it has timing cover gaskets, timing cover seal, water pump gasket, and harmonic balancer bolt. the valve cover gaskets at autozone are $15 and i can rent a puller/installer at autozone or oreileys. is there anything else i need?

 

Dow rods from a hardware store. 5/16s i believe and shave one side smooth so they can grab the lifters when you spin the cam.



And a case of beer.

 

for some reason i cant see the picture you posted earlier in this thread, i dont understand what you mean with the dow rod, im not too sure how the cam can be changed without pulling the intake

and i quit drinking after my dwi...then knocking some kid's teeth out a few weeks later at a party so i'll just buy a case of water.

 

Did you click the link to ls1 how to? it gives a run down and pictures of how its done. Basically when you take the cam pulley off there is a hole on each side of the cam. If you slide the dow rods into those holes the smooth side of the rod holds all of the lifters while you pull the cam out and slide the other one back in.
If tyler still has pics of my swap I'll post it up.

 

Edited the posts. the dow rod needs to be 5/16

 

You can't get to the lifters without taking the heads off...

And you don't need rtv, all the gaskets are rubber o-ringed metal gaskets. Maybe a touch of rtv in the corner of the timing cover and the oil pan gasket, but that's it. The valve cover gaskets are just big o-rings gaskets in a groove and I've had mine on and off many times.

The 3/8 dowel rod are shaved on one side to about 5/16 so they will just fit down the oil galley and wedging the liters up when you rotate the cam, holding them in place so you can slide the cam out without removing the lifters. That's how pretty much everyone does them.

 

My mistake, I thought you had to do both.

Regardless. no need to dig to the lifters.

The rubber pieces on my timing cover came lose so rtv helped seal it back up.

 

i clicked on it but it just gives me a list of links and has a picture of a girl wearing a backpack, every link i click takes me to the same page that looks like a search result page

 

Yea, it's doing that to me now too.. They must be having problems.

KB gives a great description of what it does.

 

Here is a pic of how the rod is made and where to put it, I couldn't put it in cause of the angle, but you get the idea. Wedges against the oil galley in the motor and the oiling recesses on the lifter so it can't fall into the motor when you pull the cam out. a 3/8 wood dowel sanded (I used a belt sander) down to about 5/16 works best so it has a nice flat spot to push up against the lifter. I sanded it till it just fit on the galley. BTW, you need to have one on both sides, HTH