I pushed the car back in the garage today and pulled the subframe off.
Along with the exhaust. I’m going to need a new downstream O2 sensor… yay…
I need to do some welding on the subframe tomorrow, and pull the muffler and axle back out as well. Another J body owner in Arizona is sending me a couple valves while Karo decides when it’s a good time for him to ship me my fucking valves.
A couple new valves showed up today, so we lapped the valves and assembled the head tonight.
Some lapping compound
Lapped seals
Cleaned up the springs and retainers
And assembled everything
I assembled the head and valvetrain with some clay on the #1 piston to check valve clearance tonight.
A new head gasket
Set the head on and bolted it down
Then cam towers
A couple lifters in the #1 piston
Then the W41 cams 
I bolted the cam covers and timing cover on
Bolted the water pump on
And finally the timing chain, guides and sprokets
I turned the engine over once and the valves didn’t even touch the clay, which was about .150" thick. So thankfully I don’t need to machine reliefs in the pistons.
The one bad thing I found is I have some stripped threads in the head, where the cam tower bolts on, so I need to find an 8x1.25 helicoil kit.
Other than that, it’s looking good 
I fixed the stripped hole I had in the head with a heli-coil today
And then bolted the head down and torqued it to spec
I then went to torque the cam towers down, only to strip another bolt in the head before I even hit the 16ft-lb torque spec. I’m pretty sure it’s because I’m trying to draw down on 80 lb/in springs instead of the stock 40 lb/in springs. So I drilled out all 20 threads and tapped them for the heli-coils. I’m short 8 coils so hopefully the kit I ordered shows up tomorrow, but in the mean time, I installed the exhaust tower and torqued it down.
I also picked up a new engine cradle today, from an 03+, which has a bit more rigidity because it has another plate welded on the bottom.
I picked up some more Helicoils this morning, installed them and started putting the intake cam tower together.
Installed the cam cover and torqued it down
Installed some gaskets
Followed by the timing components
Some more gaskets, and the timing cover, which I somehow didn’t get a picture of
Then some accessories and sensors
Then flipped it over to install the oil pan
Exhaust manifold studs
Exhaust gasket
And the Pacesetter header and oil dip stick
I also bent the dip stick slightly to mount to a separate hole, stock it used one of the cam housing bolts, which I thought was stupid.
And lastly installed the engine mount and a brand new MDEnforcer lightweight aluminum crank pulley
Looking good man! I hate doing helicoils such a PITA.
Super work man!
Thanks guys
my fav build thread ever so much detail!
Thanks man, I appreciate it. I’m not quite in Dan’s 2nd gen’s league though, haha
Cool. Get the subframe swapped over yet?
Dan
Nah I got looking at my engine bay and decided to polish my fuel rail again… so much for today, hahaha. It was nice to have a break from it for a bit though.
I’ve gotta pick up some bolts for the engine that I’ve lost, and just do some odds and ends before I think I’ll be ready to bolt it in.
SO CLOSE!
I spent the night picking up some random bolts that I lost somewhere in my garage, cleaning and painting some random brackets, and pulling the engine off of the stand. A friend of mine is coming over after work tomorrow to help me get the transmission bolted to the engine, and the engine bolted to the body. Then its a mad dash to get everything wired up and back together.
Sorry for the crappy pictures, my Dad left for a few days with the good camera 
I also stripped the powdercoating off of my HO IDI cover, I think I have a decent idea for it.
Work is going to go sloooooooow tomorrow…
So I really dropped the ball taking pictures tonight, but I was on a mission! A couple friends came over to help me get the engine in. We installed the flywheel, clutch and pressure plate and torqued everything down, and then bolted the transmission to the engine with a new slave cylinder. We cleared the engine bay out as best as we could, and dropped the body down on the engine. I took a video of the whole thing so I’ll have a time lapse of it going in once everything is together
Quality work dude, looks great.
Great Progress. :tup:
For the EGR connector…pot the connector with some 5 minute epoxy. I use Devcon but you can use what ever 2-part is sold at your local Home Depot, Valu, Lowes…etc.
I would not use RTV.
You’re like a day late on that, haha. I covered the connection in dielectric grease and filled it with RTV. The idea was that I could always dig it out pretty easily and change anything I needed to change. We’ll see what happens, parts are cheap for this car, haha.
Thanks guys
LOLz. Too funny.
Keep up the great work!
I hit the car head on again tonight, the main goal was to install all the accessories and get all the wires hooked up.
I was having problems getting the quick disconnect to lock into my new clutch slave cylinder, so thankfully the ends are interchangeable, and I just pulled the old fitting off and bolted it to the new slave cylinder. New fitting on the left, old on the right…
Finally connected
Bolted the header on, and got it all dirty…
Then I had to plug the EGR port in the intake manifold, since I don’t have one anymore, so I cut the end off of the line, crimped it, and used my new TIG to weld it closed. It’s temporary until I get the log manifold on.
Installed the starter motor, alternator, intake and started running wires…
I never understood why this line was so long, it used to run to half way down the engine, turn around, and come all the way back. So I cut the hose to about 6" long and shortened the hard line and now its much simpler.
Started hooking up hoses, and realized that the heater core hose is right up against the header… so I’m going to have to find a way to tie it up away from the header and make a heat shield for it.
This is where I called it a night, I’m having problems finding my ICM… I seem to be spending more and more time looking for parts as the build comes to a close, haha
More tomorrow of course, hopefully once I find the ICM I can connect to the ECU and flash the new tune, as well as check that my wideband is actually going to log through the EGR.
I finished up my tune tonight, updated my injector constant, turned off some DTC codes and since the ECU finally decided to let me connect to it I flashed it to the ECU.
Bye bye rear O2
Finished up the last of the wiring after I found my ICM, installed the shift cables, and fucked up a power steering line, so I’ll have to go grab one tomorrow at the junkyard
Stripped down the new subframe, bolted my steering rack to it, and installed new steering tie rod ends.
Lastly I started adding oil to the crank case, I was expecting some increased oil capacity because I deleted the balance shafts but I wasn’t sure how much. After adding 5 courts the dip stick still says to add a quart, stock it holds 4.5 quarts. I also haven’t filled the oil galleys or the oil filter, so it could want anywhere between .5 and 1 quart more after I prime the galleys.
Cliff notes: I’m figuring my oil capacity will be between 6 and 7 quarts, and it used to be 4.5 quarts. Woot for increased oil capacity!
