1985 V8-S10 Blazer

[TireSmoker]

SUCCESS!! It fired right up! I must be getting good at this stuff.

Had to shut it off 12 minutes into the break-in for a trans cooler line leak. Got it tightened up, restarted and resumed the break-in, took it out to 22 minutes. Had some noisy valves at the end and found 3 valves that were pretty loose. I hope that's not a bad sign. I had to adjust #6 Intake, #3 intake and #1 Exhaust. There's still a little ticking, but it sounds like mostly exhaust. Previous owner had double-gasketed the manifolds. I put a single gasket back in on re-assembly, but I think I'm going to add a second gasket. If it's still ticking, I'll readjust all the valves.

It ran a bit rough at first, which we later traced to a couple bad plug wires. Grabbed a couple from the basement and it ran much smoother. Fortunately a I have mint set of brand new wires from BP that I can work up. They're even red! Thanks again for those!!

The radiator + electric fans work perfect -- temp never went over 180. I ordered a temperature switch from Summit this afternoon and will get that installed in the next couple days. I do need get a little sleeve to put inside the upper radiator hose where I have that adapter so I can tighten it up better. It leaks a little bit, as I suspected it would.

I raised it off the ground and let it shift through the gears. Not sure if I got into 4th, but definitely felt the 1-2 and 2-3 shifts. Rear brakes work. I have a trans mount on the way too.

Thanks again to Chris for coming over and helping me get things sorted out. Couldn't have done it without ya dude!!

-Dave

[TireSmoker]

Well, I've got a problem and I'm not sure how I'm going to solve it. The Vortec heads have the spark plug holes positioned slightly different compared to other heads. The plug wire is really close on #3, close enough that the boot is melting and then the spark is arcing to the manifold. #5 looks almost as bad, but not quite, but maybe because it's more difficult to see. #1 looks ok, and I can't see #7 well enough yet, but I suspect it's ok. The passenger side is a-ok, as they don't run the manifold pipes so close to the engine. The driver's side needs steering shaft clearance.

I have some options:

*) shorty spark plug -- not sure how much clearance I'll gain, because the boot will still be very close
*) try to clearance the manifold --possible, but risk cracking/damaging the manifold, because there is a weld right where I need to clearance it. I'm imagining setting the ball end of hammer against the manifold and striking the flat end with a 2nd hammer to try and create add'l space. It also looks like I'll need to remove it from the vehicle to do it.
*) wrap the manifold -- not sure I'll end up with enough clearance. But there's some left over header wrap in the garage from when Gwen wrapped the exhaust on her bike
*) ceramic boot spark plug wires -- they really pricey -- $100+ for a set, and I really only need 1 or 2. I'd never heard of these till researching this problem tonight.

In positive news, I added a 2nd set of gaskets to the manifolds, and it seemed to really help the noise. The band clamps I received appear to be step-down, and not same size on both ends. Oddly, one seems to be sorta snug and the other sorta loose. I should really take them back to Summit, because I ordered butt-joint band clamps that should be the same size on both ends.

I snugged up the trans mount and did a light brake-torque in the garage (on less than 8 cylinders) and the rear of the truck slid sideways. Posi works

-Dave

[Blue_69_malibu]

Dave: For the time being, can you use "sleeves" like I had on my wires?

[MostMint]

Dave - the design on that header does not look to be very efficient.

I think you should try and clearance them. If you break them I know a guy who can weld. If that fails then I think it would really like some true 4 into 1 headers. https://www.summitracing.com/parts/hed- ... /model/s10 - I am quite confident these little pipes would be better than what is in there now though I would look harder for larger pipes. I don't know the vehicle well enough to know if a full length header would be better or worse.

[TireSmoker]

Tony, I do have some of those sleeves around.. somewhere. I was thinking about that, but the gap is so small that they would literally be against the manifold all the time. Not sure if that would be safe? I'm not even sure where they are -- are they at your house by chance?

Andy, those mid-length headers are constantly frowned up over at v8s10.org. I believe the biggest gripe is that they are hard to tighten at the collector, because that collector ends up right around the very tightest spot, which is where the exhaust goes past the bellhousing -- I had to cut both ears off the 700r4 just to get the current exhaust to fit. Previous TH350 had passenger side ear cut off. Full length headers would be nice, but they're ~ $475. While they would defintely provide a performance improvement, I'd still need additional exhaust work done to accomodate. I'm trying to avoid that route -- for now.

I guess I'm gonna pull it off and bang on the manifold first, maybe combine it with one of those sleeves. Hopefully that will do the trick.

-Dave

[Basement Paul]

I ran those sleeves on my V6 where the wires were just about touching and the sleeve was touching the whole time with no issues. I reused them on the V8 where necessary, but it's not quite as tight on the LS and I now have ceramic coating. I did NOT have that on the V6 and all seemed well.

-BP

[TireSmoker]

Well, I found the sleeves and it certainly seems to have helped. The boot is burned through on the corner, so while the sleeve is a heat insulator, I think I need to get a different wire on there to guarantee its still not shorting. I can't see it, but there is still an occasional roughness to the engine. I think new wire + sleeve will probably do the trick. I want to get this fully sorted before I make up a new set of wires with the ones Paul gave me.

