well almost one day. I installed ARP 2000 rod bolts, WCCH stage 1 5.3 heads with 55cc chamber, and custom spec EPS cam yesterday/today and I thought I would share.

Here's all the parts.


I started on the bottom end, and worked my way up top. Thank God for lifts!!! I have not seen a write up on Arp rod bolt installs, so I will try to be detailed. I started by unbolting the rack to clear oil pan. That was not enough, so I had to drop the cross member under the rear most a-arm to clear pan. After that, take off all pan bolts, and 4 or so 10mm bolts that have stuff bolted to pan. Then after the pan is off, and oil drained, take the pickup tube, and windage tray off, and your ready for rod bolts. Spin the motor over by hand enough to access 2 rods at a time. Take one rod bolt out at a time, and replace it, and torque it, then go to the next one. The stock rod bolts have a sleeve that holds the bolts in the cap durring factory installation. I found a couple tricks to get them out if they dont come out when you remove a rod bolt, and a trick that will get them out everytime a rod bolt comes out. The first bolt sleeve came out with the bolt, and the next two didn't. For those that don't, screw the ARP bolt up in the hole a few threads, and wiggle the sleeve out. For a sure fire way to get the sleeves out with the bolts, up bolt the rod bolt, and once its free, take a pair of long 45* needle nose pliars and pry them out the rest of the way. The sleeve came out every time for me this way. Then TQ the arp's 3 times at 40ft/lbs. TQ it back it off, TQ it,Back it off,TQ it a final time to stretch the bolt. I left the bottom end undone till I finished the Head and cam swap, Just in case something fell thru from the top. here's some pics....

Turn rods so they face like this


pic of what has to be removed,cross member, and rack dropped.


pic of the sleeves, and how some come out, and how I got some out with the new ARP bolts




Oh and my 06' has HD/ls2 rods FTW!!




Now on to the head and cam swap. So most know "How To" on heads, and cam so here's pics and a little bit about it.

intak off


Heads off, and cam out


Lifters were cleaned, and inspected, Procomp Head studs installed, and I had to drop the headers all the way to put the heads on with the studs.






I used a cometic .040 head gasket, for a 10.6:1 comp ratio. install was normal till I got to putting the crank pulley back on. This was the killer for me. I had a Power bond under drive on there, which came off with ease. But when I tryed to put it back on, I pulled some threads out of the crank.

SO! I took it back off, and tryed to fille, sand,and file some more to get some material off the pulley so it would go on easier. I even lube it up before I installed it. On my last cam swap I had trouble trying to get it all the way on, and Prolly messed up the threads then. Now it cam back to bite me in the butt. I tryed heat to, and it would not go on. SO! Igot my stocker, emory clothed it for a bit to clean it up, lubed it, cleaned up the crank with emory, and put it on. I was afraid to use my impact because af already pulling out threads, so I used the old 4lb sledge and a 2x4 to drive it on. this took about 4+ hours to dick with. after I got it where the belts looked lined up ok, I tightened the ARP crank bolt up as tight as i could get it, and left it. I finished up, and had her running about 2am. i started about 11am the morn before so needless to say, I AM BEAT today!!! But she runs good, I am babying her till i get her tuned up. but in overdrive just easing on the trottle to go around cars is night and day.
thanks for reading.

 

Man thats alot of work. So do you plan on spinning it up high with the arp bolts? FWIW I put my powerbond pulley in the oven for 25 mins and it slid on like butter.

 

yeah, 7k or so. I tryed to heat it up with a torch, but it still would not go back on, due to the damaged threads. I dont know if they make a heli coil that big. I am going to hone the power bond out a bout .005" it will make it slide right on too. after i fix the crank problem.

 

sorry for the pic quality too, it was on my blackberry.

 

Damn that's a lot of work by yourself !! Congrats

 

If you have measured the crank snout vs the balancer and determined that .005” needs to be removed, that’s fine, but I don’t recommend just removing that much to make it a slip fit. It is by design supposed to be an interference fit, just not an impossible fit. If you were to pin the balancer, you could possibly get away with it. Like I said, if you have measured it, that’s great, I just would rather have it clarified so that no one else just goes out and does it, thinking that if it doesn’t just slide on something is wrong and hones the hell out of their balancer allowing it to spin on the crank.

And yes, good deal on the install, you did a good deal of work. I'm sure your tired!

 

That means I finally get my heads back? haha

Looks like you had some fun Eric. Can't wait to see/hear it and all that fun stuff. Gimme a call or text sometime in the next few weeks.

 

thanks man, thats the biggest project I have had for one day. i have built duramax 6.6's, cats, 15 liter cummins, numerous Isuzu and UD jap engines, some 8.1's and i have never spent that much time on a build. probably cause I torqued EVERYTHING to spec.

yeah, the crank was 1.589" and the balancer is 1.579. .005" is enough to hold it on tight. the stock balancer was about 1.583". I gotta find out what my options are to fix the crank threads first.

I got in at 3:30am got ready for bed, and got up at 12:30, so i am just a little sore from being bent over hammering away at that 2x4 trying to get the stock balancer on, lol.

yep!! I got to take my springs out, and meet up with you sometime to give them to you. do you want me to leave them bare? machine shops will charge you to tear them down anyway.

 

my wife was a trooper thru it all too. she stayed up waiting for me just in case I couldnt finish and she had to go pick me up from the shop. the shop is 45 min from my house with no traffic.

 

At this point it doesn't matter. I won't be sending them off to be done for a while anyways haha.