The_Bishop

2000GTP, thanks.

Drew, believe me when I say it was very tempting. But I just bought a house, have a pile of bills to pay off, and I'm trying to scrounge up the cash to build an oversized detatched two car garage so I can finally have a shop of my own.

Besides, it'll be *way* easier to drop the motor out of the bottom when I have the garage and the lift...

DrewHMS97SS

That would be the life

2000GTP

I agree, a detached two car garage with a lift is definitely the way to go.

The_Bishop

Well, the headers are in. Had to trim the edge of the transmission flange on the passenger side, and unbolt the mount to jack it up a bit.. Driver side was no problem, just had to disconnect the steering linkage and jack the car up as high as I could get it. Still have to put the dipstick tube back in, and maybe a little floor pan surgery to make some room for the driver's side Y pipe connection; looks like it's going to be very close.

This is *not* something to do with no help in a small garage, like I did. Made it take twice as long... I was screwing around with them for about 3-4 hours. Hard to start the header bolts with one hand and hold the header in position with the other. Frustrating.

I heartily recommend the ARP 1" header bolts. I used the 12 point heads but would go with 6 pointers next time. I also recommend chasing the threads in the heads with a tap so when you're trying to start the bolts they actually go in. My 3/8 tap got quite a workout between the intake bolt holes, the water pump bolt holes, and now the header bolt holes.

I used the Fel Pro gaskets for the exhaust, too. The Pacesetter paper gaskets didn't look like a 'quality' item.

I'm done for the night; gotta get up at 5:00am for work tomorrow.

BTC

This may sound weird, but putting the dipstick back in was a huge pain compared to everything else. That was my experience anyway. Getting it in and getting the bolt hole lined up with the hole in the block sucked, and when we finally did get it, it wasn't perfect.

The_Bishop

Well, I sure hope I don't run into that kind of problem. I figure if I sand the paint off the part of the dipstick tube that goes into the block it might be easier.

Well, it's a theory, anyhow.

PoorMan

Cut a little off the tube. I had to do it as many others. It can be a pain if you do not.

2000GTP

I never had a problem getting the dipstick back in, getting it out is where it fought me.

The_Bishop

Well, after a bunch of delays (fixing the wife's car - rusty brake lines and tune up) and work, I was able to get a few more things done. A quick note: if you think spark plugs are hard on an LT1, find someone with a '95 Olds Achieva with a 6 cylinder, and change their spark plugs for them. You will discover that you know curse words that never existed before, and feel frustration like you have never known. The front three are easy. The rear three make an LT1 a complete cake walk. Took nearly 4 hours for 3 plugs, including the trip for new wires after I discovered that the previous tune-up (if ever actually done) did not include Dielectric grease in the boots. The way the brake lines failed was weird. I hopped in the car to go get something, and on my way down the driveway the pedal went to the floor. Got the car stopped, and look underneath to see one of the rear steel lines had failed. Backed the car up in front of the house, jacked it up, and got to work taking the line out. The line was solid and rust free, except where the compression nut was. The nut faces up a bit, so I guess water and whatever else you can find on the roads would get in there and work on the line. I fixed the driver's side, which was the side that failed, bled the brakes, and took it for a test drive. On the way down the driveway, the *passenger* side failed. So, I got to repeat the process. For whatever reason, the Olds Achieva uses bubble flares on the brake lines, instead of a double flare. I couldn't get the right tool locally, so I had to buy lines that had the flares on 'em already and re-create the factory bends.

Well, on to the Camaro:

AC Compressor is in place. Man, getting the lines bolted up to the rear was a *pain*. At one point I was seriously considering tossing the whole AC system, but it pissed me off and I got it in.

Dipstick is back in. Wasn't a big deal; I had used a wire wheel to clean the part that slips into the block and after lining it up, it slid right in. Had a tweak it a bit to get the bolt to line up; wasn't a big deal. Also replaced the bolt that holds the transmission dipstick tube in. I pulled that bolt to move the tube when I installed the headers.

Plugs and OTVC wires are in. Those made4you looms must have been designed by an engineer that hates mechanics. Why the hell couldn't those nuts be molded into the plastic?! The crimper that Thunder Racing sends with the kit is, well, garbage. Fortunately I had a much better MSD one that worked fine. The Taylor LT1 boots appear to be made for much smaller wire - Was a royal pain getting those on there. Found a trick, though - Use dielectric grease instead of silicone spray. Works better. Also, once you get the boot moving, KEEP GOING. Don't stop or it 'locks down' and will fight you the rest of the way. Routing the wires on the passenger side was... interesting. I hate bundling wires together that close but didn't see any other way.

