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Got the heads today and they are definitely legit GM, I'm happy.






Pistons look good at home too!


My Summit order should be here tomorrow with all the gaskets I need to assemble this thing. Picked up new bearings for the bottom end too just for shits&gigs since I have it apart.

I slapped it all together Thursday night. It was my first time doing a bottom end and it took me almost 6 hours from block washing to intake manifold install.

Had to modify a couple brackets to work with the different Vortec intake pattern. I also heli-coiled and studded the carb holes and studded the carb-to-TBI adapter because if you used bolts that were too long they would hit on the carb pad and bend the adapter plate. I modified the FPR to be adjustable too, but the TBI gasket kit won't be here for a day or two still.

I went to the junkyard yesterday with my bro-in-law to grab some misc stuff and found a single air cleaner stud for TBI too so I can ditch the ugly stock one. It actually came out pretty nice for a bunch of used junk. The pistons, heads, headers and bearings/gaskets are the only new stuff. Oh and I did grab a new set of plugs & wires. A little cleaning and rattle can detailing goes a long way.

I did get my new clutch and resurfaced flywheel too. I went with a Napa "Performance" clutch because there's a local guy who had a pretty nasty 350 and had no issues with his...even beating the piss out of it at the truck pulls...and it's about half the price of the Hays SuperTruck clutch I was looking at.

Nice work man.

Hadn't popped into this thread in a while, looking good!

I'm gonna laugh if the 5-speed is junk... lol all this work and you didn't crack that open to inspect it yet. Did you plan on checking that over?

The 5spd is fine...I drove it. I am going to take off that top alum cover and get a look at it, but the fluid that came out was fine...no metal flakes or anything...and these things are gently caressing tanks! The GVW rating is 14,500lbs.

I searched around for some info on a pressure gauge adapter and found this pic. Too bad I already detailed mine...look at the sweet color combo! hahahaha

Not enough Chrome.

3X00-Modified wrote:Not enough Chrome.

he would paint it flat black anyway.

What, you guys don't think the rattle can chrome and red TBI and valve cover bolts are classy? hahaha Even sprayed the valve cover grommet and it looks like the oily grime is still hiding under the paint.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess the owner was between 16-18 years old...

the pic you posted a few posts up looks like he painted over the crap and never bothered to clean it. hell even running a wire brush over it would knock that crap off.

the color scheme isn't bad but the lack of cleaning before painting makes it look like crap. and then he uses a FRAM oil filter

I hate fake chrome even more than real chrome...and the red throttle body just kills me! I wonder if he realizes that vaporized fuel from the injectors will be an effective paint thinner. I'd like to see it after it's been run a while and the melted paint gunks up the throttle bores. haha

yeah the red throttle body does kill it. wonder if he used regular paint to do the exhaust manifolds.

that fake chrome paint is ridiculous. never understood that one. something about that alternator is bugging me, probably didn't clean that either. i don't know if i would have painted the bolts for the valve covers a different color than the valve cover itself..

the two colors together aren't bad he just painted a few things that shouldn't be painted and fake chrome FTL. i wonder how much of that paint is still going to be there after he's run the engine for awhile. i'm going to guess not much.

i see people on the Grand Am sites looking for the fake chrome wheels that came on some of the 99-05 models. every time i see those posts i laugh and say i painted mine black because i can't stand chrome..

Hmmm, instead of cleaning my injectors ill just paint them