It all started with me wanting to clean my plenium and runners. One thing led to another and now half my engine is apart. I have almost no knowledge on rebuilding engines and am scared to death of not being able to put it back together. I'm going to buy little baggies to label for screws and bolts. Now that I'm this far I might as well go all the way right? Please give me tips and advice on things to clean or replace and any other do's and don'ts. I've been cleaning the parts as I remove them.

 

Well you are partway into it for sure. I'd be concerned more with getting all the wiring back correctly. You're really not super far into the engine in my personal opinion. The main core components haven't been touched. A couple manifold gaskets and button it back up and you'd be fine.

Again. That's just my personal opinion. Maybe check YouTube for some DIY manifold projects?

 

You should be ok, the only thing I can see at this point that you may have a prob with is dropping the distributor back in and getting timing right.

Read up on how to install a small block chevy dist. and how to set timing and you will be fine.

 

I did a cam swap for the first time last year and wasn't a big deal. Just clean up all your mating surfaces nice and put a little rtv around the water jackets on the heads. I just about gave my neighbor a heart attack while he was mowing the lawn when i didn't have my timing right at first, as you can imagine BOOM!

 

What do you mean soak the lifters?

 

sorry i edited my original post. What is your plan here? Cam swap? then yes soak lifters in oil before you put them back in. I had new lifters that i didn't soak and one didn't prime with oil. Had to tear down again

 

I don't really have a plan.. I just want to clean things that should be cleaned in a 25 year old car and put it all back together. Motor only has 56k on it. Not sure if I'm going to go much deeper.

 

If you are looking for more performance you may want to consider going all out and putting new heads on but I wouldn't suggest it if you don't feel all that comfortable doing it. Since you are this far I would consider doing a new intake for the car instead of cleaning up the tpi. Look into doing a mini ram or a stealth ram. This way you won't have to go any further and there are plenty of write ups that walk you through this swap. Should see an honest 40 hp increase i'd say.

But don't sweat you are really not that deep into the engine. Good luck!

 

Thank you. Can you link me to some of these ram setups please.

 

NoNoNo! he doesn't have any plans on doing any performance gains. the most he can do at this point is an edelbrock TPI manifold and runners. Put it back together and call it a day. You would need a custom chip for the Miniram and Stealthram to get the max performance out of it. You don't need a chip with the TPI manifold and runners.

 

word.... then yeah just do a new edelbrock manifold, maybe look into getting some fresh injectors and a adjustable regulator or something.

 

So something like this?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Edelbrock-High-Flo-TPI-System-3892-/390993016396?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item5b08fff64c&vxp=mtr
What kind of throttle body should I get? I was thinking the 58mm holley. Also what is the benefit of an adjustable regulator?