Huck's daily - 2005 Z71 crewcab

[TotalyHucked]

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.

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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.

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

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

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[TotalyHucked]

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

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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

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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

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[idahovette]

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

 

[TotalyHucked]

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

 

[TotalyHucked]

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

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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

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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.

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[Drauka99]

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

 

[TotalyHucked]

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.

 

[TotalyHucked]

The tap didn’t come in till Saturday afternoon so I didn’t work on the truck till today.

First thing’s first, took about 20min to carefully and slowly work through those messed up threads. Used some oil and cleaned out with brake clean/air a couple times. Worked like a charm!

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So Friday my buddy was asking me if he needed to set his motor to TDC #1 before installing his cam (he’s putting an L59 5.3 in his ‘99 OBS ‘Burb). I told him yes, and then started questioning whether I did or not. Looked through my notes, had no note of it so I decided to pull the front cover and verify. Good thing I did, it was set at TDC #6, so I got that swapped around. Idk what I was thinking that day

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Then put the front cover back on loosely, reinstalled the balancer using the install tool (this thing had a great big bearing/washer under the nut and worked fantastic) and torqued the cover back down

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Then pulled it off the stand, installed the flexplate and torqued the bolts down, installed the coils and exhaust manifold studs

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[TotalyHucked]

Then swung it up and in

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Slowly…

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Slowly…

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Had to do some sketchy stuff to get the hoist off the engine lol

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Got it all bolted up to the transmission, engine mount bolts in about halfway, hooked up all the brackets, grounds and wiring connectors at the back of the heads/valley. That’s where I called it for the day, had to get to Easter dinner with the GF’s family.

But we’re in!!

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[89Suburban]

Damn bro glad you didn't bump the radiator, that looks tight. Good job.

 

[TotalyHucked]

Damn bro glad you didn't bump the radiator, that looks tight. Good job.

I *JUST* grazed it one of the times I was lowering it and had it spun a bit to clear something on the harness, talk about pucker lol. Thankfully it was ok, barely even made a mark

 

[TotalyHucked]

Small but important progress after work yesterday. Got underneath to measure the gap from the converter to the flexplate, it was not quite 3/16". Circle D specs 1/8-3/16" being acceptable and my 3/16" drill bit wouldn't even go all the way between the pad on the converter and the flexplate so I didn't worry about spacing it. Ran the bolts in with some loctite and torque'd 'em down. Then I ran the motor mount bolts all the way in and tight (I reused my originals and 2 from my buddy's mounts but cleaned off that godforsaken loctite GM put on there. That's why I broke 2 of them, the OE loctite is insane. There's no need for it, these mounts just sit down flat and locate with their T-shape, so I didn't put any loctite on them).

Then moved onto getting the manifolds on. I'll always put stud kits on from here forward, it's so nice to be able to hang the gasket and then install the header/manifold

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It's just a cheapy Amazon set but it has serrated nuts and has held up well on the C10 for ~28k miles now

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Also snaked the dipstick tube in and bolted it down (yes I remembered to pull the tape out of the hole before stabbing it in )

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Then got the Y-pipe bolted up with new donut gaskets and new nuts. Was also going to put the plugs in but I had decided to spray some WD40 in the cylinders before rotating the motor for the converter bolts, so I'll wait till I spin it a couple times on the starter to push all the WD out, then install the plugs

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So today's goal is tighten down the AC bracket and compressor bolts, run/hook up the harness, reloom the 2 branches of the harness I forgot, put the intake on, hook up the fuel rail, install the starter and then double/triple check everything. I'll go ahead and dump oil in but not sure if I'll fire it tonight or wait till tomorrow when I have an extra pair of ears to listen

 

[idahovette]

@TotalyHucked please put some grease in that poor Ball joint while you're there...............lol

 

[TotalyHucked]

@TotalyHucked please put some grease in that poor Ball joint while you're there...............lol

Nah. I've got new UCAs/LCAs to go on with the level kit, it'll get that in the next few days as well lol

 

[89Suburban]

I should have mentioned before you stabbed the motor back in. You want to replace those plastic heater hose connectors on the firewall. They are known to break and dump all your coolant out before you even notice something is wrong. Use genuine GM plastic connectors. Or Dorman now makes metal replacement fittings. But DON'T use the Dorman plastic ones. Just good prevenattive insurance. Would be alot easier with the motor out fo the way. There is also a dorman steel "wye" replacement for where the hose mounts to the water pump.

Here are some links for examples, make sure to match your vehicle info/hose diameters for the right ones:

https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/NOE800403HP?cid=paidsearch_shopping_dcoe_google&cid=paidsearch_conversions_pmax_napa_google_autoparts&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADzGEwy_ruIwAtd_DMRRzwgyyYeKL&gclid=Cj0KCQjw_JzABhC2ARIsAPe3ynr731uFPXUOKtAXDnRM7NTRjjbukVTqVHhUZ60NroJ7n8BZMsuU-AcaAmpsEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Dorman - HELP Radiator Coolant Hose Connector 47157

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