January 2010 Project Begins (Raspberry)

[3X00-Modified]

Yes, I've done it before, the lower should be notched to allow it to slip by.

[Money pit Beretta]

Thanks, if it gets warmer out I'll get on it.

[3X00-Modified]

Much easier to do if you remove the exhaust crossover, and possibly the EGR... I can't remember.

[IsaacHayes]

I've never removed the exhaust crossover. Removing the UIM though will help a lot, and doesn't take much time to do.

[Money pit Beretta]

I have an adapter for the EGR on the 3400 intake, so I have some room.

[3X00-Modified]

Well I pulled one head apart, and quickly checked one exhaust valve... They seem to be good... SO I think I lucked out on not having to replace those.

I'm half tempted to just do the Manley valves just because the exhaust one looks thinner which would increase my clearance and eliminate all issues.... BUT they are 250 for a set

[Money pit Beretta]

I thought your new head gaskets were going to give you some clearance. Dang man, I don't think the Manley valves are that thin. That was kind of a deep hit there. I wouldn't think about new valves without new guides.

Isaac, the lower is the one that's in the way. If I can just pop it in or out everything will be ok. It's just an O-ring so it should be easy(yeah right). If there is a need for equal force on all sides to put it on I would have to take the intakes off(just did that for the swap and don't want to do it if I don't have to). If I still had my old job the 3400 build would be on and I wouldn't worry about this at all. That's life though.

[3X00-Modified]

I thought your new head gaskets were going to give you some clearance. Dang man, I don't think the Manley valves are that thin. That was kind of a deep hit there. I wouldn't think about new valves without new guides.

New headgaskets are the same compressed thickness. Also if you saw how much slack my timing chain had you probably woudn't be surprised that I hit the pistons with my duration.

The Manley's are a bit thinner, and I wouldn't need new guides either, they are in perfect condition so there is no sense in messing with those.

Here is the video of how much slack my timing chain had.


And the damage done to the crank gear





And what the new one had...

There is hardly any movement of the cam separate from the crank with this chain, I checked that when it was all coming apart, gotta be less than a degree of slack.


Its much less movement once the center guide is in the middle. and on the old setup it chewed up my center guide.

[Money pit Beretta]

I don't know man, guess I'm just like that, but I just would put new guides in to be safe. Different bands of valves could be a different size. That's just me, I live in fear.
Man those teeth look bad. So it was the chain for sure. How long was the old chain on? The teeth on the new gear look to be better made and more able to take what your doing to it. Also the chain is not the same.

[Barry]

I have never seen a chain as sloppy as yours. I rebuilt my 100k mile 3100 and the chain looked like new. That had the beefier chain however

[IsaacHayes]

MPB, just get some channel locks and use those to yank up on the dist oil drive shaft. Rotate back and forth if it gets stuck.

[Money pit Beretta]

Um, it's just the cap Isaac. So far the drive is working fine(damn, shouldn't have said that it will go out now). Well I think it's ok, the gauge doesn't move very much. The one in my 90 moved alot.

[3X00-Modified]

I have never seen a chain as sloppy as yours. I rebuilt my 100k mile 3100 and the chain looked like new. That had the beefier chain however

Which chain are you talking about the top one? or the bottom one? because the second vid is a brand new GM beefy chain... That's how much slack they are supposed to have with no guide in the middle... once that's in place its a big difference.

MPB, the sprocket and chain that was in it were in there for MAYBE 12k I can't quite remember... They were Cloyles parts (except for the cam sprocket that happened to be a GM part)... all the new stuff is GM OE and cryo treated.... so yeah its different I guess, but at the same time should have been the same.

Barry, When I tore apart my 215k mile 3100 the chain looked beautiful too... But the problem that I had with this set was the chain was a cheap OE replacement brand, AND it appeared that the lower sprocket was NOT hardened... this is the same issue I had with my stock 3400 that's now in the red car... I bought the same Cloyes set and it was not hardened and that came with a different cam sprocket and that was DESTROYED after 60k.

If that's confusing, I bought a cloyes timing set for my red car way back when I built my first 3400... I ran that for 60k miles before I built my Milzy hybrid... I swapped that in and forgot about the 3400 on the floor of the garage. I ran the Milzy hybrid with LS6 springs for 15k miles, When I pulled that motor to build it for my Pink car I noticed the timing chain set I used (stock 05 set) was stretched quite a bit... so before I put my new WOT cam in with the comp springs I decided to go buy the heavier duty timing set, I got a Cloyes set again like my old 3400, and this time it came with a GM cam sprocket, Not sure why, so I threw it in finished the motor and put it in the car... Then I decided to put the 3400 I had in the garage back in my red car, rather than the 3100 I used from Pinky since that had some ping issues... When I tore into that to just inspect it all before going in and replace the head gaskets, I found a horror story under the timing cover... the cam sprocket was destroyed, the crank one the same, and the chain stretched beyond belief... THAT'S when I started to get concerned about what was in Pinky since I still had a tapping sound after doing my LS6 lifter internals. Either way the video you see above is what happened to it. SO I have now replaced that with a factory GM set (back in mid 09)that was cryo treated. So far it looks to be holding up well... then again I only have about 3k-4k on it.

Hopefully that story clears up my timing chain woe's...

If you want pics of what came out of the 3400 let me know. I have them.

I will never buy over the counter timing sets again, I will only buy GM sets, or an aftermarket roller setup.

Um, it's just the cap Isaac. So far the drive is working fine(damn, shouldn't have said that it will go out now). Well I think it's ok, the gauge doesn't move very much. The one in my 90 moved alot.

The cap is the drive, its one whole unit with the drive gear on it, and then there is a hex bar that goes into that and down to the pump.

[IsaacHayes]

Yeah, MPB, you pull up on the cap and out comes the shaft. Don't be skerd.

Jon, my chain at like 180k or somewhere around there was horribly stretched. But I beat on the 3100 all the time so it sees high RPMs all the time.

[1988GTU]

Yeah, MPB, you pull up on the cap and out comes the shaft. Don't be skerd.

Jon, my chain at like 180k or somewhere around there was horribly stretched. But I beat on the 3100 all the time so it sees high RPMs all the time.

You can't be pushing it that hard..... you have a sleezy E, a modified shift point or manual swap would be much harder on it.