I only had an hour of daylight today because I had class and didn't get home until 5:30. I didn't get much done, but I think for the time I was out there I was productive. I was just playing around mostly. I was also working on a hot engine! No burns though

I took that old TBI off, removed the fuel lines (with a minor spill), took out the d-side valve cover and the intake bolts on that side. Loosened some miscellaneous bolts. I'm having minor problems right now, but I think this removal will go smoothly. The installation on the other hand...






Check back in here, I'll be taking pictures of almost every aspect of my build. I don't have anything to do until March 2nd! I can probably get it done by then I'll also be posting my questions and concerns as they come about, so if you cam swap guys could help me out that'd be awesome. Thanks!

 

Don't the front of 3rd gens make the best place to lay tools. I had about 3485647856465 tools on mine when I did my cam swap. I ended up scratching that place up pretty good

 

Sounds good.

You might consider using the L03 TB for intial startup since you know it works. Some others have had trouble with used TB's IAC's, TPS's etc that you don't want to deal with until you know the engine is running right.

 

come on shifty dont lie, you had more than that laying there, trust me i know i was there. But sounds great, i cant wait till i have the money to do all that stuff! let us know how it turns out and keep us updated. are you planning on prom tunning? i hope so. and on the cam, it was overall easy i helped shifty some what with his and it was much easier than i expected, but i would recommend cutting the "lip" off the timing cover, from what i hear/saw it went on much easier. but other than that just take it slow and easy!

 

Yea yea I geuss you are right. I did knida have stuff everywhere. Haha. It's all part of the process. Yea if you weren't there I would not have been able to get the cam out past those radiator supports.

 

I've got Brian from TBIChips doing my PROM tuning. I don't have the tools, time, or laptop needed to do such things right now. Possibly in the future.

 

Time to take belt and the stuff up front off makes alot of room to work and less headaches

 

Well he has no choice and these things will have to come off. A heads and cam swap is a great way to learn about your car. It is pretty cool.

 

yeah, you may need an extra set of hands if you dont take the two supports that run diagonal and cross each other in the middle. It is right where the cam comes out and it hits it when your about all the way out, an extra set of hands will be much help if you dont take them off.

but shifty you had them all right where you needed them and knew exactly where everything was.

 

Okay so I was just out there since 8am until now (11am). I have successfully removed the belt, radiator, distributor, water pump, intake manifold, and a lot of random crap that was in my way.

Unfortunately, I got a ton of debris and coolant into the lifter valley. I can clean the debris out, and flush it out with a few quarts of oil, and the coolant doesn't seem to be a major problem. But the radiator coolant I had, I planned to re-use since its less than a year old and still bright green, got contaminated with tranny fluid from the built-in cooler. Oh well, theres another $7.


I have to get the heads off, so I need to find my torx bits to get the alternator off. I have a lot more to go. I think before I go any farther I am going to re-read the articles relating to my project!

Here are the pictures of my progress:

 

dont worry about the coolent in the passages to much, shifty and i got most of it out with just paper towels shoved into it. he thought about a turkey baster but we got most of it out with just the paper towels. good luck on the rest.

 

I would just leave everything on your accesory brackets and remove the whole bracket with everything attached. They have to come off anyways because of the heads so there is no use of taking the alt and stuff off when the brackets have to come of to.

 

What kind of fastener keeps the brackets on? Is it those damn torx sockets that were on the EGR we talked about last night?

 

Yea they are torx bits. The passenger side brackets has 3 of them. Two on bottom and one on top. I can't remeber how many the other side has on them. But they are bit torx bits. it would be a good time to replace them with regualr bolts.

 

I bought a new belt to delete my smog (and replace my 126k mile stock belt), plugs for the vortec heads, torx socket set, wire looms, cam lube, antifreeze, and motor oil... $90 at autozone!

 

Hate isnt an angry enough word to use when describing torx bits.

 

HOLD THE PHONE...

I was curious so I looked up my cam's P/N on GM Parts Direct...
The box the cam came in is 2450-2586...
This is the part number to the LT4 HOT CAM!
The number engraved on the cam is BC-17-242


what cam is it?! I bought it a long time on ebay listed as a LT4 standard cam, not hot... I hope it's hot!