I also found the other loose valves on the driver's side. There was one very loose one, only slightly loose one. Now everything is now quiet.

Next up -- permanently wiring the fans. For all the running in the garage, they've worked perfectly, and I have no doubt they'll work well on a hot summer day.

Neighbor Jerry is coming over tomorrow to help me put the hood back on (!!) and I should be able to take my first easy road test. I've snugged the trans mount, but it still needs resolved before I romp on it. I want to verify the trans works as expected.

The final thing I really need to do after the above is to swap the front springs. It has a really ugly jacked-up stance right now.

-Dave

[TireSmoker]

So neighbor Jerry came over tonight and we got the hood on. It even lined up perfectly on the first try.

Chris came over and we took it for the first test drive. Took it down to Sunoco and threw a few gallons in it since it was almost empty. Trans shifts really good. Got it into overdrive with no problems. Speedo is not as accurate as I hoped, and I'm not exactly sure why. There were 3 different drive/driven gear combinations I could use -- maybe I need a different combo. The cable may be binding a little inside the sleeve too, since it was a slightly tight reach on to hook up on the longer 700R4. Lockup not wired yet, so couldn't verify it works, but I expect it will be fine.

Ended up making up the new set of wires tonight and I sleeved 3, 5 & 7. New wires made a noticable improvement. I think I might as well pick up a new cap and rotor too.

The plugs looked a little white, so I richened up the primaries from 67 to 70 jets. When driving, it felt good but was shifting very early, like as soon as it was really getting into the meat of the torque. After we got back to the garage, we went to verify WOT on the carb, and I'm only getting about 2/3 throttle -- doh! That explained the early shifts. I have a Lokar cable that I was from the carb setup in the Chevelle -- I will probably swap that in since the current cable is much too long.

Since it was wet out, traction was limited and the posi is definitely working.

The last major hurdle will be the front springs. I'm hoping to tackle that next weekend. But I feel pretty good about being able to take it to Carlisle in a few weeks.

-Dave

[Basement Paul]

NICE!

-BP

[TireSmoker]

I'm starting to have some concerns. There is a roughness to the engine that I just can't seem to get sorted out. Along with replacing the plug wires, I also replaced the cap and rotor, even though the old ones didn't really look bad. I re-adjusted all the valves and have tried adjusting the idle mixture screws. The intake manifold bolts are tight. You can feel a heavy puf-puf-puf on the drivers side exhaust. I'm starting to worry that maybe a lobe went bad. I have Tony's Holley 670 Street Avenger I could try, but I don't think this is a carb issue.

Next step will be a compression check.

-Dave

[Maverick]

Could one of the exhaust valves be too tight? I had that problem with the Lincoln. Apparently, some of the lifters didn't get filled with oil before they were installed. Then, when I pre-set the lifters during assembly I wasn't feeling the lifter when it was expanded but only when it was bottomed out. When I did the additional 3/4 turn the valve couldn't close.

Fixed it by adjusting all the lifters with the engine running.

[TireSmoker]

I would love for it to be that simple. The lifters sat in a tupperware container of oil for probably 2 months before I installed them. I was hoping it was just a tight valve (i've done it before) which is why I re-adjusted them this afternoon. And I did all 16. When I did the job this afternoon, I only went 1/2 turn after 0 lash. I did 3/4 turn when I first assembled it. I didn't do it running though, and the motor was relatively cool when I did it. I did the EOIC method. (Exhaust Opening, adjust intake valve / Intake Closing, adjust exhaust valve) But an exhaust valve makes sense with the forceful puf-puf-puf (not smokey, just higher pressure).

The oil looks very clean and oil pressure is still solid, so that is mildly reassuring.

-Dave

[GMJohnny]

Are you thinking that you wiped out the cam during break-in? If so, wouldn't
you see some metallic debris in the oil? Perhaps a check of the crankcase might
give you some hints.

GM

[TireSmoker]

Good call John -- I did stick a couple magnets on the drain plug after draining the break-in oil. I can pull the plug, drain the oil into a clean container and see if there is debris on the drain plug. That should give me a good clue. But I can say the oil is still clean and I still have good oil pressure. Oil pressure started dropping when I wiped a cam in the Chevelle years ago, but there was always a ticking/tapping noise in that engine that this one doesn't have. Just runs rough.

I just pulled all the driver's side plugs and they all look good. No oil fouling, not black. More importantly, they all look pretty consistent. Maybe I'll have to try adjusting the valves with the engine running as Maverick suggested, starting with exhaust valves first. Such a messy prospect. I used to have a set of those deflector clips for the rockers.. I wonder where they are.

Keep the ideas coming guys..

-Dave

[MostMint]

Find an old set of valve covers and cut them open. If you cut them closer to the top and bend the top up it will catch the oil.

Loosen them all up 1/2 turn. It might clatter but it should run better - if too tight valve is the problem.

With so little clearance I wonder if you cracked a plug installing

What is your initial timing ? Is the vacuum advance working ? This seems like a long shot based on what you are describing but I've had some run quite poorly on poor timing or no advance.