jedblanks

Yes. That part number will plug the holes.

adamgl

My heads already have ARP bolts. Would it be better to buy bottoming taps or a few stock bolts to modify to clean the holes out?

mistermog

a few stock bolts modified is better than taps because it doesn't cut threads at all. Chasers are expensive and unless you plan to do more than a few sets of heads, just modify stock bolts and use those instead.

jeffreystar

Good work!! I never made a claim that GM said to do the process I described, but I was sharing tribal knowledge I've picked up along the way on doing various heads/cam swaps on 302, LT1 and LSX cars.

jedblanks

I'm in the middle of doing another swap, this time with Cam Swap Added in.

At some point I will try to post the additional steps necessary for that.

So far it is:
Remove radiator shroud, radiator and swing condenser forward.

For the next step, I'm wondering why you cannot just raise the motor a bit to remove the Crank Pulley rather than removing rack or dropping cradle. Will the motor not go that high?

erichg1000

No it won't. It will hit the top of the firewall where some hardlines are.

I myself, was not able to get the radiator off of the condenser without removing the hardlines. I didn't want to remove the hardlines, so I swung the entire rad+con unit up to hover over the engine. See my post about my "most hoodrat way to mount a balancer".

jedblanks

I have the heads and intake off. Will it still hit the firewall?

I agree that the radiator condenser separation was excruciating. Feel bad for the poor shmoe that just needs a new radiator.

erichg1000

it's the bell housing that hits firewall

jedblanks

gotcha!

Thanks. I was looking for that info and couldn't find it anywhere in the old interwebs.

mistermog

Yeah you cant do it that way, the steering rack isn't as bad as it sounds once you realize you have to bend the little tabs on the passenger side so it fits back in the car.

I used a little bolt and some nuts and made my own little spreader and it worked fine, after I did that I had it back in the car in less than 10 minutes. The entire cam took less time then figuring out that stupid part.

erichg1000

I dropped the cradle (had to anyway for pfadt headers and engine mounts) and I would do it that way again. I've heard they are both about an equal amount of work but you have to get an alignment the cradle way.

CHIWS6

I got the coolant plugs in the mail today but i forgot all about the bolt, does any know what is the size of the bolt?

danh52

What happened to the pictures? I can't most of them.

jeffreystar

The pictures are hosted on FB and have a global security setting. You may need a FB account to see the pictures, I'm really not sure. If the forum wants to host the images an admin can download the pics and edit the links or ask me to edit the links.

I no longer own a Z06 (CTS-V now) so I'm never on this forum.

TheDingo

Use the below diagram to crack loose all of the 8mm bolts in reverse order counting down from 10 to 1

Does anyone have this diagram from the manual? It's the unbolting sequence for the intake manifold. Thank you!!

vvlf

Can anyone tell me why its so important to drain all your coolant when doing a head swap ? <- something about if you don't you could risk cracking your block ? What I don't understand is why (which isn't saying much since I'm still learning). I get that if you don't drain any and try to pull the heads you'll soak the engine bay and floor in coolant, but why drain the whole thing ?

TheDingo

I think the point is to get coolant out of the bolt holes or you could crack the block when installing the new head bolts. You definitely want to drain the coolant either because of everything you need to take off the car.

TheDingo

I uninstalled my heads this weekend. I've got them stripped down and ready to ship to WCCH. A couple of things, I unscrewed the head bolts far enough to where I could lift the head and keep coolant from soaking those bores. Place it back down then pull the head bolts, then pull the heads off is how I did it.

Also, I didn't have to do step #9. I saw someone else post that in a previous page and I was able to get the bracket off without moving the power steering pump. It took some time but it really wasn't that bad.

Great DIY. Thanks to the OP.

vvlf

But why ? Why would leaving coolant in cause the block to crack when you go to re-install everything

TheDingo

Because if you keep tightening a bolt down in to a bore that's full of water, something has to give.. and it won't be the water.