Motor Tear Down has started!

My good buddy Lance and his wife Phaedra came out to visit on the weekend before last. I always enjoy the time I get to spend with Lance because he's one of my only friends that's a fellow gearhead. I have a couple friends that are into cars, but not into turning wrenches. Having a friend to turn wrenches with is one of the most enjoyable experiences I have outside of my family, so having the rare opportunity to actually do it is something that I really look forward to. This opportunity did not disappoint.

Lance and I spent most of Saturday tearing the motor down. I'd left it untouched until he got here so that we could start from the beginning.

First order of business was to start pulling the wiring harness off. We labeled most of the connections as we unplugged the connectors, and unbolted various connections holding the harness in place. We then removed the coil packs from the valve covers. This was the result:


We then pulled the intake manifold off:


Here's a glory shot of it next to it's new home:


Next we popped off the valve covers and the lifter valley cover. The valvetrain looks outstanding. Everything was nice and clean under the valve covers:


Off came the heads. You can't see it in the pic, but the cylinder walls all look outstanding, with a nice cross-hatch pattern still clearly visible.


That's where Lance and I stopped. I had hoped to continue by pulling off the oil pan, but we ran out of time.

One issue that I ran into later on was trying to get the pulley/damper off the crank. None of my pullers were adequate for this job. Over this past weekend I borrowed a puller from Advance Auto and was able to get it off with only a mild amount of drama. If I ever get time to work on it again, I'll pull off the oil pan, and then pull off the timing chain cover, pull of the timing chain & gears and pull the cam out. That'll basically be the end of my motor work until I get all of my new parts so that I can re-assemble.

Speaking of parts, I've been buying up stuff as the deals come up. I've purchased most of the parts that I need for the transmission swap (minus the transmission itself) along with some of the new accessories that I need for the swap (water pump, power steering pump, alternator, etc). Just yesterday I finally landed a deal on an intake manifold, fuel rails & injectors off of a 400 mile 2010 Camaro SS.


The last big items that I need to buy for the motor is the cylinder heads, camshaft, and f-body oil pan. Once I've got that stuff bought, I'll be able to start putting the motor back together. Ideally I'd like to have the motor together sometime over the winter, and then sell the Corvette as soon as possible in the spring so that I'll have the money to buy the rest of what I need to do the installation. I'd like to have the new drivetrain running by the end of the summer so that I can get it tuned and use it a bit before next winter.

Whether or not that actually happens remains to be seen. :)