Minor Upgrades Create Crazy Power on a Junkyard 5.3L Vortec - Engine Power S7, E10

When a

junkyard

engine

makes incredible

power

in the dyno cell, there's only one thing you can say: Welcome to Engine Power, where

engine

technology and real-world dyno numbers go. of the hand. This season has been full of impressive builds, including a 292-in. 6 inline with artificial atmosphere, a racing small block Chevy with a big fan, a big inch EFI and the list will grow as we continue to present these programs for you, this engine will receive a totally different approach than the ones we just discussed mention. had a lot of new parts at a pretty high price now this is a Vortec 5300 LM 7 LS engine it has aluminum iron block heads and was introduced in 1999 now this engine is known as the generation three garden variety when it was introduced The LM 7 produced 270 horse

power

and 315 pound-feet of torque during its production years.

It increased in both the horsepower and torque department. The latest generation of the 3L M7 made 295 horsepower and 335 pound-feet of torque. Now the camshaft has a very small duration of 50. The mil lift is 190 on the intake and 191 on the exhaust. Lift on the valve with a 1/7 ratio rocker arm is 466 mils and 457 mils and has a low beam angle of 114 degrees. This engine was taken out of a Silverado that was meeting its end with a heavy head-on collision, we were told it was a good runner with no known issues rather than just cleaning it up and leaving it in a project, wouldn't you like to know its condition, especially if you want run efficiently for any amount of time this project is getting the name badge with little money for the technology and it is for good reason that we are going to tear down this engine, thoroughly clean all the parts, make some improvements to the blocks and breathe life into the lubrication system, including the oil pump, and then the entire engine is being reassembled with a minimum of new parts.

Now we are going to show you some interesting things that will allow us to take this little 325 cubic inch engine to the next level and turn it into a support racer or a small street bullet when this engine was removed practically everything was left intact, we will not need various parts like the mallet of cables, so it will go first. Factory connectors are easy to remove, simply press the retaining tab and pull out the connector. Coil packs are an important part. Component to hold on to, not expensive to replace, look at the look of it, the couple leaves, yes this was a typical good looking entry hall, that's why we are taking it apart and cleaning it, I mean other than that it's dirty if it worked it will work again that's right we're going to get power numbers so we definitely won't need the power stealing accessory unit plus it was damaged a bit during the collision now there are several components that make it up which they range from the water pump power steering pump ac compressor idler and idler pulleys the alternator and balancer the exhaust manifolds are cast iron we will use a set of dyno headers later so these go in the scrap bin this Now it gives us a good look at the outside of the engine and I have to say it's definitely had some issues with leaks around the seams but that doesn't really bother us because it's easy to fix oil leaks in an LS because the way it gaskets are designed There is some truth to the saying, everything is in In the pan there will be foreign material, foreign matter or even heavy sludge due to lack of oil changes.

We'll find out right now for as many miles as they say are in it. Typical LS tray, typical LS or some small chunk that just builds up towards the bottom. Here, like in the corners of the pan, as is typical, yes, but I mean, until they were very religious about changing the oil, they knew when they got to three four thousand miles, they cleaned well and reused absolutely until now, so It's fine, any high mileage. A well used engine will be a little dirty, you can never really know what's going on until you break it in, look at the corrosion down here, mmm, no one looks new, that's what makes these covers hard to remove and usually breaks that seal there. we're going to start, but look at the one that looked good, started, it doesn't look good, rip, yes, for the sake of your spark plugs and your engine, always loosen the spark plugs by hand before power tools use them, the valvetrain looks decent until we take a Look at the pushrods, the one on the right is in good shape, but the one on the left reveals a heavy wear pattern with a lot of worn metal on the ball end, the pattern of Wear is even more pronounced on the rocker arm, well let's see what happens. here, yeah, same thing, one over there, okay, this is the exact reason why you take an engine apart very slowly and look at everything because this will tell you that you have a problem, the cylinder head bolts also tell a story, they are a little on the loose side which makes us think this engine may have overheated at some point look at that no problem yeah if there's no break in that what if that was working was it or was it ?, you never know, you never know.

Realizing the truth, there are still quite a few crosshatches on the cylinder walls, which is a good sign that this engine was cared for to some extent. As we delve deeper into this technology, we continue to get hit in the face by the old burning smell. Oil, like any high mileage engine, this one has its wear and tear, whether you're a racer or not, we'll certainly get it done below with just a couple of hand tools and a little time to get your engine running at its best. . We'll show you why it's important to balance your engine.

