It's a pretty simple thought, really. So simple, it gets missed. Especially for quasi-newbie LT1 mechanics. If you're doing major mods to the engine, pretty much anything beyond the usual bolt-ons, there is an easy way to make life better.

Don't change everything at once. It's that simple. The more changes made at once, the more variables. The more variables, the more grief when you fire it up and it doesn't run right, which happens a lot.

Leave the easy mods you plan to do at the same time alone until the big stuff is in and works right. The ones that are easy to get at, leave those alone until you get the things done that are hard to get at.

Specifically, if you're doing cam/heads, don't change your TB, EGR, old vacuum line replacement, etc, until you've fired the car up and know the cam/heads/valves are cool. Because if you've gone nuts and replaced everything at once, you just made life a whole lot harder on yourself when it could be any of 8 things wrong vs either of 2 things.

Just a simple piece of advice to take or leave. But if you read this forum very much, you can see what happens to a lot of first timers, and it's usually not pretty.

 

i agree...

 

Worth considering, but you also need to take into account the "economy of scale". For an extreme example, say the engine has to come out and be torn down. That's the perfect time for a cam, heads, etc. You are already doing the work and it's so much easier when the motor is out of the car. I will say this though, if it isn't running right BEFORE you work on it, unless you are sure what is wrong and are also fixing the problem, you will just make troubleshooting worse by changing a bunch of stuff.

Rich Krause

 

Who's side are you on here?

 

I'm talking about the no-brainer-easy-to-do-from-the-top mods that can still make your life hell when trying to track down what's wrong when you go to start your new setup for the first time and say to yourself "Uh-oh".

Like:

1. "I can't wait to bolt on my new/different TB"
2. "Now's a good time to replace ALL my vacuum hoses"
3. "I never did like how those wires were routed, anyway"
4. "Those PCM connectors look dirty so I think I'll yank 'em apart and get a toothbrush"

That sort of thing. Leave that stuff alone till you make sure everything new is happy. It's just a bunch of items to take off the list of things to check when you go "Uh-oh."