[MeanGreen1LE]

Low pressure fuel line 13 bag 13 box 1
⅜” fuel line disconnect remove lock tabs first.
Passenger side

Disconnect fan power and first radiator shroud. 14. Box 1
Retainer for plug slide off see pic. One additional wire wrangler tab.
Disconnect; push hard but no locking tab.
Remove 3 small push pins for small shroud on top of fan/radiator. Pried between fan and shroud pins stayed in shroud.

[MeanGreen1LE]

Drain coolant 15
Petcock passenger towards front easy to see. My son says my car needs privacy.
Begin removing radiator hoses box 1 little three ended hose.

Hoses continued 16 Box 1
T stat to radiator larger hose.

Coolant Reservoir 17
17a 10mm nut. Retreaded on strut tower
17b one hose and clamp and one wire retainer reservoir on top of coolant bucket


Firewall heater core hoses 18
Quick connect is easier than hose clamp. Pull back wire as shown by arrow. May have to use pick to get started. Hoses are labeled left and right. (Remember as sitting in car)
Pop wire wranglers out from big wire loom to access water pump hoses. Remove upper and lower hoses they are marked from factory. Remove 13 mm bolt and bracket to allow easier removal. Hoses box1. Clamps are pretty tough to get to; having a set of hose clamp pliers helps.

[MeanGreen1LE]

Radiator and fan wire clips 19
3 more clips to allow removal of more hoses.
Large water pump hose. Decided to try and get fan off before doing lower hose.
Fan removal 20 box 1
Transmission fitting. Pop clip off plug holes with silicone cap n plug. Don’t lose clip like I did. First missing part 😡
Two 10 mm bolts. One on each side.
Two clips on each side
3 7mm bolts. Remove bottom cover. (Says bottom )
Last large radiator hose on radiator. PITA
Remove 10 mm bolt holding ac lines
Bottom transmission line. (Already done and plugged in picture.

[MeanGreen1LE]

Radiator removal (hopefully) 21
Top support brackets 4 10mm bolts and brackets.

Yeah right now yet. 22
Metal clips pry them off

Crash bar prelim plastic and clips. 23
3 wire clips along top. Different looking clip over horn mount. Unhook horn. ( red locking tab on bottom. I actually temporarily unbolted it because it was hard to see what kind it was) one wire clip I missed drivers side.

24 lower aux cooler plastic box 1
3 plastic pop out clips on each side. Pop out some kind of sensor from behind. Release plastic holding line underneath.

25 remove final transmission line.

26. Remove aux cooler. 2x 10 mm bolt each side. Laying by bumper cover.

[MeanGreen1LE]

27 crash bar
One pop clip each side up top and down below see picture. (Bottom are two stage clips) in bag
10mm each side on diagonal.
4 13 mm each side. All of this is basically mirrored on the other side.
Remove bar😮

28 more plastic dissection box 1
Two pop clips and one wire clip passenger
Two pop clip driver. No pic.

29 plastics aux side radiator intakes.
Passenger only. 4 pop clips. Part by bumper cover.

[MeanGreen1LE]

30 brake ducts front.
Just do passenger 1 clip driver is to hard with vacuum pump in the way.

31 radiator getting closer.
star clip things metal. 3 more on passenger. 2 more on driver. Remove plastic side piece on passenger. Unable to remove side shroud on driver due to ac lines entering condenser.

32 one Phillips on each side of condenser.

33 since the condenser and radiator are designed to come out as a unit after you disconnect ac lines; it will take some major fanigaling. You must lift condenser up past holders on the radiator to separate them. Then be very careful and begin to angle the condenser away from car far enough to allow the radiator to come out towards the front and bottom. Cross your finger and say a prayer that they don’t crimp or leak😮. It’s quite scary.

[MeanGreen1LE]

34 throttle body box 2
Unhook electrical connector.
Remove 4 10 mm bolts.

35 intake manifold
Remove purge solenoid connector.
Unhook vacuum port for brakes. (Just outside gram in picture. )
Remove 10x10mm bolts they do not come out of manifold completely.
Carefully lift intake off. Vacuum lime can be disconnected from back after you lift off. It has a simple push to release fitting. Map sensor and purge valve will be took off later when assembling new intake.
Insulator under intake can be set aside. I have not decided if I will use it or not as I have read it interferes with msd.

Look how nasty intake is with <1500 miles.

[MeanGreen1LE]

36 prepare for valve cover removal.
Remove 8 coil plugs. Red lock tabs. A few were a little contrary.
Remove 8 plug wires from coils
Small wire tab on front of valve cover

37-1
10 mm boot holding fuel rail on. Driver

37-2
T-30 torx holding dipstick on passenger.
Messing with dipstick reminded me I needed to go ahead and drain oil.

38 interlude for oil and remove shear plate while I’m at it.
I. I numbered bolts since at least the front 8 are torque to yield and supposed to be replaced. 12 bolts and 2 nuts all 15mm. I may buy them but good grief it’s annoying when there is no Chevy dealer here.

39-a drivers side valve cover 9 x10mm bolts around parameter. Notice there are 10 holes in valve cover 9 of them have bolt guides one does not that one is where bracket for fuel line attached. (Blue arrow) I was confused at first and thought one of the guides had fallen out.

39b passenger cover. Same as driver but has all 10 bolts no pic.

[MeanGreen1LE]

40. Rocker arm removal.
8mm bolt in each
Also remove push rods.
Honestly since I’m replacing heads keeping in order doesn’t matter but it’s good practice so I did.

