Misfire now..

[350rs]

oh btw.. heres some pics. Dond mind the crap floating in the coolant. the bucket wasnt clean. But since most of the coolant is less than 2 months old. it looks REALLY crappy to me. Cant wait to get those heads off.. should be interesting.

[AaronGTR]

Originally Posted by stewartfn18

i wish i wouldve known this when i built my motor

hehe, me too. I didn't know about it either back when I did my cam. My chain had some slack in it, just from a stock cam with LS1 valve springs and around 35k miles on it, so I replaced it with a new stock 2000 chain and damper.

Originally Posted by 350rs

can i use just the chain? or do i need the whole setup?

Nope, you need the chain and both sprockets, for the crank and the cam. It's because the chain is wider than the newer one. They used to make it stronger, then decided it didn't need to be that strong and made it thinner for efficiency. Probably the same reason they used weak stock valve springs.

Anyway iirc it's the timing set from like 1995-1999. Don't remember exactly, the info's on here somewhere though.

[Mac0083]

you mean for once i got lucky and there's a part on my '99 that wasn't revised and made better for 2000? (for example, 99 UIM vs. +2000)

does this mean i can go ahead and rev my engine to 7000 rpm?

[Mac0083]

you mean for once i got lucky and there's a part on my '99 that wasn't revised and made better for 2000? (for example, 99 UIM vs. +2000)

does this mean i can go ahead and rev my engine to 7000 rpm?

[350rs]

Originally Posted by AaronGTR

Nope, you need the chain and both sprockets, for the crank and the cam. It's because the chain is wider than the newer one. They used to make it stronger, then decided it didn't need to be that strong and made it thinner for efficiency. Probably the same reason they used weak stock valve springs.

Anyway iirc it's the timing set from like 1995-1999. Don't remember exactly, the info's on here somewhere though.

ok ill look into it. If my heads are warped to the point that they cannot be fixed ( dont see that being the problem but preparing for the worst), can i get heads off any 3400 FWD model? OR do i need to stick to a certain model year. Dont care about performance i want reliability. They will be sent off to the machine shop early next week and be checked. With luck i can get the surface ground and have them grind the valves and be done with it. Might as well do the valve stem seals while im there too.

Any cheap/free things i can do to make this motor more reliable while its out? Or things to check that commonly go wrong? I dont plan on taking the bottom end apart. Ill pull the caps and check for scaring on the crank to be sure.

[AaronGTR]

Originally Posted by 350rs

ok ill look into it. If my heads are warped to the point that they cannot be fixed ( dont see that being the problem but preparing for the worst), can i get heads off any 3400 FWD model? OR do i need to stick to a certain model year. Dont care about performance i want reliability. They will be sent off to the machine shop early next week and be checked. With luck i can get the surface ground and have them grind the valves and be done with it. Might as well do the valve stem seals while im there too.

Any cheap/free things i can do to make this motor more reliable while its out? Or things to check that commonly go wrong? I dont plan on taking the bottom end apart. Ill pull the caps and check for scaring on the crank to be sure.

Well hopefully you don't have to get new heads. If you do, pretty much any year 3400 will do. Or you could do 3500 head and LIM with 3400 UIM if you where gonna go that far. Otherwise if you stay with 3400 stuff, just make sure to get everything that comes with it. They changed the diameter of the valve guides mid-2000 so if you are using different springs and valve seals you'd need new valve seals, but if you are still using stock seals they'll work fine since that are part of the spring seat and not mounted on the guide. '03 I believe they changed the size of the rocker bolt from 10mm to 8mm, so of course you need the complete rocker set along with the heads if you buy '03+ heads. Same with 3500 heads, need the rockers, springs, etc. That should be pretty much all.

[350rs]

right on. should be out today and ill let yall know whats up

[350rs]

Got everything loose and ready to rock. Taking one last break before getting bolts to tranny put. How many are there? About 33??? Why so damn many!?!?

Those flywheel bolts are a trick alone. Had to use a tie down strap to make it all work. ill post a pic of my redneck engineering when i get it off my phone to a computer to upload it.

[350rs]

mission status: FAIL! several bloody knuckles and 5 hours later i havent managed much. Ive got three of the bolts out i see at least one more.. im sure there are at least two though. Im going to look for a pattern somewhere..

