86 GXL 388sbc to 5.3 turbo

[rex388]

A look at the 8.8

car at the track at a no prep event

and two engine bays photos

[digitalsolo]

Lookin' good sir.

[rex388]

Thanks man.

Well considering that I will be using a truck intake for a while (first born child is coming in February and it's a boy), so instead of a Holley sniper race intake I went with a free truck intake.

I will try to clean it up like poeple do online. But the truck intake puts out so it should move

[rex388]

Well I was sick of battling heating problems last summer.  A bit was cause my remote water pump wasn't mounted correctly even though Meziere doesn't give instructions on the "correct" way to mount it.  So I need to make room which mean means tilting a rad and while I was tilting the rad I thought fuck it lets just open up the front of the car.

I am going from a 24x15 rad to a 28x16 rad now.  Almost 100 square inches more of cooling ability.  Also went out and bought another Taurus 3.8L fan as they are just so dam good.

So now I will have room to tilt my rad so that the top of the rad faces towards and the engine and the bottom faces towards the front of the car, cause the Meziere pump need to be mounted as low as the rad and as you can see I have a turbo stand that acts like a cross brace for the front of the car and that was going to get in the way if I didn't do this also.

I am also going to have to do something with all those stock relays that are up front there. I am thinking of hiding them all under the driver side light.

[freeskier7791]

Nice, what'd you run at the no prep event?

[rex388]

For et?

No et at the events. 

Went out another day and just did some 1/8th mile pulls.

It was bad though. Suspension needs tunning and need more tuneable stuff ie Holley EFI now lol.

1.7051 60ft
4.7370 330ft
7.2651 1/8 et
97.31 1/8mph

My data logger showed only 16 psig so I still have a lot more room to increase.

[freeskier7791]

Still pretty fast

[rex388]

Still pretty fast

yes and no.

It was faster than I thought it was going to be coming off the trailer as I didn't have anytime to get any data or set up the suspension or anything before that pass.

But my car before with my old sbc stroker and TII rear end 60' harder than my new one.  But that will change though.

[rex388]

Well finally started to get some time in on the car, feels nice to get back out at it.

Anyhow, new rad is in and I went back to the good old fashion tauras fan as it worked great before when I have used them.  Haven't mounted the Holley ECU yet, but most the sensors are ran and plugged and and lines where either added on or taken some out of to make it look good.

Re did my remote mount water pump as I was told by the good people at Meziere that it has to be installed as low as possible with the outlets up (facing 12 o'clock).  Only problem with the bigger rad and water pump mounted so low that I am 90% sure speed bumps and or pot holes will be my enemy hahaha.

As you can also tell from the photos that I ditched the truck intake and went with a 92mm Holley sniper intake. 

[digitalsolo]

Those Holley intakes look pretty nice.   Should work alright with the turbo, too.

[rex388]

Yeah I wanted the race one but the Canadian dollar is shit so I got the snippet for $700 (my price) and I am going to see if they actually "blow apart" like everyone and their dog claims.  I am betting that most people just saw one picture of them and jumped on the band wagon. 

[rex388]

Well I got a new to me for a future build engine. I just picked up a LH6 with 243 heads. So my question is do I sell this one and still get a L33. As I hear some people say each are better.

I got the LH6 complete minus coils for $150 only. Buddy thought it was just a low mileage cast 5.3.

Or I can get a L33 for $350 just engine. All I want is the block and crank as I will be doing rods, pistons bearings etc.

[spacevomit]

The only real difference is L33 is gen 3 and LH6 is gen 4, so things like reluctor wheel tooth count, casting differences in the valley for DOD/AFM, cam sensor location front vs rear, the bolt pattern on the front of the cam and the type of cam trigger wheel. There's no reason to buy an L33 when you have an LH6 (or vice versa).

[shainiac]

There are some small details on the Gen4 motors that may complicate using your existing ECU/wiring.
As spacevomit already mentioned, the 58X/4X crank/cam sensor patterns will at least require you change the trigger settings in your standalone ECU. 58X crank sensor uses 5V instead of 12V (unless I got that backwards) and I believe requires a pullup resistor. The Gen4 cam sensor is also in the timing cover, so you’d need to extend the wiring.

To delete the DOD, all you need is a new cam, lifters, and a valley plate. IIRC, I bought a new Delco Gen4 4.8L valley plate for like $45 of Summit.

The knock sensors are also on the side of the block instead of in the valley cover. It’s also a wideband knock sensor and is 2 wires instead of 1.  Not a big deal for most people with standalones.

BTW, if you’re going to put rods/pistons in it, throw the OEM rods/pistons on eBay. They go for more than you’d think since all the guys with Gen3 motors want the upgrade. I sold a set of Gen4 6.0 rods/pistons for almost $300!

[rex388]

Currently my Holley is for a non 58, but that is ready to change and I just have to solder on write to extend my cam sensor.

I figured I will sell the L33 and keep the LH6 due to the block being better and also isn't the crank better