 

I bet he put the hot cam in his car and sent the standard LT4 cam to you with the box from the new hot cam he got. BTW, looks like your install is going pretty good. Reminds me of when I did all that to my LS1. Be greatful that the third gen has a lot more room to work with. It will all be worth it in the end!

 

This could very potentially become a sticky, I like the sorta step-by-step thing going here. I plan on getting a new cam one of these decades and this thread might have some tech quality to it

Bruce (90RS305)

 

shifty and I were looking at LT4 hotcams and kits, and there seems to be an extra fuel pump lobe right at the front of the cam... however my cam does not have this. I also found a pic of an LT4 standard cam with the model number 17-142 marked in it (mine was 17-242) so it might possibly be the same thing. It's definitely an LTx cam though, with the damn rod sticking out as far as it does.

Tomorrow I plan to take off the accessories and possibly the heads. The headers are in my way so I have to unbolt those things (which I just put in 6 months ago). In other news, I assembled my set of spark plug wires (boring!) which are MSD Heli-core 8.5mm. I also took apart the water pump and put the new gasket on it to prevent it from leaking. I also scraped all the old gasket material off the parts I plan to re-use. Permatex RTV is the motorhead's version of duct tape; I love it. I bought a new fan belt for smog pump delete, but got the wrong belt. I'm dyslexic; I grabbed a 98.6" belt! Oh well, I have the reciept.

 

So it was raining earlier, now it's snowing. Great. Okay well I got three new pics (I see a pattern...) of just random stuff. First is a comparison of the intake manifolds, and my relocation of the temp sensor (to the back instead of the front). Then there's a height comparison. The new intake manifold is an air gap, and it's only about 1.25-1.5" taller than stock, and that's even with the 1/2" adapter for the TBI. I don't see what everyone is concerned about clearance for. I ran a 14x4" air filter in my car and it didn't even touch the hood.

The last picture is a comparison of vortec plugs and standard ones; you need the longer vortec ones or the electrode won't even reach the combustion chamber. I know someone on this forum who made that mistake

 

Yea you'll be fine with a 14x3 with the smaller adaptor. Heres how tall mine is vs stock:

http://homepages.udayton.edu/~kulcha...ifoldsback.jpg

and the top of my element hits the hood but it closes.

Here are the rest of my pics
http://homepages.udayton.edu/~kulchacs/pictures/Mods/
there might be something useful to you in there, its kinda a hodge-poge of **** though.

 

still goin strong i see. great work so far. i like the idea of the sticky, it does have a lot of good advice for the next guy, possible me to go by and the pics are always great. anybody got any predictions(hp/tq/times) once he gets the tuning all worked out?

also are u planning on a gear swap, 2.73's are gonna really slow you down... and one wheel peel is always fun, are you looking at that right now?

 

Just make sure you take a lot of pictures. I have a great write up install guide for my LT1 cam swap but I was so excited I didn't bother taking pictures at every step of the way. Once I got my tools going parts just started comming off!!

 

:hail:

 

I love taking pictures, and I have rechargable batteries for my digital cam. Yeah, when I'm not so poor I'm gonna get 3.42 posi. I wish it didn't snow today otherwise I'd have worked on my car... oh well, tomorrow it is gonna be clear.

I need a space heater
I need a garage!!!

 

LOT of progress today. I had my friend Jon help me out a little bit. We ripped off those POS heads, and spat on them. I had to take the accessories off today, and I broke a brand new torx bit. First time ever using it, and it just snapped. How lame is that? Anyway, here are the pictures.

I think the cylinder walls are extrordinarily clean for being at 126k miles... do you agree?

 

Very nice, but the cylinder walls will always be clean from the rings cleaning them off every stroke.

 

That looks scarey, how the heck does one learn how to do that.

 

Lefty loosy....righty tighty......well thats how I learned.:lala:

 

Yea that kinda is how to do it. Once you start to wrench on things you get the whole picture. Just read the boards and various books on how to build an engine. It is really not that hard at all. The hardest part is having all of the tools and time tio do it. Oh and being able to bend over for long periods of time if the motor is in the car.

 

usually?

