View Poll Results: How did you get your H/C in there?
did it myself
90
80.36%
took it to a shop
22
19.64%
Voters: 112. You may not vote on this poll
How did get your H/C in there?
How did get your H/C in there? Hey guys, i am pretty sure that i will be going with a H/C swap in the very near future. I read the install on installuniversity and it takes a pretty long time to install these. I was wondering who out there that has a H/C swap actually did this themselves? if so, how long did it take and would you have rather gone to a shop to do it for you? How much did you pay, etc. Thanks - Josh
I did mine about 6 months ago, it was definitely an experience, with a help of my buddies, we got it done in a weekend, and we screwed around why we worked also. I would definitely do it again, had a lot of fun. You save a lot of money by doing it yourself also
Launching!
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 286
Likes: 0
From: Abilene, Tx
I have not installed heads/cam on my cars yet, seeing how both of our cars are still cam only. Although my wife and I have installed other people's head/cam set ups and it usually takes a solid weekend to do. One of the parts that takes the longest for us is cleaning the head bolt holes, we always want to make sure that they are completely clean and dry.
Teching In
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 49
Likes: 0
From: Music City
Did mine with the help of a friend. Neither of us had done anything harder than headers before. Hardest parts in order...
1. Getting the radiator back on
2. Cleaning the block / bolt holes once old heads were off
3. Crank pulley removal (not hard, just made me nervous for some reason)
Everything pretty much just unbolts and bolts back on. We worked Friday night, all day Sat, and finished Sunday around lunch. I would do it again if I ever had the chance to. I would also recomend doing headers, pulley, and intake if needed when you do it because you have to take that stuff off anyway.
1. Getting the radiator back on
2. Cleaning the block / bolt holes once old heads were off
3. Crank pulley removal (not hard, just made me nervous for some reason)
Everything pretty much just unbolts and bolts back on. We worked Friday night, all day Sat, and finished Sunday around lunch. I would do it again if I ever had the chance to. I would also recomend doing headers, pulley, and intake if needed when you do it because you have to take that stuff off anyway.
My buddy Mark @ WIDE OPEN THROTTLE PERFORMANCE and I have done over 5 cams and one heads + cam install. We have got this thing down to a science, and can do a cam swap in one night, and headers- piece of cake. If you are uncertain, don't risk your 3,500+dollar engine or new valve train/heads you just dropped in. Ask for the help or pay for it, one way or the other. REMEMBER YOUR TORQUE SPECS!
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Did it solo, no help what so ever from anyone but a bungee cord. I'm not a mechanic and dont have a bunch of specialty tools but I did buy the lifter rods and valve spring compressor. Wasnt that hard to do. The hardest part was replacing the oil pump without dropping the pan all the way, getting that pickup tube bolt back in was tough with big hands. Plenty of instructions and help on here, no reason you really cant do it yourself. Your just swapping parts, theres no science to it. Get a hanes for the torque specs and help as well.
[QUOTE=99blancoSS]Did it solo, no help what so ever from anyone but a bungee cord. I'm not a mechanic and dont have a bunch of specialty tools but I did buy the lifter rods and valve spring compressor. QUOTE]
lol...a bunge cord was my only helper too nor did i have fancy tools - the torque wrench and pulley puller that i needed was available to rent from autozone. the biggest holdup i had was waiting over a month for my backordered heads to arrive, otherwise it was pretty straightforward and the time estimations on ls1howto.com were pretty accurate
lol...a bunge cord was my only helper too nor did i have fancy tools - the torque wrench and pulley puller that i needed was available to rent from autozone. the biggest holdup i had was waiting over a month for my backordered heads to arrive, otherwise it was pretty straightforward and the time estimations on ls1howto.com were pretty accurate
TECH Enthusiast
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 608
Likes: 0
From: fortress of solitude
I have done 2 head swaps, both taking roughly 8hrs to do. did one in one day, and another in one evening/early morning. You can do it. Just need to make sure you have everything ready, right tools, and lots of patience.
Took 6 months on my brothers car. Only because a pen magnet broke inside the stock heads when doing the cam swap. So, we had to take the heads off and he decided to order some AFR's. They only took 6 months to arrive, lol. After that it was cake. If you get some heads with preassembled springs, I am sure you can get it done within 8 hours if you work non-stop. We always plan for a weekend to do a swap though. Finish up what we started on Sunday.
A head and cam swap should take a weekend to do. If you are going to do it yourself just take your time and DO NOT rush. When you rush things end up broken and lost. Also have a good tech manual handy. Here are some things that should be given extra care.
1. Oil pump pickup tube O-ring - if this gets pinched or does not get put on you will have no or low oil pressure.
2. Head bolt holes - make sure they are dry when you put your new head bolts in or you can risk cracking your block.
3. 3 ground wires - make sure that you have installed them on the backside of the drivers side head or your car may not run.
4. Lifter preload - make sure your preload is set correctly or you will see no power gains. A friend of mine just did a H/C swap and only gained 10RWHP! Turned out that the lifters had too much preload causing the valves to stay open and bleed off compression.
Hope some of this helps and good luck with the swap.
1. Oil pump pickup tube O-ring - if this gets pinched or does not get put on you will have no or low oil pressure.
2. Head bolt holes - make sure they are dry when you put your new head bolts in or you can risk cracking your block.
3. 3 ground wires - make sure that you have installed them on the backside of the drivers side head or your car may not run.
4. Lifter preload - make sure your preload is set correctly or you will see no power gains. A friend of mine just did a H/C swap and only gained 10RWHP! Turned out that the lifters had too much preload causing the valves to stay open and bleed off compression.
Hope some of this helps and good luck with the swap.
Last edited by Brak Attack; Oct 25, 2005 at 06:02 PM.
Originally Posted by KALEL
I have done 2 head swaps, both taking roughly 8hrs to do. did one in one day, and another in one evening/early morning. You can do it. Just need to make sure you have everything ready, right tools, and lots of patience.
Originally Posted by orangeapeel
they didn't add extra beer breaks in the www.ls1howto.com version, so mine ran a *tad* longer than expected!
this happened to me as well. Seriously though take as many breaks as you need to recompose yourself 
. Its not that hard just a little tedious sometimes. 
Originally Posted by 99blancoSS
this happened to me as well. Seriously though take as many breaks as you need to recompose yourself . Its not that hard just a little tedious sometimes. or you will drop a valve or forget to get all the coolant out of the head bolt holes! 
