Engine out, tore down, broken piston and rod

[Camaro_09]

Re: Engine out, tore down, broken piston and rod

oh man it was fun converting the engines over. do you know how much freaking money you save going for a buick engine? headwork is pointless for these. they just don't put out the kind of numbers worth the money. guess not a big enough market. supposedly the cams aren't super good either but i'm not sure. they're hard to find for the 3800. thats for sure

there are alot of cams for our engine, and the buick longblock is no diff. than the one that comes stock in these cars. The only diff. is the UIM, and LIM. Does anyone have any input on roller rockers for our cars, i was going to get the yella terra ones but i was told i would have to buy higher valve covers and that they cost about 300 bucks so any input on that?

[techsan23]

Re: Engine out, tore down, broken piston and rod

Does anyone have any input on roller rockers for our cars, i was going to get the yella terra ones but i was told i would have to buy higher valve covers and that they cost about 300 bucks so any input on that?

There are two instances that the roller rockers are really worth it are if you arent going to cam it and you can benefit from the extra lift you net from a higher ratio rocker such as a 1.8 or 1.9. If you cam it your already putting the extra lift on the valves. Not to mention higher ratio rockers put much more stress on the rocker bolt; combined with an aftermarket cam you risk snapping a bolt. The other instance is if you are going for an all out build and want to shave some grams of weight from the valvetrain and decrease friction on the rocker tips. In your case I dont think it would be worth it.

[LETZRIDE]

Re: Engine out, tore down, broken piston and rod

you also have to change the oil pan, as the fwd one will not fit for us.

I'd say head work is worth it, but get it done by a local shop...its cheaper and just as/more effective if they know what they are doing. Plus if you are going to do it, you mine as well go with bigger valves, as that is what is going to make a big difference. Could also lick some material off the heads to up the compression, and go with a much thinner headgasket. If you're staying N/A I would take 20 thou off the heads, and go with a .045 head gasket. that would bring your compression ratio to around 10:1...which is what I wanted to do, but ended up not happening.

I noticed a pretty big difference when I did my headswap onto my car. Never had dyno numbers on it, but fwiw my car ran 13.87 cam only with 29-30* of timing, and with the heads on the car it ran a best of 13.6 getting knock and with only around 17-18* of timing... I was expecting an extremely low 13, and trying to push for a 12.99 on the setup. FWIW.

For cams there are tons of selections. Anything from mild to wild. Hell, there was a guy running around running 12.3 cam only on another board...

[bigbrian442]

Re: Engine out, tore down, broken piston and rod

You only need taller valve covers if you buy the Yella Terra roller rockers with the adjuster nuts. If you buy the non adjustable Yella Terra roller rockers the stock valve covers work fine. At almost $500 the gains from the 1.9's are not worth buying them. Spend the extra money for the cam.