5 hours into head/cam swap

[FuryCharger]

well i think i am making good progress. i got off the throttle body, alternator, upper intake, fuel rail, valve covers, crank bolt with balancer, coils and wires and have the lower intake unbolted but seems stuck like hell (yes i got the 2 screws inside out). my next step is going to be taking the front cover off. i already took out all the bolts to the alternator bracket, i pulled the water pump. besides some screws that come up from the oil pan i cant think of anyother bolts. what exactly doi need to do to take that cover off?? it cant be that hard. but other than unplugging like 100 plugs and swearing at random pointless brackets everything is cool. oh and i broke a breaker bar taking the crank bolt off haha. any heads up with stuff i wil hit let me know. any comments or suggestions are welcome, thanx guy

[98Camaro3.8]

You think the intake is stuck? Wait till you try to get the heads off. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Once you're sure all the bolts are out, use a block of wood and a mallet to break it free. Hit it very carefully on the corner, trying not to damage anything.


Think I had to take the bolts off the power steering pump to move it around to get the front cover off. It was kind of a pain to get off, though.

[arthansen]

I believe there are bolts on the back side of the lower intake. Feel around, you can not see them.

Also, you do not need to remove the radiator or even the fans to change the cam. It will clear the fans. It looks like it won't but at least in the 2001 I know it will clear.

Good luck.

[FuryCharger]

thanx guys, im gonna try and get all the rockers off, headers and lower intake first, then ill try for that front cover.....ill keep ya posted

[TheGreenPunisher]

Just remember...righty tighty, lefty loosey ;)

[FuryCharger]

alright, day two, i only got a couple hours to work on it but i got all the rockers and pushrods out and the lower intake off. then i unbolted the headers and then spent like an hour and a half getting the stupid front cover off, but all of that is finally done. next step is the actual cam swap then taking the heads off. will there be enough room to pull the cam without taking off the fans? also, is the put-together really that much worse than the teardown?? thnx again and cant wait til shes runnin!

[98Camaro3.8]

Any updates?

[FuryCharger]

alright update: i havent had much time to work on it much the past few days but i got in there today and got the front covr off. ive never done a cam swap before so i had to take my time to figure it out. i marked the sprockets and took the timing chain and gears off and swapped cams. I am goin to hit the heads tomorrow and maybe start on putting it all back together with the gaskets.

I have two questions. one is that when i finishd the swap and put the timing chain back on i had trouble with the tensioner (stock original). when i tried to tighten down the tensioner the little ring holding it together popped. it seems as if there becomes to much pressure from the spring. i tried retightening it a couple times an tried making it fit but couldnt. I ordered a new one from intense so hopefully this one will tighten down ok. Any suggestions are welcome

Secondly, my buddy is a dickhead and is to busy to help me with the heads so is there anyone who can give me a DETAILED runthrough of how to torque the new heads down.

Basically thats the update, i just had to swap heads then start putting stuff back together after i get all my deliveries.

[98Camaro3.8]

Originally posted by FuryCharger:
I have two questions. one is that when i finishd the swap and put the timing chain back on i had trouble with the tensioner (stock original). when i tried to tighten down the tensioner the little ring holding it together popped. it seems as if there becomes to much pressure from the spring. i tried retightening it a couple times an tried making it fit but couldnt. I ordered a new one from intense so hopefully this one will tighten down ok. Any suggestions are welcome

Not sure about the problem, but you should pretty much always change the timing change and tensioner any time you remove them.

Originally posted by FuryCharger:
Secondly, my buddy is a dickhead and is to busy to help me with the heads so is there anyone who can give me a DETAILED runthrough of how to torque the new heads down.

It's really not that difficult to do, just a pain in the *** to swap them. Be sure to clean the surfaces real good. Also remove any coolant left in the block so that the bolts don't get wet when you're tightening them.

I think it's easier to torque the heads than it is the intake manifold. At least you've got plenty of room to do it.

Be sure to follow the tightening sequence to seal the head correctly. The torque spec itself is 37 ft lbs + 120°.

You'll probably want a pretty big bar to get the needed leverage.

An angle meter wouldn't hurt, but I just guessed really carefully.


Once you start the car, don't freak out when the car's smoking like it's dead. There'll be a lot of water to burn off, so it'll smoke. Well, you're gonna freak out but try not to freak out too bad. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[FuryCharger]

ok, day three, worked for about 5 hours on it. I got the new heads on (complete pain in the *** to torque them down right), put on the new valvetrain and bolted up the headers. i am exhausted and need to sleep. One more day and she will be hopefully running. The only problem is that full thottle and intense suck at delivering parts so i wont get that last day to work on it for probably another week or so. aggrivating....

[99blackbird]

i got in on this late. what heads did you use?

[Chris Camaro]

and what cam?

[FuryCharger]

ok, so all the parts are in but i think i may wait til wed. to finish her up so my buddy can help me with all the gaskets and such.

in reply to ur posts, i have machined heads that are ported and polished. They flow 2% better than supersix and have 105# springs. i got hardened pushrods and the cam is the gt2. ill let u all know how well she turns on!

[Nachius]

Awesome keep us updated.

What are your plans as far as your tune, because you won't realize how much more power youc ould be making with a tune.

Hopefully it cranks on the first try and lopes like a madman ;)

[FuryCharger]

hopefuly it will lope like a 1970 dodge challenger, haha ya right. anyways, yea im planning on getting hptuners. the only problem i that when i do get it, i have no idea how to run the program and even if i do what kind of procedure i take in adjusting all the figures.....i guess ill figure it out