I am considering my next steps on my 88 IROC. When I bought it, it had 58k miles and an old school Vortech supercharger kit on it including an FMU and MSD Boost Retard Box. With this came other goodies like subframes, aluminum driveshaft, 3.45 9 Bolt rear, headers, Y-pipe, Borla, etc. Overall a very clean and solid car. I have fixed some odds and ends and this past summer the car ran excellent. The biggest improvement was converting to EBL and getting a decent tune dialed in. While starting to get the WOT tune close before getting some dyno time, I noticed the injectors going over 100% DC.

This started the slippery slope

I want to get the max out of what is there so injectors are a must. Since the plenum and runners were coming off, I went ahead and ordered a set of AS&M runners. Yes, there are better options out there but I like the long runner TPI look and that is what I am keeping. This also means the fuel rails need to come off along with all the air intake and associated parts. While awaiting parts, my radiator popped a leak in the main core at the end of the season, so it too has to come out. The car has sat while I have mulled over what I want to do. Worse yet, I had started collecting parts for my 96 LT4 C4 to do a head, cam, intake swap as well (Including injectors, headers, throttle body, etc.). On top of that I have flipped one house and had a host of things done on the house I currently live in. With all of the other items that has happened in 2020, it has been quite an interesting year for me and I am sure for others.

Even though I don't want to get into changing the heads, doing a stroker, or really touching the bottom end since it is healthy, this state of required disassembly made me think about changing the cam. With the blower and runner change there are much better cam options out there to get the best out of my setup without major changes to how the engine operates. With the Cam coming out, so too would all the accessory drive which would be nice to clean up and give a nice new coat of paint. This lead to considering, while the overall car is very clean, some areas of the engine bay are not. This lead to the thinking that it would be easier to do the cam if the engine was out of the car and this would give me the opportunity to clean and paint some areas under the hood and have it all looking as good as the rest of the car.

It has been around 20 years since I pulled an engine. Back then I had a neighbor who was an old school hotrodder help me pull my blown 305 out and install a 350 in (at the time) my 86 TA. He had a lot of knowledge he shared and most importantly the tools to do it right and safe. I will be working in a 2 car garage and was sizing up what I will need and if I have enough space to do it safely. I have an engine stand, but I need a hoist. As I have mentioned above, the Corvette will also get it's engine pulled for the work that is coming to it later.

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to provide background information for these questions.

1. For a cam, runner, injector, and radiator swap, should I pull the engine and do all the cleaning mentioned? Or, is this just taking on more work than is necessary?

2. Four a Thirdgen and C4... is an engine hoist (cherry picker in some areas) the best option or should I bite the bullet, spend some extra money, and get a gantry?

 

I dont pull enough engines to justify a gantry. The hoist you buy at China freight will be more than adequate.

However, no need to pull the engine to do top end work. If the radiator is coming out that is a perfect time to swap the cam.

 

I have seen on here where some had to build extensions to clear their nose cone and what not with a hoist? I don't remember having to do that when we pulled the engine out of my 86. It is more that just top end work, there is engine bay work I want to do.

 

I go off the side, and or through the bottom.

 

Cam swap with the motor in the car is very doable. You’ll have to pull the a/c condenser as well. Trickiest part will be to get the oil pan to seal again since you need to drop the front of it down to get the timing cover off. If it’s the original cork gasket, it will likely not seal once you mess with it.

If your oil pan gasket and rear main seal are original, I would probably be inclined to pull the motor, clean it up, change all of the seals and gaskets and paint it.

 

There is nothing that indicates they wouldn't be original.

 

Having used both and now having both, IMHO there is no comparison in my mind to how easy and safe a gantry makes pulling engines. You have complete control with easy fine adjustments mating it with a chain hoist. I think it more comes down to how much do you want to spend, how big is your garage, and do you like tools. If you look at a couple of my build threads you can see pictures of the gantry I use in operation. I bought it at Harbor Freight and it does work great. Quite honesty I would now like to get a roller bridge crane in my garage as an upgrade from the gantry, but I probably won't do that anytime soon. I keep my cherry picker mainly for lending out to friends as it is much more portable of course. I haven't pulled an engine with the picker since I got my gantry about 10 years ago.

 

I do like tools, having tools to get the job done reduces the price of future projects since you only have to buy good tools once.

The cost is always of interest, but the cost difference isn't large enough here to be the deciding factor. I appreciate the feedback.