The answer is in today's technical tip. Balancing an engine minimizes vibration, which helps the engine run more smoothly. Maximizes engine life. Timing balancing requires compensating for the weight of the pistons and rods by adding or removing weight from the crankshaft An engine can be balanced internally externally or a combination of both An internally balanced engine only has modifications to the external parts of the crankshaft such as a balancer and a Flexible plate flywheels have a neutral balance so they will not affect other rotating parts. If the connecting rod counterweights are too light, the engine must be balanced externally, this involves adding weight to the house on it, balancer and/or flexible plate or Steering wheel, generally speaking, internal balance is the best choice.

External counterweights can cause the crankshaft to flex at high rpm, which can cause engine damage. however, any type of balance is fine for most engines. We continue with the dismantling of the 5.3 liter Vortech. Looks pretty good for the most part, like a decent engine with high mileage. A lot of this stuff looks a little gross, but it will get cleaned up. top I think it's good, very well done, oh yeah, does it look good or not, we have to go, man, Pat, sorry, it's crucial to label the parts, since you're taking apart any engine, everything has to go back exactly where it belongs. where it came from, that's why I'm very interested, yeah this is the perfect time buddy what the heck is the high mileage LS and the bearings look like new?

Wow there is still a little coating on the skirt and I use protection that's awesome and the bearings still have a little squish so I have to wear some places it really looks like an engine with over a hundred thousand miles like the groove behind the bearing main a thorough cleaning in the jet washer will remove years of dirt, we will run ours at 150 degrees for about an hour after removing all the heavy stuff, we will sand all joint services with one hundred and eighty grit sandpaper, We are just cleaning the surface, without removing material from the deck, we will use a long flat bar to send evenly along the surface.

The entire surface maintaining a budget theme, we are only going to polish the cylinders. This polish is 320 grit to be gentle on the cylinder finish. First lubricate the cylinders with a little 10w30 and start, we will do approximately 20 strokes per cylinder making sure that no. To stop in one place while the drill is running, keep the drill at moderate speed and try to achieve a crosshatch angle of around 40 degrees. Now we are left with a reconditioned surface that should help seal our ring pack. We just finished flushing the oil pump. that came out of our 5.3 budget, so now it's time to do some budget tech on the pump itself.

Now these steps will improve the lubrication pressure of the pumps, as well as the longevity, although it is a wear pump, the first thing we are going to do. What you need to do is get into the housing, remove the sharp edges where the oil flows on the inlet and outlet side, being careful not to touch the area where the pickup's O-ring seals. We'll also take the rotor gears G and dimple each one. one of the lobes now this will

create

an oil pocket between the gear and the actual thrust plate. Finally, we will shim the spring to increase the pressure between 78 and 80 mm.

Let's get started, we will start with a grinder with a carbide burr the goal is to smooth out any harsh transitions in the casting, go slowly and use a light touch, we are just smoothing out the edges and a heavy hand can do a lot of damage quickly. Next, we'll put in a cartridge roll to smooth everything out. We now have an OEM pump that flows more like an aftermarket one, the only cost was some tools and a little time dimpling the G rotors. We will start with a center punch to help guide the bit and then use a drill bit of 3/16 to make the first pass followed by a quarter inch bit, so now that we have the dimpled gear, we're going to go ahead and sand it because we don't want any of the high spots to catch the front. of the push plate, so with a little flat surface, a little sandpaper, a little penetrating oil, it will knock down the edges.

Now go ahead and keep sanding this with the 500 grit sandpaper until the center stays black and stops coming off with the gray like that, as we know. the lip fell off, that's good, use lots of assembly grease when rebuilding the oil pump, once the G rotors are in place and lubricated, secure the cover and use the blue Permatex threadlocker on the fasteners. We like the gel formula because it stays in place in the Screw the bypass and spring back into place, we will use a couple of washers to shim the spring, this will increase the tension of the spring which will keep the bypass closed longer , therefore it will increase the oil pressure in the pump that goes up, the Vortech buckles and then Continue on the dyno, so the premise of this engine is to see how much power we can generate even with a power adder, but one of the things you want to do is take it apart like we've been doing now, here's a small step.

For us it's one of the most important ones, especially if you're going to add a blower or nitrous or even turbos and that's the ring spacing, so what we're going to do is remove the second ring from the top end. Place them in the holes individually and see how they separate right now right out of the engine. Our biggest gap is 30 mil on the second top end, so we'll try to get everything to that spec, just put the ring on the barrel. and use the ring squaring tool, then measure the spacing of all the rings, we only had one spacing that was narrower than 30,000.

