Ok so as I have been saying for quite a while now with summer coming up I am planning on doing the plenum repair and timing chain on my truck. I kinda figure while I am in there that I will mod the intake like Steve did his. (How much should I remove from the runners btw?) I am also thinking about getting headers and roller rockers at the same time. I'm gonna guess that at this point in time my truck will have close to 90,000 miles on it but it runs strong now. So my question is, is it worth doing to a motor with that many miles, I know that the plenum and timing chain need to be done but will the aftermarket parts be worth installing or should I just save for a rebuild? Also I was thinking about getting different heads, if I was gonna do that what would be the best set to go with for the money? I have also heard that installing rebuilt/new heads on a motor that hasn't had new piston rings installed will cause it to burn oil, is this false? Thanks in advance for the help. Sorry about all the questions.

 

Depends on how you look at it. The engine has almost 100k on it. Usually when alot of things start to go wrong is a bit over 100k, however if you replace these things they're not gonna give you trouble for a LONG time. Replacing all that stuff will most likely get your engine last quite a bit longer then not replacing anything!

As for the runners it depends on how much high end you want, and how much low end you can afford to loose. Steve told me that if you cut off to much you loose the low end hardcore. He told me that if I wanted to keep my low end to only cut off about 1/2" 3/4"or so.

 

The plenum and timing chain are getting fixed no matter what just because I want the motor to last a while. I guess it probably makes sense to go ahead and do the manifold too since I will have it off already. The bolt on stuff will be ok too probably because I can still put the headers and the roller rockers on a new motor when I do replace it. I am still curious, some of you guys that have swapped heads is the oil burning thing true or is it just something that I have heard?

Also has anyone swapped out their lifters, I think I remember a thread where Steve had some aftermarket lifters in his motor. Did this have any real benefits?