"Its alive!" That's what we exclaimed, with extreme giddiness, as our GM Performance Parts HT 383 V-8 finally, and at long last, roared to life and settled into a happy idle. Now we know the pride and happiness that Dr. Frankenstein must have felt as his creation came to life and began to stumble around his laboratory. Yes, it is actually running and capable of being driven, which is a major relief for a project that has taken lots of time.
With the usual lack of funds, an actual life to live, and, worst of all, a magazine to try to contend with, our Project SuperBurb has been on the back burner. This sad fact meant that it usually only gets attention on the rare weekend we are not working, or in the middle of the night when work worries keep us from sleeping. So now nothing brings a bigger smile to our faces than being able to turn the key and listen to our stroker V-8 roar to life and rattle our neighbors' windows.
In this final shot of our...
In this final shot of our engine bay, you can see the GM Performance Parts HT 383 V-8 and how it all wound up. Dropping the engine in wasn't hard. Finishing off all the details to make it fire and run was hard.
A few issues back we showed you the rough details of our drivetrain swap. We had put the HT 383 V-8 into position, snuggled up to a stout NV4500 five-speed manual from Advance Adapters. With the new drivetrain in place, we thought we were pretty much done. But we quickly learned that the seeming minor details of a swap take the most time. Unfortunately, we still had plenty of work to do. Now, with all those details finally handled and our Suburban actually capable of moving under its own power, we decided to fill you in on our story so far. And don't worry-we're not done with Super 'Burb, so there's more to come.
Our V-8 is going to suck a...
Our V-8 is going to suck a lot of air, so proper breathing is important. Also, making sure no dirt gets into our fresh engine's intake tract is a major concern. With this in mind, we topped our Jet-built Quadrajet with a 14x3-inch K&N air filter, along with its chrome housing. A great feature of the K&N element is that it is washable and reusable.
We also decided to spruce...
We also decided to spruce up our engine a bit with these aluminum valve covers from GM Performance Parts. They add a nice bit of gleam to our engine bay.
K&N valve cover breathers...
K&N valve cover breathers were also put into place. Like the air filter for the engine, they are washable and reusable. We selected ones with a chrome top, but black ones are also available.
To ensure that enough juice...
To ensure that enough juice was getting to our spark plugs from our MSD distributor, we used a set of MSD 8.5mm Super Conductor plug wires. They feature an ultra-low resistance of 40-50 Ohms, ensuring that the maximum amount of spark gets where it needs to go. We selected a universal set so that we could cut them to the proper length.
These Taylor spark-plug booties,...
These Taylor spark-plug booties, which we found at Performance Automotive Warehouse, protect our MSD wires from the headers and the intense heat they throw off. They are basically miniature Nomex fire suits for our spark-plug wires.
Radiator hoses were a bit...
Radiator hoses were a bit of a challenge, since we were now using a serpentine belt system that we also got from GM Performance Parts. We came across these flexible radiator hoses on the Summit Racing Web site and they bent right into the proper shape.
Another reason we chose the...
Another reason we chose the hoses from Summit is that the steel-braided cover helps to protect them. We needed this protection because our lower radiator hose has to make a funky bend and then come across the frame, where it makes slight contact. Hopefully the steel braiding will keep abrasion to a minimum.
To keep the big 'Burb cool,...
To keep the big 'Burb cool, we went with an aluminum radiator from Custom Aluminum Radiator in Kingman, Arizona. We were able to use the stock mounts by simply spacing them upward a slight amount. Initially we were going to run an electrical fan on our 'Burb, but decided to use a mechanical fan for sheer simplicity. Since the serpentine belt system uses a reverse-rotation fan, we had to find a fan with the matching pitch. We found one at Performance Automotive Warehouse. While it might look like the fan is too far from the radiator, this is actually its stock position.
Part of the reason the fan...
Part of the reason the fan sits so far back from the radiator is that it uses a very deep shroud. We reused our stock shroud after modifying it to make it fit our new setup.