so "making stuff up"

 

i'd weigh both old and new, and if the new can be made to match the old, then there is no need to take out the crank.

 

Good luck to you in your endeavor

 

In before complaints of not being able to reassemble or that the engine blew up.

 

why would i not be able to reassemble the engine because it wasn't honed or balanced? you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about, do you. have you ever done anything besides fill the gas up on your car?

 

Have you?

 

why would you assume otherwise? this is a technical forum isnt it? how bizarre.

heres a tubular header i designed and fabricated for my 4 cylinder turbo daytona. including the 4 to 1 collector I designed in solidworks and fabbed from straight tubing from scratch.

and a coolant bypass adapter i designed and machined, and have sold a couple dozen of.

and the block with fresh pistons i replaced for the 3rd time after cracking a piston when the electronics failed

and heres a defect in the cylinder wall that i was able to hone out by hand and get 125 psi on every cylinder within 1 psi, solid after a few thousand miles

i havent worked on the vette because its not turbocharged and i have alot more fun tweaking a turbo setup with all the water injection and doo-dads than a huge NA V8, but im sure some day ill get to it.

ive noticed that only on the corvette forums do technical questions usually get 80/20 responses. that is 20 percent some people actually responding to the topic, and 80 percent people who never work on their cars at all telling you "dont do that/take it to a shop/you'll break something" blah blah blah.

 

How hilarious to assume that.
I've assembled engines for aircrafts and installed supercharger kits. And filled up my gas tank.

You should spend more time working on those welds, btw. My first MIG welds looked like those.
If you're so amazing, go tear the damn thing apart.

 

you start by making assumptions, then call me out on making assumptions. thats hilarious.

show me a picture of your first tubular header designed and fabbed from scratch and then you can lecture me on weld cosmetics. talk sure is cheap isnt it?

nobody has to be amazing to work on engines. thats why they make service manuals and tools.

 

While I have not pulled the motor I don't see it as that big of job. I have swapped my clutch on jack stands and while time consuming and probably a 10/10 to do by yourself taking the next step to remove the motor does not seem that hard. I would fallow the same steps I did removing the clutch then pulling the motor out the top.

 

awesome!

clutch replacement is probably something i will have do to even if i never upgrade the car. how did you figure it out? i.e. service manual, experience, online website, thread...etc..

how long did your stock clutch last and what vette was it in?

so its possible to pull the motor out the top?

got any pics?

i dont know why this excites me so..after 6 years working on chryslers hodge podge im really looking forward to working on the vette..everything i see in the way GM did things is so much better than my poor old daytona

 

Lots of questions there. Yes I have a complete set of manuals. If you had the tools in timd38's pic that would be the correct way. But I don't have a lift and I know people here who have pulled the motor out the top.

Here is a pic with the rear cradle out:




I talked to a lot of different people before doing this. I would think that once you have the torque tube and diff/tranny out of the way the engine would come out without much work. There will be a ton of things that have to be removed no doubt but it should be fairly straight forward. IMO not a whole lot different than any other motor R&R.

As far as the clutch, mine went out with about 35K. Happened right after an HPDE, lucky to even get it home. Took be 3 days to do the job. Went slow and made sure I did everything right. Could probably do it in 12 hours or so now.

FYI if you are going to go through and rebuild the motor you might as well do the clutch at the same time. Install the remote bleeder while in there.

 

looks great! thanks for all the answers!

im at almost 60k with the stock clutch and stock brake pads/rotors still (09 z51)...lots of freeway driving i suppose. or maybe i drive like a grandma!

btw if you want tires that last forever, my bfg kdw 2's are pushing 25k miles with plenty of tread left. ive noticed they spin very easily and almost silently though...would not buy again because they are robbing peak acceleration traction. but they actually did fairly well at road racing (as well as a beginner can tell anyways)

 

I made predictions, not assumptions. Do you know the difference? Probably so, since you're clearly a genius in every aspect.

I have had no reason to make a tubular header. I'll try to weld something this weekend. Did you just turn the heat to a random setting and hope for the best when you were welding? Either your welds suck, your photo sucks, or both.

And you make it seem like you created gold from scratch. Making a tubular header is just a matter of mock-up and welding. Its not difficult, it is just tedious. Good job though, Mr. Alchemist.

And rebuilding an engine is tedious, it's not amazing.
You asked me if I did more than just filled up my tank. Clearly I have. And meanwhile, you've been captain butthurt when I responded about having done more. Use that energy to accomplish whatever piston replacement you want to do. There are manuals for it.

 

"Either your welds suck, your photo sucks, or both.".. and i'm the one whose butthurt?

whenever anyone asks me if they should attempt something that might be new for them, i have never once told them they shouldn't or couldn't, because thats not the attitude i have about new things for myself.

what i've noticed, especially on the corvette forums for some reason, is that there are alot of people who appear to be immediately threatened by anyone else trying to do something they haven't, or feel like they couldnt. they respond in exactly the same way, with some combination of "dont do that" and "you cant do that". meanwhile there are people all around them doing exactly what they are warning against routinely. this thread is an example: clearly there are people who have pulled the LS3 out of their vette at home, but the "threatened" ones still feel the need to say things like "dont do it you'll blow up the engine" or "if you have to ask". how do you people ever accomplish anything new?

i hate to say it but it really does seem like the corvette/sports car jokes are true..alot of really fragile egos compensating for things...

 

.... You are insane OP. No one has said any of this stuff. My suggestion was that if you were going through this much trouble why not have the block cleaned up and the new rotating assembly balanced? Sure it might be fine not doing it but who knows once you weigh your new piston/rod's.

I wrench on my own **** and had pulled the transmission/heads/cam on my 05 GTO more times then I care to recall. You seem to be ready to jump and call anybody out, nobody cares about your tubular header. Seriously.

 

I lied! I was 69 when I did it, not 68. I'm 71 now, so give an old fart a little slack for the grey cell hiccup.

The engine can be pulled and replaced from the top without dropping the front cradle, but you can't do it with the IM installed. Be sure to install the oil pressure sender and connect/position as much wiring as possible around the back, prior to re-installing the IM.

My biggest problem was getting the radiator seperated from the condenser, until I opted to just disconnect and dump the freon. I think some other people hang the whole mess over the fender until they can unbolt the compressor. I opted to get it all out of the way and recharge the AC when I was done.



It's a lot easier when the torque tube and rear cradle is out for the install. If you have a need/desire to do anything toward the back, then pull the rear first and the engine becomes real easy.



This pretty much explains the reason for the swap.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-t...e-contest.html

My engine locked up and I couldn't rotate the crank to access the bolt on the driveshaft that allows the torque tube to come off until the engine was free out the top. I already had a 3600 TC on hand and had planned on swapping that, so the rear was coming out anyway.

 

Here is a timism

In your twenties, you will try anything
In your thirties, most things aren't bad to do
In your forties, you wonder why you are doing it
and in your fifties, you ask how much it costs.

I am 58

 

Here's the deal and why I answered the way I did

1. You asked if the factory manual is useful

Unless you walk around with all the clearance, torque specs etc in your head, yea, it's useful.

2. What were the hardest parts? any surprises?

It's an LS, nothing is hard or gives surprises

3. Did you have to make/buy special/custom tools?

If you have a factory manual then you would have these answers to every part you work on

To me, these all appear to be rookie questions from a novice and I think others took it the same way, hence all the 'send it out' replies.

My method is research, and it doesn't include forums .....

 

Hahahaha