I have posted prior about my 86 oil/coolant troubles. I used the dye for the oil and as far as I can tell it looks to be coming from the crankshaft seal. Until I take off the harmonic balancer I can’t be 100%. I believe that the coolant leak is just from the last owner. I have found a few loose connections in the coolant system. He had replaced the water pump, radiator and thermostat. I’m not sure if he did it himself or had someone do it. I think I want to take off the pump and check all connections and reseal properly. Then replace the crankshaft seal and harmonic balancer. So my question, without having really any true experience ripping apart engines am I crazy to think that this seems easy enough to do? I am also thinking that depending on what I find after taking it all apart that maybe I’ll just change the timing chain/seal and the oil pan seal/pump. It would be a nice winter project. I have a pretty good mind for figuring stuff out and I always do plenty of research. In 17 years of owning a house I’ve never had a contractor come to fix anything, I just figure it out through experience and asking the right questions. So am I completely out of my mind for thinking that I could do this? Obviously at some point I would need some experienced help, but besides getting the right tools it doesn’t seem all that difficult to me. Am I crazy? Thank you for your input!

 

What year?

 

1986

 

Time consuming but not particularly difficult. Balancer hub maybe grooved = sleeve kit or new balancer. Engine doesn't use roller cam (1987+). You might pull distributor or atleast cap before raising front of engine to remove balancer. Flat tappet cams aren't expensive but tuning will be required. If you get tempted to change it while engine is apart.

 

[QUOTE=Kevova;1600278155]Time consuming but not particularly difficult. Balancer hub maybe grooved = sleeve kit or new balancer. Engine doesn't use roller cam (1987+). You might pull distributor or atleast cap before raising front of engine to remove balancer. Flat tappet cams aren't expensive but tuning will be required. If you get tempted to change it while engine is apart.[/QUOTE

Do you believe the flat Tappet cams would give enough extra power to make it worth the trouble?

 

It's all about budget. Someone may have a TPI friendly suggestion. The TPI intake chokes performance between 4500 -5000 rpm. EFI tuning can get expensive. Going carb gets around tuning but usually requires hood scoop. No easy answer. Building a bad *** carburated SBC isn't particularly difficult, keeping thr ecm can make it complicated.

 

late 86 is roller cam

 

Once you decide cam you have to remove the rad and condenser...and raise motor an inch or so.

you’ll need a balancer puller...maybe a power steering pulley puller too.

Not hard just go slow and put the front on jack stands and remove the two front tires.

if you find a leak where the timing cover meets the pan or the cover itself, the pan must be dropped to remove timing cover.

double check other leak prone areas...china walls ok intake and valve covers. Oil runs downhill.

 

unfortunately mine is early 1986

 

Thank you for the helpful info!! I’m going to give it a go!!

 

No it is not.

86L got '128 heads, not the roller. Roller starts in 87.

 

This will be time consuming and you'll have to buy some specific tools. You do have to remove everything from the front of the engine and everything in front of the engine, radiator, condenser, etc. The engine will need to be tilted a little if you want to do the cam.

If you do the cam, and it be a flat tappet that is worth it, then you'll need to think about other things. Its a fairly small cam,
Duration @ 0.050 202/206
Lift with 1.5 R 403/415
Lobe Seperation 114.5

So I don't think its worth it unless you go over 210 or so on either intake or exhaust. You also have poor '624 heads, so a new cam would be choked by those heads, and the heads by the intake setup, so you can see it becomes a full mod plan quickly. But, if you really want, you can do the cam and have the chip redone, and call it finished, its how far you wanna take this. Personally, if I was doing the cam I'd do the other things. A new cam will warrant new springs/valves/retainers anyway on the heads.

 

the bigger chain auto parts store usually will "lend" you the special tools needed for this job. I got mine at auto zone, no cost except for deposit on tools which you get back.If you change cams, you will have to remove the intake manifold to remove the lifters. Not a hard job to replace timeing chain and gears. Best of luck.

 

So it seems if I go for the cam replacement I will need someone with way more experience than I have. Do I really need to replace lifters, springs, etc. and if so wouldn’t I just spend the extra money and get a roller set up? Either way I need to find a local experienced corvette owner to look over my engine. One of the owners did some mod work as I’m finding out. From what I can see he replaced the throttle body with a BBK Edelbrock and the fan housing has a Edelbrock logo on it. Who knows what else was already done?

 

You wouldn't put a new cam in with old valvetrain parts, especially a cam with any real difference in lift.

You can do a roller conversion, there are kits to do so. It is up to you.

Impossible to tell what was done by a previous owner, you'd have to call him.