Huck's daily - 2005 Z71 crewcab

So after work yesterday, I started back on the heads again. Made sure to put the lifter retainer bolts in and torqued, then re-cleaned the head bolt holes out real good.





Then cleaned the pass side head and the block gasket surfaces real good one more time, aligned the head gasket and head on the dowel and used 2 old head bolts screwed in just a couple threads to hold it while I put the ARP hardware in.



Here's the instructions just for those that are curious. Like I said, SO MUCH easier than the GM bolts



Then installed new grommets in the valve cover and tossed it on to close up that side and taped off the intake ports

Then repeated the process on the other side. We've got an engine boys!



Ate some dinner and then tackled installing the Circle D converter. Put a bit of grease on the o-ring on the shaft, topped off the fluid, got it balanced on my legs, rolled under the truck, sat up in between the crossmembers and wrestled it up into the bellhousing. Got it on the shaft, supported the back of it and started to spin it, damn if it didn't go *clunk* *clunk* *clunk* right into place! Decided to quit while I was ahead and go home at that point



When I got home, the GF said my package with my pushrods and engine mount frame bracket showed up but to check it cuz it'd been opened and re-taped. Fck'n Amazon man, threw a heavy ass plate in a box with pushrods with no packing material whatsoever. I tell ya, sometimes they're awesome and sometimes they suck, they really have both ends of the spectrum working for them

^^^^^^^^^OK, SO.....pushrods OK?????^^^^^^^^^

Thankfully, they seem to be. I just quickly inspected them last night, I'll inspect them much closer as I install them. Thankfully I have 12 extras in case any of these are damaged

Didn't do much yesterday, just installed the pushrods and rockers. I'd ordered these Melling chromoly pushrods a while back off RockAuto but goofed and only ordered 12. Well then I found this kit of Melling pushrods on Amazon much cheaper so I ordered it thinking it was the same, but these were stock replacements. I'll use 4 of them for the initial startup just to check for oil pressure but I've already ordered 4 more of the proper chromoly ones to swap out





Liberal use of assembly lube on the ends of the pushrods, rockers and then splashed oil on the tops of the valves and the valvesprings so they're not dead dry at first start



Rotated the motor around several times so I could torque the rockers while they were on the base circle of the cam, then installed gaskets on the valvecovers and torqued them down. So tonight I plan to install the cam sensor and flexplate, install the new frame side of the driver's motor mount, both engine sides of the motor mounts and drop it in the hole. I'll get it bolted to the trans and hoping to have time to get the torque converter bolted up as well.

and here I was coming to this thread to give you grief about it not being reinstalled yet.

Welp. Very little progress tonight. Galled up the threads trying to reinstall the balancer. So a tap and a proper installer has been ordered. Guess my luck ran out. I've done several of these just sucking them back on with the crank pulley. Should've known better. Oh well.