then it came time fore the oil pan to get secured after the front cover was put on. i opted for a new timing cover as per the instructions from chevy, the seal is molded into the the cover itself and it doesnt stand up very well to time.













while the motor was out and there was some creepy looking coolant gunk i decided to do another heater core just in case to prevent any clogs

 

decided to go with some comp cams 1.6:1 ratio roller tip magnum rocker arms to up the duration and lift since we decided not to go with one of those "computer friendly" cams





had a big DOH moment once i went to go install them though, i found out when the pivot ***** wouldnt fit that i had to replace the rocker studs....no fun. good luck trying to find metric on the bottom and SAE on the top for a v-6. several speed shops looked at me like i had 3 heads when i asked for them. but i finally tracked them down from ARP and had them overnighted to get the motor done

 

alright where did i leave off.....rockers! thats it. well had a bit of a problem with the lifters. when you have people helping you out make sure they know what they are doing...rather than making the assumtion that they know how to properly install rocker arms, double check that they dont find a "rocker" torque spec in the haynes manual and go ahead and just torque them all the way the eff down. more on this later....

here are some more pics for you guys



paint







my dad went and ordered a set of OBX headers off ebay, really cheap too....but i found out why they were so cheap later on too when they leaked like crazy



the #3 tube loops out and around the steering shaft for clearance. cool design but PITA



sneak peak of it all installed

 

ready to swing. i always cover everything up whether it be a carb hole or in this case the entire lifter valley with cardboard and some shop rags on the rockers to prevent anything from falling down in there and making a big oops







the good ole' fashion way to find TDC lol. just thought it was a cool pic













in the middle of all of this the rear on my 98 decided to blow. my ex always told me i was good at killing spiders but i somehow doubt this is what she ment....

 

following the trend of this build something went wrong when i swung the motor too. i caught the wire loom and ended up squashing it between the motor and trans.





put the refurbed spider onto the intake





once again. a problem. intake bolt snapped when in/lbs were confused with ft/lbs



success! got it out



break bolt-check! lol



new bolts and we were in business

 

made a checklist and just went at it full force hooking stuff back up...

 

wow great detail in those pictures. how long did the whole process take?

 

Nice work!

 

haha longer than id like to admit. it took about 5 weeks with my work schedule and all the other projects i had going on. i started out thinking it would take only 2 weeks. oh boy was i mistaken.

 

thanks man, never again though. if the motor dies in my 98 it will either be time for a crate/junker or hasta la vista baby