New cam, lifters, fresh heads...Won't start!

[molitor]

I've been working to replace a bad lifter in my 4.8L which subsequently lead to replacing the camshaft as well. I finally finished everything up today. I installed the new camshaft with no'1 on TDC and got everything torqued properly. Then I installed the cover and balancer. I then assembled the heads, installed the lifters, covered all the lifter holes with towels and prepped the deck for head gaskets. I then removed the towels, installed the dowels, (rhyme time), and put the new gaskets on and set the heads on top. Before I began the torque sequence on the heads, I Plugged the intake runners with wads o' paper towel to keep any tools or debris out of there. I went through the complete toque procedure on both heads, which was awful, Ft. Lbs rock, Degrees suck... After that I installed the intake manifold and put everything back together. I got it all buttoned up and decided to fire the engine before I filled the cooling system with water and coolant. It tried. I tried. Nothing but this, ''Badump, Badump, Badump''

I'm freaking out at this point thinking I've got the cam installed wrong or something, then I sat down and took a breather, talk to my neighbor a bit and cleared my head. Then it hits me... The problem that is, and the cause of it. If you read very closely, you'll find it in the previous paragraph.

No? Nothing? Let me help you out, remember those wads of paper towel I put in the Intake runners in the heads to keep them clean? If you'll read closely you'll see that i never mentioned removing them before installing the intake manifold... Yeah, I got the Dumb A** award for the day.

Don't work when your tired, sweaty, in a hurry, and about half frustrated.

[vista4.8]

...ha

[Maui4x4]

Omg man seriously thats just too ->

[PitchBlackC3]

Nice... I usually put a run of green masking tape over the runners to keep stuff out. Easy to remember when something that bright is still on there.

[casey23]

Yeah well.... I was up till 3am before a jetski race thrash with doing 100000000XXXXXXXXXX things .... and went to fire it at 3:30 and didnt hit...... I was SICKKKKKK...... Went and laid down confused..... had a weird dream and a tiny brain storm... walked back outside only to find out the owner had came by early that day and Turned on the Manual fuel shutoff.. ??? WTF!!??? ... So at 4:45am It came to LIFE !!!

[20''strong]

BOUNTY.........the quicker fu@#er upper!

[jetmech]

bounty.........the quicker fu@#er upper!

[Frenchy]

Didn't you just build a 370 for that truck? Why did you do the top end on the 4.8? Where's that self inflicted gunshot wound smiley?

[molitor]

If you've been reading this thread, your probably wondering how I'll be getting the paper towel wads back out. Here is how I did it...

1. I pulled the intake manifold.
2. Fashioned a hook from a wire coat hanger.
3. Pulled the valve covers off.(so I could see when the intake valves were fully opened)
4. I removed the spark plugs.
5. Insert Threaded and of compression test hose in spark plug hole and rotate crank until intake valve was opened.
6. Supply air to Compression Test hose. Poof!

I needed the hook to pull paper towel out of a few cylinders that had sucked the majority of the paper towel down in the valve already.


And my advice: Masking tape will cover those holes just as well as paper towels will plug them.
Peel the tape off, windex/goo gone the surface, and install the intake. This way, if it doesn't start, its a problem, not just you.

[molitor]

Didn't you just build a 370 for that truck? Why did you do the top end on the 4.8? Where's that self inflicted gunshot wound smiley?

The 370ci is still at the machine shop an hour away. And I only have one truck. Besides all of that, the gasket kit I bought ended up coming with 5.3L/4.8L head gaskets. It cost me 80 dollars to get the heads reworked and about 40 for new bolts. The reason i spent 120 dollars to rework the top-end is because a pullout motor with a bad top end is not worth alot of money. But if I can fix it and let somebody see and hear it run before I pull it out, I can sell it for top dollar. On top of all of that, I had all of the parts. So it was a cheap fix, and now I can go and get my 370ci...