I was just going to say in’96 gm went to self aligning rocker arms so if you want to use regular roller rockers you will have to use studs and guide plates. Being that this engine has almost 200k on it how often have you replaced the coolant. The extended life coolant becomes very acidic after 3 years or 300,000 and eats the head gaskets up. Vortec heads are known for cracking as they are as thin as you can go. I don’t recommend machining anything off of them. Yes these heads are great for what they are used for but trying to do anything will them is like throwing money into a pit. These engines are hard to do much to as the crank sensor limits going to a double roller timing chain. I have almost 260k on 1 of these and the head gaskets are just about done. If all you’re worried about is the engine being dirty I would just get a few cans of degreaser and let it soak and then hook the hose up to the hot water and wash the crap off. I have actual carbon in my coolant from the head gaskets going away. My water pump is leaking out of the mounting gasket which I have never had before in 42 years of driving and owning sbc. I’ve put 3 radiators in it since January it’s getting so it doesn’t hardly get outta its own way. I bought another truck which someone put dual exhaust on with glass packs and is so loud it’s waving a red flag for a ticket. The front steering is wooped and the p/s seat shorted so bad it melted the wiring all the way to the firewall and melted the floor under the seat. So dirty is an easy fix. Taking it apart to do stuff to it is entirely different. If you change the oil and filter and use good quality stuff you shouldn’t have any wear issues on anything and that’s the rule of thumb for everything. You also probably will end up breaking the exhaust manifold bolts off in the head or won’t be able to get the pipe off the manifold not that I’m trying to change your mind but these are different from earlier small blocks
GM went self aligning way before 96. Every TBI engine from 87 on has self aligning rockers.
Why would you ever want a junk double roller when single roller chains are better and stronger anyway with less slop.
The OP is in Texas, manifold bolts are not usually hard to remove here even on a 30+ year old engine.
No argument on the Vortec heads. I will not spend a penny on another set besides maybe installing LS beehives and Comp 787 retainers on a good set. The Etec170s blow them out of the water but then again so do the 200cc offshore castings for alot less $$ than the Etecs. My previous 350 in the van ran strongest with the 200cc jobs as they flowed considerably better than the Etecs. With the smallish cam I had in it, it loved the added head flow of the 200cc heads. The 200cc aluminum heads were literally stronger everywhere than the Vortecs or Etec170s. I milled down the Etec170s after warping them by overheating them a bit and put the on the L30 305 in the Tahoe. The Etec170s are awesome on a 305 vortec with a mild cam. Little 305 made close to 300 hp at the tires, torque curve was literally table top flat right at 300 ft/lbs at the tires from 2,500-5,200.
If I knew then what I know now it was the PCM and torque management holding it flat at 300 ft/lbs by retarding the timing to keep the engine at an artificially limited estimated torque value. The PCM uses air charge from the MAF/VE tables, air/fuel ratio, current spark advance and a MBT advance table as well as a engine torque loss and accessory torque loss table to derive an estimated torque production value. If the PCM is capped for say 300 ft/lbs and the predicted output torque is estimated at say 330 ft/lbs it will reduce the output torque by retarding the spark advance using the torque loss programmed spark retard values.