[RobZL1]

Originally Posted by radz28

Interested in seeing the wire care changes! Excited for your upgrades!!!

It's currently a thought exercise in progress, but I have some ideas that I think will work. My main goal is to be able to get to the header bolts and plugs without having to remove a darn thing. A few components will relocate, and that wire harness is going to get redone.

[RobZL1]

I was also able to make some progress today. I was supposed to be playing in a charity golf scramble but it got canceled due to weather. I decided to keep my day off of work and make some Camaro progress!

I started by assembling this behemoth. Not bad at all, just a lot of heavy pieces.



I also pulled the headers and connectors, the fan, the aluminum crossbrace under the engine, and a few other minor things. I didn't grab a pic, but I was happy to see the UHO cats still looked like they should, too.





Then I took it off the jack stands and put it back on the dollies and shoved it back over to its side of the garage. I had my wife take a photo of how this sits when I'm not working on it. I wish I had a 3-car garage, but unfortunately this is the state of my 2-car garage.

You can see one goofy/happy guy in the pic, too. The shirt was a gift at some point and has been my go to shirt for working in the garage ever since.



There is not much left before the motor comes out. Just need to pull the starter, unplug the alternator, get the last two bolts on the a/c compressor, undo the oil cooler lines and remove the lower radiator hose(s). Then it's just a matter of bell housing bolts, cradle bolts, and engine mounts. This baby is coming out this weekend I think!

.

[RobZL1]

Let me just pause for a moment to express how much I absolutely despise coolant and coolant lines.

That is all.

[Camfab]

lol, the stuff on the concrete looks like your blood.

[Evansa22]

Originally Posted by RobZL1

Let me just pause for a moment to express how much I absolutely despise coolant and coolant lines.

That is all.

Attachment 1164187

Attachment 1164188

If you pull the water manifold assembly off the front of the motor, make sure there's a drip pan under there! Still plenty of coolant trapped in the block. Made the biggest mess of all

[SOCAL.M6.ZLE]

Originally Posted by RobZL1

Let me just pause for a moment to express how much I absolutely despise coolant and coolant lines.

That is all.

Attachment 1164187

Attachment 1164188

Making great progress buddy! Looking like a clean dis-assembly so far!
We used the same valley lifting plate and engine hoist! Keep those progress photos coming!

[RobZL1]

Originally Posted by Camfab

lol, the stuff on the concrete looks like your blood.

Certainly felt like it should have been. Coolant kept appearing as if out of thin air.

Originally Posted by Evansa22

If you pull the water manifold assembly off the front of the motor, make sure there's a drip pan under there! Still plenty of coolant trapped in the block. Made the biggest mess of all

Thank you! I will pay attention to that when I get there!

Originally Posted by SOCAL.M6.ZLE

Making great progress buddy! Looking like a clean dis-assembly so far!
We used the same valley lifting plate and engine hoist! Keep those progress photos coming!

Thanks, man. Yep- I liked the look of the lifting plate the best out of the few options I saw, and the Harbor Freight stuff is always a go-to when needed.

[RobZL1]

Big day yesterday! The engine came out and I got it onto the stand!

It was mostly uneventful, except for even more coolant that came out.

One thing I would have done differently is to buy more caps and plugs, just so everything could be contained as much as possible until I was ready for it to be drained.

The whole thing went exactly as described by the people who have done it:
- raise engine and transmission
- drop cradle a couple of inches, leaving one bolt on each side
- separate the engine from the transmission with a few good yanks and a pry bar
- carefully navigate the engine up and out!

Since I moved the car back to the side of the garage when I was done, I opted for a less-traditional bellhousing support method, but given the relative light weight it seems to work just fine.

Here are the pics.













Next weekend I plan to tear the motor down, clean it up, and get the heads sent out to Katech.

All tucked away until next time:

[SOCAL.M6.ZLE]

Fantastic update ROB!! You make that look easy for sure! This build will no doubt help others down the road! Keep it up!

[RobZL1]

Originally Posted by SOCAL.M6.ZLE

Fantastic update ROB!! You make that look easy for sure! This build will no doubt help others down the road! Keep it up!

Thanks, buddy! Your thread, Evans22's video, and others were a big help for me, for sure!





Did anyone see Justin / Stangkilr's Nemo ZL1 that just killed the fuel pump lifter and beat the snot out of the back half of his new $35k LTR motor? Yikes! I was planning on replacing the lifter with a new one, but maybe I'm better off with my old one. Maybe there was an interference/clearance issue in the bore or something, but he said LME has seen a few of them fail. I'm sure it's an anomaly, but dang! I just saw this car in person last month at Vengeance and it put down 18xx on the hub dyno. Really stinks on a fresh build. Let's hope none of us suffer the same fate. Here are some snips from his YT video.

[Joshinator99]

Originally Posted by RobZL1

Thanks, buddy! Your thread, Evans22's video, and others were a big help for me, for sure!





Did anyone see Justin / Stangkilr's Nemo ZL1 that just killed the fuel pump lifter and beat the snot out of the back half of his new $35k LTR motor? Yikes! I was planning on replacing the lifter with a new one, but maybe I'm better off with my old one. Maybe there was an interference/clearance issue in the bore or something, but he said LME has seen a few of them fail. I'm sure it's an anomaly, but dang! I just saw this car in person last month at Vengeance and it put down 18xx on the hub dyno. Really stinks on a fresh build. Let's hope none of us suffer the same fate. Here are some snips from his YT video.

Attachment 1164415

Attachment 1164416

Attachment 1164417

Holy crap…!?!?! That sucks. :(

[RobZL1]

Right?? Maybe he was bottoming out the pump and really stressing the lifter somehow. Who knows? Seems like an odd one-off though. Do most people replace this lifter or just reuse the old one? I was going to get a new one because it slipped out of the guide and I have no idea which way it spun now. I didn't want to put it back in and have the roller rotate the opposite way.

[radz28]

LOOKING GREAT!!! That's a lot of work! How long with the heads be at Katech?

I'm not suggesting that it's appropriate, but it's not a wonder to me why those FP lifters might fail. They're riding on more aggressive lobes they weren't designed for, at probably higher RPMs, too. I'm surprised how they SEEM like the body is stamped; maybe that's just my perspective. If that's right, though, I would think they would make them out of something more robust, but what do I know?

EXCELLENT PROGRESS!!!

[RobZL1]

Originally Posted by radz28

LOOKING GREAT!!! That's a lot of work! How long with the heads be at Katech?

I'm not suggesting that it's appropriate, but it's not a wonder to me why those FP lifters might fail. They're riding on more aggressive lobes they weren't designed for, at probably higher RPMs, too. I'm surprised how they SEEM like the body is stamped; maybe that's just my perspective. If that's right, though, I would think they would make them out of something more robust, but what do I know?

EXCELLENT PROGRESS!!!

Thanks, Chuck! I think the turn around is a week or so on the heads, but I've definitely got plenty of time, so no rush for me at this point.

The lifter does look and feel a little light/cheap, but yeah it was designed for a stock lobe and a stock pump, so it's now accelerating faster and traveling farther with more spring pressure on it compared to stock. Probably no wonder some have failed. Plus there may be some post-covid supply chain nonsense mixed in there with just crappy parts in general.