Ok...this is gonna be long. 
Dial-up warning too is now in effect.
Completed the entire thing this weekend...in fact, pretty much started really tearing into it Friday night at around 6pm, worked on it until 4am...slept a few hours and then we got back on it at about 9:30am and I was driving it by 6pm that evening. Whoever said a H/C/I takes more than 24 hours??? That's a joke btw...I know this was an exception. I had 3 good buddies of mine who all are gearheads and all have 5.0 foxes that they have worked on for years, so they were invaluable. This being my first H/C/I, I did a lot of watching (taking pics ) and helping where I could. Learned a lot. It was definitely easier doing the actual "buildup" on the motor with it out of the car on a stand, but pulling the motor was extra work as well.
Follow below for timeline and pics...I'll also tell you about how she idles, drives, etc...
This was about 5 minutes in…still not to late to turn back
Here we are a couple hours into the tear down. Biggest pain was removing the exhaust, some of those bolts were stuck on pretty good.
Out she comes…this was about 10pm.
Last time those puny little E7’s will see the motor. Notice the bad condition of the stock clutch…glad I got the SPEC going it
I look in here at this time and wondering “what have I done”. Will it ever go back in?
On the stand…Pistons and bores looked to be in great shape. In fact, the old heads looked pretty darn good too. Only 66,000 miles on the clock after 10 years.
Don’t laugh at this one…here I am about midnight slipping the new FTI cam in. This was my first time doing this and I had a little MJ action going on with the tongue showing my high level of concentration
Degreeing the cam in. This wasn’t as tough as I thought, but I did do a ton of research beforehand so I kindof knew what I was doing.
The cam was about 2 ½ degrees off (double checked it), we reset the crank gear and advanced it 2 degrees and rechecked it…almost dead on per the opening and closing events…at this point I’m glad I checked it. Setting up the dial indicator was tricky.
Notice my HUGE muscles
The moment of truth here. Keep in mind that this cam has over .550 lift and I’m keeping all the stock rotating block. I was worried about PV clearance and I was nervous as all heck when checking. Intake thickness cam in about 0.080” (pic) and exhaust was about 0.065”. I’m pretty sure the compressed head gasket thickness is about 0.040” which would put the intake clearance at 0.120” and exhaust at 0.105”, both within spec of the 0.080” int. & 0.100” exhaust (although that is close). I’m going to double check with Ed on this, although not much I can do about it now if its wrong. I'm pretty sure its good and if that's the case, Ed is the man!
After the cam was degreed in and clearances checked, time to build her back up. Here we are about 2am. Note: Lifter valley makes for not only a great place to lay tools and bolts while doing this, but an excellent coaster as well.
Heads on…bolting up valvetrain
Built-up and ready to go back in car. This was now about 4am and our quitting time for the night. Notice the pretty shiny Romac.
New clutch to hold the new power (also installed new Quadrant and firewall adjuster)
Engine bay ready to accept motor back in. Placed longtubes in before hand to make for easier installation of them. Notice the AC lines in the way of EVERYTHING…I should of deleted this not only for the weight savings but they are a major PITA when doing this.
Back in she goes. Here we’re about 11am the next morning (Saturday)
Was not easy to get it lined in with the tranny still bolted up, but we did. Thank god I have friends who are WAYY more mechanically inclined than me.
Got her bolted in and building her back up.
I can’t believe we did it…it’s a motor again!!! This was about 3pm
Ok...now for the part you've been waiting for...the first fire. Well...she didn't want to fire up at first...disty 180* out of course. After that it was closer but it wouldn't stay running and something sounded majorly wrong with the valvetrain. After messing with it for about 20 minutes, we came to the conclusion that the rockers were too tight because when we adjusted them on the engine stand, the lifters may of been bled down. So we had to pull the upper intake off and the valve covers. Went through the whole rocker adjustement procedure very carefully and put everythign back on. This set us back about an hour, but we were right. She fired on the first turn and amazingly settled down right at a 800rpm idle. Let her warm up and filled the coolant back up. At this point I noticed a few things: 1) The lope is not that pronounced...pretty similar to a TFS Stage One. This was surprising to me as I thought the amount of duration and the 111 LSA would produce a healthy lope to it. 2) The new cam rough idle sure does make the engine shake...I was told this was normal by all my friends that have cams in their car. 3) Longtubes sound nice...even at idle
Test Drive: Keep in mind that this was a brand new clutch and I could not "get on it", but I was able to get a good feel for it. Took it out on a 6-mile test drive and the driveablility while driving and coming to a stop is awesome...hardly any chugging unles it is below 1500rpm (expected). At this point is when the idle started rearing its ugly head due to the totally stock computer tune etc... Everytime I came to a stop, she wants to die but will catch herself. If I give it a little gas, it'll settle back to somewhat of an idle. You can TOTALLY tell there is a buttload more torque down low...half throttle and it just wants to GO. I did do a little 3/4 punch in 2nd up to about 4500rpm's and she was just telling me "more...more...more". Power was unreal…very happy…this is where the “beast” reference came from. I can't wait until I get 500 miles on this clutch and really open her up. I hit it in 1st at about 2500 and immedlieatly threw it sideways (with the DR's), but this isn't really that special. The real "test" like I said will be the first time I take it up to 6000rpms. See problem #1 for the rest of the issues with this.
