Supercharging a high mileage 80

[DylanICON]

I'm about to do a HG and top end rebuild and then put the SC on.

I plan on doing most of the stuff that Darkness mentioned and maybe ARP head studs also or at least new bolts.

After I get a good base line on how that turns out I plan on doing an air-to-water intercooler, if not for more power and the ability to run a smaller pulley, at least for the lower intake temps and to reduce the chance of detonation.

I went through the pinging / timing retard process on my SC'd Tacoma and it sucked. ended up doing water injection as an intercooler could not be packaged.
I'm guessing the LC with lower compression should be more cooperative.

 

[scottryana]

You might be surprised, the Pistons and head on the 80 series have very sharp "squish" zones, that are known to cause detonation with not much elevated combustion chamber heat. The 105, 1FZ-FE head doesn't have the squish zones and doesn't have the detonation problems but the pistons are much weaker.

 

[White Stripe]

Maybe if you buy a new crate engine. Ls swap can be done for half that.

Who's done it for that cheap?

 

[slow95z]

Who's done it for that cheap?

me and a buddy put one in his jeep for around 4K

 

[1FZj80]

I went the other way.
I installed SC at ~200k miles with original head gasket.
Before install: I checked oil at Blackstone, checked compression, upgraded radiator, fan clutch and cooling system items...
I now have about ~230k miles (not my DD) and it runs great, uses no oil, runs cool and I'm not really to worried about HG failure.

 

[White Stripe]

me and a buddy put one in his jeep for around 4K

How did you install all the emissions stuff? Did you use aftermarket cats or factory gm stuff? I would think just the custom exhaust alone would be 700 bucks without cats. Then you have motor mounts, tcase adapter, messing with the wiring harness for hours, a lift kit, camaro oil pan, getting the accessories to work, plumbing the AC, hoses, pcm flash, driveshafts, headers, shifter, and then the hours and hours of labor and making sure all the emissions are done right to make the state happy. Unless you register it in a county that doesn't have emissions, but then if you want to sell it, no one will buy it because of that reason. I saw a 80 with a vortec in it with no emissions stuff on craigs, it sat on their for months at 8k.

 

[landtank]

At 298,000 miles I slapped on a HG with only replacing the valve stem seals. Fixed all the leaks and with the oil pan off I replaced the connecting rod bearings.

Did a round trip from Boston to port charlotte FL and burned less than a quart of oil in 5000 miles.

 

[slow95z]

No emissions in GA, made our own mounts and put flowmasters a few feet back from the headers. I keep forgetting others have emissions.

 

[1973Guppie]

me and a buddy put one in his jeep for around 4K

it is possible for that cheap, it really all depends on what you are trying to do. CA smog makes an engine swap uber expensive. Then it also depends on if you are doing the work yourself or paying someone, etc. New engine or junkyard motor? carbureted? fuel injected? It really is impossible to say a motor swap costs X. There are just too many factors.

That being said it gets real expensive if you are paying a mechanic to figure out everything. I get calls from folks wanting to do a v8 swap on their cruiser all the time. My first question is what their budget is. Most of the time they think it is a 5-6k deal complete. I usually let them know it is more like a 15-20k conversion based on CA smog laws and using good used or new parts. Labor is the major cost, not the engine cost. If I were paying someone to do it I would want a very low mileage used engine or a new one. No mechanics is going to warranty a used engine.