We do heads swaps in about a day not rushing. I would NOT want to pull and install a motor the same day if possible. As well as the head swap once its out.

 

It takes like 45 mins to an hour to pull the motor from the bottom if you have a cherry picker and have done it a few times.

Head swap is less than 2 hours out of the car... and that's cleaning the bolt holes out, degreeing the cam, and measuring all 16 pushrods since I like to do fancy short travel ****.

With help, I can do it in a day. I just don't like to. It's better to work for an hour or two, drink a lot of whiskey, then eat and watch tv, then go back to working on it.

 

Ive got a motor, on the k member, ready to be rolled under the car right now today. I will bet you my car you cant have it running and driving in 2 hours, to my satisfaction. Lots of people in their time estimates (probably) dont factor in stuff like, bleeding the brakes, recharging the ac, trans fluid level (which has to finalized with the trans warm), bleeding to coolant system, installing exhaust, driveshaft, wires inside the car (if you pulled the whole harness) reinstalling kick panel, etc etc. Its all the details that F you. We all know its easy and quick to attach the 10 bolts that mate the drivetrain to the body.

 

 

I would do it in the car, once the radiator/fans are out I stood inside the engine bay. I'm 6'2 200+ pounds. Just make sure everything is within reach haha sucks crawling in and out.

 

If I had the option, I would drop the motor. If for no other reason, cleaning the surface of the block for the new heads. (Assuming that it is the stock graphite head gaskets that you're cleaning off) of everything I did this was by far the most tedious and a complete pain when you get under the cowl. These surfaces need to be clean, clean, clean. Do yourself a favor and grab a shop vac and attach a straw for the bolt holes, and buy the arp thread chaser. You'll thank me later.

 

Same here, I just climbed in and posted up. cleaning the stock head gaskets off is by far the most miserable part of the swap. The rest is a breeze in general.

 

Ive done it in the car multiple times, including with head studs, now thats fun. But I would hate to drop the motor and have to worry about not nicking a wire or pulling something loose, AC as mentioned, etc. Working on the car should be fun. Grab a friend and do it til your tired.

 

I'm thinking the only part that even resembles "fun" on a head studded head swap is when you close the hood to take your test drive after finishing the job...

Didn't touch mine yesterday due to still having a back ache, lol.
(I already had/have a bad back, fwiw)

Speaking of which, does anyone know off hand, the torque spec for the head stud's nuts? I'm sure it's online somewhere, but figured I'd ask while I remembered to do so.

 

 

Thank you

 

When dropping the motor, I just tie the A/C compressor back out of the way. I have never had to evacuated the refrigerant.

 

I never have either, but its still a lengthy and time consuming step for these internet super mechanics that can rebuild a car in an hour.

 

Waitaminute! You mean I won't be able to do a cam swap on my lunch hour?? I thought that's what EVERYBODY did! Bummer....

 

Dude you don't know LS motors at all! Of Course your lunch hour is enough. All you need is coil re
location brackets for easy access to rockers. Link bar lifters, to avoid them falling, and a two piece front cover! Install these things on your 930-945 break. Then the cam will be a breeze! 45 minutes tops.

 

Sounds good! That way I don't use up my weekends and evenings! lol
Thinking of swapping an LS9 into the Prius this Saturday..... lol

 

A friend and I removed the heads in my driveway in about 3 hours(engine in car). We cleaned the block, installed heads and installed headers in about another 4 hours working at a leisurely pace.

 

That is actually doing very well! Nicely done!

 

The worse part was the ypipe. I spent hours on it. The drivers side was too low, then the y was too low and then gave up on it and took it to a muffler shop with a rack and let him work on it. He got it tucked up pretty good and fabbed some custom brackets.

 

If I decide to have the heads milled for more compression, I will probably opt for the motor out. That way, I can put the heads on, and turn the motor by hand, to make sure that the valves don't hit the pistons.

This is assuming that I would not be able to complete one revolution if the pistons touch the valves.

I don't remember the cam specs, and the shop that I bought it through has closed.