The Camaro Club (UK)

It was certainly a battle. I ended up taking the headers out to get to the flare nuts. I managed to get 2 out, just barely, the rest snapped off, leaving the pipe and thread still attached to the header. So i cut the pipe at the exit, welded up each hole, filed it down, took an angle grinder with a wire brush to the headers and gave them a coat of high temp paint, just to hold off the rusting a bit and clean up the look a bit.

Swapped out the 02 sensor too, the one in there was sure stuck real good. I fear i clipped the wire when reinstalling (should have removed spark plugs for easier access), so i hope it's working!

Still getting smoke shoot out the exhaust after starting the engine if has been run within a short timeframe (next morning it starts clean). Fuel smell seems to have improved since installing a new thermostat. The one in there was stuck open, so it's a lot warmer in the car now and runs at a nicer operating temp. I read that the ECU is in closed loop mode until coolant temp reaches 76c, meaning it gives extra fuel i believe - temp was sitting at about 70c, often cooler when driving on the motorway on a cold day. Now it sits at about 82c.

Also flushed the cooling system, took out the coolant reservoir and gave the inside a good clean out. Cleaned out the throttle body with carb cleaner, lots of black residue around the butterfly valves and behind them. Didn't know it had a MAF sensor so i ordered some MAF cleaner spray but it came after i put it all back together, so that's a future job.

I also changed out the hoses and belts. Seems that the voltage dropping at idle issue has pretty much stopped, so even though the belts looks spot on, no cracks etc. perhaps they were getting near the end of their life span and stretching when under tension. Hoses were original and not even a hairline crack, but thought i'd change them for good measure as a heater hose went a bout a year ago. Top hose was a "direct" replacement



The before header of one side:


The after header on the other side:

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Blimey, sounds like that ended up being a hard job. Can't believe how lucky I must have been that mine all came out fine (bar one, but ended up getting it out eventually). I remember you saying a while ago you were going to remove the air.

Good job by the looks of it Lot cleaner engine bay and slightly easier spark plug change as well. Take it you've removed the pump as well and put a shorter belt on?

Funnily enough when they were snapping off i remembered back to when you were saying how easy yours were to remove, so something must have caused these to rust in really well. It was a Canada car so maybe a lot of moisture got into the engine bay during the winter months.

Ye i had actually removed the air pump about a year ago when i changed the alternator out, as helped a bit with access. Luckily it's a v belt car, so haven't had to worry about belts, it was just a case of taking the pump and belt off and everything carried on nicely. Removing the headers did make it a lot easier to change the o2 sensor out. Even from underneath the car i could barely get a ring spanner to attach and move. Everything has plenty of copper grease on too, so any future work should be relatively straight forward and as you say, a lot easier to get to spark plugs!

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another job done.... does it seem to run any better ?

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“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

Not really, the only changed i noticed was a week later after i changed out the thermostat and belts. Idle drop issue has lessened by a lot with new belts and fuel smell has gone down by a lot with the warmer running temp. Still get the puff of smoke on start up, so i'm thinking that i should get around to doing the valve stem seals soon. Bit scared of that one.

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Dead easy......
You´ll need a valve spring compressor tool, I got one from Summit their brand.
If you don´t have compressed air and all the toys you can use nylon rope thin enough to go into the spark plug hole.
Rotate the crank with a socket on the crank nose.
You can feel the air coming out of the spark plug hole as the piston moves up the cylinder so you know the direction of the piston.
Push the nylon rope into the spark plug hole and then move the piston up to TDC.
You can now compress the valve springs to remove the retainers and do the two valve seals.
Back off the piston and retrieve the rope.
Once you´ve done number one valves it gets easier following the firing order.
I´ve done it this way several times and the nylon rope only tangled once in the cylinder,
pliers and a mighty tug got it out.

Thanks for the advice, i got the summit spring compressor tool you mentioned a while back. What worries me is fudging up a valve going into a cylinder, or not rotating the engine to the correct point. I do have compressed air and got the tool from summit that connects from an air hose into the spark plug hole, i'm guessing about 100psi should hold it in place? Also unsure of myself when it comes to setting things like setting lash (assuming i would need to unbolt the rocker arms).

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"assuming i would need to unbolt the rocker arms"

The rocker arms have to come off and it´ll be wise to remove the pushrods too.

The spring compressor tool bolts to the rocker studs to get leverage.

Something like this.

Thanks Malc, that's really helpful - i find learning visually a lot easier so this is great

Is it me, or did he break the c clip retainer piece after compressing the spring while removing it?

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The retainer is not a c clip its a collet.
It's in two pieces and resembles an inverted cone when in place.