LT1 plug/wire change -here's some help
11-01-2004, 07:44 AM
#1
LT1 plug/wire change -here's some help OK, I'm not usually a foul mouthed guy, but this pushed the limits of my moral and ethical upstanding and also nearly pushed me to alcohol!!!
Seriously, it was tough, but obviously was possible since we did it. It took me and a Georgia Tech Engineer, but we did it. The life saving tool ended up being an offset closed end 5/8 wrench that we grinded down to the smallest circle possible. 4 of the plugs (1,3,2,4 -front half) would be considered very doable with standard difficulties. The rest (5,7,6,8 -back half) proved to be challenging. Plugs 6 & 5 proved to be the most difficult as the most that would fit between the plug and the directly placed header tube was my thumb -no socket in the world can make that turn. That's where the offset wrench came into play -which by the way no freakin' store in the county had one -I found 2 for $1.00 at the local pawn shop! That also explains why #'s 5&6 were only just over hand tight when we discovered them!!
I'm ashamed to admit it but it took us two 8 hours by the time we installed the slip-on thermal protectors and the over-the-valve-cover wire looms. We had 1 extra loom and my engineer buddy figured out how to mount it to the head so that all the wires go down at the oil fill and loom at the head keeping them from the header tubes.
It looks real nice -all wires and looms in red. I was surprised at how much trimming had to be done to the "custom LT1" MSD wires. After all that trimming where each wire was too long -we got to the other side and wire #2 was too short to come up through the OVC wire loom, therefore the reason we had an extra loom and ran it down to the head.
The only casualty was my oil gauge reading 0, which in turn has caused my "check gauges" light to come on. I had pressure pulling into the garage, so I'm sure its the gauge. Jeff Creech was kind enough to answer the phone Saturday night and told me it had to be either a sensor area behind the intake, or above the oil filter -which I did change the oil while it was up, so who knows what we hit while doing the plug change. I'll take any other testimonial suggestions as I've not had a chance to do what Jeff said yet.
Anyway, I know you guys have done this job several times, but this was my first. Next time I'm changing headers also -surely there's some out there that doesn't crowd the plugs this much.
Seriously, it was tough, but obviously was possible since we did it. It took me and a Georgia Tech Engineer, but we did it. The life saving tool ended up being an offset closed end 5/8 wrench that we grinded down to the smallest circle possible. 4 of the plugs (1,3,2,4 -front half) would be considered very doable with standard difficulties. The rest (5,7,6,8 -back half) proved to be challenging. Plugs 6 & 5 proved to be the most difficult as the most that would fit between the plug and the directly placed header tube was my thumb -no socket in the world can make that turn. That's where the offset wrench came into play -which by the way no freakin' store in the county had one -I found 2 for $1.00 at the local pawn shop! That also explains why #'s 5&6 were only just over hand tight when we discovered them!!
I'm ashamed to admit it but it took us two 8 hours by the time we installed the slip-on thermal protectors and the over-the-valve-cover wire looms. We had 1 extra loom and my engineer buddy figured out how to mount it to the head so that all the wires go down at the oil fill and loom at the head keeping them from the header tubes.
It looks real nice -all wires and looms in red. I was surprised at how much trimming had to be done to the "custom LT1" MSD wires. After all that trimming where each wire was too long -we got to the other side and wire #2 was too short to come up through the OVC wire loom, therefore the reason we had an extra loom and ran it down to the head.
The only casualty was my oil gauge reading 0, which in turn has caused my "check gauges" light to come on. I had pressure pulling into the garage, so I'm sure its the gauge. Jeff Creech was kind enough to answer the phone Saturday night and told me it had to be either a sensor area behind the intake, or above the oil filter -which I did change the oil while it was up, so who knows what we hit while doing the plug change. I'll take any other testimonial suggestions as I've not had a chance to do what Jeff said yet.
Anyway, I know you guys have done this job several times, but this was my first. Next time I'm changing headers also -surely there's some out there that doesn't crowd the plugs this much.