The problems:
1) After the test drive...I let her sit overnight. Fired her up today and what I originally expected happened....idle kept jumping from 800rpm to 1400rpm...major idle hunting going on. When it finally can't find it, she decides to die. Restart it and it will fire and immediately die within 3 seconds unless you stay on the gas to keep in running. I don't know how bad this will be, I'll have to drive it more over the next week or so...but if it isn't too bad, I'm going to hold out on the TwEECer until next year as my funds are basically dry. Keep in mind I haven’t even adjusted the idle speed screw…which I am going to do next…this might help a lot. All in all, things haven’t been as bad as I thought they were going to be. Note: I might eat my words on this as the car has only been running one day with less than 10 miles on it.
2) Romac didn't want to go on...of course. Didn't have a long bolt long enough to draw it on so tried 25 minutes in the oven at 400 degrees. Oiled up the shaft and it went on maybe an inch. We beat it on half way with a soft deadblow and then drew it on the rest of the way once we could get the bolt on. Hope I never have to take that off.
3) Trying to drop the motor in with the tranny still bolted up and getting it lined up with the input shaft can be interesting...but attainable.
4) The dipstick is seriously malformed now We had to bend it everywhich way to get it around the LT's...got it into the block but it keeps popping out. Any suggestions on this???
5) Power steering pulley was B*IATCH. This was known, but even with the puller, it gave us h*ll. Worst part was getting it back on. Next time I might grind down a wrench.
6) GROUND STRAP…there was one of these connected to the driver side motor mount bolt. This broke off and we could not find an eyelet big enough to reconnect it (checked stores). So we did not reconnect it…anybody know how important this is??? Obviously it did not affect the car starting or running.
7) EGR was a pain to get line back up. I might delete it down the road. I had to reuse the stock tube as the one BBK sent me with the longtubes was about 3 inches too short…what a joke.
Well..that's about it. I know I'm missing a ton of stuff as when you work on it for 18 hours in a 24 hour span, a lot of stuff kind of gets mixed together in my memory. Pics help but only took them at certain times. Bascially destroyed my nice clean garage...spent a few hours today just cleaning up the aftermath...not fun but worth it.
I”ll post up more stuff as I remember it. Thanks for all the help guys.
On with the questions
Dial-up warning too is now in effect.Completed the entire thing this weekend...in fact, pretty much started really tearing into it Friday night at around 6pm, worked on it until 4am...slept a few hours and then we got back on it at about 9:30am and I was driving it by 6pm that evening. Whoever said a H/C/I takes more than 24 hours??? That's a joke btw...I know this was an exception. I had 3 good buddies of mine who all are gearheads and all have 5.0 foxes that they have worked on for years, so they were invaluable. This being my first H/C/I, I did a lot of watching (taking pics
) and helping where I could. Learned a lot. It was definitely easier doing the actual "buildup" on the motor with it out of the car on a stand, but pulling the motor was extra work as well.Follow below for timeline and pics...I'll also tell you about how she idles, drives, etc...
This was about 5 minutes in…still not to late to turn back
Here we are a couple hours into the tear down. Biggest pain was removing the exhaust, some of those bolts were stuck on pretty good.
Out she comes…this was about 10pm.
Last time those puny little E7’s will see the motor. Notice the bad condition of the stock clutch…glad I got the SPEC going it
I look in here at this time and wondering “what have I done”. Will it ever go back in?
On the stand…Pistons and bores looked to be in great shape. In fact, the old heads looked pretty darn good too. Only 66,000 miles on the clock after 10 years.
Don’t laugh at this one…here I am about midnight slipping the new FTI cam in. This was my first time doing this and I had a little MJ action going on with the tongue showing my high level of concentration
Degreeing the cam in. This wasn’t as tough as I thought, but I did do a ton of research beforehand so I kindof knew what I was doing.
The cam was about 2 ½ degrees off (double checked it), we reset the crank gear and advanced it 2 degrees and rechecked it…almost dead on per the opening and closing events…at this point I’m glad I checked it. Setting up the dial indicator was tricky.
Notice my HUGE muscles
The moment of truth here. Keep in mind that this cam has over .550 lift and I’m keeping all the stock rotating block. I was worried about PV clearance and I was nervous as all heck when checking. Intake thickness cam in about 0.080” (pic) and exhaust was about 0.065”. I’m pretty sure the compressed head gasket thickness is about 0.040” which would put the intake clearance at 0.120” and exhaust at 0.105”, both within spec of the 0.080” int. & 0.100” exhaust (although that is close). I’m going to double check with Ed on this, although not much I can do about it now if its wrong. I'm pretty sure its good and if that's the case, Ed is the man!
After the cam was degreed in and clearances checked, time to build her back up. Here we are about 2am. Note: Lifter valley makes for not only a great place to lay tools and bolts while doing this, but an excellent coaster as well.
