The Mountain Kat

I have the new cam in, the Vortech, the P&P'ed 243's, the LS-2 manifold, and the long-tube headers (that appear to be Titanium). I am almost ready to try starting her. But for one problem...

When I pulled the camshaft, to replace it, I heard something drop onto the sheet metal oil shield in the pan. None of the lifters had come apart nor should there have been anything loose in the engine to drop. I pulled all the lifters and replaced them so I know they are all complete. The CPS is fine as well. It sounded kinda small and I _might_ be able to get away with ignoring it but I do not care to do so. I looked in my service manuals and they only show the oil-pan removal after the engine is out. If I can pull the pan then I can also check the condition of the bearings and R&R them if warranted.
Has anyone accomplished this feat?

lucky131969

How do you know you did not drop a lifter?

The Mountain Kat

I pulled them all out and replaced them to be sure that it was a lifter. But all of the old lifters are in good shape.

Jnape

Did you hear it as you pulled the cam out? If it wasn't a lifter, I would think maybe a piece of cam bearing? You have no real path into the pan with the lifters in place so I would think it was already in the engine.

Chris Stewart

I pulled the pan with the motor in, by supporting the motor and then drop the front cradle. In this pic, you can see the hook, attached to a come-along, that's attached to the rafters. It's not exactly easy, but got the job done.

Jay_Rich

I did this when i dropped a lifter, and then again to make sure the oil pump oring was good, second time took me 2hrs start to finish.

-jack motor up with hoist or like above
-undo motor mount bolts
-undo tie rods
-undo brake like that is bolted to the frame
-undo upp ball joint
- undo shock from upper or lower (i removed the 2 lower 13mm bolts
-undo steering linkage
-undo four 21mm nuts for the crossmember, lower with a jack

The front pan bolts are a pita if u dot remove the leaf spring also but it is do-able

I dont think i missed anything

Btw be carefull when seperating ball joints bc i right now have my car apart waiting for new lowers and tie rods and holy corvette tax. Local in canada 160 per lower and 135 per tierod!

Jay

The Mountain Kat

Thanks guys!
What a pain this is but I want to know what could have fallen. The object fell before I had the cam past the first set of bearings. There just should not have been anything in there to fall.

The Mountain Kat

Done. Not the easiest pan drop I have ever done by far but interesting as hell. It looks like someone replaced the engine not too long ago. The bearings are in excellent shape! The object that dropped into the pan was a lifter holder bolt. Whoever dropped it just replaced it without fishing out the old one. There were three loose pan bolts which accounted for the little oil leaks. I should have pulled the oil-pump spring and stretched it while I was in there but I didn't remember that trick until I had things bolted together too much to go back.
My thanks to those who responded with helpful advise!

zeke2u

Titanium headers!!?.....I wouldn't dare to guess how much they cost to fabricate.

lucky131969

I would bet, that one man's titanium headers, is another man's discolored stainless steel headers..........

zeke2u

Ya, I was thinking the same but I didn't want to be the one to bust his bubble! I suppose if they weren't installed, he could silence us skeptics and submerge one in water, measure the displacement, put it on a scale and calculate the density.

The Mountain Kat

And *I* would bet that after 10+ years in the aerospace industry that I do know what I am talking about. First thing I noticed was that they were far too light for what they should have weighed. So I did some discrete grinding. Sure enough *white* sparks. Not light yellow but *white*. If the headers were heavier I *might* have suspected cast steel but that wouldn't bend worth a damn and would rust faster than the zipper on a democrats jeans. One would *NOT* be needing to do a specific gravity test to determine that they weigh less than half of what my 427 Ford steel headers weigh and yet they are very close in size.
No manufacturer logos nor have I seen any similar pictures of these anywhere. I also used 3" thin wall Titanium tubing to route my intake from the SC to the IC. At least the straight sections as I do not have any way to bend 3" thin wall.
There was someone in Texas back in 2002 who was talking about producing some. Whoever made them did a very nice job. Too bad that the exhaust from the headers to the Z06 system *is* Stainless. Damn Titanium tubing has gotten outrageously priced on eBay in the last 8 years or so.
I am going to check with the local airplane boneyard and see if I can get some of that 4" Titanium tubing that I saw the last time I visited. A couple of sections looked like they could be near perfect for my IC to TB routing. I have replaced about 50 miscellaneous bolts and screws on my baby with Titanium as well. I am something of a Titanium-phile...
But y'all can go on believing any old thing you like. :-)

Jnape

1st off, good job on hearing that bolt drop during disassembly. Than digging in and finding it is cool.

Those headers would cost a fortune to produce, even in china. As you describe, they probably are titanium. If cast, maybe magnesium would make more sense?

zeke2u

Yes, good job on finding the neglected bolt. But certainly you can't blame one for being skeptical when someone claims they have titanium headers - although it sounds, with the extra information you've provided, that the probability of them being so is greater. If they are titanium, I'm astounded that they weren't promoted as being so when the original seller sold the vehicle - I would think it would be a major marketing item. But again, sorry if my skepticism cast any doubts on your materials knowledge - with the added information you provided, you sound as if you have an engineering background.