Here are some pics of the weekend I spent at Gonbad's installing the new cam (Futral F10-114) and ASP underdrive pulley. We got started on Friday at 7pm and finished on Monday at about 2am. No breaks other than eating and sleeping. It was a physical beating. We ran into a host of problems and frustrations, but we got it done and I'm thrilled now. Its getting tuned today at 4 at HPE so I'm sitting here tapping my foot until then.

accessories and radiator removed


here is Mike plugging away while I sip beers and take pics


valve covers removed...note the pretty blue springs...I somehow stripped one of the rocker arm bolts and we had to get a "back-out socket" from Sears to remove it...took awhile to figure out since neither of us had heard of a back-out socket...we just thought we were f-ed and considered putting everything back together...the guy at Sears helped us find this back-out tool and after we posted the problem on the forum a few members suggested it as well (thanks!)


this is me just before I drop a cam retainer bolt into the oil pan...twice...I fished them out with a pen magnet in a few minutes, but my heart definitely skipped a few beats...twice


me posing as Mike works


a pic of the tool we used to compress the springs (Tim's Tool on
LS1tech)...cheap and effective, but if you want to get it done quickly you may want to buy a more expensive tool. Although, the hardest part is definitely getting the air fitting into the spark plug hole to pressurize the pistons . With headers this is a real PIA and a few of the pistons took close to an hour to get the air fitting in! Getting the new valve keepers (locks) into the retainers is tough too. Total time to change the springs 7 hours!!!


new Comp Cam 918 springs are finally in all in at 1am on sunday morning


timing cover off new cam is in...the 5/8" rods I bought to stick in the engine and hold the lifters up was too big, so we risked knocking the lifters into the oil pan by pulling the old cam out and putting the new cam in without it...it paid off. Whew!


new ASP UD pulley is on


all back together on Sunday night a little after midnight...needless to say Mike and I both took Monday off...it wasn't even close to a decision


Hard a$$ work, and feels great saying that I did this install myself, but honestly fellas...it is really tough. There are a lot of hard and frustrating parts (steering rack removal, springs, air fittings in spark plug holes, crank pulley removal/intallation, etc, etc) and there are a lot of specialized parts to purchase, and there are is a lot that can go wrong. Knowing what I know now, I would probably suggest paying the $800-$1000 in labor to have someone else do it...but on the other hand the feeling of accomplishment is quite nice. And a big thanks to Gonbad for sacrificing his weekend to help me out with this. (hope the burnt arm is healing up nicely!)

 

Great pics and write up. Thank you

 

Were you able to drive the car to HPE? Let us know the results from the tune!

 

You make it sound a bunch harder than it really is... good job on doing it yourself. I'm sure if you did it again you could do it very quickly.

You just need time and the right tools. I love having a beater truck so I don't have to rush my mod projects.

 

I should be fine to make it to HPE. It doesn't hold an idle, but as long as I keep reving it every time I decelerate and stop, it stays alive. Its like constant rev matching at 1500 RPMs.

 

Nice upgrade and the photos of the process were great and good luck with the tune

 

True...I would have loved to have had a whole week to do this, so I could drink at least a beer an hour and not worried having to drive home.

 

We had all the tools. The only thing we used that I or Ryan didn't have was the back-out tool to get the darn rocker bolt out. Who would expect that one of 16 rocker bolts was slightly smaller than the other 15. We also tried my set of Gear Wrenches and the 8mm one would not remove the bolt either. It was just wierd and really frustrating. The back out tool didn't damage the bolt that much and since we couldn't find another one Ryan borrowed a different 8mm socket from my neighbor and he was able to torque it back down. For some reason that socket worked better. He figured if he ever did anything else to the valve train he would be doing new heads anyways so who cares if it won't come off again. We had a couple of tools fail on us. My 3 arm puller died as did one of my socket drivers. No biggie. I did make Ryan buy the new 3-arm puller. The Craftsman one from Sears is expensive, beefy and worth it. I have the ASP UD pulley so I dont need one. Ryan will need it because he has to pay this forward like I did. A fellow forum member and one of my best friends helped me do this exact job 2 1/2 years ago. So now its Ryan's turn.

The tool available from a member of LS1tech.com to install the pulley is sweet and worked like a champ. You still have to use the old bolt to drive it the last few millimeters but you don't risk the crank's threads in the process.

"Tim's" spring tool worked ok. It needs a pocket machined on the back side that the spring retainer sets into to keep the retainer centered around the valve while placing the valve keys.

The thing that really hacks me off about this whole thing was we started this project becuase Ryan had a wobbly balancer and a squeak. I kind of talked him into doing the cam and springs since by the time you get to pulling the wobbly one off it isn't that much more to do the cam except the springs. Well we fixed the wobbly balancer but the damn squeak is still there. Either way the balancer was going to have to be replaced just would have been nice to kill the squeak.

