I'm hoping a fully charged 8ah battery in the Milwaukee will knock it loose, I hit it with creep oil so maybe that helped a little. If it needs heat I'll use a little propane torch not oxy cutting torches .

I just got the Comp cams spring tool in yesterday along with the Elite timing set which looks nice. Maybe this weekend I'll have time to finish the job.

 

Been delayed a bit on this but making progress every weekend. Right now I'm at a bit of a standstill waiting on new rocker bolts to come in, I ended up bending a couple of OEMs using the spring compressor tool until I figured out a couple of things to make it go smoother. I actually ordered the ARP rocker stud kit and since the end of the bolt/stud protrudes into the intake runner I'll chop the bottom off so it sits flush.

The one really dumb thing is that I did not realize LS6 243s only had steam vent ports on one side of the heads. Of course, I went ahead and torqued them down before realizing I had the steam vent holes in the back. Should I swap sides with the heads so it will be at the front and easier to get to? Or since I already torqued the head gaskets down will I need new gaskets?

I am really happy with how clean I was able to get the pistons with the @RedXray technique of using 4" foam applicators soaked in seafoam to soften up all the carbon. You can see in one pic where the valve kissed the #6 piston a few years back, boy oh boy did I get lucky.

 

I wouldn't swap the heads personally, it's only pulling the intake off to reach the ports. Up to you though.

No you would not need new gaskets. I have called multiple manufacturers about this topic and they say even though the heads are torqued, because you haven't put stress on it you can pull them off and reinstall

 

But I don't want to do the whole torque sequence again!

It's not that bad, what sucks is the back head bot on each side has to be put in while holding the head just a few inches from the deck or it won't clear the fire wall. If I do pull the heads to flip them I will probably massage the fire wall.

 

Been driving the trucks or about a month since the head swap and the power is great! It really picks up over 3k and above 5k it’s a riot. I used to not be able to spin the tires in the rain unless I was in first gear or really clutch dumping in 2nd. Now at 40mph in second it blitz’s the tires off like nothing, much more lively and fun to drive.

For the coolant port issue I ended up just drilling the front holes out which was easy as there was only a 1/4” or so to go through before hitting the coolant passage.

Tunings been a pain I didn’t realize how much a good set of heads changed stuff and it’s taken awhile to get it to quit stalling and keep the AC on without major idle swings. @Atomic gave me a few pointers which helped a ton and I ended up changing almost all the idle adaptives to what a stock Yukon Denali would have. Not sure why mine were so different since they both have rear air, maybe the LQ4 in the Yukon vs factory LR4 in my Tahoe had very different calibrations. It made a huge difference and the ac stays in now and doesn’t cause any crazy driveability issues.

 

yay!

 

Sup bois, it’s our month figured I’d say haayyyyy

 

You still got this thing? I think your last post was 22?

 

He's alive!

 

I knew he was still alive! Author and I talk on the corvette forum. 😅