just wondering if thats the next thing i should buy... i dont want to do it if its too much work to do myself

 

A heads/cam swap isn't exactly a walk-in-the-park. Do a search and see what it entails, then decide whether or not it's within your ability.

 

is it a "pull engine out" project or could you do it under the hood?

 

You can certainly do it without pulling the motor, sure. In fact most people do it that way. Some will argue that it's easier to pull the motor though. I say if you've still got A/C, emissions, etc., then it's easier to leave the motor in the car. If most of that stuff is deleted though, I'd pull it out the bottom (if you have the resources to do so).

 

well im in california so i gotta keep all the emissions stuff. i was going to keep mostly stock, but just bought a supercharger, so i thought i might as well rebuild the engine

 

The stock heads, and intake work well with boost. No need to port. A custom grind cam would do great with a supercharger tho. Just make sure to build the bottom end up and you will be fine.

 

Check out http://shbox.com/ci/cam_install.html

we just did one with it out of the car, but we had to replace the engine as well. But I'm used to dropping the subframe so I find it easier to do.

 

Easy??!!? You must be confusing the LT1 Camaro with a different car/engine. NOTHING on these cars is easy. Just changing the plugs is an exercise in restraint....restraint in the urge to beat the car to death with a hammer. That being said, I'll give you a couple words of advice when working on this car. Just remember..."It's only bolts". Take 'em off, put 'em back on, just take your time. Take pictures at every stage of disassembly if you're unfamiliar with the engine, and bag and label all small parts so they don't get lost.

 

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or serious.

To answer the TS's question, heads/cam/new timing and top end is an easy job if you're mechanically inclined and you know how an engine works.

The job can be done in a day with a standard socket set and a torque wrench.

If you struggle doing spark plugs then it might be a job and a half.

If you have stock manifolds a big part of your battle will be getting the cats off cleanly and getting the manifolds off without breaking bolts off in the heads.

These engines are extremely simple to work on, as it's simply a pushrod engine. Not only that, but you don't even have to set the timing, as the optispark only goes on one way.

For a first timer it might take a couple days to make sure you do everything right, and you use rtv correctly, and be sure to lube all the parts and get your torque specs correct.

Aside from clearance issues with the headers, on one side anyway, I find this to be as easy as any other engine I've worked on.

 

well i think i am somewhat mechanically inclined, and i did put shorty headers on(seems like the hardest project ive ever done!) but i think i could do it. Thanks guys for the help!

 

Yeah id say the only hard thing about it would be getting th intake manifold to sit right and have no leaks later on. Hope you have a partner for that. Other than that as long as the crank isnt moved after you take the timing set off then everything goes back on one way as long as you set the cam pin in the new cam exactly how you took the old one out. Also if anyone knows. I know you can degree a cam but to me i see the timing set only going on one way. Does this matter cause ive seen some timing sets that let you adjust the timing five degrees but i got a stock timing set so i havent ran into this even when i did my cam and head swap. Just wondering.

 

Here is some good reading and a real good guide to help you if you decide to tackle this.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/155788...2575535&sr=8-1

Its really not that bad, I have done twice myself with the engine still in the car. Actually, my car is in the garage now with the heads off.

 

Nope, not being sarcastic. As modern engines go, it's probably not any worse than others. I'm defining "easy" as an engine where you can actually see it when you open the hood, eg '60's muscle cars. Heads and cam on my '66 Mustang could probably be done in 3-4 hours without breaking a sweat. Hell, I can pull the engine and tranny by myself in about an hour and a half. Try doing that on an F-Body. But I do agree, if you're mechanically inclined, with a good set of tools, you can do it. Like I said, take your time, bag/lable small parts and take pics along the way unless you're already familiar with this car.

PS You're not actually saying the opti is easy, are you? OK fine, you don't have to "set the timing". But on any other SBC, or SBF engine, R+R on the distributor consists of removing one hold-down bolt. Compare that to the opti. Now, before some smart-*** jumps on here and says "I did an opti swap in 2 hours" I'll say fine, if you've done enough of them, I'm sure you can get pretty good with the practice. I've done dozens of of engine swaps, and prolly 15-20 engine builds (most all Ford and GM stuff) and when I did my opti last week it was a 5-hour job. I will never catagorize the LT1 F-bod as an "easy" car to work on.

 

I would say you are right, compared to my old 67 or 72 chevelles, the lt1's are more difficult to work with. I suppose it all depends on what you are used to. I have a friend who has sworn off of any kind of muscle car that has a computer. And even though I know how to set and tune just about any 4150 flanged Carb, I would much rather work on my lt1!

 

I did my rear main seal last week and had my trans off in 45 minutes, and had the job completed (including cleaning up my underbody) in under 5 hours. That included pulling the trans, clutch, flywheel, loosening the oil pan, cleaning off old gasket material, etc.. An automatic is another story. Edit: I did use pneumatics which makes all the difference in the world.

And the second part, I find the opti to be an extremely overrated job as far is difficulty. The only part that sucks is having to pull off the waterpump and spilling coolant everywhere. I don't think I'd call anybody who says an opti is easy a smart-***, as there really isn't anything to the job, unless you can point out which parts were difficult for you.