:yesnod: Here's a pic of the new gaskets. the old ones cover the top of the port...of course the intake does too so unless you get out the dremel you're not buying much.

 

Thanks Jim, lots of good info there, and pictures are always nice too :cheers:

1996man,

Most people that have done the hotcam upgrade claim an increase of about 30 RWHP. Not bad for about $200.00 if you have an LT4. I wish I could find a way to get HP gains like that out of my boat engine for the same $$.

 

Hamert
I just did this swap on my car a few short months ago, feel free to email me with any questions if you get stuck along the way. I'll do my best to help out in a timely manner (I check email frequently) Just bear in mind, the BEST way to reseal the timing chain cover lower seal is to drop the oil pan, I tried to avoid it and made a little lake of oil on my floor during the first startup.

Sam
slambo@pacbell.net

 

Oh crap, the oil pan has to come off too? I guess that's why Goody said I would need an oil pan gasket too. How hard is that to get off? Do I have to unbolt the motor to do that? I thought this might be a little easier. :banghead:

 

If you had already planned on doing the cam swap yourself then the motor was gonna have to come up anyway. And, if you were planning on doing the whole job on your own then doing the oil pan is just another couple of hours at the most to deal with, not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things.

The two trickiest parts of the whole job for me were to get the six (three per side) tiny little bolts on the sides of the fan shroud off (and I didn't put them all back on) and getting the oil pan seal on the bottom of the TCC. As it turned out, I didn't even get the seal on right hence dropping the oil pan and fixing that little snafu.

Read the write ups on this board, get a shop manual for some of the procedural step by steps on the R & R of certain parts, and then just roll your sleeves up and get started.

Make your life easier and get (if you don't already have one) a 3 ton floor jack and some wood, put the car up on stands on all four corners and remove the front wheels to gain better access. The jack (with the a couple small pieces of 2 X 4's on it) will remain under the oil pan for the duration as you'll be lifting and lowering the motor frequently to remove the main pulley or cam or whatever, trust me it's a piece of cake, just time consuming and kinda dirty.

Sam

 

Some pull the front of the pan down by loosening bolts, but if you're in that deep already why not spend a little extra time and put a fresh gasket on?

Some things to remember/notes....

- The motor mounts are hydraulic and have a stud that passes through the lower frame cross brace on each side. There is a nut on each stud to secure them. Loosen the nut to the last couple threads but don't remove them. This will prevent you from inadvertantly lifting the engine too high
- The Factory Service Manual says you have to remove the left (drivers side) cat. You don't.
- You will have to remove the starter, oil filter, and oil filter adapter
- Use a block of wood ( I use an old piece of 2x8) on your jack to spread the load when lifing the engine. With the oil pan off, you'll need to lift the engine by putting the jack under the front of the tranny
- When reinstalling the oil pan, it helps to lift the engine for more clearance in the front
- In order to reinstall the oil pan, the crank counterweights (#1 & #2) near the front need to be positioned inside the block versus hanging below it
- Since the new gasket isn't compressed, it may give the illusion of not being in place. With a small mechanics mirror and a flashlight you can verify it's seated at the front and rear

From a complexity standpoint if you're doing the cam, the oil pan is nothing :)

 

Yeah, I say buy the gasket and replace it then taking any chances letting Murphy screw you over and develope some sort of leak.

 

Wow, you guys are a wealth of information. I really appreciate it. My neighbor and best friend is a GM master mechanic and you can bet he will be helping me :) I just hope I have enough room in my garage to do it. AllDataPro says it should take a "B" mechanic 15 hours to do the job. I'm probably a "C" mechanic so it should take me about 3 weeks if I do it alone :lol: . I do have a 3 1/2 ton floor jack, and a smaller one also and some good jack stands. My neighbor has a resurfacing tool, tourque wrenches, etc. so I should be all set with tools. I just hope he will help me cause he really didn't want me to mod the car at all. He thinks it will take away from the car's value. I told him I was only gonna do bolt ons, stuff that could be easily removed if I ever sold the car. I guess a cam doesn't really count as a bolt-on:eek:

One other question, AllDataPro and my Chilton manual both say to replace the lifters when installing a new cam. Did you guys do this? And, how long did it take you to do the whole job in your garage?

