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You can get that sound with a lot less duration, which will give much better driving manners.
That cam, on the interstate in 6th gear at around 75mph will have the rpm below 2k rpm and the engine will buck, jolt, and shake to the point you need to give it gas and stay above 85mph to not buck, or drive on the interstate in 5th.
My previous cam was a 233/239 with XER lobes, their was some surge down low. Lugging 6th gear on the interstate would sometimes require me to downshift based on speed. When it was time to swap cams I went smaller and was happy with how much better the car ran (esp with the blower).
To get the most out of your cam you should throw heads on the car, aftermarket or CNC'd. It will not drive perfect, their will be some surging. However if you don't care, that cam will rip top end!
Last edited by nullpointer; 09-15-2018 at 09:44 PM.
My previous cam was a 233/239 with XER lobes, their was some surge down low. Lugging 6th gear on the interstate would sometimes require me to downshift based on speed. When it was time to swap cams I went smaller and was happy with how much better the car ran (esp with the blower).
To get the most out of your cam you should throw heads on the car, aftermarket or CNC'd. It will not drive perfect, their will be some surging. However if you don't care, that cam will rip top end!
As long as it can be tuned to pass emissions. I really don't drive the car much. I put about 500 miles on it since I bought it.
8/24/2018
Steering rack has been removed. This was probably the most painful part of the project so far. Not that it was difficult to remove, it’s just the fact that you have such limited space to move around in.
8/25/2018
I got the headers out. A few bolts ended up snapping off and it was at this point I decided to buy new headers and an x-pipe. Good thing since the cam that I got requires that you get new headers.
08/31/2018
Headers came in. I ordered the Maximizer long-tube headers and x-pipe since it had good reviews and wasn’t as expensive as the OBX system; also, it looked like the OBX system. When I opened the box, there was the OBX warranty registration paperwork. I guess they either own Maximizer or build systems for them. The system looks good and is made from stainless steel. I’m just a little worried on the welds; I think those things will rust. I’ll definitely paint the entire exhaust soon.
09/03/2018
I saw a cool paint job done on the harmonic balancer, so I decided to do something similar. I painted the outside flat gold and the inside red. First, I primed it, then applied silver engine paint to the inside, and then the red paint so that red would pop. Then I masked it off and painted the outside gold.
09/04/2018
I waited about 24 hours before applying the gold. I ended up not using any tape since I know it would take off the red. So, I just cut a manila folder in half and stuck it in, holding it from the inside and preventing the gold paint from spraying onto the red. It came out pretty good.
09/05/2018
Time to paint the headers. I cleaned, primed and painted black the headers, catalytic converters and x-pipe. Initially I thought it was 6:00 pm when I started painting; turns out it was 7:30 pm. Well I guess into the night we go. At 9:10 pm, I’m working on the headers and I see that I’m about to run out of paint. Thankfully Auto Zone was still open and after a quick road trip I came back home and completed the job at 10:15 pm.
09/15/2018
This high heat has been relentless. I’ve been working early in the morning most of the time so that Harrison can be out in the garage with me. Seeing that it’s not going to let off any time soon, I went and got a portable AC unit and wow does that make a difference. Although the garage is insulated, most of the time it’s about 85 degrees in there in the afternoon. With the AC running, it’s at about 77 degrees which is quite comfortable especially with the additional fan going. I didn’t even break a sweat last time and more importantly, neither did Harrison.
Today I’ll be working on removing the heads which requires the removal of the valve covers, rocker arms, push rods and lifters.
At this point the valve covers are off and I’ve started removing the rocker arms. The rocker arms are torqued down tight so be ready to wrestle with them. I stored each rocker arm and push rod in its own zip-lock bag and numbered them from 1 to 16 starting from the driver side rear (1) and working my way to the driver side front (8) and then moving over to the passenger side front (9) and working my way towards the rear (16).
The passenger side head is off. Took a breaker bar to get the head bolts lose. The top 5 are 10 mm bolts. The internal 5 are 15 mm bolts. The one first and fifth ones are smaller than the rest of the remaining bolts. The five bolts beneath the valve cover are also 15mm. There was also a clip that was disconnected in the back to remove the head completely. Then I proceeded to remove the lifters which are held by two 10mm bolts. I pulled all 8 lifters with the lifter retainer cups attached.
For the driver side head, there are two bolts attached to the rear. The first one closest to the driver side fender is a 15mm bolt; it’s attached to a ground. The next one is a 13mm bolt and is attached to the air tube bracket. I just loosened that one and the bracket slipped out. At this point I removed the air tube completely. Unfortunately, the power steering pump/alternator bracket is attached to the front of the head so that had to be removed as well. It was only attached to two more bolts. Once the power steering reservoir was removed, by disconnecting two hoses, I was able to reach one of the bolts in the back effortlessly.
The same process goes in removing the bolts from the driver side: 5 small ones up top, 2 short ones inside the head at position 1 and 5, and the rest are long. Once the head was off, I removed the lifter retainer cups and lifters. Again, the lifter retainer cups are just held in place by two 10mm bolts.
The section where the lifters go has been taped off so that no debris can go inside the engine.
