Alright so I chased down a chirping sound on my LT4 100000 miles. As most of the members here told me it was a lifter.

So, doing the right thing going to pull the cam, and probably drop the oil pan.
My question is at this point am i just as well to pull the motor? Or simple enough with it in the car? And if I do leave it in the car what all has to come off to get the cam out? or what can be left in is probably the better question?
Plus would appreciate any other advice, tricks, or recommendations as far as what else to replace, what else to do, and what brand of parts! Since I'm going this far.

 

It will be less work in the long run to remove the engine, and disassemble it on the engine stand to assess the damage.

 

 

+1

 

And here we go. I keep asking myself where to stop on this. If i might as well face the fact the car is done/not going to run for summer/year. Like everything else in this world, for another $100.00 you can do this, for another hundred you can do this, so on so on so on etc, etc, etc. Assuming the crank and rods etc, are okay, and replacing the sensible things eg. opti, water pump. What is your guys esimate on cost. Doing it myself.

 

Might check the other lifters and / or get a new set as long as the cam looks ok you should be good to go.Looks like maybe just one roller failed.It doesn't mean they all have.Roller lifter normally go 300+ miles especially with synthetic oil bieng used.

 

good time to go with a hotcam.I don't mind replacing something that is broke when I can upgrade at same time.

 

I started out doing my cam swap without pulling the engine. I realized that it was just as easy to pull the engine. It is a hell of a lot easier to work on when it is on the stand. Plus it gives you a chance to do a good cleaning of the engine bay.

Course a lot depends on where you have to work and if you have a lift and stand.

Hey, when life hands you lemons! No reason you can't do it in a couple of weeks. I am in no hurry and have been waiting on backordered valve springs.

Eddie

 

You are totally right on the money with this.

If your pulling the motor and the car already has 100k on it, once the motor is on the stand you might as well have the bores cleaned up, new rings, new bearings, new cam, lifters, have the heads checked ect.

It adds up quick and gets expensive. You will however be far better off in the long run then simply tossing another set of lifters and a cam in it (while its in the car no less).

 

On the other hand, you could just spend $10 on 1 replacement lifter and whatever for the gaskets and maybe it'l be fine. Of course I'm assuming the cam lobe looks ok, or then your gonna have to do that too.

You never know, but sometimes just repairing what is immediately broken is good enough assuming you are willing to rebuild the engine fully when the time comes (which might be a long time still).

 

On a 100K engine?? I'd like to hear how many members have done something like this and had success.

 

It's called a repair..maybe a gamble to some. Not something a shop would sell, because of liability, but the DIY'er might choose to try it first. People with C4's regularly make 200k miles on the small blocks so why not.

I mean I haven't seen the engine in question, but for $50, why not try the repair. Now if the cam gets changed, probably the water pump, opti, plug wires, timing chain get bought because most of those could get used again if the engine quit within a year.

 

Why not? How many reasons do you want? Put a lifter and a couple of parts in it and hope. Then the cam breaks and lunches the whole engine. It is also a reliability issue. Who wants to drive a ticking time bomb that you are scared will break any moment and come home on a roll back? Not me.

To each his own.

 

Agreed

If you can do the mechanical work (which it seems you can since you have a lifter in hand that you removed). You can pull the LT4 , go through it and get it back to tip top shape (or even better) for a very reasonable price.

It really doesn't get stupid expensive until you start down the road of "more more more".

 

I swapped out the cam, lifters and springs with the engine in car. Cam had three bad lodes. Dropping the pan is a necessary part of project. Swapped in new main bearings and rod bearings. new oil pump and pickup. All this was the cheap part. All these parts are traditional small block pieces, i.e. plentiful and inexpensive.

Everything else is LT specific and three times the cost of the equivalent tradtional small block part.

It's not merely "more", the fact is that there is very little, on a 100K engine, that you're going to want to put back on. So be forewarned, cost mount up very quickly. Don't be in a hurry, even if your finances permit it, it takes a long time to round up increasingly rare LT parts .

If I had it to do over again, and the place to do it, I'd pull the engine, but then I wouldn't have been able to resist pulling and having the heads done (which I haven't done yet) and replacing the clutch / flywheel (which I did later. again in the car). That would have doubled (?) the cost.

As it was, most of the actual time I spent on the project was cleaning the engine and engine compartment. By the time you get everything removed that has to come off, there's not much that's inaccessible.

Good luck.

 

Last year I swapped in a new cam and replaced all the valve train. It had about 100k miles at the time. I also put in an electric water pump, new oil pump drive shaft, new timing chain, new opti, etc... It took a few weekends and cost around 2k. If you dont mind going with the weaker hot cam you could really save some money. I also swapped the cam without pulling the engine.

Pretty much everything is fresh now except for the pistons, rods, and crank. Hopefully it will last another 100k now. If I had pulled the engine I would have been forced to do stroker build. That could have gotten really expensive.

Here's what I did...

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c4-t...lp-needed.html

 

Well, one end of the spectrum is a complete rebuild, and the other is new lifters and go.

To pull the cam w/ engine in you have to remove the radiator assmbly, motor mounts and lift the engine front about 2" to get clear the front cross member. I would say if you have the ability and resources to pull the engine, do it, you save your knuckles and won't have to bend your arms and hands into positions God did not intend.

As far as rebuild, think about how you want to use the car. If you are going to use it at the track and plan on alot of high rpm w.o.t. driving, then yes, rebuild it. If this is a street cruiser with at most a few stop light to stop light power shows, than it may not be neccessary. This qualified of course by previous maintenance. If the basics were always done, oil filter, regular stuff, you might be suprised by the condition of the internals at 100K. The cam and lifter may be enough. Although, if you have the engine out, main bearnigs and rod bearings are not that expensive nor difficult to replace at this point, plus perhaps some ARP hardware to hold the caps. This may save you from having to rebuild in the near future. Oh, and go ahead and do the oil pump and upgrade the shaft and cam gear.

You could probably do all this for $500-$600 range or less and be happily cruising w/in a couple of weeks. This is just my opinion, but I will add this. I would recommend afterward changing your oil a couple of times at 200 mile intervals before really pushing it. This will help to make sure to get any "stuff" out that might linger in the system.

 

I have the engine lift and engine stand, and mechanically capable of most everything (except machining requirements). I guess money does play a part. But the bigger decision right now is...... If I'm going to pull the motor and do a complete rebuild I feel like then im planning on keeping this car for awhile. VS, replacing cam lifters etc if I'm only keeping the car for a year or two. And to add to my decision making, the car was repainted a couple years ago. I replaced the clutch last year. So..... geesh... im approaching having basically a new drivetrain. Which if I wanted to keep the car forever, great! But must admit before this I have been toying with idea of a C5 ZO6, or vert. So been doing lots of thinking.
Can somebody give me a rough budget for the hotcam, opti, water pump, etc. And a rough budget number for a complete rebuild.

 

And another question. What have you guys done for rockers and studs? I mean I dont think anybody makes the 10mm rocker studs anymore. And I have a couple that are worn.

 

$5000 if you do the removal and replacement of the motor.
$3500 for parts, $1500 for incidentals and tune.