Radiator, shroud, and fans all out of the way.
--LT4 Hotcam
--New timing cover (comes with all 3 new seals)
--Timing cover gasket
--Oil pan gasket
--LT4 Timing set
--Intake gaskets
--Water pump
--Oil pump drive
--Water pump drive
Cam swaps on LTx are fun, as you get to deal with the optispark, water pump, and the two piece balancer/crank pulley. Pulling the balancer hub off of the crank
was the hardest part. Having put several opti's on the car, I had no trouble stripping the motor down to that stage.
Radiator, shroud, and fans all out of the way.
Getting the hub off reqiured some Jesus magic to get the balancer puller onto the hub and pull it without running into the front crossmember. Also, a regular small block has a very large hole in the middle for the puller to rest directly on the crank. LTx's have a much smaller hole, so something must be inserted into the crank for the puller to press against. I used the original crank bolt, and kept backing it out as I went. All in all, a complete pain in the ass, but it came off.
Hub about halfway off.
The little bastard finally came off.
Timing cover almost ready to come off.
Before the timing cover can come off, the oil pan has to come off. This means the oil fiter, oil filter adapter, and starter all have to come off too. My timing cover was seeping from at least one place, so everything is covered in a nice layer of grime. Luckily, I made Jeff crawl under the car and pull all that stuff off (Thanks Jeff!). Getting the oil pan off was not difficult, as all the bolts are pretty easy to reach (unlike a 4th gen f-body). After getting the timing cover off, getting the cam out is pretty easy. Then installation is the reverse of removal. I spent a good amount of time cleaning as much gunk off of the crossmember, oil pan, starter, and everything else, as the engine better not be leaking any more oil. Since this car has no heater, I have had the heater hose ports on the water pump connected with a loop of house. Not only was this ghetto, it was just another thing that could go wrong. So, on the new water pump, I removed the hose fittings, tapped the holes, and put in brass plugs. Not only does this help clean up the engine compartment, it should add a little more reliability.
With Jeff and Adam's help, I got the car back together at 10 pm. The moment of truth: reconnect the battery and try the starter... It starts right up first try, and even
has oil pressure. Simply amazing! I only allow it to run about 20 seconds before shutting it up, as I'm sure my neighboors didn't approve. So far, the car is still running
the stock LT4 tune. My car is a 96, and 96 is the first year of OBDII. Tuning OBDII is easy and common.....just really expensive. LT1Edit is the only OBDII tuning software,
and it costs $450. How about no! OBDI software, on the other hand, is $70, while the cable is a mere $90. My OBDI PCM is in the mail. All that is required to do the OBDI swap
is to change the knock sensors to OBDI knock sensors. A quick order from Rock Auto and I had all the parts I needed. I'm sure getting it tuned just right will take some
time (especially since I have never tuned a car before), but it should be interesting to see how well I can make it run. Currently with the stock tune, it seems to run pretty good, with
a pretty lopy idle (I'm sure the exhaust, or lack thereof, helps). I can't wait to take it to TWS and see what it will do.