90% of us learn because we have to.



you pretty much just start taking stuff apart.... and then you have to read/learn so that you can put it together and get back to work/school/home/whatever

 

like nike says"just do it". Learn to do your own maintence, oil changes tuneups.. things like that. You will learn your way around a tool box and an engine bay.

 

yup... my version goes:

theres nothing to it, but to do it.

 

I second the vote to make this a sticky, especially if he documents the rest of this as well as he's done the dissassembly. So far you're doing great token! keep up the work so the rest of us can have a better guide then the other stuff out there right now.

-chuck

 

not when your car is 100k + miles on it..

everything wears down... the rings would probably not even be as close to snug as they were.. thus allowing carbon deposits and ****

whatever

I agree: I feel a Sticky sensation in this thread.

 

I had a hell of a time getting my headers out. I just put them in right before school started. A bolt was stuck in the friggin hole and had to be cut out with a hacksaw. I also broke a ratchet (Stanley, because my Craftsman is lost) so I need to get a new one asap.


Does anyone have any advice for me at this point in time? I'm going to drain the oil, pull the balancer, remove the timing gear, and pull that peanut cam out and **** on it. Any other suggestions?

 

yes, don't drink when you try to set the lash

 

Did you decide if your were replacing the whole timing set or just the chain? If you replace the whole timing set you are going to need a 2 or 3 jaw puller to get the crank gear off. ALso, make sure that you organie the valve train so that the same pieces go in where they came from. This won't be as crutial because you are swaping heads but it is a good idea to keep worn parts matched up to the parts that they were in previous contact with.

 

The camshaft is out! I ripped that peanut cam out a few minutes ago, and it was so much fun yelling and screaming at it. My engine gave birth to a very weak peanut cam, and it's getting a new LT4 shaft jammed straight up there asap. I worked through the cold and the rain, which quickly became snow as I was out there.

I drained the oil, took the damper out with that godawful tool, pulled the timing cover (didn't need to drop oil pan, and I used a screwdriver to pry it out), unbolted the cam gear, cam retainer, and screwed three bolts in and pulled that SOB out. I had an inch left, and the stupid rusty radiator crossmember in the front got in the way. Three bolts later, it slid out freely and I raised it above my head and shouted "YEAH B*TCH, WHAT NOW!?" and ran inside and danced around.

 

on another note,

drop the pan!!! to reinstall the timing cover.

you will mangle the lower seal if you don't, and never get the cover on.

 

I just cut the tab at an angle and the cover sliud back on without disrupting the oil pan seal.

How did you get the radiator support bar off. I could not get mine off for the life of me. I found where it was bolted to but could not get the bolt out for the life of me. I just had someone yank up on it while I slide the old cam out.

 

damnit, that seems like such a pita.


my car sits like 2" higher without the 200 pounds of schtuff in there.

 

three 10mm bolts; one under and two on top by the hood latch. I hate that friggin thing. I yelled at it. How did you go about doing this timing cover thingy?

 

FYI, when this project starts seeing the light of the ignition key, it WILL become a sticky. I'll be doing a lil' editing to it beforehand, though, to make this a PURE tech thread. I may even try to get it into the tech articles on the main thirdgen.org page. I REALLY like having the pictures along the way, and definetly keep the step-by-step process coming!!!

Bruce (90RS305)

 

Thanks, Bruce! I wish there was a tech article for me while doing this so I can reference, instead of having to check in with people who have previously done a swap whenever I have a question. In other news, my PROM came today from Brian at TBI chips. That eliminates my need to tune this beast.



Distributor reinstallation, lets say my crank is at TDC. Do I set the distributor to the #1 cylinder?

 

*EDIT* I was wrong...

 

You need to have the #1 cylinder at TDC for the firing stroke. The #1 is at TDC center twice for every crank rotation. One is exhaust and the other is the power stroke. Make sure that the #1 is at TDC, and the balancer line is lined up with the 0* on the timing tab. If not the #6 will be at TDC for power stroke and the #1 will be at exhaust. It is easy to mess up and get he dist 180* off if you get it backwards. Now slide the distributor in and make sure that the rotor is pointed right at the #1 plug terminal. Should be slightly off center from pointing forward. After you fire the car you will have to set the timing but this way will allow you to start it correctly.

 

Hit quote instead of edit

 

lol, so #4 cylinder on the cap?