use the Vortec as a long block, use a carbed aftermarket intake and a TBI adapter plate. Not such a great idea after seeing that none of the aftermarket intakes have EGR provisions. The "correct" intake from GM Performance would make life easier, I'm simply not spending $700 for an intake. So now I'm back to the other 2 options- Vortec short block, TBI top end or Vortec long block and some sort of carbed intake w/ an adapter.
I'd like to hear from anyone who has actually done one of the Frankenstein conversions to hear pros/cons of each way of doing it.
I'm not interested in spending the $$ to drop off the current engine at a local machine shop and picking it up when it's done. I don't want to spend that kind of $$ for this truck- it's not that nice of a truck but after all of the work that I put into last year to get it running/road worthy, I need to get some more use out of it.
Thanks for any replies!
I've been doing my due diligence by reading all that I can find on the topic, quiet a few threads have popped up with a ton of solid tech information. A quick summary of what I need to do: my '88 K2500 needs a heart transplant. IN October I did a HC test, the fluid turned green almost instantly. The engine urinates oil from every place that it could possible leak oil out of. I get the tell tale smoke generator from the tail pipe after starting it up and it runs for a few minutes. Since the engine would have to come out to reseal it and the heads need to come off and get checked for cracks, I started looking for alternatives. I've found a few low mileage '98 Vortecs locally, one of them stands out as a factory warranty replacement crate engine that only has about 55K on it.
The 1st thought was to use the Vortec as a short block, have the TBI heads rebuilt and use the TBI upper end. Once I started reading through some of the info in here, it started to seem that it isn't quiet as simple as that, so the next idea is to use the Vortec as a long block, use a carbed aftermarket intake and a TBI adapter plate. Not such a great idea after seeing that none of the aftermarket intakes have EGR provisions. The "correct" intake from GM Performance would make life easier, I'm simply not spending $700 for an intake. So now I'm back to the other 2 options- Vortec short block, TBI top end or Vortec long block and some sort of carbed intake w/ an adapter.
I'd like to hear from anyone who has actually done one of the Frankenstein conversions to hear pros/cons of each way of doing it.
I'm not interested in spending the $$ to drop off the current engine at a local machine shop and picking it up when it's done. I don't want to spend that kind of $$ for this truck- it's not that nice of a truck but after all of the work that I put into last year to get it running/road worthy, I need to get some more use out of it.
Thanks for any replies!
