New Ride....and it's not a truck!

[Black02Silverado]

Sounds like you got your hands full on the truck as well.

The POR 15 you used should hold up just fine if you followed their guide on application. That stuff is really tough.

The only part I'm really worried about on the ZR2 is removing the distributor and putting it back right. That could get ugly....

I wire-wheeled/scotchbrite-ed every part of both cradles making sure to remove all scaled rust. After that, they were wiped down with lacquer thinner, then sprayed with the Metal Ready and let soak/sit for 30min (or more), and finally hosed off completely and dried in the sun.

I know this stuff is like a rock when dry, but I'm still nervous as to how it will hold up this winter.

Sounds like you accomplished it correctly. The POR should last a long time, even with your harsh winter conditions.

As for the distributor, just mark where the rotor button is lined up on the fire wall or intake before pulling it and make sure that is where it goes back to when you install it and all will be fine.

 

[dirtyoldman]

The car looks great and no doubt scoots along pretty good with the SC on it

By all means do the spider upgrade on the ZR2,I did it on Grumpy's Burb a couple of years ago and is still working great.A little better mpgs,throttle response and smoother running.Use Delphi if you can,good stuff

The S/C is nice to have, especially for passing. I'm hoping to keep the MPG's up around 29 or 30 for the all-highway trips. I'm getting 21-23 for my mixed driving now. I really don't have any complaints of my car. For it's size and engine, I think it does pretty well. We'll see how bad the MPG's get this winter. I really don't know what I'll drive mostly for the winter. I think it'll depend on the weather and snow amounts.

I plan on going Delphi for the spider and Felpro for the gaskets (aluminum for the LIM). A little extra MPG would be nice for it. It doesn't do the best for being a compact truck.... It was only 2-3mpg better than my K1500 when I drove it in the winter. I did hit 20 once on an all-highway 60mph trip, but that wasn't easy. I haven't done any intake work on any of my vehicles yet and I've only seen 1 taken apart before. My buddy's dad did the intake gaskets on a Blazer so if I need help I know I can ask him.

When it comes time to do the spider upgrade on your ZR2 look for my write-up here,it might help

 

[nubuilder]

Intake Gasket Time!!!!
This was all done as preventative maintenance (no coolant was in the oil) and because I wanted to.

The work setup

Before the chaos begins

No supercharger

No intake or valve covers

All covered up and laid to rest

Bottom of my supercharger

Stock water pump

Earlier Series II water pump

To make myself feel better and more confident about tearing my supercharger apart, drilling and tapping the holes, and taking the snout apart, I bought a "donor" supercharger at a junkyard.

 

[nubuilder]

Let the cleaning of my parts begin!!!

Soaked the intake and blower housing in Purple Power to get them cleaned out. Besides that, all I used was a parts cleaning brush.

Wrinkle coat time!

I used VHT wrinkle coat. I couldn't find Krylon anywhere. Put the parts in the oven for 20min at 170 to pre-heat them (the snout and housing). After paint, put them back in the oven for another hour. The valve covers were not put in the oven. Instead, a hair dryer was used. To be completely honest, the wrinkle didn't turn out nearly as nice, but it is what it is.

After cooling for at least an hour, I top-coated everything with Duplicolor blue to match my car. The valve covers didn't turn out nearly as nice because I ran out of paint (note: 1 can of Duplicolor is not enough!).

 

[nubuilder]

Let the assembly begin!

Sorry for the lack of pictures, but once you get going and the excitement and nerves kick in, pictures are the last thing on your mind.

 

[nubuilder]

In the end, the supercharger was painted, along with the fuel rail, thermostat housing, and all the bolt heads being painted a metallic silver (Rustoleum paint). I went with this paint scheme because I thought it would look cool with the contrasting colors.

Here's a list of what was done/used:

Intake gaskets ------------------------ 89017816 -- GM Dealer
Supercharger to LIM gasket --------- MS95744 --- Felpro
Throttle body gasket ----------------- 61024 ------ Felpro
Injector O-rings (3 packs needed) -- ES70599 --- Felpro
Thermostat (180 degree) ------------ 45847 ------ Stant
Water pump --------------------------- 252694 ---- AC Delco
Water pump gasket ------------------ 251664 ---- AC Delco
Water pump pulley ------------------- 300934 ----- Dorman
Coolant elbows ----------------------- GMA-CESH - Intense Racing
Valve cover gaskets & grommets -- VS50465R --- Felpro
Supercharger belt -------------------- 4060720 ---- Goodyear
Accessory belt ------------------------ 4060926 ---- Goodyear
Oil pan gasket ------------------------ OS30699R -- Felpro

Other things:
Modular Pulley System (MPS) - Intense Racing with 3.6 pulley
Ultra Copper RTV
Carb/Brake/Throttle Body cleaner
Supercharger oil (I used GM, but also have AC Delco yet too)

For the oil pan, the hardest part was getting the passenger side engine bracket out of the way (getting it off 2 studs at the same time). Another note to make is before unbolting the pan, remove the low oil level sensor. This actually sits above the oil pick-up tube and will make removal more difficult. With it out of the way, the pan will drop right out and go right back in without any troubles.

I'm sure I'm missing something....

This project actually spanned 2 months. Honestly, I can't tell you why, it just did. It kinda fell to the back of my mind. I tore it apart (then engine on 5/4) and then it sat. I finally decided I wanted to get it done by the 4th of July weekend so I did...pretty much. On 6/29, the car was back together. By 7/4, I had everything but the oil pan gasket done and had put a weeks worth of driving on it without issue. The car maintains 185 degrees as long as it's moving. I do not have a tune so the fans won't kick on until 220 like normal.

I'm very happy with how everything turned out. So far so good as to the paint sticking to everything. No leaks (that I know of).

 

[PenguinLTZ]

Nice work

 

[OldCracker29]

Hey Matt, good to see you. Nice work you've done under the hood.

 

[Texas Jim]

That really looks good, Matt...