Thanks,

Ted


[Modified by Hamert, 2:47 PM 1/10/2003]

 

One other "oil pan removal tip" I forgot...Make sure to remove the oil level sensor (screws into the driver's side of the pan) before dropping the pan.

I didn't replace my lifters. Not necessary with our roller cam/roller lifter setup. If it makes you feel better or see evidence the lifters are worn, then replace them.

I had 16-18 hours in mine, working alone. This includes a couple hours to install / wire up the Meziere electric water pump & cleaning parts for appearance sake :D (something that's excluded from the jobber books)

 

Is it possible to remove the oilpan completly without majoring jacking up the motor?

I thought of an aftermarket pan, ... canton road race pan, but I need to know how much of a deal is it to swap pans...

 

You can remove it, but it's a PIA. Ditto for reinstalling. It's not a big deal to lift the motor a bit...loosen two nuts, throw a floor jack under the tranny with a block of wood to spread the load. Lift the engine ~1/2" - 1" Exhaust remains attached, as does everything else. Should take all of two minutes for this step.

Be real careful as to the pan you select. With the barrel cats and the extended oil filter, some of the pan designs are a pretty tight fit side to side.

 

i have an LT4 and i have a small head gasket leak so i was thinking that when i replaced the gaskets i would already have a slight improvement since they would not be oversized like stock gaskets. i was thinking that while i had the engine halfway apart i would go ahead and do the hotcam setup. just as a ballpark what kind of prices do you think im looking at for the head gaskets the cam and all the gaskets and springs i would need to finish this LT4 conspiracy theory conversion?

 

The cam and springs would run about $200.00 from gm-partsdirect. I'm not sure about the gaskets but you can get a whole head set from NAPA for about $80. There would be parts in there you wouldn't need like valve seals, and you would still need the timing cover gaskets and oil pan gasket, but it comes with intake gaskets, thermostat, head gaskets, etc. I would say you could do the whole thing including the cam, springs, new oil and antifreeze for about $350.00.


[Modified by Hamert, 3:24 PM 1/13/2003]


[Modified by Hamert, 6:39 PM 1/13/2003]

 

i am open to any other input but i appreciate that last comment. it doesnt sounds like parts are going to be a big issue. how about labor? what exactly does this consist of? do you have to pull the motor to do it? i really dont know what all goes into a cam swap. how would i go about having the ecu or OBDII setup for the hotcam? who can program that for me? these are questions i need to find answers for before i go any further. as always, thanks in advance guys

 

The labor involved is about a weekend working 10 hours a day at the most. You don't have to pull the motor, but you do have to loosen it from the mounts and raise and lower it. You will have to pull your radiator, water pump, intake, optispark, and harmonic balancer. Also the starter, oil pan and timing cover. From what I have heard, you can run the cam on stock programming, but a custom tuning program would be even better. I think there are a couple guys on the forum that do ecm programming.

 

Great any input from anybody else on prices or ecu/OBDII programing afterwords?

 

Ed Wright programming = $350 plus 150 for future updates.

PCMFORLESS = $175 plus 50 for future updates.

 

hmmmm that sounds a bit pricey but i have heard that Ed Wright does great work. can someone please explain dynotuning for me?

 

I personally used PCMFORLESS and have been very pleased. If Ed Wright does the work, he owns your PCM from then on out... it can not be reflashed by anyone else but him. He also disabled a lot of monitoring.

 

I think while you have the intake off, depending on how much mileage is on the lifters, I'd slap a new set in ($190) and pushrods ($40). springs ($32) and rockers are easy to get to if you want to change them after the fact. If you have to go in to replace a bad lifter (which is unlikely) labor costs will probably be about the same as a new set of lifters.


[Modified by tdock, 9:06 AM 1/15/2003]