41 Che trunnion upgrade. Use ⅞ and 9/16 sockets and vise press or drill press as described in instructions. Makes one a little nervous at first breaking them down. Also watch out as the needle bearings will go absolutely everywhere. Not hard to figure out why this is a recommended upgrade.
Follow directions for assembly good examples on you tube. Hardest part for me was finding the flat or sharp side of each snap ring. Also had one snap ring deform before opening enough. I emailed Che and they are supposed to be sending me a couple. (Responded in like 15 minutes awesome!)

[MeanGreen1LE]

42 remove heat shield on each side 10mmx3 on each. Pull spark plug wires twist as you pull.

43 remove spark plugs to protect them from upcoming steps. ⅝. Che box was perfect to store them.

44 unbolt exhaust manifolds from bottom. 8x15 mm total. Will need to unbolt drivers side o2 sensor. ⅞ will want o2 tool.

45 back up top exhaust manofold bolts. 13mmx5 Loosen opposite torque sequence out to in. Will come out up top. Remember dipstick tube!!!!!! See 45b and c. It goes between first to exhaust ports

46 remove serp belt. Use t-50 clockwise to gently decompress tensioner. Remove.

47 stretch fit ac belt. Get a tool these stink. Initial marred up my ac pulley with a pry bar. Ended up using plastic trim tool to pry it off( see pic. I just lauded it up there near where I started. Belt is off already. No sure if I’ll replace belt. Bought a tool from lisle hopefully it makes install ready. Belt is in box one.

[MeanGreen1LE]

48 removing more wire connectors and clips
Oil pressure sensor
Afm sensor
Temp sensor on water pump flip up clip from behind.
Remove 13 mm bolt to unattach bracket.
Pull clip out and lay harness out of the way.
49 thermostat and housing. Pulled this since I’m putting 160 Katech in.
10mm x 3 remove. My gasket was stuck was slightly stuck to water manifold. Put it with housing after next step.
Push down and twist to get to actual thermostat.
50 water pump/water manifold
The water pump and oil separator come off as a unit. Pull back metal clip as per picture. It stays on. Pic 1-a I forgot this and hung on it when I pulled pulp a step or two later. Small plastic wire clip.
13mm bolts x6. 1,2,3,5 are longer. 4&6 are shorter. Remove metal clip for oil cooler pipe. This one actually comes off like a transmission line.
Remove pump assemble watch out for connections for oil separator and oil cooler. Separator housing is plastic and I’ve seen others break it. I’m nervous for installing. Make sure you have gaskets for later.

[MeanGreen1LE]

51 direct injection electrical connections.
Passenger rail red tab locked connector.
Di pump connector.
Driver rail connector.

52 fuel line connections.
Feed like for di pump. Pop protective clip back and Use ⅜ quick disconnect tool. Remove and store box3
Pump to distribution fuel line. 17 mm. Many reuse these without issue but gm says they are to be replaced. I bet they will be fine. They are pretty deep though and failure could equate to a fireball so I went ahead and bought new. Gm# 12677004. Has a tag that says A
17mm and one 10mm holding down. Gm# 12677002

53 fuel rail box 3
Passenger side 13mmx4
Drivers side 13mmx4 on both gentle pry up one end at a time. And lift straight out. Watch out 3 of my seals stayed in head. I used small center punch to gently pull them out. I think I’ll go ahead and reuse them.

54 di fuel pump box 3
Remove 2 13 mm bolts and remove assembly.

55 removing wire clips and grounds from rear of heads.
Mirror picture. ((2 ground straps on driver!!)
Grounds have little tabs that going around edge to help locate them.
One wiring clip up top no pic.
One ground strap passenger side.
Two wire holding clips one high easy and one partially coming from starter wires. Mine was awful!!

[MeanGreen1LE]

56 drivers side head
1 13 mm Allen head and 9 15 mm 6 point.
Loosen Outside to inside in a few passes.
Passenger side same but 10x15mm. I soaked antifreeze out of cylinders and had my son coat them with oil since I’m waiting on oil pump. (56-1)

57 remove lifter trays. One 10mm bolt in each tray. 2 lifters usually come with tray use a magnet pen to get the others out. Re threaded bolt to use later. Will have new trays and lifters.

58 modifying lifters to solid for checking piston to valve clearance later.
I watched multiple videos on ls style lifters but these were slightly different. There just didn’t seem to be enough room to get spring clip back in all the way. I pulled apart the check ball valve and used it as a spacer after very very slightly mashing it in a vice. I compressed it less than 1/16” maybe closer to 1/32” measuring with the end digital caliper from the top of the lifter to the flat outside edge of the cup the: The first one was .1045” the second measured .1040” So it’s really close. Regardless if you use separate adjustable pushrods you’ll compensate for whatever small difference anyways.

[MeanGreen1LE]

60 (tsp only)removing exhaust remove heat shield by removing 4 clamps in front of factory x.
Mark pipe 2 ¼” in front of x
Make cuts as marked remove brace in front of cuts. (I used a Fresh chain cutter and it worded great but a sawzall will work if you’re careful not to beat things up). Good idea to use jack stand.
Grab some help or use a stand and cross your fingers. Remove converter brace up front if you made good cuts your exhaust will fall. If you’re close you can carefully work it around to get it loose. Tip: if using chain exhaust cutter make sure your cutting in exactly the same plane all the way around. Remember to lib the cutter as you go. This worked so
Much better than the videos I’d seen using a sawzall!!

61 starter removal
Remove 10mm bolt x3 and heat shield.
Remove 13mm nut for power connection and red locking tab electrical connector. Pop wire holding tab out green arrow. Move all connections aside and go underneath.
13mm bolts x2. Careful as you get. Loose starter could fall out. Remove.