TTY head bolts with engine in-vehicle

I got most everything put back together. I ran into a few issues:

1. I dropped the threaded piece for the PS installer kit. Looked and looked and kept looking and nothing. Doh! I'd bought one so I wouldn't have to rent one, and that's exactly what I'll have to do.

2. I decided to fire it up and idled pretty well for about a minute. I saw some smoke on the driver's side and initially thought just oil was burning off something but it kept getting worse. It had 60 psi of oil pressure and sounded good. I did a quick visual and saw fuel on the driver's fuel rail, so I immediately shut it off. By then the idle had dropped and engine felt like it was about to die.

I saw the cross over pipe was leaking at the fuel rail. I hadn't noticed that the screw was a regular Philips head screw. PO must have done that! I took a photo and this morning I realized the hold down clamp was installed backwards! WTF! I have another fuel rail sitting around but it's the return style. I'll steal the OEM screw for the time being.

I'm surprised this thing hadn't leaked before and caught on fire.

3. I tried to write the tune using HP Tuners after I shut it off, and didn't succeed. It was timing out for some reason. By then it was quitting time and stunk like gas, so I called it a night.

Ok, so that crossover fuel pipe hold down was in fact in the right orientation. I fiddled with it some more and got it to stop leaking. I think I'm going to order a complete new o ring kit for it and injectors.

I pressed the PS pump pulley and put everything back together. Also wrote in the tune.

I fired it up let it come up to operating temperature and didn't see any kind of leaks. Oil pressure is a little over 40 psi at hot idle and increases with RPM. Tomorrow I'll take it out for a spin...

I started adding costs. The little things sure add up quickly. I reused the valley cover gasket and rear main seal/gasket/barbell since I had just replaced those. And the intake manifold gasket and front main seal/gasket I already had from an engine I was going to rebuild but turned out to be junk. I'm sure I'm forgetting some little odds and ends.

Still need to buy coolant. I just used water for the time being.

And then there's my time...(free! LoL)

Anyways, I hope this helps someone.

strutaeng said:

I started adding costs. The little things sure add up quickly. I reused the valley cover gasket and rear main seal/gasket/barbell since I had just replaced those. And the intake manifold gasket and front main seal/gasket I already had from an engine I was going to rebuild but turned out to be junk. I'm sure I'm forgetting some little odds and ends.

Still need to buy coolant. I just used water for the time being.

And then there's my time...(free! LoL)

Anyways, I hope this helps someone.

Click to expand...

That's about what i spent doing refurb heads when my castech's cracked. did lifters as well.

you aren't kidding about little things adding up. i want to say it was almost $100 for two ARP thread chasers. gah!

nice work!

Nice write up. Enjoyed reading it.

A final update. Been daily driving the 'ol burban again. Everything seems A-okay. The cam low end torque is very nice. I like it!

I've since racked up a little over 600 miles; a mix of city and highway, moderate throttle with a few WOT pulls on the steepest grades around here (not many, LoL). Just charged the break-in oil. A little residue on the oil drain plug, which I think is normal.

I've got 2 good friends who also drive GMT800s asking if I'm "taking orders." LoL

Nice work and a great outcome! Everything in your pics is great: oil pressure, fuel trims...

I've been driving around the suburban daily everywhere now that kids are back to school. It mostly just sat over the summer. Oil indicator shows around 55% remaining. I was debating if I should do another oil change...

Well, this morning I had this horrible metallic rattling sound. I dropped off my kids at school and it was still there. I couldn't really find where the sound was coming with my stethoscope from the top of the engine poking stuff around. Then I got a misfire and knock code code and I was thinking the worse: spun bearing and/smacked piston.

This evening I took off the accessory belts, no change.. I removed the spark plugs, and they looked good. Nothing was smashed. Sound came from lower end of the engine for sure. I checked misfire counts and really nothing, so now I'm thinking these were false codes.

I removed the exhaust manifolds (thinking cats making the rattling sound) and the darn thing was loud, but I could still hear the metallic sound.

I finally climbed down there while engine was running and it turned out it's the starter. The little gear isn't retracting fully, rubbing ever so slightly on the flex plate teeth. It was so loud I had wear ear protection! I inserted a flathead screwdriver and retracted the starter gear and the noise went away.

I was about to drain the oil pan and start looking for metallic glitter!

So time for a new starter from RockAuto.

I have wrapped masking tape, I perfer yellow, around the scoket , write two marks on it 90 degrees apart. Put a reference start mark on the head.