Chevelle Turbo LS Build

Taking a quick break from working on motorcycles and going to work on a build that I have been wanting to do for over 15 years!

So I own a 1970 Chevelle with a small block 350 & TH350 trans, that produces probably 150hp…..not very impressive. Time to change that!

So the goal is simple: swap in a new engine/trans combo to give me 500RWHP+, overdrive, A/C, etc…

Project Intro Video

Junkyard Engine Any Good?

Everyone is yanking these out of the junkyard, slapping a turbo on them, and easily making 500+ hp, so why can’t I? I bought a 5.3 out of a 2005 truck with supposedly 140k on it. It also supposedly ran fine. Before buying the engine, I spun it over, making sure there was some resistance indicating the rings aren’t totally shot. Purchase price: $500 with accessories, no harness or ECU.

Partial Engine Teardown

Time to start taking it apart and see what we find?

Vapor Blasting Some Parts

A while back I built my own vapor blaster from a HF cabinet. I have DIY plans here. I also built a much bigger one from WOOD! Wood plans available here. So in this video I just wanted to see how some of these parts would clean up. This machine never dissapoints!

Removing The Heads

So with poor leakdown test results, I had no choice but to pull the heads and see what the problem was.

Do I Need A Valve Job?

I kind of beat this topic to death, however here are a few videos on determining if you need a valve job. Also, some info on lapping valves, by hand and with a drill.

Vapor Blasting Heads

Yes, more vapor blasting! Came out looking new!

Bottom End Dissassembly

Time to tear down the bottom end. Main reason is to inspect everything and I plan on opening up the ring gaps for boost.

Piston Disassembly & Cleaning

The pistons were caked in carbon and oil sludge. Dissasembling them from the rods and vapor blasting the pistons made them look brand new again.

Honing The Cylinders

The cylinders look like they are in great shape, and I can still see the factory cross hatch. So the plan is to run a ball hone through them to prep the walls for new piston rings.

Prepping the Block

Next up is prepping the block for reassembly. I used my Super Scraper to remove all old gasket material. Then, chased all the threaded holes with a metric thread restorer kit. ARP makes a 11mm x 2.0 chaser for the head bolts, which came from Summit Racing. I tuned up the deck surfaces with a LONG FLAT plate and some 220 grit sandpaper. After all that, I wheeled it outside and gave it a good degreasing. Once thoroughly rinsed, I did a washdown rinse with Holdtight 102 to prevent flash rusting. Lastly I hit the whole block with CRC Brakcleen and my new Vaper sprayer.

Replacing Cam Bearings

Cam bearings seem to wear out quickly in these LS engines, so in this video I will show you how to replace them. The job is pretty easy when you use the correct cam bearing installation tool from Summit Racing. Now GM had a couple of different bearing designs, so make sure to order the correct size for your year (mine is an 05′ and used Clevite Camshaft Bearings SH-2125S).

Installing New Main Bearings

The stock crank appeared to be in good shape, so I dropped it off at the machine shop to get all the journals polished up. Cost was only $70. The crank will be installed with new main bearings from Summit Racing. Make sure to buy some plastigauge as well. Factory spec on bearing clearances is .0008″ – .0025″. Mine ended up all at about .0015″. Thrust spec is .0015″ – .0078″. My thrust is sitting right at .003″. All perfect! Make sure to check out all the torque specs for LS engines listed here. I used the Eastwood Micrometer Torque wrenches and an angle finder to determine the amount of twist in the fasteners for the second pass.

Rear Main Seal & Barbell

The rear main seal cover requires a special alignment tool such as this one. However, just a few months ago, I bought a 3D printer, so I thought I would just make my own tool to tackle this job. A new gasket and barbell was also installed.

Filing Piston Rings For BOOST

When you turbocharge an engine, you will generate more heat in the combustion chamber. This causes the rings to “grow” and what happens is the ring end gap starts to close up. If the ring ends butt, this will seize the piston in the bore, and then the piston will break at the ring land. Bye bye engine. To prevent this, a larger proper gap should be used. I used new piston rings & a ring filer from Summit Racing, and went for a .028″ gap on top and 2nd rings.

Installing Pistons & Rods

The piston/rod assemblies are finally ready to go back into their holes. New rod bearings were installed. Clearances were checked with plastigauge, and they all checked out right around .002″….perfect. The Summit Racing ring compressor made this job super easy!

This project is onging and as video are uploaded, I will add them here. To stay updated, join my email list below to get notified right away when new videos come out!