Relocated and zip-tied some wires so they don't get cooked by the headers. Found out that the AC hard line was uncomfortably close to the header, bent it a bit, now it's got about 3/4" clearance. I'm glad I have the coated headers and I hope it's enough. Might have to put some sort of thermal barrier wrap on the AC line, which will be fun given that there's no room back there.

All the wiring, brackets, etc. are now completed on top of the motor. Couldn't figure out how to plug the TB water port in the heater line until I noticed that the inside diameter was exactly right for a 1/4-20 tap, so I tapped it and put a SS bolt into it, sealed with Permatex non-hardening sealer.

Won't be getting anything done today; wife has a baby shower to go to that is 50+ miles from home, so I'm playing driver. Sunday is another 24 hour shift in the firehouse, so hopefully *monday* I'll get more done. I have to flush the AC evaporator before I install the rest of the AC components, then install the radiator, condenser, and the rest of the hoses associated. I have to wire up the relay for the electric water pump, and flush the cooling system out before I refill it. Couldn't get the formed oil-cooler delete bypass hose, so I have to figure something out for that... I'll probably use generic hose.

All that's left under the car is to install the 02 sensor extensions, the O2 sensors (which will probably be sacrificial, I stupidly threw out the old ones) and the off-road Y-pipe. I picked up band clamps for the exhaust; I hate U-clamps.

Well, off to get ready for my Chauffeur Duties.

2000GTP

I would have to agree, although having to do them many times over as well as having a big tool selection at my disposal, they have gotten easier as time goes on.

The_Bishop

I've got a fairly decent tool collection (good sized roll-around cabinet full plus some odds and ends in separate boxes) and for the most part it didn't help worth a damn. What killed me was getting the plug boots off. The wires themselves pulled out of the boots, but the boots were seized onto the plugs pretty badly and there was no real room to get any tools in there to grab them until I was able to get a set of channel locks in at just the right angle to muscle them off. Was not fun. Next time it needs a tune up will be easier though; I made sure there was plenty of dielectric grease in the boots and anti-seize on the plugs.

ssbowtie1

If it gets to that point you might as well just take a wrench and break all the porcelain off the plugs.

2000GTP

Yeah, that is usually the worst part, and it is always the plugs in the back where the plug wires seem to get themselves stuck. I bought those special spark plug wire plier pullers in hopes of those helping, but they really didn't. It was more so a matter of getting both hands on there and pulling until it finally popped, and as a result, usually sending my hands into the firewall or something else. Ahh, the joys of working on cars.

The_Bishop

Hey, IT STARTED! Got enough stuff bolted up that I could turn it over, so I fired it up with open headers. Only ran it for about 10 seconds; didn't have coolant in it and I wanted to make sure everything was ok before I continued. Did the on-off-on-off key dance to get the fuel system primed up, had no fuel leaks. So I fired it up. Scared the hell out of my wife and daughter. Ran nice and smooth.

Now I'm off to trim the fan so I can mount it up, put the bypass hose in, and fill the cooling system. Tomorrow I'll wire up the water pump relay, vacuum the charge the AC system, and work on the off-road Y pipe. Getting close! Hopefully I can test-drive it tomorrow.

The_Bishop

Been a while since I updated, but she's done. Couple of test drives and all looks good. Retightened the header bolts a few times, they really didn't move much after the first re-tightening. I heartily recommend running a new, clean, sharp tap through the bolt holes, it semed to make a pretty big difference in getting everything to tighten up well and stay there.

The tune from Madz28 is running well, only glitch I had was the speedo was off a significant amount; at 60 on the speedo, my GPS said 68. Don't know why that happened, I gave him my tire size and rear gear. I used tunercat to pull the numbers out of the old PCM file and plug them into the file from Madz28, and the problem's fixed.

Only slight glitch is I need to pull my dipstick tube out and re-install it with sealer on it. I forgot to do that when I stuck it in there the first time. I was so happy that it went in without a fight that I didn't want to take it back out! Doh.

Next thing to tackle: My my ABS inop light randomly comes on. Sometimes it'll pop on while it's sitting still idling, other times I can drive 30 miles before it pops on. The third brake light is fine, and so are the brake pedal switches. My Actron scan tool can't read the ABS codes, need to find someone with a scanner that will. If it's the pump then the ABS is outta there. This was going on before the rest of the work I just did, not a new problem.