I have had my car on jacks for months and have installed my long tubes, custom grind blower cam, adjusted the rockers, and am now ready to put the timing cover back on. I have lurked here many times and was able to remove the timing cover easily by loosening the front oil pan bolts, especially since my engine rebuild was about a year ago and the gaskets are really new yet. What a pain in the *** to reinstall though! I have a Vortech supercharger also so space is definitely a rare comodity; the oil cooler lines are totally in the way of loosening the oil pan bolts. I disconnectd the oil cooler, but I can only reach half way down the side of the oil pan. I am having difficulty reaching the ones above the cross member. What do I do? I am in desperate need to get this car back together! I am about to lose my mind with this thing being on jacks for almost 6 months. HELP! I need to get this timing cover on and everything will be fine.

 

Do you have a swivel socket so you can get to the other bolts? If not, just go to Pepboys, Autozone and pick one up. HTH

 

Get an aftermarket k-member to gain more room
Take out the horizontal engine mount bolt and raise the motor to gain access.

 

How about the oil cooler? Is it really needed? I know that certin LT-1's didn't have an oil cooler. My car was originally an automatic, but I did the M6 swap. I was wondering if the M6 models had the oil cooler also. If they didn't, maybe I could just ditch it...

 

You don't need the oil cooler.

 

...especially if it is in your way. It does not work very well, anyway.
I don't remember having that much trouble with the pan bolts. Either very long extensions or none worked for me.

 

I advise installing a new water pump drive seal after the timing cover is installed. It's nearly impossible to keep the inner lip of that seal from rolling over when installing the timing chain cover.

 

That is a great idea! We were wondering how to get that back on...

 

Removed the oil cooler and the pan bolts were a piece of cake to get to. Thanks guys! The car willl be running again in no time...