95VertZ

I am getting very close to being able to fire my motor up once again after doing a lot of work to it. I installed a Transgo HD2 shift kit in my 4l60e and added a deeper pan to help keep it cool also. I was looking up the extra capacity earlier while adding all of my fluids back into the car and noticed it calls for a filter extension on the deeper pan. Of course, I never seen that (my mistake) while installing the pan so I just bought a new stock filter, put it in and buttoned it all up. My question is, will having the filter up from the bottom of the deeper pan hurt anything? Or, should I (dreadfully) drop the pan to change it or go back to stock pan?

Secondly, Since I am so close to running time again, I only have the long tube headers coming off from the enging now, no exhaust yet. Is it possible that I can do the initial start-up on the enging with open headers and not hurt anything? I know it will be unbelievably loud but I can deal with that, I just don't want to cause any issues. I have read somewhere that the valves can get damaged from cold air returning up into the headers after shut down, but not sure about that.

One more thing, I installed a custom grind cam from Lloyd. When I start the motor up for first time, is there any certain procedure I should follow or just run it to get warm and check for leaks,etc.? Still using stock bottom end. I did prime the engine with the priming tool before I installed the intake to make sure everything was getting oil (pushrods,etc) so will I need to try to prime it again by maybe unplugging injectors first or can I just crank her on up?

Thanks everyone!!