Installed new heads and cam in my 1990 C3500 farm truck 7.4L

[Yamaben]

Set the new lifters in the bores

 

[Yamaben]

Cleaned the head bolts and ran a die over the threads. It takes an annoying amount of time to clean bolts. I had a friend tell me I should not reuse head bolts, but I did anyway. They seem to work.

 

[Yamaben]

Installed new Fel-pro gaskets and bolted the heads down. I cleaned out the push rods, and used assembly lube on the pushrod ends and on the valve tips. Torquing all those head bolts wears you down a little bit. I used thread sealer on the head bolts.

Again I have to say, it seems stupid to have 32 places on the heads for the engine to leak coolant.

 

[Yamaben]

I just reused the stock rocker arms. I would really have liked roller rocker arms, but I just had to stop spending money on parts. I have read differing opinions on how effective roller rockers really are anyway. Some engine guys claim there is very little benefit to roller rockers. I don't know, and I would have used them if I had the extra money. I just had to draw the line somewhere at how much money I was spending. Set the valve lash.

 

[Yamaben]

Installed the timing cover. I slobbered Yamabond all over the timing cover and oil pan gaskets.

 

[Yamaben]

Setting the manifold and valve covers in place to check fitment. The cast aluminum valve covers look good, fit perfect, and look to me like they have a better chance of not leaking oil. There is that big ugly pipe plug in the right head. I still think I will be able to put a fan switch in there.

 

[Yamaben]

Torqued down the manifold. Checking oil pressure. The drill would spin it up to 35 psi.

 

[Yamaben]

After my support brace slipped and my transmission hit the floor, bent the tranny cross member, and broke the rubber tail housing mount, I went ahead and pulled it out from under the truck. I felt so relieved that the tail housing didn't break, that I rewarded it with a filter and front seal change.

 

[Yamaben]

I got the whole mess set back in place and spent about an hour trying to get the metal fuel lines hooked up to the throttle body. There was a whole lot of grinding and welding on the throttle cable and coil brackets to make them fit on the Edelbrock and clear the fuel lines. I should have bought some braided fuel lines but, money. I also slipped a new steering box in the engine bay while I had the engine out. Only took 3 tries to steering wheel straight.

 

[Yamaben]

Got the headers installed. Note to anyone installing Hedman headers; You need to pull the passenger side engine mount bolt and jack the engine up on that side to get that header in place. I also removed the heat shield on the passenger floorboard, and pounded a body seam flat to give the header clearance on that side. I wish I had a picture of that, but I don't. Throttle cable and coil brackets, water pump, alternator and idler, EGR valve and solenoid, wire harness, MAP sensor, and heater hoses all installed at this point..

The stock manifold routes the upper heater hose through a little spacer under the throttle body. The Eldebrock has this built into the manifold, but I didn't like that hose snaking around the top of the engine. I eliminated that, and just ran the heater hose straight over the valve cover. I really don't know why the stock set up had the coolant warming the manifold like that? I guessed it was for emissions purposes, and elected to not do it. I put little pipe plugs in the manifold to keep mud dobbers out of there tho.