Check now the Jedi Rama door was not right. I have a meter here, but you said five, so I was dead. dead in five there's a thirty ready hmm good theory imagine next the crank gets a light polish with our Goodson crankshaft polishing tool, both the main journal and the rod journal are in fantastic condition, we don't use a ribbed belt at all, just the cork strap. The result, a clean, smooth, shiny surface, will give the motor another pass in the water jet and begin assembly. One of the few new parts installed on this engine is a set of main bearings, the cost is under $80 and since the old bearings look something like this.

Overall it was worth the expense, as always we will check the main bearing clearance for all bearings, it ranged from twenty to ten thousand excellent before installing the rod and piston assemblies, we will lubricate the cylinders with brake and oil as well It will lubricate the wrist. the pins as well as the rings, using a ring compressor, are gently tapped into place, the fasteners are torqued to 15 foot-pounds and then to 85 degrees on our Metco digital torque and angle gauge with half-inch drive we wanted do something a little different in the paint job and we think this color works great it is Detroit Diesel Alpine Green we replaced the original cam with a ls1 roller cam motionStage Three Hydraulic This is a smooth performance cam that still works with original components The oil pump is shimmed in three places The gear uses fifteen hundred shims, this ensures proper alignment when tightened as the original belly plate was in very poor condition, we decided to use an ICT valley plate instead, the heads were installed with a new stock torque to produce fasteners and torque to Initially weighed 22 foot-pounds, then we used a torque angle gauge to tighten the fasteners , two 90-degree rounds to finish the build, the valvetrain oil pan, and one more aftermarket part, a Holley dual-plane intake manifold.

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Next, sometimes the engine does what you think it's going to do in the dyno cell, but sometimes, oh, I saw some big numbers, buddy, we're almost ready to fire up the Vortech. but first we need to install some electronic components. We are using a selection of Duralast sensors. They offer thousands of quality or better parts for almost any vehicle on the road. Today, Duralast products are rigorously tested for performance and reliability, and they are the best. The first choice of professional auto shops is the coolant temperature sensor, followed by the cam sensor, depending on your application, the cam sensor can be at the front or rear of the engine and the finishing is a cam sensor. dirt crankshaft from 24 to three locks, all good in our budget. extravagance here, this engine doesn't require any break-in, so go three to six and make a hit, here we go, which is used rings, used rod bearings, used rod bolts, 337, 351 foot-pounds of torque, heads nice bone, bone material, I mean, no You don't get any dual plane collector, this is the cheapest one, you can make one of these things work properly, you can put injection in it, but you have to have a lot more sensors, a lot more wiring, a lot more playing with it, this is as cheap as possible. this thing goes 3:46 at 6,000 yeah 355 CS trying to downshift now yeah oh yeah definitely at two hundred rpm down six so now this is what we did to show y'all how you could get a

junkyard

engine to do a little tech stop and put a power adder back in.

I guess the power adder is nitrous and again you know I'm a naturally aspirated guy. This is a good way to do it, although it really is because it's the cheapest thing you can do. the most power you can get for your money, so plants do. We're running a Holley sniper nitrous system that ranges from 150 to 250 horsepower depending on the size of the jet, so 63 jets with fuel and nitrous, yeah, this. 150 150 okay sniper guy, three to six thousand six hundred per second, okay, I'm putting it together, okay, oh, I saw some big numbers, dude, no, wait a minute, holy shit, 724 foot-pounds of torque, 564 horsepower for 150 shots okay this thing made 347 n/a 217 so God bless you get the torque that's the right jet 6363 I triple checked Wow yeah 724 lb-ft of torque now it was probably higher because we carried it well, oh my gosh, oh yeah, it was definitely higher because we carried it.

I loaded it up, the brake caught it, lowered it a hair and then it took off, so in our hundred and fifty thousand miles we reused almost the entire engine. I think we flirted with disaster right there, but we won, this time we want to be late, we all win. very good, very good, we made a lot of horsepower but we didn't spend a lot of money, the engine cost five hundred dollars, a set of main bearings cost 80 dollars, the cam lifters and timing chain cost $650, the valley cover cost $40, intake manifold worked. us $300 the gasket set two hundred and ten dollars pushrods is worth $30 five rocker arms for $90 finally the nitrous kit cost five hundred and seventy dollars a total of twenty-four seventy dollars that is four dollars 38 cents per horsepower and three dollars 41 cents per pound foot of torque very impressive for more information on anything you've seen today, there's a powernation tv.com that