W
Wes8398
Guest
For anyone interested in the results of the swap, I thought I'd give a little update. Everything's up and running again, and I have to say that this swap is worth every dollar spent on parts and every bit of elbow grease you put into it. We had a little hiccup with the driver's side chain skipping a tooth or 2 the 1st time, but it's now all cleared up - cams degreed in and everything running top notch.
I have to say that the "seat of the pants" gains are quite noticeable. Most of what I read about this swap made it sound like you only really got top-end gains; but I beg to differ. Down low feels greatly improved as well! Of course, it now pulls hard throughout the RPM range too, instead of flattening out around 5 grand.
All in all, I highly suggest this swap!! Just be careful with your timing chains! We took every precaution, including turning the car over without the coil packs plugged in, and turning it over by hand many times (when degreeing the cams), and the damn chain STILL managed to skip a tooth or 2 when we fired it up the 1st time. We figure that happened because the tensioner wasn't pushed all the way out. My suggestion to anyone doing this would just be to keep the timing cover off the car, get the wires and brackets and parts out of the way, and turn the engine over (with the starter) before you button everything up ... just to be sure that it sounds right, and that the chains stay where they should be.
I have to say that the "seat of the pants" gains are quite noticeable. Most of what I read about this swap made it sound like you only really got top-end gains; but I beg to differ. Down low feels greatly improved as well! Of course, it now pulls hard throughout the RPM range too, instead of flattening out around 5 grand.
All in all, I highly suggest this swap!! Just be careful with your timing chains! We took every precaution, including turning the car over without the coil packs plugged in, and turning it over by hand many times (when degreeing the cams), and the damn chain STILL managed to skip a tooth or 2 when we fired it up the 1st time. We figure that happened because the tensioner wasn't pushed all the way out. My suggestion to anyone doing this would just be to keep the timing cover off the car, get the wires and brackets and parts out of the way, and turn the engine over (with the starter) before you button everything up ... just to be sure that it sounds right, and that the chains stay where they should be.