3500 swap questions

[PCGUY112887]

I am going to pick up a starter for this at the same yard I got it, $30 vs $170 for a new one.

When I put the starter on, do I need a shim or anything special? Or just bolt her up?

[Superdave]

I am going to pick up a starter for this at the same yard I got it, $30 vs $170 for a new one.

When I put the starter on, do I need a shim or anything special? Or just bolt her up?

I don't have a shim on mine.. It doesn't turn over all the time, just clicks but i think that's because the header is really close to it..

[PCGUY112887]

Why would the header matter?

[IsaacHayes]

Header is probably heating up the starter too much causing it to not work. Electric coils/motors hate heat.

[Superdave]

Header is probably heating up the starter too much causing it to not work. Electric coils/motors hate heat.

Yep.. gonna coat it in header wrap.. but that won't matter for you....

[PCGUY112887]

OK so I may have found some manifolds...

Someone here has some 04 3400 manifolds, I wasn't sure if they could be 3500 sized or not, so I asked for a pic with measurements.

Here is what I got.



So I went out and my exhaust ports on the heads are the exact same size of what is in the pic there. My "header style" manifolds are also the exact same size... however the metal gasket for my 3500 is what appears to have the super wide exhaust ports.

My exhaust pics





Does this look right? Does this mean some 3400 04 manifolds have 3500 sized ports as well, or did I somehow get heads with small ports?

[IsaacHayes]

Gaskets usually are over sized. That's why you can gasket match parts. I gasket matched my 3400 LIM to the gaskets. The gasket was bigger than the port.

[PCGUY112887]

So are these manis the correct size or what?

[bszopi]

The first picture manifolds are not the 3500 sized. They are not fat enough. Compare the 1st picture to the 3rd picture and you should be able to see the difference.

[PCGUY112887]

Do you mean the actual tubes, or the openings?

Because despite how it looks like with the black marks, the width and height of the ports from the first pic match my heads, and they match my manifolds.

[Superdave]

use 3400 gaskets and they'll work fine.

[PCGUY112887]

Yes but I don't want to do all of this work to have less than stock HP for this engine because of restrictive manifolds.

To be honest I much rather just use my header style manifolds, but then I either gotta pay the shop to try to rig them together under the oil pan and make an O2 bung in a wye pipe somewhere (and weld shut the stock O2 bungs), or find part of a G6/malibu exhaust that connects them into 1 downpipe and see if it would fit.

[IsaacHayes]

or go S&S headers...

[PCGUY112887]

I just got my wideband in the mail today, says it needs to be at least 18" from the exhaust port...

That is no where near where the stock O2 sensor is. I planned on using this gauges simulated output to run the car, if it was 18" from a port would it still run fine?

Isaac, if I got the headers wouldn't I have to put them in after the engine was in? It doesn't look like I could bolt them up then put the whole engine in, looks like it wouldn't fit.

[IsaacHayes]

Not sure.