Hi all,

This will be a quick update (I hope) because I'm beat...

Got home today at 4. Garth had started in on the front accessories about 2pm, and he almost had all the bracketry off.. Cool! :) So, I helped a little and proceeded inside to find out where my parts were at. After 15 minutes on the phone with UPS, it looked like my parts were lost! :( I was going crazy!!! I literally spent another 30 minutes between Rocky and UPS trying to figure out what to do. So, UPS put out a tracer, and I decided to take out my frustrations on the car! :)

So, I guess I really got started about 5:30. Garth finished up the accessories while I started in on the exhaust. Pulled the short y- pipe (driver's side cat), and worked on the long cat. Garth tried to pull off the exhaust manifold bolts. What a major PITA! I think we spent almost 2 hours between the manifolds and the y-pipe. The back bolt on the passengers side was unreal (as Rob stated, you almost got a call Rob! :). Once we had all the bolts out, we realized that the only way the driver's side was coming out was to remove the oil filter, and the only way the pass. side was coming out was to get the y-pipe out of the way (so we thought). So, we proceed to get the y-pipe off...

Thankfully, John Eaves showed up right about this time, and didn't seem to mind the idea of getting dirty, so under the car we 3 went. I quickly discovered that the SLP exhaust has nothing preventing forward/ aft motion, so get in the back and John and Garth get in the front and we play a tug-o-war with the cat-back and y-pipe... Man, what another big pita. Finally, after some deep meditation (and a few blows the the hammer), we got it loose! We cheered! :)

Right before this fiasco, I'm lying on the ground and I hear that familiar sound of a UPS truck. SO Garth and I run out to greet him (he was very glad to NOT have to carry that 80 pound box up the stairs! :). Sure enough, everything showed up today except the throttle body and the y-pipe (coming tomorrow). COOL!

Once the exhaust pipes were off and Garth removed the dipstick, the pass. side header came out fairly easily... During this time, I was pulling the block drain plug on the driver's side (another major pita) and the knock sensor to finish draining the block, and then pulled the head bolts. COOL! Off go the heads!

Next step, cam... I think I spent almost an hour getting that crank snout off... I finally managed it, but it caused lots o' frustration. We stopped for dinner in the middle... 7 straight hours for us with no food... We were getting a little woozy... Ahh... Pizza Hut! :)

Then things started happening. Micah and Angi showed up, as did TJ (Doug's friend with the REALLY nice 96 T/A with the AS&M parts and the most kick ass stereo I've ever seen). We managed to get the front timing cover off to expose the timing chain and crank position sensor. Getting the front cover off required some careful prying. I'm VERY leary of the reinstall, and plan to RTV the heck out of it! I think Garth was getting a little tired at this point, 'cause we were staring at the crank position sensor trying to figure out how to get it off when he said screw it, grabbed it with both hands, and yanked! :) Off it came..

So, off goes the cam gear and timing chain! Cool, we think! Here goes the cam! Oopss.. Wait a sec... There's still that little matter of the AC condensor... Crap..

Well, some bending, pulling, twisting, yanking, and cursing later, along with 3 sets of hands, and presto, we had JUST enough room to get that cam out (so we think). So, we slowing start working it out, and just as we see the distributor gear, CLUNK! It hits the hood latch! ARGH!!!!!!

So, out comes the floor jack from the tranny, and it gives us JUST enough clearance to get past that latch. YES!!!! DISASSEMBLY IS COMPLETE!!!!!!!

I can't tell you how good it felt to get to this point... Halfway there (sorta) in literally about 10 hours. Not bad...

But, we're not done yet. I suggested that we were so close that we may as well stick the new cam in! :) Plus, I really wanted to get that AC condensor back in place. So, a little assembly lube here, a little careful insertion there, and presto! Cam is in the car. Lined up the dots on the gears, and stuck the chain on... Dropped in the lifters, laid in the retainers, and put that spring thing on top. Turned the motor once to make sure everything moved smoothly, and all looks great! So, the cam is back in...

I think Garth and I really wanted to keep going, but discretion got the best of us and we decided to call it a night. I assembled the heads so the RTV and loc-tite on the studs/guideplates would dry overnight. We cleaned up a bit, and prepared for a fresh start in the morning.. I'm very happy with the progress so far. 12 hours, and the new cam is in... However, I think we still have the hardest part yet to come... HEADERS! :\

Ok, I'm beat... Gotta get some rest before the big day tomorrow! Hopefully tomorrow night I'll post my LAST update! :)