So having payed this forward here are some conclusions I have:
1. I will never use a shop light with a light bulb again. Yes the arm is healing. I will have scar to remember it though.
2. I will never use air-pressure to change the springs on a car with Headers ever! Either the headers come off or use the TDC method.
3. Write down anything out of the ordinary that you did while taking things off. I changed the way I was taking off the front swaybar and didn't re-tighten one of the end links. Ryan got a good scare when he hit a bump and got a loud bang because of the loose end link.
4. The next time I hear that you can't get 240ft lbs of torque on the crank bolt from someone I am going to knock that person's head off. I did it by myself while Ryan was sitting in the car on the brakes.
5. Have more than 1 set of sockets. I have two but I only had the 8mm in one of them.

We were beat by the end which is why I probably forgot about the swaybar link. Sorry about that. At least I know the tie-rods where tight. A loose swaybar is not going to kill you like a loose tie-rod.

We never even ate dinner on Sunday. I fixed some mac & cheese at like 2:00 a.m. My wife thought I was .

Anyways it was fun and I did get a little tempermental at the end ( )but not at Ryan he was great and worked really hard. I would have come unglued after he dropped a second cam retainer bolt into the oil pan. This would be especially true after having done the same thing about 30 minutes before and just seconds after I told him to stick a rag down there. I had to laugh I just couldn't believe it.

 

You car sounded Sick on your way down the street. I would have been driving with the window's down just hear it.

 

x2

 

I used air but my headers were out of the car when swapping springs... I also used the crane dual spring tool which is worth the money.

Helped my buddy do his cam.... not too bad... awesome that you guys got it all done.

 

I am planning on the same job in the spring so this was very informative to me. I will however be taking more than 3 days to complete mine.

 

 

Great write up. Gonbad you are a good friend to give of your time like that. Hats off to ya

 

Got most of mine taken aparts, still have to get the steering rack out and the crank bolt loose.

friday night consist of.....

get steering rack out
get crank bolt out
pull old cam out
put new cam in
put new springs in the heads
clean everything twice, i shall buy stock in break cleaner very soon as i have used a crap load

saturday

put motor back together
put on new sway bars
put on "abs of steel"
put new shocks on
tighten everything we can see

hope everything works out as planned for me. here is a pic of where we are at now


p.s.- i will pay some body next time to do this

 

Very nice of you to give your help in that matter..

 

Why did you pull the heads? The only advantage I see to that is its easier to change the springs and you can take out the lifters for the cam swap. Otherwise its more bolts and more money in new gaskets and new bolts.

The next time this gets done on my car the whole engine is coming out and the only part of it going back is the water pump, altenator and maybe the pulley. Everything else will be new. If I reuse the ASP UD pulley its getting keyed along with whatever forged crank I use.

 

Well, I got back from HPE and I'm a VERY dissappointed in the numbers.

Absolutely nothing against anyone at HPE. They have a top notch facility are great guys there, and Chuck (owner/tuner) was real knowledgeable and friendly...absolutely no ego trips whatsoever. He explained what was happening between every pull and let me phsyically adjust the RPMs at idle to my liking based on how much the car shook while sitting in it, and how it sounded behind it. I settled for 950...not to choppy, not to fast. If you've ever compared this, 100 RPMs at idle makes a world of difference in how it sounds and feels at idle.

Anyway, for the dissappointing news. Tell me if you guys have ever heard of this before. Chuck said he had to very conservatively tune my car because my temps were too hot and I was getting pre-ignition. That is, he couldn't advance the timing as much as he wanted because the heat would detonate the mixture, not the spark. He said he's seen this before in coated headers (which I have) because the coating keeps the heat within the header instead of dissipating it. It makes sense, but its upsetting and I've never heard of this before anywhere. He said he could likely get 420ish out of it, but he wouldn't standby a tune that pre-ignites, and said it would be dangerous to the pistons.

Anway, on their DynoJet it made 390hp/370tq which is 10 more hp and the same torque numbers I had before the cam and UD pulley. Granted this is compared to my dyno at MTI, which isn't that great of a baseline, but we can all agree that these are VERY low and dissappointing numbers, I don't care what DynoJet you have.

What now? Buy stainless headers now based on what Chuck said? Maybe. Dissappointed in the numbers, but the car does sound good and pulls strong. Still need to get rid of the damn squeak though.

Anyone have a toilet I can borrow? I feel like throwing some more money down it since mine is clogged with hundred dollar bills.

 

Well good news is that you saved a lot of $$$$ doing the job yourself
I pay for my installs and so far I'm happy with my numbers...next mod is 1.8 rockers and 918 springs.

 

well, it all started with installing some long tubes, then progressed into what you see here. I was going to port and polish the heads and also get them milled at the same time. i was also going to run a cosmetic gasket and raise the compression to 11:1. My builder and i decided not to and just run a cam, if i am going to do the heads, them i am going to buy a set of afr's or something like that. I know they really didn't need to come off but it makes for such a more easier install on the kook's long tubes. Plus, i wanted to see how everything looked in the motor.