deja

Another excuse to buy a new tool.

What the hell are these things? The GM shop manual of course tells me to use J 39997 for the cap and J 39998 for thr rotor or the equivalent but naturally they don't tell you what the equivalent is. They look like Torx but they seem to have more teeth. Man what ever happened to the hex bolt, LOL?

Thanks, so many decisions, LOL. I will be much happier when I get all my parts ready and start building. So far its been fun, few setbacks but nothing devastating...yet! This swap over is going to take a long time, that's for sure. I also have a garage full of suspension and brakes (4 piston fronts and rear discs) I am going to swap at the same time. Right now I'm still driving it.

So what you are saying is GM balances the whole egnine after it is built by counterweighting/drilling the flywheel/flexplate and harmonic balancer? So if I have the machine shop balance my crank/pinstons I need a different neutrally balanced flywheel/flexplate and harmonic balancer? If I simply get the crank polished and add my new pistons I can't simply use the stock flexplate and harmonic balancer? It would be easier/cheaper/better to get neutrally balanced flex-plate and balancer? Its all so confusing, LOL.

OH! Thanks, I will remmebr to bring that up at the machine shop.

I haven't taken the head apart yet. I planned on having them gone over anyway.

It had oil, very dirty oil. There was a little sludge in the pan, but not much. The coolent was that orange stuff and didn't look all the good.

I came close to just installing the engine but my SBC buddy told me to at least pull the mains. Then I decided to pull the heads, then oh what the hell, lets tear her down. You're right good thing I might have wasted a lot of time. Kind of disappointing on an engine that's supposed to have on 79,000 miles. Looks like it got water in it some how.

I have pertty much decided to replace almost everything including pistons, but thought the cam was going to be something I could keep. Hopefully there won't be more surprises when I take to the machine shop.

That would be great. You've got Email.

This can't be good, rust and cam are rarely a good thing. I guess this is what happens when you buy an engine that's been sitting for too long. I would have thought the oil would have prevented this. Anyway I'm looking for a replacement when I rebuild this. I have no plans to run this car on the strip. I want to keep it close to stock, making a daily driver and want to get some decent gas mileage. The engine is out of a 1995 Z28 LT1. The car will most likely have a 4L60E auto, but that isn't written in stone yet, still considering the T56 6 speed. Any opinions on a cam for this scenario would be appreciated, I assume there are better, cheaper options than going stock GM.

This board certainly is a wealth of helpful knowledge. You are correct, building a car is a money losing proposition regardless what we see on Wrecks to Riches on Speed TV. Building your Z at 16 years old is an amazing accomplishment, you should be very proud of yourself. I bought my Z car already built and have spent the past year rebuilding much of it and have just started the LT1 engine swap. This is not my first project car and if I had it to do this one all over again I would not have bought a prebuilt one. Sure, its easier to have someone else do the work and spend the money, but there is nothing like being able to say "Yes I built that". I'm sure you'll enjoy the Firebird, but I but you'll be altering it very soon. Hotrodding gets in your blood and there is no way to remove it.

I saw that one the other day. That's one of the reasons I asked for opinios here. There never is a simple answer is there?

Get the casting numbers off your block. Go to http://www.mortec.com/castnum.htm and look up the number

Thanks for the reply.

I've starting the rebuild on a '95 Z28 LT1 to go into my '77 280Z. This computer driven fuel injected engine is all new to me. On the back of the intake manifold there are two connection for the EGR. One is a tube which I assume runs to the exhaust manifold and the other is the mounting for the EGR. I did some searching here and see some have eliminated the EGR and some haven't. I also see block-offs advertised for the EGR. Is the EGR really necessary? Is there a real downside to not running the EGR in my Z?

I have a whole new engine, uses spepentine belts so I won't be using naything from my present engine.

Running Scarab right now. That's going to change as soon as I can get this LT1 '95 Z28 engine rebuilt, find a tranny and all the other stuff, LOL. Going to be a long process.

That is bigger than my whole house, LOL. After I started my engine swap project I realized my garage is way too small. As for the tools, I am very jealous of those with all that gear.

Did you try mounting it low on the driver's side? I think we're using the same bracket. Here's some looks at my setup. The belt runs on the inside water pump and crank pullies.

Congrats and thanks for debugging that for the rest of us planning this swap soon.