Take your time and take pictures if you can before disambally. Unless you have torn into a number of Pontiacs, one problematic area of reinstall is the power steering/alternator brackets. As done with the fasteners on Steve's car, I like to put all nut, bolts, and washers in one container. But you migh perfer to find someway to orginize the fasteners so that you know which goes where.
Set the engine crank on the zero mark on the timing cover. There are 2 zero settings, one crank revolution stops on #1 and the other one stops on something other than 1.
It's a funky @$$ thing, and I have ran into it numerous times on Pontaics. For instance, on Steve's car, we set the crank on #1, based on the rotors postion. When we opened the engine, however, the cam gear's mark was @ 12 o-clock, and the crank was @ 12 o-clock. According to the book, the timing marks should be with the cam @ 6 o-clock and the crank @ 12 o-clock. Don't make this complicated, and as long as you assemble the same way you tore it down, everyting will be fine.
Pull the raidiator and shroud, and try to pull the drain plugs from the block about half way up and in the middle of the block. Good luck on pulling the drain plugs because it ain't always that easy. If you're luckey enough to pull the drain plugs, there may be crud sealing the holes, so you need to break through the crud with a punch, screwdireve, whatver you have. If you cannot get the plugs out, the coolant will pour out when you pull the cover. Some will get into the crankcase, so you'll want to change the oil. If you cannot drain the block, after you pull the cover siphon off enough coolant out of the block so that you can end the eternal drip, drip, that will happen.
After you pull the raidator and shroud, but before you take the accessores apart, break the crank-pully bolt loose, counterclockwise because you're probally not going to have an impact wrench. You can jam a screwdriver or a block of wood between the belts and the crank pulley as a way to stabilize the crank as you break the bolt loose.
Remove the accessories. To remove the harmonic balancer, you need a puller. It is possible to pry and beat it off, but you want to be careful doing so. Remove the timing chain cover, of course, you have the fuel pump off because it's part of the accessoried. On the bottom of the cover, there are 4 or 5, I think 7/16th blots underneath the oil pan that go into the pan. Often some of the bolts and studs that go into the block seize up because of disimilar metals causing galvonic corrosion. If you run into problems, work them back and forth, meaning that you also want to go in a clockwise direction. You also want to use 1/2 drive sockets/ratches/breaker bars when doing this work, and you want to use 6 point sockets. If you have chinese tools, you better upgrade with quality tools because you're getting into work where chinese tools are drop you in the grease. Craftsman tools are a lot of tool for the money, and the money you'll spend on the 250 peice set, that includes 1/2 drive, only a faction of the labor costs of a professional doing the job, and they'll last you a lifetime.
With stubborn cover to block bolts/studs, apply pressure with a breaker bar and beat on the bar. Don't use a cheater pipe because the average man has enough strenght to snap off one of these bolts with just a breaker bar. Also, reinstall previous cover to block bolts and tighten them. This helps releive the pressure on the frozen fastener. I don't know how effective penetrating oil is in such a situation, but whf?, I use it, everyone else uses it, so it aint gonna hurt to try some. If you get a frozen fastner to stat to brake loose, squirt it with some weasel pi$$ and tighten it up. Take your time, keep working it in and out until it's out because if you break off the bolt/stud in the block, you're major screwed.
Removing the manifold, valley pan, and valve covers can be done before or after. The thing is that you usually don't run into the frozen fasteners. Then again, evertying can be a *****, and aluminun manifolds offer the same problem with galvonic corrision helping to seize fasteners.
After you get the cover off, locate the marks on the gears. It doesn't matter which way you do it: I like the cam @ 6 o-clock and the crank @ 12 o-clock. The thing is that you're consistant.
Wether you do the 6/12 oclock or the 12/12 oclock, pull the distributor cap and make note of which plug the rotor faces. Also note the location of the distributor's housing so that you get the timing close.
Remove the distributor, loosen the rocker arms enough so that the push rods will clear and remove the timing chain. Pay careful attention to the eccentric on the cam, and make sure that you install it correctly.
Remove the push rods. It's a bunch of crap, but the protocall is to install pushrods back in the same holes/rocker arms as they were. Even though it's bunch of crap, I recomend/follow this order because sound mechanical work involves following protocall, whether or not it's hogwash.
Lifters are often varnished in the holes. Professional flat rate mechanics use a slide hammer, run a screw into the lifter, and slide-hammer them out. Sometimes, I don't follow protocall, and the way I remove lifters is to work them back and forth until friction wears the varnish away.
Remove the thrust plate and bolt that holds the cam in place, and carefully slide the cam out. Lube it with cam assembly lube, and carfully install the new cam. Often, you have to hold your mough just right as you install the cam. Each time the cam passes a bearing, be careful that you don't beat the lobes on the bearing surface.
Install new lifters in the galley and install the pushrods in the order of which they were removed. This is not a chebby engine, so don't listen to the chebby guys. All you do is torque the rocker arms to 20 lbs/ft.
The torque on the rockers isn't major critical. The torque on the intake manifold, however, isn't an option. Some people can get away with it, but even though I don't use a torque wrench on rockers, I do use one on the manifold. I don't remember the specks, but you tighten it to half specks, then full specks, starting with the center bolts, alternating side to side toward the ends of the manifold.
You also need to pay attention to fuel pump install. It doesn't matter how many time you do it, you can still miss, as I did on the last install, requireing yanking it off and doing it again. The arm must be loaded under the eccentric. You can feel it spring some when it's aligned.
You might want to install the distributor before you do the valley pan and manifold. When installing the distributor, there is a slot in the bottom that drives the oil pump. Sometimes you have to take a long screwdriver down inside of the engine and dink with the oil pump drive. When you install the distributor, you must account for the helical cut on the gears. Pay attention to the amount of rotation when you pull the distrubutor. The postive side of aliging the distributor is that you can be off a tooth, and it won't cause problems because you can pick it up in the timing.
It's a pretty fair job doing a cam, but if you make this a peice meal, rather than a marathon repair, there are lots of people here who can help walk you though it. It's a peice of cake, provided that you don't try to eat larger bites than you can swallow.
