Well... I forgot what date it is... heh.. I think this is the third day of the cam swap..

The cam is finally out of the engine, and I have most of the gunk cleaned out. However, I don't know how I am going to get the rest of these intake gaskets off, they are a complete PITA! Is there a gasket remover or something that would work well?

Lots of gunk in the heads, but I cleaned out what was there, I don't think I am going to clean off all of the rockers, they seemed to be working fine prior to the cam swap. I will just wait till either I replace the rockers completely with full roller ones, or wait till I swap the heads. (Which I now realize will be about as much of a PITA as the cam swap)

The lifters were also a pita to get out, that was, until I found out WTF was wrong and then, it was easy. It turns out, I was trying to force the lifters out, and because of the build up on them, it would make them get stuck. Well, an easier way to get them out, is just to push and pull them in and out a little bit of a time, and the buildup slowly gets removed, and then they slide right out. It took me 4 hours to get 4 lifters out, and 20 min to get the remaining lifters out. That pissed me off severly

The cam has to go back in yet, I need a hacksaw to cut off the end of the dowel because it is longer than the orignal one. I figure I am now half done and it took me three days. If these gaskets aren't too much more of a pain to get off, I can probabally get everything back together much faster than that. That is, if I can remember where everything goes

 

I'm thinking that the pin was hardened. I ground my pin down on a grinder. Anyway, I don't think a hack saw will cut it off. They make a tool for gasket scraping, other wise a sharp putty knife, a wood chisle works also. Be careful on the aluminum manifold gasket surfaces that you dont gouge them or you could have a leak when your done.

One of these days it will be all done and you will look like this.:lala:

 

Even how evil I believe the cloud really is... I believe you when you say that

:lala:

OMG I can't believe I just put that there

 

At least you still have a sense of humor. Have you busted your knuckles yet? One time years ago, while working on a second gen, I slipped while breaking some head bolts lose and busted my knuckles. I have a atached garage and before I could think about it I had thrown the breaker bar and stuck it in the wall between the house and garage. After about 15 seconds it ocured to me that it might be sticking out the living room wall. Luckily it didn't even crack the plaster.
Hang in there friend.

 

Once..

I was talking with my friends.. and I was taking the pushrods out. I wasn't paying attention and I didn't put the socket on the nut properly.. well the socket twisted off of the nut, and BAM, hand against the block. That hurt, but so far, that was my only knuckle busting adventure.

 

If there isn't any blood on your engine then it wasn't a true do it yourself job. I have busted a few knuckles on stupid stuff but nothing serious. I always make sure I have "knuckle room" before I go putting all my weight on it. The worst was during the engine swap when we were installing the waterpump pulley while in the engine. It was probably around 20 degrees out and my friend didn't even feel the blood dripping from his hands until we noticed blood pooling under the car, lol. Still got the blood stains to remind us not to be so wild and to take our time.
You can use acetone to remove the gasket. It's the anti-stick stuff, just don't let any of it get on the valve seals or rubber parts. I too have had terrible experiences with paper gaskets. The most recent was my thermostat housing. I was cheap and just reused my old one from the L03 but when I had to swap out a broken stat the gasket came off in 2 pieces...15 minutes and my back was killing me. So I went to the parts store thinking I'd just grab a new stat gasket but after seeing that it was $3.98 I said **** it and just bought the chrome version that had all the hardware and a rubber 0-ring seal for $9 bucks. No leaks, reusable, and chrome like the rest of the engine. So if you can, use rubber gaskets and lots of that blue RTV silicone where ever possible. the RTV is the best, it just peels right off. When I do the cam swap this summer I'm going to have to replace my oil pan gasket and I'll be using that 1 piece gasket, 2 thumbs up to rubber and RTV .

 

yeah jon, let's talk about blood on your engine
BACK TO WORK ETHAN!!!!! lol
jon's car has already eaten the knuckles of 3 people, and being the great guy he is, he invites us all back to do a cam swap. with friends liek this.......lol

later
tim

 

Well if you want to be specific we can't just say that you busted your knuckles. You also got hit in the forehead by my throttle linkage bracket. The gringer didn't like you either . I'm glad you didn't get hurt and I was suprised you were bleeding and not me, it went off me and hit you second. Oh well.
I don't invite people, they seem to flock to the barn like animals (pun intended). Ethan is excited about this summer since he's co-oping right down the road from me all of spring and summer quarter! So if I don't stay and take classes over the summer I'll be in NJ . Man I miss the Garden State, can't wait to get back.