Heads on…bolting up valvetrain
Built-up and ready to go back in car. This was now about 4am and our quitting time for the night. Notice the pretty shiny Romac.
New clutch to hold the new power (also installed new Quadrant and firewall adjuster)
Engine bay ready to accept motor back in. Placed longtubes in before hand to make for easier installation of them. Notice the AC lines in the way of EVERYTHING…I should of deleted this not only for the weight savings but they are a major PITA when doing this.
Back in she goes. Here we’re about 11am the next morning (Saturday)
Was not easy to get it lined in with the tranny still bolted up, but we did. Thank god I have friends who are WAYY more mechanically inclined than me.
Got her bolted in and building her back up.
I can’t believe we did it…it’s a motor again!!! This was about 3pm
Ok...now for the part you've been waiting for...the first fire. Well...she didn't want to fire up at first...disty 180* out of course. After that it was closer but it wouldn't stay running and something sounded majorly wrong with the valvetrain. After messing with it for about 20 minutes, we came to the conclusion that the rockers were too tight because when we adjusted them on the engine stand, the lifters may of been bled down. So we had to pull the upper intake off and the valve covers. Went through the whole rocker adjustement procedure very carefully and put everythign back on. This set us back about an hour, but we were right. She fired on the first turn and amazingly settled down right at a 800rpm idle. Let her warm up and filled the coolant back up. At this point I noticed a few things: 1) The lope is not that pronounced...pretty similar to a TFS Stage One. This was surprising to me as I thought the amount of duration and the 111 LSA would produce a healthy lope to it. 2) The new cam rough idle sure does make the engine shake...I was told this was normal by all my friends that have cams in their car. 3) Longtubes sound nice...even at idle
Test Drive: Keep in mind that this was a brand new clutch and I could not "get on it", but I was able to get a good feel for it. Took it out on a 6-mile test drive and the driveablility while driving and coming to a stop is awesome...hardly any chugging unles it is below 1500rpm (expected). At this point is when the idle started rearing its ugly head due to the totally stock computer tune etc... Everytime I came to a stop, she wants to die but will catch herself. If I give it a little gas, it'll settle back to somewhat of an idle. You can TOTALLY tell there is a buttload more torque down low...half throttle and it just wants to GO. I did do a little 3/4 punch in 2nd up to about 4500rpm's and she was just telling me "more...more...more". Power was unreal…very happy…this is where the “beast” reference came from. I can't wait until I get 500 miles on this clutch and really open her up. I hit it in 1st at about 2500 and immedlieatly threw it sideways (with the DR's), but this isn't really that special. The real "test" like I said will be the first time I take it up to 6000rpms. See problem #1 for the rest of the issues with this.
The problems:
1) After the test drive...I let her sit overnight. Fired her up today and what I originally expected happened....idle kept jumping from 800rpm to 1400rpm...major idle hunting going on. When it finally can't find it, she decides to die. Restart it and it will fire and immediately die within 3 seconds unless you stay on the gas to keep in running. I don't know how bad this will be, I'll have to drive it more over the next week or so...but if it isn't too bad, I'm going to hold out on the TwEECer until next year as my funds are basically dry. Keep in mind I haven’t even adjusted the idle speed screw…which I am going to do next…this might help a lot. All in all, things haven’t been as bad as I thought they were going to be. Note: I might eat my words on this as the car has only been running one day with less than 10 miles on it.
2) Romac didn't want to go on...of course. Didn't have a long bolt long enough to draw it on so tried 25 minutes in the oven at 400 degrees. Oiled up the shaft and it went on maybe an inch. We beat it on half way with a soft deadblow and then drew it on the rest of the way once we could get the bolt on. Hope I never have to take that off.
3) Trying to drop the motor in with the tranny still bolted up and getting it lined up with the input shaft can be interesting...but attainable.
4) The dipstick is seriously malformed now
We had to bend it everywhich way to get it around the LT's...got it into the block but it keeps popping out. Any suggestions on this???5) Power steering pulley was B*IATCH. This was known, but even with the puller, it gave us h*ll. Worst part was getting it back on. Next time I might grind down a wrench.
6) GROUND STRAP…there was one of these connected to the driver side motor mount bolt. This broke off and we could not find an eyelet big enough to reconnect it (checked stores). So we did not reconnect it…anybody know how important this is??? Obviously it did not affect the car starting or running.
7) EGR was a pain to get line back up. I might delete it down the road. I had to reuse the stock tube as the one BBK sent me with the longtubes was about 3 inches too short…what a joke.
Well..that's about it. I know I'm missing a ton of stuff as when you work on it for 18 hours in a 24 hour span, a lot of stuff kind of gets mixed together in my memory. Pics help but only took them at certain times. Bascially destroyed my nice clean garage...spent a few hours today just cleaning up the aftermath...not fun but worth it.
I”ll post up more stuff as I remember it. Thanks for all the help guys.
On with the questions
Sounds like you got it all put together and in a short time.
. Definitely put a TwEECer or chip high on your list, it's amazing what it does for driveability (not to mention power).
