F-Body Europe

Well, for the last month and a half my car has been down because I decided to do the work myself. To be fair to me, it has been totally apart, and ready to be put back togethor for sometime, but I have been pre-occupied and lazy.

Anyway, I started putting it togethor yesterday, and I want to bounce some ideas/questions off of you expieranced people.

1. I need to purchase a new keyway for the ATI damper. Anyone know what size it is? I was told go to Home Depot and find one (from web write ups)

2. Does it really matter if I soak my lifters in oil for atleast 24hrs before installing them?

BTW, sure the LT1's leak oil from every pore sooner or later, but you got to give it to them for build strength, besides some carbon/soot buildup on the pistons, the cylinders look great. No ridges that I can feel. For all you LT1 with the stock timing chain, be forewarned, it fits loooooooooooooossssssssseeeeeeeeee. You guys should definatelly think about going to a cloyes setup instead of the GM slop kit IMO.

Anyway, this thing should be up soon, and if the way the LT4 intake with polished fuelrails and TBody looks is any indication, it is going to be a flashy setup also.

Great to hear that it is coming back together. How far along exactly are you? How difficult would you rate the head swap? You may be able to check your motorpool for woodruff keys we have an abundance of them, maybe ya'll do to.



P.S Any t-56's for sale in your area?

Jeff

1. Rob you be better offf getting the key from General motors or from the parts store if they have one of those woodruff key kit boxes.

2. No you do not have to soak your lifters for 24 hours in oil. but you do have to pump em up with oil so they are not damaged when you torque down the rockers. I like to put a pushrod in a drill press and use the crank arm to make the chuck move up and down with the pushrod on the lifter which is sitting in a bowl of your favorite oil.

Jeff, it was really straight forward, and probably wouldnt take you that long (couple of days). The hardest parts were:
1. messing with the radiator/AC condensor
2. the steam line that attaches to the back of the heads
3. I had a hell of a time with the crank hub, but that was a tool issue, and lack of brain power issue

and that is about the only frustrating things. There is a handful of elec/vaccum lines, but hopefully that will go togethor okay, especially were there are lines that ran to items that I dont have anymore, ie EGR pump.

for me to finish the major things, wouldn't take that much time. I spent alot of time making sure that the old gaskets have been removed. It wouldn't take anytime to put the cam in, and reassemble the intake/heads. The only sticky part left is the damper w.key issue, and I still dont have all the accsy to put a 95 opti on my car. I also havent taking the headers down to have the AIR fittings ground off and welded closed.

BTW if you have to choose between Scoggin Dicky and Jim Pace for your GM parts, go with Pace. Kinda a night and day differance.

Yeah, Pace is the "He said POOP". Check out Phoenix Pontiac out of Phoenix, Pa. They rock also...

I know how you feel with that frigen hub. I used the proper tool stuck a solid piece of metal in there and all the bolts kept bending on me and a few broke. I got it off with the shortest bosts the kit had, it sucked. When I did my cam I asked the same question about the lifters. Do I need to pre load them with oil? The answer the tech guys at comp cam said was no. The only thing you have to do is dunk them in some oil and install them. The oil they told me to use was 5w-30. Are you using the stock ones or do you have new ones? Good luck on your car and have fun tightening down the rockers that was the part I hated most, besides valve springs.

The crank hub did the same thing to me, bent 3 bolts I used with the puller, then I did a dumb thing, and read my books some more, and if I had put a smaller bolt in the crank hole, (about 5" long probably a 5/16) then the puller just pulls it on out no prob. I dont have to reuse the stock hub, but now I have to find the right key for the fluidamper hub.

I'm using crane lifters and crane hardend pushrods, the heads already have the springs installed, I just have to tighten the rockers down.

I hope I get the timing cover to seat correctly, but in case it doesnt scoggins sent me 3 by mistake, so I have a couple chances.