Pulling off the cylinder head, we check the Play-Doh underneath and--voila--no smoosh, meaning we have plenty of piston-to-valve clearance! | 
To clean the ports, spray in some carb and choke cleaner and wipe inside with a paper towel (especially the intakes). Also, use compressed air to blow out the ports as well as all coolant and other passages in the head; there will likely be aluminum left over from machining. | 
Finally, wipe the cylinder head deck squeaky-clean with a paper towel soaked in solvent. The head is now ready to be bolted onto the engine. |
First, check to make sure all the head studs are still seated in the block; some of them probably backed off a touch when the head was loosened after piston-to-valve clearance checking. Then, gently slide the head on. | 
A liberal amount of ARP's provided assembly lubricant is used on all washers, stud and nut threads, and the underside of each nut. Note the head bolt bushings that ETP uses, which help eliminate the crushing of aluminum that can occur around LS1 head bolt holes. | 
GM's service-manual-specified sequence is then used to torque the ten 11mm stud nuts (which a 13mm socket fits onto) to a first pass of 22 lb-ft, and a second pass to ARP's recommended 65 lb-ft for aluminum heads. ARP did not give a spec for the 8mm studs' nuts, so we went with GM's 22 lb-ft. Tip: to get the most accurate torque readings, use as few extensions as possible with the wrench, as extensions flex (twist) and will give premature torque wrench click. Check out the 1.460-inch dual valvesprings that ETP supplies, a big improvement over the factory 1.260-inch single springs. |
Here we are, waiting for the last couple of items to show before we can complete our engine: rocker arms and pushrods. We'll install these next issue, and also add some intake, fuel system, and ignition-related goodies to help feed the increased cubes of our stroked LS1. Then we'll get this sucker under our Firebird's hood and hit the dyno rollers! It'll be worth your wait. | | |