VinylHanger
07-11-2005, 09:54 AM
After years of paying and refinancing my work truck, '91 Chevy 3/4 ton 4X4, I finally bit the bullet and payed it off. The day I payed it off, of course it had to develop a tick. Oh, well I figured a stuck lifter. The engine only had 90,000 mostly highway miles on it, with fairly regular oil changes. Run a synthetic oil change through it in the as I realize now pointless hope that it would loosen the lifter. No go.
Gearhead buddies come over, we figure it is a bad cam since both rockers on one port are loose. Looking back, this was a mistake.
So, I go and order a nice mild performance cam, lifters, and roller chain which comes a day after I had kept the weekend open to fix it, it was overnighted, which makes sense it took 4 days to get to me. Did I say this was my work truck, and it is the busy season. Anyway, it finally got here. And work commenced.
Out comes old cam in goes new cam. Lots of cussing GM engineers as to why you need to drop the pan to take off the timing cover, but then the pan won't drop because the tranny pan is in the way as well. Which was ok, since once I broke the front of the oil pan gasket, I could get it right in :thumbsdn: Oil pan gasket is now temporarily fixed, I hope. Since to get it out, the front axle of the truck needs to come off, which is no fun doing on a gravel drive in the front yard. anyway, I get it together. Go to start it. Backfire, no running... No compression, nothing crap, I gotta be 180 off, with missadjusted valves. Open the whole freakin' thing back up, this is 3 days later by the way. Yep, 180 off. Luckily friend volunteered to get underneath and deal with the pan, which I wasn't in the mood for.
Another day gone but it is all back together. Loosen valves, get ready to start it, with a bigassed grin, 'cause I know it is right this time. Start it...... fire shoots out the throttlebody and sits there like a tiny sterno stove..... I do debate just letting it go up in smoke, but it is too close to the house. So I figure the valves are way too loose, so I commence toadjust them. Pop, what the Fk. One of the studs comes off right in my hand. Then I start looking at the other ones. Most of them are showing at least 2 more threads than they should. And it is a taller cam than original, I would expect them to be the same or slightly less thread. I have at least 4 that are pulling out, which would explain the ticking.
So now we are out the 5 days I spent working on it which this time ofyear tends to be a bunch. Then the 300 bucks for assorted parts, Cam, etc. Plus 15 for a 1 1/16 inch socket that I most likely will never need again, 35 bucks for a new heater hose, 8 for a new upper heater hose fitting that is the reason for the socket. And the best part, I am going to be out an additonal 2 days and a hundred more bucks to pull both heads and take them to a machine shop to have all the rocker studs tapped and replaced with screw in studs, because this whole freaking thing started because the company I got the Reman'd engine from decided that since the heads were over machined, they needed to pin the studs instead of putting in threaded ones in the first place.
Thank-you for letting me get this off my chest, I feel soooo much better. So you ain't the only one with car troubles Thor. And believe me, I would be enjoying this if it I was putting this much effort into getting the Buick running, it's always nice to learn new things, but it's the only truck I have, and it has to be running. Ever try to run a construction company out of a Jeep Cherokee. It don't work :no:
If you made it through this whole post, I hereby post the this is a rant disclaimer, and yes I do feel much better. :D
Gearhead buddies come over, we figure it is a bad cam since both rockers on one port are loose. Looking back, this was a mistake.
So, I go and order a nice mild performance cam, lifters, and roller chain which comes a day after I had kept the weekend open to fix it, it was overnighted, which makes sense it took 4 days to get to me. Did I say this was my work truck, and it is the busy season. Anyway, it finally got here. And work commenced.
Out comes old cam in goes new cam. Lots of cussing GM engineers as to why you need to drop the pan to take off the timing cover, but then the pan won't drop because the tranny pan is in the way as well. Which was ok, since once I broke the front of the oil pan gasket, I could get it right in :thumbsdn: Oil pan gasket is now temporarily fixed, I hope. Since to get it out, the front axle of the truck needs to come off, which is no fun doing on a gravel drive in the front yard. anyway, I get it together. Go to start it. Backfire, no running... No compression, nothing crap, I gotta be 180 off, with missadjusted valves. Open the whole freakin' thing back up, this is 3 days later by the way. Yep, 180 off. Luckily friend volunteered to get underneath and deal with the pan, which I wasn't in the mood for.
Another day gone but it is all back together. Loosen valves, get ready to start it, with a bigassed grin, 'cause I know it is right this time. Start it...... fire shoots out the throttlebody and sits there like a tiny sterno stove..... I do debate just letting it go up in smoke, but it is too close to the house. So I figure the valves are way too loose, so I commence toadjust them. Pop, what the Fk. One of the studs comes off right in my hand. Then I start looking at the other ones. Most of them are showing at least 2 more threads than they should. And it is a taller cam than original, I would expect them to be the same or slightly less thread. I have at least 4 that are pulling out, which would explain the ticking.
So now we are out the 5 days I spent working on it which this time ofyear tends to be a bunch. Then the 300 bucks for assorted parts, Cam, etc. Plus 15 for a 1 1/16 inch socket that I most likely will never need again, 35 bucks for a new heater hose, 8 for a new upper heater hose fitting that is the reason for the socket. And the best part, I am going to be out an additonal 2 days and a hundred more bucks to pull both heads and take them to a machine shop to have all the rocker studs tapped and replaced with screw in studs, because this whole freaking thing started because the company I got the Reman'd engine from decided that since the heads were over machined, they needed to pin the studs instead of putting in threaded ones in the first place.
Thank-you for letting me get this off my chest, I feel soooo much better. So you ain't the only one with car troubles Thor. And believe me, I would be enjoying this if it I was putting this much effort into getting the Buick running, it's always nice to learn new things, but it's the only truck I have, and it has to be running. Ever try to run a construction company out of a Jeep Cherokee. It don't work :no:
If you made it through this whole post, I hereby post the this is a rant disclaimer, and yes I do feel much better. :D