HAHA ... started Sat night, about 10. Got the tranny out no problem, took the intake off to get to the top bolts on the bell housing. We figured we may as well drop the radix on while we got it this far apart and we were going to try and do the cam. We got the tranny down, got the water pump off of the engine and stopped there for the night.

Today, I started to tear the tranny down (I was planning on rebuilding it myself). I got the tailshaft, valve body, and seperator plate off and them came to a hault at trying to get the pump off. This seemed to have called for a special tool in the manual. We pryed from the backside and finally got it off (friend is assistning me instead of pulling the reast of the front of the motor off for the cam swap). Anyways, after prying and wishing we finally got the pump out. After that, the input drum, drum, and band was next to come out. That came out without a hitch. This left clip down in the middle of the rear planetary to get out. We faught this clip for an 2 hours almost. I finaly decide that this isn't feasable and wonder what I was thinking when I thought I could do this. Back to the motor ...

Get down to the cam, get the valve covers off as well as the tops of the heads and pushrods out. I spin the cam to try and get the lifters up and it sounds like they are all falling down. My friend pulls an old *** pen magnet out of somewhere and I go through checking lifter with it. On the last lifter on the first side, the head gets wedged in there. I pull on it some more, and the pen comes out without the magnet. We head to town (he lives 30 minutes out) for some new pen magnets. Once we get back I try fishing this one out. We figure out the rod that it was on was aluminum so we are pissing in the wind with this idea. My friend and his dad keep on trying to get to it and figure up a way to get it out. By this time, I've already got the alt/ps bracket off, and am undoing the head bolts. End up tearing the head off and there it is.

This is all day working today and we still haven't gotten on the downhill side of either of the 3 projects we had intended, not to mention it's costing me a lot more than I anticipated, pen magnets (30 dollars for them bad boys!), head gaskets, head stud kit, and no telling what else. This is beginning to be a bad experience. This is typically how my projects end up though ...

Hopefully I will have some insight on this tomorrow and can at least get something done, like maybe the cam swapped and fuel pump added for the RADIX.

On a side note, it turns out all the lifters are up. What we were hearing is the tops of the lobes on the cam hitting brushing the roller tips.

 

Damn dude, that sounds like one of my jeep projects! I'm bad for trying to do too much at one time. Every time I try to do several projects at once, I always manage to screw something up. Glad I'm not the only one!

Good luck man!

 

Holyshit man! Sounds like a simple repair went from bad to just plain fucked!

At least you know how the truck comes apart! Sorry...couldn't resist.

 

LOL ... BOTH heads came off ... both sets have the new springs on though, didn't have to worry about dropped valves either. I went ahead and took the lifters all the way out since they were right there.

I will go get the gaskets tomorrow and the head studs should be here Wed. We MAY be able to get the tranny back in tomorrow night, depending on when the guy gets it done.

The blower can't go on til the heads are on.

Yes, it went from bad to majorly fucked. Ya know that saying one step forward, two steps back? This one was more like one step forward, three steps back.

Finally we got a step ahead though, and so far it looks like we will keep it ahead provided nothing catastrophic happens.

 

Just look at the bright side, your truck is going ot be nasty when you get it back together.

Bruce

 

Too many projects going on at the same time for different areas of the truck. Just my observation.

Too bad you didn't have some heads to go on why you were at it.

 

I think you hit the nail on the head. I tried to get some stock ls1 heads from ThunderRacing but they wanted 350 for a STOCK set.

 

i assume you were going after that little guy?

 

That's the one ...

As an update .. I called a Chevy delaer and ordered 'a set of head gaskets' Monday. I went to pick them up yesterday (Tuesday) and he only had one. The tranny was half done yesterday. The guy at the parts counter asked me if I wanted both gaskets and I told him yea, since that would be a 'set of head gaskets'. He said the second one would be here today (Wed.). I am fixing to go pick it up now, the head studs should be here today, and the tranny should be done today too. It is a lot of work to get done in one evening so I hope to be driving it again tomorrow night.

 

Another update .. heads are on, water pump is on, timing chain cover is on, and the crank pulley is on. All the belt accesories except the blower itself is on. I should be getting the tranny tomorow. We should be able to get the tranny in there. That leaves the intake, and the fuel pump, and intercooler. There is also some gauges to install, but I don't know if they will be done tomorrow night or not because of time.