[TheSilverBuick]

I wouldn't drill the side of the head for the external oil line. I will always run a straight pipe in place of the oil restrictor and external oil pressure regulator, but will feed it to the back of the head like I've done on the new build. I had to block one of the head oil drain back passages to accomplish this. Technically I don't believe that should be an issue, but may be related to another issue I mention below.


I'm 50/50 in the air on the electric water pump. It was a requirement before because the first EFI intake I made would not allow the thermostat housing to remain in place. That being said, there are a few advantages to running an electric one. Namely full water flow in stop and go traffic, with electric fan, guarantee a cool running engine, and if the water pump fails another motor can be gotten from Summit Racing (and I bought a spare motor for 50% off their discount rack), and when racing other people may have the same pump as a spare. That being said, mechanical pumps are simple and typically work reliably for a long long time. I went back to conventional "block to head" water flow with the new build because the modified core plugs always concerned me and the plumbing was more complicated.


New setup. The water pump plumbing would be simpler if I had a single outlet pump instead of dual, but its what I already had on hand because the last arraignment.


Then lastly the external oil pickup line and drain back lines. I have my reservations on it, but obviously going to try it. If it fails or gives me trouble I will remove it, remove my custom windage tray and install a conventional pickup tube. From day one, with a factory pickup and pan I've had a severe oil pressure drop on the 1-2 shift. Every time, even with an extra quart in the pan. So I'm hoping with good baffling in the pan, moving the pickup rearward a bit, and an extra 1/2" of pan depth allowing more oil to be ran if necessary, I'll have that issue fixed. I had filled in one of the head oil drain back passages, so there is a chance a lot of the oil was up in the head and not returning to the pan fast enough, but I'm not convinced of that. If I still have oil pressure issues on the 1-2 shift I'll have some thinking to do. On the drain backs, by the time I changed my mind on doing it I already drilled the block so its done. I did the external lines to keep the oil from dropping on the up-swinging crank, so to reduce oil windage.







On the EFI side, I wouldn't change a thing other than just being less of a hack. I was experimenting with a number of ideas and things and it shows. The one thing I would possibly consider different if I were building a N/A multiport EFI build with no one off intake manifolds is having intake spacers made with the EFI bungs casted in. They didn't exist when I did my conversion back in 2014, but ideally would space the intake manifold out enough to lay over the the injectors enough to clear the thermostat housing.


They are a little pricey. If I got them I'd probably have a center divider welded into them and because they are for a Chevy probably would need a bit of porting to work on the OHC.