So, I decded to fix the heads on the ol' Dirty Bird rather than buy a new car. It was like an 8 hour task between 3 of us, but we finally got the car back together (with its new heads complete with a 3 angle valve job, bitches ) and after a long 2 nights of screaming at the car about how fucking stupid GM's techs are, it was time to start it up.

Crank....the valves aren't closing, we can hear it...Crank, crank...still nothing - double-you-tee-eff, the lifters should've had time to collapse by now?

Come to find out, we overlooked a very important fact...The bird uses adjustable lifters, and we torqued the fuckers all the way down thinking they were non-adjustable....

...Ripped the motor apart to find my pushrods had become pretzels, a few rockers had been broken, and we haven't been able to tear everything out to lift the heads and inspect the valves yet.

Does anyone know where I can get any heads/valves/rockers/pushrods - aftermarket or OEM, just anything I can get a decent deal on - to fix this? Also, are there any other places in the engine I should check for problems due to this little mishap?

 

all that work for nothing. ouch that sucks HARD.

 

1-877-448-5481 Dal

OEM GM parts at cost...

 

ouch...


summit sells all that stuff for pretty cheap.



on anothing note, i can't believe this post wasn't made by phinger. it sounds like something he would do

 

compucam makes 2 different cames for teh 3.4, give one a shot!

 

i hate to say it...but that was fuckin retarded...dont do high skill level work on a car and not know what your doing. you tighten the rockers to 22ft/lbs.

every single valve is probably broken/bent. piston faces may be ok, but probably arent. hopefully you havent damaged the cam.

personally, i would go to a salvage yard and yank some stocker heads off a car. its going to be the cheapest way, and your probably lookin at 1-200 to do it.

 

sorry, im not that stupid you asshole...just because i dont know anything about AC systems does not mean i cant fix other things.

 

We were worn out and the thought that they were adjustable and needed to be tightened, then loosened until some play is felt, then tightened to snug, then turned 1 full rotation afterwards just slipped our minds. But I'll write down the 22ft/lbs, its easier than how I read to do it without a torque wrench, I'll remember it for round 2, thanks.

Anyways, to all of you who recommended numbers and whatnot, I'll probably give 'em a try given that the pistons weren't damaged in the little mishap. And for the cam, well, I think it really would be retarded to try and build a 3.4L, but meh, who knows - maybe if the cam is shot and the price is right (i also don't want to dig into that bottom end. The top end is a nightmare enough).

Oh yeah, on a sidenote, I think we torqued them to somewhere around 30ft/lbs...as I said, we were exhausted and not paying attention. I'm hoping that they might have had enough play not to fuck up the piston being that tight....?

 

you should be ok on the cam. sounds like you only did a few rotations with it...after a while if it had been running and they were over tightened, you can wear the lobes right off the cam.

 

it probably would have been easier, and more worthwhile, to buy a 350 crate motor and just drop it in