Most of you know I bought a 408 shortblock this spring and pieced together the remaining stuff over the summer and finally installed it with my TVS1900 this fall. Most of you will probably also recall that I was suffering from low oil pressure after about 1000miles and cut open the filter and found a ton of bearing material... fast forward a week and I had pulled the 408 out and put my stock 5.3 back in since my truck is my DD. Sure enough most of the crank bearings were toast and all other bearings didnt look good. I figured this was as good a time as any to stop dicking around...
build thread: https://www.performancetrucks.net/fo...d.php?t=460776
damage: https://www.performancetrucks.net/fo...d.php?t=470133
teardown: https://www.performancetrucks.net/fo...d.php?t=470422

I ended up sending the shortblock to LME to be worked over with all new bearings, ARP mains, hone the cylinders to 4.040 and install new diamond pistons with a -15cc dish. The compression ratio for this should be around 9.5. The 11 CR of the 408 was awesome, but I am dont want to run race gas or meth, so the CR needed to be lowered. Brian is an awesome guy and I should have the block back in roughly two weeks. I plan to reuse my 317 heads with patriot dual springs and REV valves. I also bought a more appropriate cam for the new setup, 236/230 115.

I also pretty much maxed out the TVS1900 on the 408 with a 2.8" pulley. The little blower did excellent and the instant torque from that setup was just ridiculous. Although I was limited even with the small pulley to around 7lbs of boost simply because the blower is too small. Options were to either stick with that, upgrade a larger blower, or join the dark side and get a turbo. I loved having a supercharger for exactly the reason I chose to get a turbo; its simple and just works. The last part may be confusing but I am one of these people that likes to tinker with stuff, and the blower just working without any attention which I found kind of....boring. With that said, I chose to go with Kyle (KBRacing) for a turbo setup. Plans are for a PT88 with a 4" DP kit, which I should have in the next couple weeks.

I am trading in the PB lvl3 60e for one of their built 80e's plus the cash difference. For all of the haters of the 60e, mine has performed excellently and hasnt skipped a beat. I am just trading it in because 1.) swapping out trannies is such a pain, and 2.) I dont feel like pushing my luck. Frank is a nice guy and offered this deal to me if I do it within the warranty period (Still have 5 months left) and I do appreciate it. I am also sending my PI 2600 triple disc stall off to PI to be freshened up, restalled to maybe 2000rpm (I find high stall torque converters annoying), and adapted to work with an 80e. The driveshaft I have now is from texas driveshaft specialist and I am going to send it to them to be shortened once I get the 80e in to measure what length I need. Might end up with a 5" DS, but for now I plan to reuse the 4". The built 14b rear should be fine....and I managed to cure that annoying axle seal leak with a ton of RTV, finally.

Lastly, I will probably be switching to a return-style fuel system once I get everything together. I just dont think the single 255 is going to be happy with a 410 and pt88. I have an additional denso 1020 pump which flows around 300lph that I plan to use with the 255 in a twin in-tank return setup. I am bidding on a fuel bucket on ebay to modify so I can keep my stock one (just in case). Plan is to install both pumps in the bucket to a -8an bulkhead, -8 line split to the rails, and use the stock fuel line as the return. I already have some motron 60lb injectors which I have had a lot of success with. My 408 setup was 600+ and these were only at ~70% IDC, so I think they will take me a long way.

Goals for this project are 800rwhp and take my 6400lb truck into the 11s, and also be nice enough to DD. With any luck, I will have everything I need by the middle of December and plan to start installing everything then. I have spent many hours researching parts and combinations and am starting to get parts coming in the mail. I am looking forward to this since driving a stock 5.3 is not much fun

 

that's gonna be sweet as F man!

 

You won't be disappointed with the snail. If you thought the blower made power just wait until you feel the turbo hit full boost.

 

Good luck Richard, that will be a sick combo when your done,

I'd put he 1900 on your 5.3 for now to hold you over LOL, no boost sux.

 

I had it on for a while, but took it off when I got my intake. Now I have it sitting in a corner waiting for someone to buy it....hint hint..

 

It would be awesome if he tells us what went wrong to ruin your stuff. I'm planning to install twin 1020s in-tank, and I have been worried about the possibility of one flowing significantly more than the other. Even though they have checks on the outlets, I have a nagging feeling, that might be based on some HVAC flow training class that I might have taken (lol, I'm a long time in the industry), that the better flowing pump might decrease the output of the weaker pump. In other words, 300 lph + 255 lph might not add up to 555 lph, but something less.
Maybe I am just having these thoughts because my imagination is having trouble distinguishing between flow with and flow without the check valves.
Any actual hydraulic engineers reading this?

 

Well the pressure both pumps see where they merge should be the same, so they both see the same resistance... I dont think flow reversion will be a problem at all...

 

As long as each pump has its own supply they will be fine. ie: each pump not drinking thru the same straw.

 

Yeah, I probably drank too much coffee today, it makes me think about stuff.
So is Brian going to tell us why the damage occurred?

 

Wow man that is alot of work and ALOT of money. GL I hope it ends up what you want, and not in crazy debt lol. BTW are you going to mod your cross member for the 80e?