9/15/2018 Part 2
Now the tough part: getting the harmonic balancer off. Removing the pulley itself is pretty straight forward but removing the crank pulley bolt is quite a challenge. Once it was out, I attached the harmonic balancer removal tool and got to work. It turns out it was too small for the larger bolt that I purchased so I ended up using the stock bolt. I threaded it back in about 8 full turns and got to work. I continued to unthread the bolt until I reach about 2 full turns. Towards the end, I didn’t feel comfortable unthreading the bolt any further, so I had to figure something else out. I’m sure a rubber hammer would have done the trick; however, I had another tool at my disposal. I ended up using it along with the longer bolt. The harmonic balancer is now off.
Nice work, you should pin the crank while you are in there in case you ever throw boost at it.
Thanks! Not planning on boosting this one since I'm going to twin turbo the C6. But I looked up the process and seems straight forward. Question though, if you ever have to get the harmonic balancer off again, how do you remove the pins?
Thanks! Not planning on boosting this one since I'm going to twin turbo the C6. But I looked up the process and seems straight forward. Question though, if you ever have to get the harmonic balancer off again, how do you remove the pins?
The pin(s) won't prevent the balancer from coming off, you remove the balancer with a tool just like you would without pins. I've used both methods (drilling from the front, and ati pin from the side) and neither interfered with balancer removal.
The pin(s) won't prevent the balancer from coming off, you remove the balancer with a tool just like you would without pins. I've used both methods (drilling from the front, and ati pin from the side) and neither interfered with balancer removal.
9/16/2018
Today’s a big day. I removed the oil pump, timing chain and cam. First, I started by removing the timing chain cover. It has 10 x 10mm bolts. There are 8 visible from the front and 2 from the bottom. I took the tensioner off to get access to the bolt behind it. Once the cover is off we need to set the engine to top dead center by aligning the cam gear with the crank gear. The cam bear should be facing down and crank gear facing up. Next is removing the oil pump. Simply undo the 4 x 10mm bolts holding it in place and unscrew the 1 bolt that’s attached to the pickup tube. Rotate the oil pump slightly towards the driver’s side and it will dislodge the pickup tube. Gently push the pickup tube into the oil pan and the oil pump will be free to remove. Next, remove the 3 x 10 mm camshaft bolts and take the cam gear out. Then remove the cam retainer plate by taking off the 4 x 10 mm bolts and start removing the camshaft. I attached 3 x 10 mm bolts from the water-pump since they give me a little bit more leverage. Rotate the camshaft while taking it out. If you haven’t removed the AC Condenser, like I haven’t, you’ll hit it with the camshaft. Angle it downwards to pull it out completely.
The time has come to start cleaning everything. While cleaning the engine bay and the engine itself, I’ll also be removing and sanding all the ground wires that I can see. After I finished cleaning the passenger side, I applied Rust to Black Primer to get rid of majority of the rust over there.
9/18/2018
Today I continued cleaning the engine compartment. Got majority of the stuff cleaned. I applied the rust to black primer to the driver side frame and painted the passenger side frame with black engine high heat paint.
9/19/2018
I finished painting the driver’s side frame and cleaned the cylinders and pistons a little bit more.
9/20/2018
Today I cleaned most of the parts and started painting. I initially painted the valve covers red, but they didn’t come out all that great. So, I painted them gold and they look good (IMO). The red pops ever so slightly from underneath the gold.
9/18/2018
Today I continued cleaning the engine compartment. Got majority of the stuff cleaned. I applied the rust to black primer to the driver side frame and painted the passenger side frame with black engine high heat paint.
9/19/2018
I finished painting the driver’s side frame and cleaned the cylinders and pistons a little bit more.
9/20/2018
Today I cleaned most of the parts and started painting. I initially painted the valve covers red, but they didn’t come out all that great. So, I painted them gold and they look good (IMO). The red pops ever so slightly from underneath the gold.
9/21/2018
Painted the cradle silver. Took about 3 hours total to clean and paint. I ended up using the brush on caliper paint since it was the easiest to apply. Turned out pretty good. At this point I just have to remove the remainder of the exhaust, replace the valve springs and start putting it back together. It doesn’t help that I got sick today. We'll see how long this holds me.
9/25/2018
I can't believe that the day has finally come, but I've finally caught up with the video/photo editing and write-up to today's date!
Today I cleaned the filthy, filthy heads and installed new spark plugs. The new spark plugs were torqued down to 11 lb ft.
I was going to do the valve springs but decided to hold off on it since I decided to purchase a new tool. Unlike the stock valve seals, the Brian Tooley valve seals are a bit more difficult to install. The tool is going to get here in less than a week so I'll continue on with it then.
Just when I was about to call it quits for the day, the Brian Tooley Racing Valve Seal Tool came in. I used the comp cam valve spring compressor tool to compress the valve springs. Once compressed, I tapped the spring slightly with a hammer to release the locks and used my magnet to extract them. Next, I removed the comp cam valve spring tool and the valve springs. I used some pliers to extract the stock valve seals and proceeded to install the new ones. The Brian Tooley valve seals come in two pieces, so I placed the metal part in first and after lubricating the seal, placed it on top next. I then used the Valve Seal Tool and pushed them on. Finally, the new springs were installed with the Comp Cam Valve Spring Tool and one of the heads was complete.
09-15-2018, 05:09 AM
