yungNdum

Hey All,

I am completely new to the whole engine building scene and am looking to start my first major build on my 79 Malibu. The car was my dads and threw a rod about 20 years ago and has sat ever since, so I'm looking to breathe a little bit of life back into it. Been researching this topic and reading these forums for a while and I think I'm ready to start moving on it. I am looking to out a L33 5.3 into it paired up with a 4L80e and Ford 8.8 rear diff into it. I'd want the car to be street-able, but does not have to be a daily driver at all. Just to take it out for a cruise and have a little bit of fun on the street. Ideally looking to hit maybe 550/600 on pump gas, not looking to mess with e85 or meth as of right now. I think that would be more than enough for a 3,000 LB car and plenty of power to keep me entertained for a while.

So far the parts list I have is as follows:
L33 5.3 (stock pistons and rods, change ring gap)
VS Racing Cast 7875
Summit 8706R1 Cam
PAC 1218 Valve Springs
Hardened 7.4 inch Pushrods
Melling 10295 Oil Pump
Snake Eater 96lb/hr Injectors
ARP Head Studs
Holley Billet Fuel Rails

Just wanted to get others opinions on my list as I am relatively new to the engine building world and am unsure if this is way overkill for what I'm looking to achieve. Feel free to school me as I'd love to learn more.

customblackbird

iTrader: (2)

You only need 60lb injectors, turbo is fine. In currently running a 5.3 with a billet 78/75 and trying to get quicker spool for the street.

Pro Stock John

iTrader: (34)

Sounds like a good list.

With a Holley ECU to run it?

yungNdum

Going to try and use stock ECU and HP tuners for now. Maybe step up to Holley in the future as the car inevitably gets upgraded down the road...

3 window

iTrader: (1)

Measure for the correct pushrods (don’t just buy 7.400s). Incorrect pushrods can cause issues and unwanted valvetrain noise. The rest looks like it’ll work fine.

LQ4-E39

iTrader: (7)

Just my opinion, so take it with a grain of salt, but inevitably you will get bored of the 550whp and want for more. Save yourself the cost of doing it twice and just build it the way you want to final product to look like. If you're planning on upgrading to the Holley just bite the bullet and do it now; you will save yourself a ton of time and cost reworking a stock harness, having a stock PCM tuned, etc. If you choose to tune it yourself, you have to buy HPTuners which is a significant cost and learning curve that could be put towards the Terminator.

This is my experience from building my 3rd sloppy turbo setup.

SLOW SEDAN

iTrader: (13)

Agree! With an older car I see zero point of fiddling with a stock ECM and harness. Buy a fuel system that will support everything the turbo cam make and more because everyone turns it up.

AwesomeAuto

Deka 80s are better than Snake Eater 96s for pump gas.
Also, I would get a better valve spring if you plan on running that cam and also plan on upgrading pushrods. No point in not upgrading springs for a few extra $ at that point.
Not really sure what the point of the Holley rails are either except extra labor/cost for no direct benefit (depending on the rest of the fuel setup).

Pro Stock John

iTrader: (34)

Already got all that stuff? If not, the Holley Terminator is very price competitive. I run Holley in the '67 and HPT in the '10. The Holley system is easier to work on.

pdxmotorhead

When I made a list of the cost of running the HP vs Holley,, the final cost was pretty close..

You can save a little on the Holley by NOT buying the version with the 3.5" screen and buy the
USB-CAN adapter cable for a laptop (Assuming you have one) if you have a set of workmen gages. (Saves about 200 bucks. )

The X-max gives trans control, so weigh that against your plans, a separate trans control is roughly the price diff between the TerminatorX and Terminator X max.

The tipper for me was not having to deal with the HP overhead if I wanted to play with it myself.. I never have to worry about tokens and vin limits etc.

yungNdum

I have none of these parts right now, this is just a purely hypothetical list based on what I plan on doing later this year. I'm pretty involved in school at this time so I slated this to happen in the summer when I have much more time. I will add the Holley Terminator to my list as based on what everyone here said, it is the much better alternative to trying to fiddle around with a stock ECU. Appreciate the feedback!

yungNdum

What valve springs do you think would be a better fit? I saw on other forum posts that the PACs are a solid choice for most applications. Another alternative is Comp 921s but I didn't know if the bump in price was super worth it or I could get by with the PACs.

I wrote down the Holley Fuel Rails because looking at the car, the fuel tank is rusted pretty bad and it looks like I will have to do a lot of new fuel system work so I figured just add them on to get all new fuel system parts.

AwesomeAuto

The PAC1218s are rated to a max of .600 lift, which that cam has on the intake side, so it wouldn't hurt to have an additional safety margin.
Usually hardened pushrods are needed most when a valve springs pressure gets to a certain point, putting additional strain on them.
The PAC1218s don't really warrant the need for a pushrod upgrade in most cases (there are a handful of cams that you should make an exception for, this isn't one of them).
I've ran 1218s and stock pushrods to 7600 RPM repeatedly without problems. They're not a very stiff spring.
You're already planning on pushrods, so the worry over a stiffer spring isn't an issue.

If you want to stick with PAC, the PAC1219s are roughly the same price and offer a ~10% increase in spring rate and support a max lift of .625".

The BallSS

iTrader: (9)

This right here, my goal when I started was 550-575whp, ended up making over 700whp at the end, now going for 1,000whp with a different car.
You've been warned lol.

Pro Stock John

iTrader: (34)

Yeah for the fuel system, one approach is to find a stock style tank that takes in-tank pumps. Another is to run a sumped tank and an external pump(s). I don't know the 70-80 G-Body parts so much but there are a lot of builds out there, I'd try to run 1-2 in-tank pumps. There'd be some fuel system plumbing but it's honestly not that bad.

GMCGreg

Would a grand national tank be suitable fit in that car ? Probably available and would be baffled, just have to put a bigger pump in it

rpturbo

iTrader: (47)

On a fuel injected car, I would stay away from a sump in a tank. There's nothing feeding the pump, and it creates issues for inline pumps. They are generally not made to "draw" fuel. There's a whole list of reasons, but it's just easier to submerge a pump and either feed a surge tank, or use a large enough pump or pumps to more than cover your needs and growth.

Pro Stock John

iTrader: (34)

rpt...... I'm running sump setup, I think as long as I keep 1/3 tank in there should be no issues. And the pumps are mounted low.

Z28SteveA4

iTrader: (16)

this is exactly what a lot of people do with g bodies!

Pro Stock John

iTrader: (34)

I think if you run two intank pumps you'd be in good shape. Tanks Inc. has some general setups on their website.