After talking to Texas Speed about the potential purchase of their 233/239 cam, they steered me toward their torquer V.2. They said the cams are nearly identical except the 233/239 has a higher exhaust valve lift to specifically maximize nitrous usage. Since I'm not planning on using any serious nitrous, I went with the V.2. With no immediate plans on doing anything more than maybe some 243 heads, this cam fit the bill perfectly.

I also picked up PRC .650 dual springs w/ the Ti seats and retainers.
Ported and shimmed LS6 oil pump.
LS2 HD timing chain.
Edelbrock 4254 two piece timing cover.

I got everything torn down and the cam was ready to be pulled in around 6-7 hours. I used 5/16th's steel rod that I flattened out on one side to hold up the lifters, which did a marginal job at best. I kept hearing a lifter hit the cam while spinning it. I left the push rods in and spun the cam to see which lifters were going to stay up in the trays and which weren't. I found one problematic lifter and used a pen magnet to hold it up.

Everything went pretty well, the oil pump was easy, the tube and O ring slid right in as I made sure it was very well lubed.

I heated the balancer up in the oven for 20 minutes or so at 250 degrees, and it slid right on. I used a piece of 2x4 and a hammer to set it pretty far in and pulled it in the rest of the way with the old bolt, by hand. It was pretty easy as well. Torquing the bolt was a PITA. I think I almost got the whole 140 degrees on the new bolt thanks to my 1/2 breaker bar and jack handle.

Everything is almost done, I have to put the radiator and shroud back in, which is the only thing I expect to be a pain. I have one valve spring yet to change that is blocked by the fuel pressure line. I have to trim my tool to fit, I'll do that tomorrow.

I didn't go to nuts with the pics, hopefully I will have a video and idle clip soon.

On to the pics:

Cam in, LS2 chain on and LS6 ported/shimmed pump in place. The motor was spotless inside, real clean.





The Edelbrock two piece cover. You need to replace the backing plate bolts on the water pump in order for it to clear the cover. No where in the paperwork that comes with it does it tell you that.



Timing cover installed, looks really nice!!!





Oh well, say goodbye to that great looking bling, its getting covered up!!



Springs, started on the passenger side and got them all done but one on the drivers side.




That damn valve spring. I'll get that one tomorrow!!




The picture of the clearance between the water pump and Edelbrock cover, not much at all.



Here is the video. The car currently has Metal Matrix cats on it as well as an Ti exhaust. I think a more aggressive exhaust is in order!!!

 

Looks like fun!!

 

Excellent man but could not see any pictures except last one.

 

Hmm, thats odd. They are all through photobucket and appear fine for me.

 

At first I just saw red x's, but now all pics are visible.

 

Nice Job!

 

Now its good, thanks for sharing man, once my job is stable and i be doing the same thing, already have cam package but wanted to do heads same time.

 

Nice job chevy guy. I got done with mine last week. I went with the mayhem 2 cam package from englandgreen. It was fun. Wait until u fire it up. Get it tuned right away. Dont drive it very far as your air/fuel ratio is jacked up. Its possiable that to much fuel will wash down your cylinder walls.

 

Like the 2 piece timing cover

 

Ive heard a lot of noise about this cover and fitment issues. I decided to buy one anyway and see what I could do with it. I have heard everything from issues with clearing the oil pump to clearing the water pump.

Like it says, I used a LS2 chain and LS6 pump, it cleared them fine. The water pump as is, wouldn't clear. You have to replace the factory backing plate bolts on the water pump with the lower profile cap head screws. I'm glad I got it, hopefully I wont want to change the cam again but if I do, it should be much easier not having to remove the rack, sway bar, balancer, or PS assembly.

 

Nice job on the install.

 

Nice job, but one question.
Why modify a tool to change the valve spring, why not just remove the fuel line?
When I changed my springs on my old heads on my 98 I just removed both the fuel and return lines and the hardest one was in rear on the drivers side.

 

The vavle spring tool I was using needed to bne modified anyway for a LS engine. I would rather leave the fuel lines alone if at all possible.

Im posting some pics up now, you'll see the tool.

 

So I am cough cough......"working from home" today.

This is how I left it last night.
My wife didnt approve of the new bath towels being used as fender covers.




Started on that last valve spring.






Time to put the rest of the valvetrain together.

Beefy pushrods.



All together. I turned the engine over by hand at least three or four times and retorqued the rockers every 45 degrees, I wanted to be EXTRA sure everything was OK.




My advice to everyone doing this, take this opportunity to clean out the condensor and raditator. The crap that came out of these was unreal. I used a shop vac, compressed air, and a garden hose on the radiator.




All buttoned up, with new belts and all. I am actually nervous to start it. Maybe tonight or tomorrow.
Yes, I cleaned all the parts that nobody will ever see, lol.

 

I know this falls into the "I've always done it this way..and never had a problem" category....but any way you slice it, you still torqued the rockers down on open valves.....which is just bad practice. Since you had everything apart, you only needed to set #1 cylinder to TDC(compression), torque the appropriate intake/exhaust valves to spec, rotate 360 degrees, torque the remainder intake exhaust valves.....and you're done.

 

That is exactly how I did it initially, I have a manual as well. Once everything was buttoned up, I turned the motor manually several times to make sure PTV was OK, checking the rockers every 45 degrees or so.

 

 

And don't worry about the space between the water pump/timing chain cover.

Nothing will "move" so you're fine.

the older style SBC with the "short" water pump have virtually zero space in between and many are run with no issues I've ever heard of.

 

Great job!!!....Is it worth to do the ported oil pump over a stock one?

 

I never had any concerns with the oil pressure in my car but I figured, as long as I am in there, why not. The ported/shimmed pump is supposed to give you more flow and more (+10psi) pressure. Its a win win in my book.