Hey guys, I have a 96z with a cam and boltons... I put the headers and all the boltons on myself, so I have some generic knowledge of taking stuff apart haha... I saved up money to get heads, but I honestly dont have the money to get them installed, I was wondering how hard it is to install them.. and do I have to do any valve lashing/cam degreeing stuff in the process, as I dont want to mess anything tooo important up.

Thank you very much for the help

Van

 

I changed my head gaskets out about a year ago. Wasn't too hard. One thing I would reccommend is to start by getting the wiring harness out of the way. I unplugged the whole harness and laid it over on the drivers side tower on a towel. Made things a lot easier. Does everyone do this, I don't know. But I know if I were changing my heads/intake out, this is the first thing I would be doing.

Be sure to get the right tourqe sequence for the heads and intake. Use ARP thread sealer on all the head bolts, ARP lube on the intake, and get some new ARP head bolts. The stock ones are torque-to-yeild and should not be reused, at least that's what I've been told and did. Here are some torque specs you'll need. The new ARP head bolts will have their torque spec in the instructions (I think it was like 65 lbs.). You will have to set the valve lash, but you did that when you did your cam instal, so you already know how to do that. Shoebox's website really came in handy for me. Might have to do a little digging, but it should all be there.

 

Here's a link to a good write-up: http://afrashteh.com/guide/install.htm

 

It's not that hard, I think its easier than a cam swap. And whatever you do DONT use ARP thread sealer, it was letting oil seep through my rocker studs and it was pretty much non-existent on my head bolts when I pulled them out. And you need thread sealer on the intake manifold bolts not assembly lube.

 

I dont think he did the cam himself, he said he put the boltons on? thats a great writeup! wish I had that when I did mine

 

speed_demon24, did you try the ARP thread sealer and lube once and had a bad experience with it? I've used it just the one time and havn't had a problem with it as far as I know. I'm not losing oil, so I guess their holding fine. And now that you said it, seems like I might have used some thread sealer on the intake bolts thread section and some lube against the head and intake to be sure it was tightend to the correct torque. Same way with all the head bolts. Is it that important, probably not, but I used it for peace of mind.

OrbitalChris, my bad. I saw he had a cam and ran with it I guess. Yes, Shoebox's website made my removal and instal possible. Without it, I KNOW I could have never finished it by myself, seriously. Shoebox's webiste:

 

it can be difficult and easy to make an error on, if you have never donem that type of work before, or tore an engine apart. Your not exactly talking about changing spark plugs here.