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As stated, if you do those bolts then after they are all installed and torqued then I'd run through all bolts with the proper bolt pattern at 70ft. lbs.
If you want to find out the sweep, take a rocker off, mark the valve tip with a Sharpie, readjust rocker, start engine for a few seconds, turn engine off, take rocker off and see how the roller is contacting the valve tip.
As stated, if you do those bolts then after they are all installed and torqued then I'd run through all bolts with the proper bolt pattern at 70ft. lbs.
Pulled the 8 bolts and sure enough, the holes don't open into coolant. Just a wall of iron down there. I put sealant on the bolts anyway, maybe there's a pinhole sized opening I couldn't see.
So far the worst part has been getting that passenger side header on. The bolt holes didn't quite line up and it took me an obscenely long time to finally get it using a breaker bar to bend the front primary. I also stripped the bolt hole right under the alternator (of course it would happen to that one in particular) and had to use my thread chaser to fix it. The bolt is still slightly off but it seems tight so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
The intake is now threatening to take the cake since those bolts don't line up either! The intake bolt holes are just barely wider side to side than the heads. On the stock heads they lined up perfectly. I did a search to see if anyone else had this issue and found a thread from 2006. I'm surprise Trick Flow hasn't corrected it after 12 years. My plan is to use my dremel to grind away at the intake holes and make them larger unless someone else has a better idea...
I thought I've read here and elsewhere of people having to elongate the intake bolt holes. Your ports may not match exactly, but won't be an issue. The intake is not bottoming out on the block?
As far as the bolt holes go, for future reference, holes that don't go into water jackets, just use a trace of oil on the threads. Make sure only a trace or risk hydrolocking the bolt and not getting an accurate torque reading.
Anytime you shave the heads you will run into the intake issue, unless the intake goes under the knife as well.
Not necessarily true. Depends on how much I suppose. The LPE heads I've had for a hundred years have been milled several times. About .006 each time and the intake hasn't been touched yet.
I thought I've read here and elsewhere of people having to elongate the intake bolt holes. Your ports may not match exactly, but won't be an issue. The intake is not bottoming out on the block?
The intake seems to be sitting flat on the block.
Thanks guys, I spent about an hour and a half grinding and finally got it to the point that all bolts will thread. Hoping to start this thing tomorrow!
On that note, due to the debris that fell into pretty much everywhere, my plan is to fill it with fresh oil and distilled water, let it warm up to full temp, then turn off and change fluids. Then run it for 1 tank of gas and change fluids again. Overkill?
is there visible debris in the oil valley? I'm not sure if you took your intake off, but it'd be wise to do so if there are things that don't belong in there. If not, I would definitely retorque the intake bolts and run fresh oil for a heat cycle and change it.
What I'm asking regarding the intake, is it bottoming out on the front and rear china walls? if so you need to have the intake milled as well.
is there visible debris in the oil valley? I'm not sure if you took your intake off, but it'd be wise to do so if there are things that don't belong in there. If not, I would definitely retorque the intake bolts and run fresh oil for a heat cycle and change it.
What I'm asking regarding the intake, is it bottoming out on the front and rear china walls? if so you need to have the intake milled as well.
Yes there is visible debris. It's small flakes and specs from the intake gaskets. I think they fell in from the couple of times I test fitted the intake after grinding. I managed to get the big chunks out but there is still what looks like basically dandruff in there. The engine is just gonna have to eat it.
I use my shop vacuum with a extra hose run from the blow out side out of the garage..
In wet mode it will pretty much suck all the water out of the motor through the thermostat port. I run it a lot while scraping the block, intake...
Ran into another problem. The passenger valve cover won't fit on either head. The driver's side valve cover fits on both heads. After some troubleshooting I'm mostly convinced that it's the PCV thing in the valve cover. I think it's hitting a spring or rocker. It even has some scratch marks on it. Can I use pliers or something to squeeze it and crush it a little to make it thinner? The whole car is back together except for this valve cover and alternator.
The oil system of an engine is like a blood stream. It must be kept surgically clean. If even a single tiny bit of crust or metal gets in there it will embed or block an oil passage and the motor will be trash. This is why I never touch engines that have been open and why a majority of generic engine work such as cam swaps turns motors to trash in 10k miles.
On that note, due to the debris that fell into pretty much everywhere, my plan is to fill it with fresh oil and distilled water, let it warm up to full temp, then turn off and change fluids. Then run it for 1 tank of gas and change fluids again. Overkill?
Underkill. This is a recipe for disaster, my friend. As kingtal0n said, you can't be too clean in there. I know the last thing you wanna hear is 'take the intake off and clean it all out', but take the intake off and clean it all out. Going about it the way you've stated above may seem like a good compromise between effort & return, but you won't be saying that when your lifters go out and wipe out your cam. Or you eat a rod bearing and window the block because some fleck of gasket got wedged into an oil feed.
I spent hours powerwashing and cleaning all of my engine internals and the engine block, blowing out all the oil passages, assembled everything while paying the closest attention to the details. I got around to installing the cam and noticed that Karl installed the cam bearings wrong. Pulled it all back out, sent the block to the machine shop and had new cam bearings installed. Got the block back and washed everything again before installing.
It only takes one bit of crap to destroy thousands of dollars in work. Don't cheap out. It's only time, effort, and a $5 tube of black RTV
Edit: what kind of rockers and springs are installed? The stock covers are not compatible with most aftermarket rockers. You can remove that shield, but your PCV system will be sucking down a crapload of oil mist and depositing it into your intake. If you elect to go this route, a catch-can is almost a must.
Last edited by atlantadan; Mar 22, 2018 at 12:16 PM.
The oil system of an engine is like a blood stream. It must be kept surgically clean. If even a single tiny bit of crust or metal gets in there it will embed or block an oil passage and the motor will be trash. This is why I never touch engines that have been open and why a majority of generic engine work such as cam swaps turns motors to trash in 10k miles.
It was everywhere. I picked out the bigger stuff by hand and wiped stuff down as best I could but I don't own a shop vac because I don't have space for one unfortunately. None of it was what I would call crust or metal. It was more like really thin paper.
Originally Posted by atlantadan
Edit: what kind of rockers and springs are installed? The stock covers are not compatible with most aftermarket rockers. You can remove that shield, but your PCV system will be sucking down a crapload of oil mist and depositing it into your intake. If you elect to go this route, a catch-can is almost a must.
They are Comp ultra pro magnum 1.6 rockers and Lunati 73925K5 double springs. I wouldn't want to remove the shield, just squeeze it a little so it can clear whatever it's hitting. It's just a little air baffle right? There's nothing inside it?
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