Again, a new update on the cam swap. You know, just so you people are informed of my progress, seeing as how I won't be writing a tech article, or taking tons of pics like I expected.

Anyway, another sucessful day. I had a friend from down the street come and help me, he is experienced with this stuff, and his dad is even more experienced. Always great to be able to go to someone in case I needed help.

The whole front of the engine is all back on and installed. Except for the Radiator.. I wanted to flush it first. Anyway, Its just the intake, and the throttle body left to install. We are 95% sure that we will have the car up and running tomorrow.

Problems that occured:
Timing cover gasket/install: Ok, this was a bitch, we couldn't seem to get this **** in. I was trying to use my old gasket, seeing as how it was in pretty good condition. It fit much better than the new gasket too. Well, seeing as how I have a single peice seal, it was very difficult to put back on. We finally gave up, and permatex'd the whole friggen thing w/ the new gasket. We shouldn't get any leaks in here. (Yes, it was the black stuff, not the blue stuff ).

Water Pump: Yes, this wasn't so much of a problem, as it was a worry. We found in the hose of the water pump, and in the pump itself that the spring inside of it was broken into little bits, and everywhere. We thought that the pump was broke, and I pulled it apart. We asked his dad about this, and his dad told us its just the spring that holds the hose open so it does collapse on itself. What a relief, I didn't feel like buying a new water pump. (However, I really would have liked a Weiland electric ). Well, me not having the proper gasket for the waterpump, I just put permatex all over it, and torqued the nuts down. That should hold everything in well. If this stuff works like it should, its like, the miracle sealant

Intake gaskets: This is where I stopped for the day. I found out that my intake gaskets were identical. WTF?! They looked like both right side gaskets, and were part numbered like that too. Damnit. I could had the intake on tonight.

Reccomendations:
Check each part before you put it on, you never know what is broken.
Permatex "The Right Stuff" (or whatever) is great, always keep a bottle of it around somewhere.
Have a buddy around, makes things twice as easy.
If you move, make sure you are 5 min or so from an Autozone, or Orilleys

Ok, thats my update for the day. Need sleep

 

glad to hear everything is going good, i should be in the woodlands in a month or so so i will have to come by and see the beast:-) you said in day 1, i think, you had to cut the dowels off the cam? whatd you mean by this? the two deals that stick out the end of the cam? how did you do it and why?

 

5 days to swap a cam.....

 

:nono:

Be nice!! He's a rookie.. At least he's doing it... a lot of guys/kids will just farm it out and pay someone to do it.


Keep going Sonar... you're doing fine!!!!

 

Thanks guys! Yeah, I am a total newbie. This is the first time I have ever even tore apart an engine. Done a transmission before though.

MattRS: Yes, I had to cut the dowel off of the LT1 cam. LT1 cams have a larger dowel for optispark systems (I think), so I had to cut it off to the right size so there was enough clearance under the timing chain cover.

Oh yeah, and some more reccomendations.

Buy a new timing chain cover, a new one would look sooo much better than the nasty one that I have now. Mr Gasket makes one so that you don't have to drop your oil pan anymore when you do these kinds of things. Deffinitely going to look into that one. I will buy a new one when I buy an electric water pump. Nice to have shiny things under the hood instead of greasy ***** of oil everywhere

 

I JUST got done with my cam swap 2 days ago so I know how you feel. It'll all be worth it the first time you get to take it out and have some fun

I agree that the "The Right Stuff" is the BEST sealant I have ever used. I'm not going to use anything else.

 

Yeah, I know guys who have built entire engines using "The Right Stuff". You know, aside from the REAL important gaskets such as intake and head gaskets. They reccomended it to me. I like how it goes on, the stuff is so tacky, you deffinitely feel that there is no way anything is getting through there.

 

sounds like your pretty close to being on the road

 

alright, that makes sense, i thought you were talking about the two little things sticking out the other end of a cam. how did you cut it off?

 

I used a hacksaw. Came off REAL easy.. almost.. too easy

 

as far as permatex goes; blue is great for water, and black is great for anything else because it is petrolium resistant. if you don't use a gasket, make sure you let the silicone set a bit before you put your part on (15-30 min) so it becomes tacky. that way it won't squirt all out the sides when you put the part on. as an interesting point, some engines don't use pan gaskets and just use silicone.
as far as a two piece timing chain cover, unless you are going to be frequently changing your cam timing, it isn't worth your time/money.
jess

 

Sonar......don't worry about how long it takes you're not getting paid a flat rate for this job! Thank G#d !! LOL Just keep learning and make sure to do the best job that you can. Everything seems eazier after a job like this.

Hope it runs as good as your car looks.

Good luck!!!!