But i do know now 100% that this is a replacement motor. So its impossible to say how many miles are on it. man this sucks.

[350rs]

according to this website: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...26tbs%3Disch:1

it shares the same pattern as the standard SBC that im more accustomed to. Unless i read it wrong. its somewhat confusing. But it looks like i have 6 of them. Four down, two to go.

[350rs]

as for that bolt pattern. totally different. and i discovered that GM LOVES to hide stuff on ya... about 54 mounts and 387 bolts. Including one that tricks you into thinking its not even there. It goes 180 degrees from the others. im sure some of you know which one im talking about. The motor is out now though. Took about 8 hours in total.. what a mess.

[AaronGTR]

Yeah, it's not a fast process at all. Gotta plan on a whole day when you are pulling a motor.

[350rs]

pulled the motor out of the camaro in about 4 hours. this one was a pita.

Considering doing the rings.. most likely will not. All depends on the condition of the block. Might be a complete rebuild with machining to the block even. Didnt notice any smoke so i shouldnt have any leakage as far as the rings are concerned.

Tearing down motor in about 30 mins or so. gotta get something to keep the pushrods and rockers where they belong. Maybe ill make a 12 egg omelet. Which pushrod is the longer one? Exhaust or intake? Considering just throwing the rods and rockers in a bag for each cylinder.

[350rs]

looks great inside. Its apparently a semi fresh rebuild as i can see hatching on the cylinder walls still. At least the bottom end is A-ok. Really obvious failure points on head gaskets though. one cylinder was leaking almost all the way around. and two or three others were iffy. Inside the water jackets are nasty though. Gonna have to spend some time washing all that out. Cam looks ok. Going to pull off a cap or two on the crank and big ends of the rod. They should be fine, but just in case. Get this.. my exhaust studs? They came right out!! Only one gave me some trouble and a few taps with a hammer and some penetrating lube made it come right out as well. Timing cover was still well sealed. but that main seal was indeed leaking pretty bad.

My exhaust valves looked terrible on the same cylinders that were iffy. So this may have been going on awhile. It looks like mostly just buildup so i shouldnt have to have them replaced.

Am i going to have to do the crank position relearn or am i gonna be alright?




Im thinking i should go ahead and do the 3800 swap....... HA! j/k

[Azazel]

How crucial is getting the rockers back on in the right order..... I had a little mishap with my dog and now i don't know which one goes where..... Am i totally f'ed and should just buy new rockers and rods or what? I'm not looking forward to you telling me buy new.....

[350rs]

dont quote me on it. but im fairly certain that you will have to buy new if you have totally lost track of where they all go.

[AaronGTR]

If they did a rebuild and the rest of the motor looks good, but the head gaskets had obvious failures... it's possible they re-used the head bolts. If you have head studs, they can be re-used, but head bolts are supposed to be replaced EVERY time you pull the heads. Also they might just not have torqued them properly.

For the push rods, the exhaust one is the longer one and intake is shorter. It does NOT matter if they go back in the exact same spot they came out of, as long as you put the exhaust and intake length rods back in the correct spot. You can look at the valves and ports and tell which are intake and exhaust, it's fairly easy to see. Same with the rockers themselves... they are all the same, doesn't matter which spot they go.

That's the beauty of self adjusting/self aligning rockers and hydraulic lifters... there is hardly any wear on them so they don't really "wear in" to a spot.

[350rs]

heads are at shop now. should call tomorrow and let me know the status. Anybody using the 99 timing set? Im worried about rubbing/fitment on the cam and crank. I would assume all would work. but i dont know 100% so im not buying anything until i do.

Bolts were pretty tight, but thats not to say they werent overly tight or something.

Im considering painting the UIM to match the black and red "ram air" plastic on the front. Anybody had any luck with rattle can spray? I can get the high heat engine stuff up the road.

[AaronGTR]

Everything on the '99 timing set will fit on your current crank/cam and fit under the timing cover with no modifications or issues. There are plenty of people on 60v6.com using that set on later year 3400's.

[350rs]

alright. Wonder why they changed them? Either way thats what i will use. Half the price for a better chain? DEAL!