Time spent on a heads/cam swap
03-20-2012, 01:11 AM
#5
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Thread Starter
Ok, im trying to get an idea about how long its going to take me. I have a basic amount of knowledge but this is my first time pulling a motor or doing any kind of motor work so I will be going slow to make sure I dont mess anything up.
03-20-2012, 06:51 PM
#6
TECH Regular
Don't worry about how long it will take you. Everyone is different, just take your time and go slow. Be thorough, inspect everything and pay attention to every detail. To make things go smoothly, make a list of things you will need ahead of time, like bolts, thread lube ARP, locktite, silicone, copper anti-seize for exhaust bolts and assy lube if necessary.
Make sure you go thru all of your parts and make sure that everything is clean and counted out. Lay everything out on a table cleaned and ready to go.
Trust me you will thank yourself for taking the time of prepping everything ahead of time.
Good luck!
Make sure you go thru all of your parts and make sure that everything is clean and counted out. Lay everything out on a table cleaned and ready to go.
Trust me you will thank yourself for taking the time of prepping everything ahead of time.
Good luck!
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03-23-2012, 12:20 AM
#9
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Well we got the motor out today, but tomorrow the tear down of the engine starts! I have seen small bits of pieces of copper in the oil. I hope all the bearings and the parts the rub on are in good condition. Wish me luck haha
03-30-2012, 10:12 PM
#11
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I tore down my engine over several days, and went slowly and meticulously.
Including time spent running down the road to buy tools, I had the air box, t/b and intake, coil rails, and egr off in about 4-5 hours.
Waited 4 days for the mail to deliver KD tool set to remove the power steering pulley, then removed p/s pump, water pump, harmonic balancer, valley cover and knock sensors (probably didn't have to do that in hindsight), timing cover, cam shaft, headers, heads, and oil pump all in about one 8 hour day. Had to get my neighbor to tack weld a 3/4 nut to one of my header bolts because it was rounded off and there was no room to get the rounded-off-bolt-remover socket on it.
I dropped my oil pickup tube bolt into the oil pan...so I spent about another 8 hours the next day taking tires off, unbolting k-member, and finally dropping oil pan.
I waited a torturous 2.5 weeks for my new gear to arrive from TXS&P. While waiting, I had plenty of time to take stuff over to my buddy's house and use his parts washer to clean stuff up. Once the new stuff came in, I spent about three 10 hour days going from k-member down and oil pan off to engine completely put back together. That included a trip to my local Chevy house to pick up a new rear oil pan bolt...because I broke one of them off in the rear engine cover (106 inch pounds...it doesn't seem tight, but my god, trust the torque wrench!). So that time also includes dropping the oil pan back off and getting the broken bolt out -luckily there was enough exposed to get vise grips on it- and then putting the oil pan back on...again. And a trip to Sears to get a gear puller to remove the timing chain gear from the crankshaft (forgot I'd ordered a new one). About two hours on the third day of running around town looking for acceptable header bolts (since the ones I ordered from TXS&P are STILL not here).
Like I said, I went slowly and carefully, laid everything out so that I knew what went where. I didn't use any air/impact tools, and I tightened EVERYthing the spec with a torque wrench. I was working by myself 98% of the time.
So just based on my own experience, a safe estimate would be 5 maybe 6 days total...some extra time included for running around to find tools you might need. You WILL need a specific puller (KD Tools #2897) to remove the power steering pump pulley, and a puller for the harmonic balancer (I used a three-armed type). Maybe less time spent if you have air tools and a helper. Much less time if you don't replace the oil pump and drop the pickup tube bolt into the oil pan while doing so. Less time if you don't remove the timing chain gear from the crankshaft, and you'll need a gear puller for that (the one I got from Sears worked great...has a cage that locks the three arms in place so they can't move while you're working it).
I just finished my cam/head swap yesterday, and it's fresh on my mind, so if you have any questions feel free to PM me. Edit: Email is even quicker -goes straight to my mobile: BLPCrow84@yahoo.com.
Including time spent running down the road to buy tools, I had the air box, t/b and intake, coil rails, and egr off in about 4-5 hours.
