Ray says the factory lifters will remain pumped up for quite a while, even if they've been sitting on the workbench or the engine hasn't run lately. He bleeds them down manually with a shop rag and a vice; then compresses and releases the lifter several times to squeeze the oil out of it. This ensures that you'll be able to pop the lifters and rockers back in without a hitch.
With the cam towers torqued into place, Ray drops the lifters back into the heads. The Patriot heads are assembled but don't include the lifters and rockers, so you'll have to swap those over from your stock heads. With the lifters in place, Ray uses this handy tool from Ford to compress the spring; then he slides the rocker in by hand. This same tool is used to remove the rockers from the stock heads.
With the heads completely assembled, Ray gives the block a quick cleanup. Since the short-block was rebuilt before our project started, it didn't need full machining again.
Ray replaces all the fasteners and gaskets with new hardware from Fel-Pro. Quality gear helps an engine stay together, and there's no better example than these resilient multilayer-steel gaskets. These gaskets seal well and stand up to a lot of abuse.
Following the typical inside-out, criss-cross pattern, Ray torques the Patriot-ported Two-Valve heads to the stout short-block. As you can see, he dropped the whole K-member out of the car to swap the heads. It might seem like a lot of extra work, but Ray says it ultimately saves time and is easier on your back.
After properly aligning the cam gears, Ray installed the chain guides, followed by one timing chain at a time. Each chain has one darker link that lines up with the dots on the cam sprocket, so it's hard to mess up. It might seem daunting, but Ray thinks the modulars are easier to work on than their pushrod predecessors. Don't forget to install the timing wheel on the crankshaft before you button up the timing cover. You don't want to pull the cover off again to reinstall it.
Knowing we'd give up our JBA mid-length headers with the turbo kit, Ray satisfied his curiosity by testing the full JBA exhaust system-mid-length headers (PN 6622SJT; $1,099.95), two-cat H-pipe (PN 6632HC; $449.95), and after-cat (PN 40-2623; $469.95)-before we went crazy with heads, cams, intakes, and turbos. With his custom DiabloSport tune, the full JBA system picked up an impressive 20.29 hp and 25.52 lb-ft of torque over the factory manifolds, factory H-pipe, and existing Magnaflow mufflers in back.