ZZ4 Cam & More Install!! :)

[autolover3]

Thank you!

Last week thursday i got the oil baffle back on after a good clean, the oil pan, timing cover and balancer put on, and lifters lubed up and in the block.

This coming week I'll be finishing up on the heads. Screw in studs, cut guides down, valve job, check clearances etc.

Will be adding some pics tomorrow!

 

[autolover3]

Got the oil pan and valve covers painted




Timing cover and pan on the block


Lifters back in block


Here's the beehive springs and 787 retainers installed


Started pulling rocker arm studs today, thats a fun process haha


One stud somehow ended up bringing a piece of metal through the stud hold and made a nice gouge, didn't a chance to show instructor that yet. Hopefully it's not too bad to interfere with threads for studs.




Also got drill press setup to mill the towers down to compensate for the screw in studs, will be grinding .325" off


---------- Post added at 10:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:03 PM ----------

also does anyone know about swapping a 2500 radiator in a half ton or tahoe?

 

[retorq]

One of my heads did the exact same thing, no biggie. Keep up the good work.

 

[autolover3]

Instructor had a spare vortec head I could practice on and to make sure drill press was set correctly.


Checked to see if I cut the right amount down to put it at stock height. Had a slight gap at the pressed in studs but I didnt remove a slight edge from the cutter so the .325" I set it at will work


Here's one head after cutting the "pedestals" down


Here is the alignment tool to tap straight. After I tapped one whole the alignment dowel wouldnt fit into the threaded hole so used a drill bit to line it up.




Put the studs in to see how I did. Still have to call manufacturer to find torque specs for these and will need to clean the head before I put em in for good. Also the holes tapped using drill bit for alignment are tilting slightly, I mean very slightly, off center but are consistent. Hopeufully when I torque them down they will straighten!


Now just to finish the other head, and ******** these studs can be a b*tch to remove, makes me question if screw in studs were really needed haha. Me and my partner were cranking on two today with 2 foot crescent wrenches.

 

[retorq]

You aren't going to run pushrod guides? You could have went with the shoulderless studs and saved yourself a bunch of work ... Don't forget to seal/loctite those, I had one back out on me, caught it before anything bad happened.

 

[autolover3]

No since I am going with self aligning rockers.

 

[autolover3]

Ok things have been going pretty smooth now. The rocker arm studs straightened out once torque down, also had a good amount of sealant on threads.

Valve seats all done up


Valve seals on, studs torqued


Beehive springs installed with 787 retainers and new 7 degree locks. I've read people use the 618 locks if I remember correctly. But those definitely don't work on .341" stems.


Heads are on with .028" Chevy gaskets with some copper coating to help lower quench. Should be at roughly .053" versus ~.070 with the factory gaskets.


Checked geometry with new rockers and surprisingly they are good. I was figuring I'd need to go with different lenght pushrods with the new rockers and heads being shaved.






Beadblasted my water pump and painted black.




And here's a classmates 350 he did thats going back in his 85.

 

[autolover3]

Had welding class quick wip up a block off plate to remove rest of egr. Turned out simple and awesome IMO. I advise not to delete egr on a dialy driver though.


Using a oil pan drain plug for plugging the port. Didn't want to pay for shipping and wait for just a egr plug off summit. Same thread and pitch.


Alse bent some piping for cooler bypass, also had welding tig weld it.


The engine is finally back in. Today I got all the grounds, connectors, bellhousing studs etc all hooked up. Tomorrow will double check everything and will attempt to start the beast and hope she runs.


I am super excited but also nervous. Hoping it will be running fine because I need to drive it home this weekend and won't be able to get a retune till like the 14th due to Blackbear offices being closed. On their scheduled events Bismarck ND is on the list so I am hoping they come up and I will get it dyno tuned by them!

 

[retorq]

Not bad, why did you skip the cooler lines?

 

[Chezoom]

updates??