OldNBeautiful:
When I 1st faced this decision my first thought was to drop in the 5L H.O. but 2 costs quickly kabashed that idea; the expense of the actual swap and the subsequent fuel economy.
I looked at crate engines costing around $2,200 and decided to do the rebuild with that as the the budget limit. Here is what I was able to accomplish.
-Assembled World Heads
-Flow bench p/p to heads and intake with multi ° valve job
-0.03" mill on heads
-JBA headers, triple nickle platted
-2.8L flat top pistons
-Peened rods
-ARP rod bolts
-new Clevite bearings throughout
-crank polish
-complete bottom end balance
-melling oil pump/pickup
-gates water pump, belts + hoses
-Cloyes timing set
-free floating rocker arms
-high lift rockers
-Sealed power lifters, push rods
-custom cam
-felpro gasket/seal kit
It was absolutely worth doing. The combination of the 2.8L pistons and the 0.03" mill made for a great compression boost which the port work, cam and improved exhaust made good use of. Having the complete bottom end balance results in a 10% improvement in efficiency, that never goes away. I also recommend deleting the crank driven fan for a 16" electric fan; this frees up a lot of engine power wasted twisting that heavy fan/clutch.
The results are something like this:
20hp, port/polish
20hp, cam
20hp, headers
+10% for the bottom end balance
-the heaviest load removed (crank fan)
This rebuild has proven to be a GREAT improvement in efficiency as it increased my highway fuel economy while towing by 6.5 mpg and overall drivability is incredible!! Don't think twice, just DOit!
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