I've got the motor 95%  complete and hope to install soon.  A couple of questions:

Temp. sender?  The thread size in the Vortec heads is smaller than in the early heads.  I have a thermostat cover that is drilled and tapped for a temp sender but am wondering if this location make's for less accurate temp. readings.  Are there other options?

Carburetor - I've got an old Holley model 4011 750.  It had very low miles on it when I put it in a box years ago.  I'm in the process of rebuilding it.  I know this was never a very popular model for Holley and they discontinued it some time ago but is there anything really wrong with them?  The application for this engine is in a '76 Blazer 4x4 that will spend most of it's time driving back and forth to work and hunting.  Is there a good reason why I shouldn't use this carb.?

Lastly, thanks to those of you who have answered my questions the last 6 months during this project.  I've taken it slowly for money reasons but am almost there.  The specs for the engine are extremely close to those of the Impersonator motor in the article (differences: KB 33cc dish pistons - I think they used 22cc in the article; CompCams 280 Magnum instead of the Lunatti cam in the article - almost identical specs though; I had the rods clearanced instead of getting a small base-circle cam) and I've done it for under $4000.

OM Gang

The 4010 and 4011 are Holley versions of the old Ford/Autolite carburetor with upgrades to the secondary actuation system to a design more similar to standard Holley's. They are interchangeable with a standard 4150 type use the same jets and power valve. They are OK for mild street use, but don't take kindly to high G maneuvers because of fuel slosh.

It'll at least get you by. 

Bogie

Thanks 'Bogie.  I guess I'll expect some stumbling when wheeling then.

OM Gang

Ya know, when Holley retooled the basic housing, they could have moved the floats to the center. This would have made a real nice carb out of this design. They actually served FoMoCo wuite well till the age of emissions in the early 70s when they came up with a not so good version of the Q-Jet.

The old Ford 4100 4bbl did yoman duty and was pretty good. Holley and Holley clones borrowed heavily from it in the area of boost venturis, the blue oval guys got that pretty good from the get go. The 4100's bigest problems were bowl surge alternatly flooding then starving the engine in manouvers and the power valve in the bottom was always subject to dirt getting in there and holding it open causing rich running like you've never seen.

Bogie 

The floats on my 4011 are center hung - for what's it's worth.

I'm hoping to install the engine in my truck this week.  I had to figure out an alternator bracket - the stock bracket was too short (vertically) by about ½" (long style water pump).  Is this because of the Vortec heads or the Performer RPM intake?  I bought a March alt. bracket kit that is nothing more than an aluminum copy of the lower mount and an adj. rod with heim joints between the pump and the alternator.  The adj. rod (center piece) is machined too short and the heim joints run out of thread before the alt. belt it tight.  Easy solution is to use a slightly shorter belt but it'd be nice to be able to simply buy belts for a '76 Blazer in the future.  I'm thinking about trying to have a new adj. rod made locally.

 I purchased the Edelbrock throttle/kick-down cable bracket for Vortec application - silly me, thinking it would actually work.  It interferes with the valve cover unless spaced up approx. ¼".  Little things like these have been keeping the frustration level high but it's almost done.

OM Gang

Yeah, I forgot that Holley also changed this to a center hung design which would be another improvement over the original Autolite design.  All in all it's not a bad carb, it always was similar to the Holley and quite a few parts interchanged and I'm certainly not picking on it.

I did a 98 Vortec 350 into a 96 S-10 earlier this year. To make the installation simpler, I removed the serpentine belt and all its hardware and went to V-belts with a long pump. This allowed space to mount the alternator on the upper left on a stud from the outboard accessory bolt location of the head. I made a short bracket with an offset that runs from a bolt boss on the Edlebrock water pump to the end of the stud to provide stiffness. The alternator lays in pretty tight with 3/8's turnbuckle to adjust belt tension that runs from a bolt boss on the waterpump to the ear mount of the alternator. Installation is clean, tight to the block and simple. Looks a lot better than all that stuff the serpentine system hangs on the engine. But this also has no power steering or air-conditoning so it's easy to keep simple.

Bogie 

Can you describe the 3/8's turnbuckle you used?

The piece I have sounds similar.  It's basically a turnbuckle with heim joints (spherical rod-ends) on either side.  The ends are 3/8" fine thread (one RH thread, the other LH).  The turnbuckle center (adj. rod) is 1-5/8" long which is too short, i.e. the rod-ends run out of thread before the v-belt is tight.  I'm thinking about having a new turnbuckle made from 9/16" hex.  I'll have it cut to 2¼" long and then drilled and tapped for the rod-ends.  I imagine the machine work and the cost of the 9/16" hex stock will end up costing me $60-$70.  If you found something that will work just as well, for less *** please let me know.  I looked at turnbuckles at the local hardware store but they were all coarse thread and at least 6"-7" long.

OM Gang