Waited 4 days for the mail to deliver KD tool set to remove the power steering pulley, then removed p/s pump, water pump, harmonic balancer, valley cover and knock sensors (probably didn't have to do that in hindsight), timing cover, cam shaft, headers, heads, and oil pump all in about one 8 hour day. Had to get my neighbor to tack weld a 3/4 nut to one of my header bolts because it was rounded off and there was no room to get the rounded-off-bolt-remover socket on it.
I dropped my oil pickup tube bolt into the oil pan...so I spent about another 8 hours the next day taking tires off, unbolting k-member, and finally dropping oil pan.
I waited a torturous 2.5 weeks for my new gear to arrive from TXS&P. While waiting, I had plenty of time to take stuff over to my buddy's house and use his parts washer to clean stuff up. Once the new stuff came in, I spent about three 10 hour days going from k-member down and oil pan off to engine completely put back together. That included a trip to my local Chevy house to pick up a new rear oil pan bolt...because I broke one of them off in the rear engine cover (106 inch pounds...it doesn't seem tight, but my god, trust the torque wrench!). So that time also includes dropping the oil pan back off and getting the broken bolt out -luckily there was enough exposed to get vise grips on it- and then putting the oil pan back on...again. And a trip to Sears to get a gear puller to remove the timing chain gear from the crankshaft (forgot I'd ordered a new one). About two hours on the third day of running around town looking for acceptable header bolts (since the ones I ordered from TXS&P are STILL not here).
Like I said, I went slowly and carefully, laid everything out so that I knew what went where. I didn't use any air/impact tools, and I tightened EVERYthing the spec with a torque wrench. I was working by myself 98% of the time.
So just based on my own experience, a safe estimate would be 5 maybe 6 days total...some extra time included for running around to find tools you might need. You WILL need a specific puller (KD Tools #2897) to remove the power steering pump pulley, and a puller for the harmonic balancer (I used a three-armed type). Maybe less time spent if you have air tools and a helper. Much less time if you don't replace the oil pump and drop the pickup tube bolt into the oil pan while doing so. Less time if you don't remove the timing chain gear from the crankshaft, and you'll need a gear puller for that (the one I got from Sears worked great...has a cage that locks the three arms in place so they can't move while you're working it).
I just finished my cam/head swap yesterday, and it's fresh on my mind, so if you have any questions feel free to PM me. Edit: Email is even quicker -goes straight to my mobile: BLPCrow84@yahoo.com.
Last edited by chrisatx; 03-30-2012 at 10:20 PM.
03-31-2012, 12:21 PM
#13
I remember asking how long a header install w/ polly mm's would take and everyone said 3-4 hrs. Took me almost 10
03-31-2012, 12:42 PM
#14
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Just get the write up that is on here. Thats what I used. Step by step with photos of every step. My first time doing ANYTHING of the type aswell. Took me about 2 weeks over the winter doing it very slowly a couple hrs every few nights until it got done. Can deff be done over a weekend though!
03-31-2012, 03:16 PM
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Now that you mention it, there's probably enough room to get the p/s off at the bracket once the water pump is off. I was dead set on swapping my p/s pump because mine was bad. So if you can manage to get it off that way, then by all means...
04-01-2012, 10:48 AM
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That's what I meant, you can sneak a wrench between the pulley and the bracket and take it off with the pulley on...I even left the lines on and pushed the whole thing to the side. But if you had to replace the pump anyway then that makes sense.
04-02-2012, 11:40 AM
#18
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Well for my tear down, I dropped the motor out the bottom and lifted the car off of the front end. So I left the power steering and all that entact and just took the power steering off the motor and left it all hooked up to the front end.
So far though its taken me alot of time, lot of being this is my first time ever pulling a motor and I done alot of the work by myself with out my dad helping so there is a serious learning curve here and also that Im careful to not break anything.
So far though its taken me alot of time, lot of being this is my first time ever pulling a motor and I done alot of the work by myself with out my dad helping so there is a serious learning curve here and also that Im careful to not break anything.