DarkFox118

iTrader: (7)

I just spent my morning trying to do something simple.. swap coils on my ls1 in my 2000 z28.

After tooling around, cursing a lot, cutting my hands up..I come across a bracket on the back of the motor on the DRIVER side I can't get loose.. and I know the passenger side is gonna be 100 times worse.

I'm curious guys.. how do you work on these cars?? Mine needs a lot of engine work and I'm not really fond of paying a mechanic to do it all when I know HOW to do it..I just can't reach anything!

any tips/tricks? I WANT to get into the valve cover on the driver side.. got a clanging/rattling in there that I want to look at. I don't have any replacement parts handy, but I could at least see how bad it is.

My car has full emissions so that's 3/4 of my problem.. tubes pipes solenoids everywhere.. I can't remove em until the car is 25 years old. so not an option to LEAVE them off.. and I'm not terribly fond of taking them off every time I need to do something simple.

Right about now I'm wishing I had a sport truck instead of an Fbody..

blk/slvr02ss

iTrader: (21)

Take the coils off w/ its bracket but when u put back on put only the 3 center ones on so u dont have to get the back ones off again and the 3 will hold fine and if u need parts u can find them on here cheap !!!!!

DarkFox118

iTrader: (7)

I mean in general, how do people work on these cars.I mean do they just take things off that are in the way every single time? I couldn't get the driver's side coil bracket off because of the EGR bracket. It's on top of the bolt and bolts to the BACK OF THE HEAD. I can't even hardly get my hand back there.

babbage1109

iTrader: (11)

This is why most guys get the egr and air deleted. To change my spark plugs I take my coil bracket off on the passenger side. Take it off to put it on lol it's a big puzzle

DarkFox118

iTrader: (7)

Can I pass emissions without all this nonsense? I mean I'll have to have the ECU tuned to turn the CEL off.. but will my smog numbers change? It's worth it to me.. I really can't afford to be putting hundreds down every time something simple needs to be done to this car. I should be able to do most everything external to the engine. 99% of the CEL problems I've had since I got the car was air pump, EGR check valves etc.

Marcoz/28

over the years it gets easier b/c tools required, bolt sizes and procedures become muscle memory.

for the coil packs i highly recommend a 10mm ratchet wrench.

madhatter315

iTrader: (1)

ratchet wrenches FTW

BLK95-Z

iTrader: (2)

4th gen Camaros suck to work on.

TechCam97

iTrader: (5)

You just have to learn man. There is always an easier way to do something on these cars, you just don't figure that out until after you've done it the hard way. All the sudden you get the "Oh man, if I just moved that...." or "Crap, this moves out of the way if I do this" kind of feeling and then you get a little pissed, haha! But next time you'll know what to do and then you don't think it's so bad. Like others have said, leave some of the bolts out for next time. I only have four bolts per side so I can just pop them out if I need to. For good practice you can help your friends work on their F-Bodies and you'll learn lots of valuable information for when you have to do the work on yours.

LS14EVR

iTrader: (3)

These are a must! But to be honest, all cars, trucks etc. are a PITA to work on. Just need to have patients.

Double-aught_Z/28

iTrader: (11)

^^^This.
You have to tear the car apart to change plugs or fix an oil leak.

But the fun in driving them makes up for it.

myk

iTrader: (4)

Exactly. With experience comes speed. A store manager for Valvoline I used to work with claims he could do an LT1 spark splug change in twenty minutes. I think that's pushing it, after all I took 2 days lol, but with enough wrenching time everything becomes easier. When I did the LS1 plug change I didn't encounter as much of a problem but then again I had already done this sort of thing on other cars so it got a little easier. I love my '69 Charger and drool at the engine bays of Chevelle's with big blocks-ACRES of space to do whatever you want to do in there.

Hang in there 'OP, you'll get it...

Marcoz/28

Lol yeah my first spark plug change took me 6hrs then got it down to 1hr on a stock motor. Now since i have deleted my emissions i can change them out in as little as 30 min.. Yup

Wicked 94TA

iTrader: (5)

I had 3 LT1 cars before I had my current LS1 car. The LS1's are a walk in the park to work on compared to the LT1's. Plus now that I no longer have A/C, EGR and AIR it even easier. I took my coil packs off the other day in about 10 minutes and can change all the plugs and wires in about 20 minutes. One thing you can do to make getting your coil packs off easier is replace the bolts that hold the brackets to the valve covers with allen head bolts. Maybe it's just me but I find them much easier to get out in the tight spots.