 

Putting your intake back on.
A little advice on how I do intake gaskets. Opinions will vary, tempers will flare, but this works. First, I get my gasket set and a tube of oil resistant rtv silicone. Don't use permetex blue because it degrades in the presence of petrolium and is really only good fro water applications. I personally use the black stuff. Next, I take the front and rear of the rubber seals for the intake and toss them over my shoulder with a curse in the hopes that they don't reappear. Ive seen far too many people mess these up and they don't always seal the best, especially at the corners. People try to correct this with silicone, but they generally over apply it and it acts more as a lubricant and allows the gasket to slide under the pressure of being installed/tightened down. Make sure all surfaces are clean. Then put a very small amount of silicone around the intake ports on the heads and put the gaskets on. The silicone acts more like a glue to locate the gaskets and keep them from sliding around. Then put a good 1/4 inch bead on the front and back edges of the block in place of said tossed gaskets. Allow 15 to 30 min for the silicone to become tacky. Then get your intake and set it straight down from the top. Avoid sliding it around too much because you can shift the gaskets and squish out the silicone. It's best to have a friend help because it's hard to be bent over and hold 20 to 30 pounds by your head and locate/ set the manifold right. Then you just insert and torque the intake bolts to specs; 20 ft/lbs if I remember correctly.
Jess

 

The pin on my LT4 was also too long. I used a brass hammer and tapped it in deep enough. The hole is drilled deeper for this reason I heard.

 

vice grips work alright on lifters. with lots of gm rust penatrant.

Thats what i used to take the lifters out of my 307. didnt scratch em or anthing, as long as you dont twist, just pull. i wasnt too worried though because i wasnt going to be reusing them, or the block.

ive cracked knuckles working on my 355 and my 307, and the 355 wasnt even a cramped engine compartment, it was on a stand. dropped stuff on your foot, pinched your fingers between the crank and block turning the crank to take pistons and rods out. ummmm..... watching the tie down strap come loose on when the engine was tied down on a flatbed sitting on a tire. had a minor heart attack thinking i was about to watch a couple hundred dollars go bouncing along the road into metal chunks. good thing we were able to pull over in time. NOTE to all, never transport an engine that way. you gotta cut yourself on sheetmetal while taking off bondo, get shocked while holding the jumper cables on, swallow some gas, accidentally start a fire with the torch and burn your hand too. umm, loose tools and sockets, fish things out of the engine with a long magnent. ya, then you are a do it yourselfer.

cam swap. i say take out the engine, put in the cam, put it back in.

 

Magnets.....I lost a retainer in the back of my engine compartment some where and spent 30 mins with a magnet fishing around lol.

Hang in there Sonar it becomes alot more rewarding to see everthing come back together. It didn't take me as long to swap mine, but I wasn't dealing with all the crusted crap in my engine...I hope it's going well. As for gaskets, Auto Zone sells gasket eater that works well. If this is the first itme you have removed your intake and it has the GM original gasket that has baked on for 11 years I feel your pain. My first removal several years ago took the entirety of a day. One hour and a half hours to remove and install, and the rest of the day to scrape. A little tip...a shop vac comes in handy to make sure you get all the little pieces out of the head.

 

I had good luck with a wire brush on a drill (for the gasket removal). The brass kind, so you don't scratch up the aluminum. 'course, I had the heads off the motor. :shrug:

And a tip for prevention of busted knuckles (or at least reduction of possibility of busted knuckles): when pushing on a ratchet: open palm.

 

What about the valves that are open?
The best way no questions about it is paper towels. Shuve them into the ports nice and snug and then if you don't want to get any gasket material in the cam valley, just use duct tape across the whole span from china wall to china wall. This way you can scrap and scrap and doesn't matter what falls because it can all be blow off. Hint when using my method: Take out paper towels BEFORE removing the duct tape .
You probably didn't do this but it's just one of many ways to keep clean.

 

Yea, hit it with an open hand if you have room.

 

What JP? You don't want to do a intake swap like they did last Saturday on Hot Rod TV or what ever it is? Chuck and his side kick "Dip" were doing one and the little guy, "Dip" or whatever his name is was just scraping away without anything in the ports or in the valley. That show is just on for jokes. Sure not showing anyone the proper way to work.

 

Of pure hell and can't wait to do the 2nd project. This one is going to be more of a challenge than my 305-350 swap. My wife has a 89 Firebird 2.8 MPFI and I posted a couple notes about doing an engine swap with it. Her motor is DOA with no sign of recovery.
One of the guys in the club we're in suggested dropping a 383 he has that he can build for it, or better yet....
A 3.8 Buick engine with ECM/Harness... the whole works!
Now this sounds like fun fun fun. Oh and I can relate to knuckle busting, finger cutting, dirt under the fingernails that won't come out for a week, burns on various places of my hands, and arms, etc...
How much fun can it be? The BEST!
I'm gonna take some pictures of the flat bottom setup I did for others to look at. It looks so nice the way I did it, you could swear it is stock.
Went and got a breather cap with filter connector, some 5/8" hose, and a 90 degree connector to the flat bottom. Looks so stock it's amazing!
Anyway, engines are fun! Yes and there were times I wanted to give it up, but if you have enough determination and the time and heart for it, do it! It is the most rewarding thing you can do!

 

HAHAHA! Damn, I did my cam this weekend and was cleaning the old gasket from the timing chain cover with a small razor blade. The blade slipped out of my hand and went down the front of the oil pan. FORTUNATELY I had a small pen sized magnet that fit down there and fished out the blade. I don't image it would have been a HUGE issue leaving that down there stuck to the bottom of the oilpan - but why take chances?

P.S. - <-------- No busted knuckles, although I did hit my hand pretty good on the bottom of the car (that pointy body seam) when removing the Y-pipe and cats from the car.