Nutz.

October 2003 - Welp, all summer about all i did was take it off the trailer, start it up every weekend to keep the gaskets in shape and drove it around the block a few times to terrorize the nieghbors [the ones with mustangs and imports].
I'd also bought my very own motor stand and chain hoist and to brake them in i put my spare 350ci that came out of my truck [175,000 mi. on it] on the motor stand and tore it down to the block and i got to tell you, for that many miles, it looked as if i could have put another 100,000 on it easily.
   Well, got that tore down and stored under a bench, then proceeded with doing my first compression check on the Camaro. You see, when i took the car to Lebanon Valley Drags last summer, i was booted after 2 passes because my car was smoking, ive had an oil leak problem since we put the thing together and it was my assumption and guess that i had a leaking manual fuel pump because oil was always accumulating on the edges of the pump, i had gone to such lengths as removing and re-siliconing the pump but it still would accumulate oil all over it, so then i started thinking maybe it was that Proform 2-pc timing chain cover that was leaking and the wash from the electric fan was blowing the oil onto the fuel pump. Anyways, i knew i had an oil leak somewhere in the front of the motor on the pass side and it was getting slightly worse as time went on.
A buddy told me it was possible Speed-O-Motive assembled the rotating assembly with a ring upside down accidently and the smoke might be from something internal rather than an external leak, nobodies perfect, right? So, [Beginners Guide to doing a Compression Check] i unplugged the coil wire form the coil, i then removed all the spark plugs [all 8], for me to even get access to cylinders number 5 and 7, i had to jack the car up and completely remove the Hooker Super Comp Header, i then screwed in the compression tester extention into the first spark plug hole finger tight then screwed on the compression tester hose into the extention and using the quick-connect, connected the dail of the tester to the hose, went around to the drivers door and cranked the motor over about 5 - 7 revolutions, all my cylinders gave me a reading from 185 to 195 lbs. [for different compression ratios, you will have different results, mine is 11:1 compression] Anyway, this told me [us] all my rings are ok, so my "smoking" i believe is from external leaks.
While taking off the drivers side header, i also removed the oil dipstick tube since i knew i was pulling the motor soon anyway, it was THEN that i noticed when we had put it in [the motor was already installed and we forgot the dipstick tube] we [Bob] had accidently made 2 small holes in the bottom of the tube were it meets the block and it had been spraying directly onto the header, well, that explains the drivers-side leak. [see pics]   

 Ok, later, i got the motor pulled fairly easy [working by myself now], id pulled the Holley off and used one of those plates that bolts to the intake, .... cake and pie. I've also suspected ive had a blown power vavle for quite sometime, the power valve was a 4.5, i had a buddy tell me it should be a 6.5 or even an 8.5, so i bought both and installed the 6.5 for now. - I also had a buddy tell me although the single plane intake manifold looks tits!, id prolly be better off with a dual plane, so.....
Later i pulled off the intake manifold and the heads, i then flipped the motor over on the stand and proceeded to take off the nutz to the oil pan studs. When i got around to the passenger side front stud, the nut and half the stud came off without any effort, the stud had broken and was prolly being held in place by the silicone. When we were putting this thing together i'd forgotten to order ARP oil pan studs, and again, rather than waiting, we ran down to Pep-Boys or Trak Auto and bought a cheaper over-the-counter stud kit. OOPS.

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