Winter Progress

[SS4Matt]

yours came out by hand after they were broken loose? that seems kinda weird....mine just had a TON of loctite from factory on them....plus maybe since mines a 98.....it's been on there a little longer? who knows...but my head bolts were tight till the last few threads were out

[93formulalt1]

I can only imagine how bad I'm gonna have it taking the heads off of my 1995 LT1. . . That's gonna be a fun project lol

[DETROITMUSCLE]

Well the heads didnt seem as bad as Matts but I got them off completly and cleaned the block. I'm working on getting the harmonic balencer off and pulling the cam tomorrow, then my buddy is gonna come over and help me swap it out. After that we'll see how far I get. This weekend is still happening and Saturday is when everyone is gonna be there, lets plan for noon. We may just have to reassemble most of it all if everything goes well. I really hope I can start her up this weekend.

[greenmachine]

man i really wish i could come down there and hang out and bull sh*t with you guys but thats just to far for me to drive

[SS4Matt]

yeah i wanna hear that ***** scream when you crank her over for the first time!!!!! maybe the putting together part will continue into sunday?..... gotta make sure that everything is clean as hell! and that all the coolant and junk is outta the holes that the head bolts go into...or else they'll hydrolock and not torque properly... i think it took me the longest just cleaning the threads and bolt holes.....but then again i was taking my sweet ass time... i took an old head bolt...shaved 2 sides of it and kinda made my own little "thread chaser" to clean all the loc-tite from the head bolts! i also used brake clean and a little scotch brite scrubby to clean all the carbon and crap off my pistons...and get all the old gasket crud off

[DETROITMUSCLE]

Yeah me and a friend spent about 3 hours cleaning the shit out of and off of the block and threads. Sucks but its very crucial. and dont worry Chad you'll see her at the opener, she'll look much better then anyways.

[SS4Matt]

yeah ... and when you start to tighten down a head bolt and it gets tight before it's all the way in....and it's kinda strange feeling.....you got some coolant in there still! i spent a good deal of time cleaning the threads in the block... i used what i refered to as "the tampon method" hahaha... i'd tear little strips of paper towel...then twist it up tight...and stick it down the threads..let it absorb coolant...pull it out...tear off the part with the coolant and then dip it back down LOL.... when i was done...there was just tons of little reddish pink pieces of paper towel all over my garage floor from soaking up the coolant LOL...im sure you can easily figure out why i called it the "TAMPON METHOD"

[1bad83ta]

lmfao omg matt. thats sik. thats why i like building new engines you don't have to deal with that stuff. you really should use a thread cleaner which is sort of like a tap, they sell them on jegs and summit. it shouldn't be a big deal with the little pieces going into the water jackets. you could wash the water jackets out with a hose or something.

[93formulalt1]

LMAO! That's the funniest thing I've ever heard! I bet we'll all end up using that method when we change the heads on our cars. . .

[SS4Matt]

i know justin... i just took an old head bolt and shaved down 2 sides of it...made my own thread cleaner/tap kinda thing....and it doesn't matter really about the water jacket...but you can't have any coolant that fell into the thread's for the thead bolts in the block

[93formulalt1]

Sometimes the little sh** like that gives you an excuse to take the entire engine out and rebuild it from the ground up. . . . That's how my stock 350 SBC 1970 Monte Carlo ended up a different color and now plays host to a 454 BBC. . . lol I love excuses!

[SS4Matt]

yeah ... my car was "burning some oil" i thought my valve seals were goin...excuse for new heads...that didn't solve the problem...found out my rear end pinion seal was leaking.....had it replaced and gears blew...hmm....time for some 3.73's!!!!

Not to mention .... my S10 was totalled and i drove my parents WS6 all summer...time for matt to get a new car...sounded like a good excuse to get my SS!!!!

[93formulalt1]

What rearend gears does my 94 V6 'maro have? Should I upgrade them, or are they going to be the best for my car? How about after the V8 swap? I don't want to steal the thread, so I'm asking all of my questions at once. . . lol

[DETROITMUSCLE]

Yeah Matt like I said im going by the LS1howto.com install guide and they also use the"tampon method" and so did I. I also grinded half of thethreads off of a head bolt on each side to use as a tap, lots of shit came out so I should be good to go on that. Rgiht now I'm just removing everything else and then gonna clean up the engine bay a bit and do some other little things until I switch the cam tonite.

[DETROITMUSCLE]

Here are some more pics, the cam is now out and I'm just waiting for my friend to help me put the new one in.