I do slightly recall oil like that that needed to be soaked up. Maybe it was a gasket failure, but I don't think it will harm the performance of that L26.

Keep tearing down and cleaning

 

Yea I remember reading about that somewhere But it's going to get cleaned up though

I shall continue tomorrow morning
I'll probably start polishing too

 

I'm not sure how high temp paint holds up to the thicker exhaust mani, but my friend used the high temp paint on headers for his '55 Chevy truck... Not work the effort. He followed the instructions and let it sit long enough for the paint to "cure" (I think it was like 24-48 hours). First time he ran the engine with the headers, burned the paint.
Now, I'm not sure if what he used said it would work with "headers", but it was high temp paint.

And how the heck did you get the aluminum valve covers easily???? Was the engine just sitting out???

It is 100% normal for oil to be in the LIM (under the UIM). Oddly, it's by design. If you notice, the UIM gasket has a tube, that if I recall is to help "move" the oil that gets in there. Nothing abnormal. Every UIM I've popped off a 3800, I've seen small pools of oil. NOW, I did see a thread on another forum where a guy felt having the polished UIM runners helped keep them "cleaner". But I've also read you don't want perfectly polished runners (polished to a mirror finish), as you want the air to be somewhat turbulent going through the runners to help better mix with the fuel spray. When I port matched my LIM, I did some "clean up" to the runners (they are not "smooth" but no longer have the sand paper rough texture they do from the factory).

And yes, you can keep the aluminum oil pan (or at least it fits the Bonnevilles, so I assume it's fine on the W-Body). Some people go out of there way to swap for an aluminum pan (I've seen them sell on ClubGP.com).

 

Finally home from work! lol

And Damn about painting my exhaust manifolds lol I think they do sell paint for exhausts don't they? not sure but I'll check autozone tomorrow when I go buy my gaskets and radiator lol


The valve covers were actually really easy! :p And the motor was still in the car lol idk what a complete 3800 looks like in a Camaro but I had to remove the egr valve assembly, the complete coil module piece or whatever its called, and just moved hoses and wires out of they way, all the bolts and nuts were very accessible the hardest bolt to get to was on the passenger side valve cover, one in the very back. Some bracket In the back of the motor gives you little room to get to it but I managed to get it with a 1/4" ratchet and a 10mm deep socket took me 30 minutes or maybe even less to get them haha

I see what you mean with the sand paper texture on the runners, I might clean mine up a little but not to much

And I'll compare both pans once I get them off hopefully I can keep that alum. One

 

That bracket you mention in the back on the F-body, it's a engine left bracket. When we were doing head gaskets on my friend's GF's Camaro, he spent about an hour under the car popping off extra parts of the exhaust, working a wrenched to completely remove that bracket (we could not find another way to that bolt). While he did that, I worked other parts of the project. Glad you found a way to it.
BTW - The Bonneville guys believe that having the aluminum valve covers is another was of getting heat off the engine (not much). Plastic or composite material valve covers are like insulators, holding the head on the heads. The aluminum radiates heat fast then the plastic. I have been wanting to get a hold of a infrared temp sensor gun (you point, pull the trigger and it says what the temp is of a specific point). Run my car (with F-bod valve covers) and have someone else run regular valve covers for the same time frame. Then take the gun and get a temp off the covers and see what it works to be. In theory, if the aluminum moves more heat, I would imagine mine would have a higher temp reading.
Also the Bonnie guys believe you can hear the valves/rockers resonate more in aluminum covers.
Any differences are marginal IMO, but the look, the look is AWESOME! And it's a real cheap way to get awesome valve covers.

If you have a dremel, WidgetSupply.com is a great place to order bits to mod the LIM!! You should port match it while it's off the car:
'04 Monte Carlo SS - Port Matched LIM


And I am pretty certain the aluminum oil pan will work fine.

 

Man I would hate to remove that bracket, it looks like a pain lol

And that's interesting on the valve covers, I mostly want them for the looks I mean who wouldn't haha
They should come out nice with the way I'm going to do them

Dremel I do have, and I was actually thinking of doing a little porting to the exhaust ports and manifolds, not much but just to get them smooth most of all Might have to do what you did to the LIM as well

I doubt I'll get much done today though
Going to pick these up a little later >> Engine hoist and engine stand <<
And also going to buy my radiator, gaskets, paints and all other stuff I'm going to need haha

 

Do you guys think this will do for this project?
>> << I also have some carbide bits at home

 

First, awesome deal on the stand and hoist.
Second, I cringe when you say "Autozone" for anything (the 3 in my county ALL suck, crappy people, crappy parts, you're lucky if they have your part, they poorly staff the store so it takes you like 30 minutes to talk to a guy to punch up a part to tell you they don't have it). My rule of thumb is if I can't walk in, get the part off the shelf myself, go somewhere else (elsewhere will have the part and I'll be in out and home faster, even though they are significantly farther away then AZ). But I understand the problems I have can be regional (so if you have good luck with your AZ, I can't argue).

BTW - looking at your dremel kit, the grinding stones will NOT work on the LIM (they will cake up with aluminum). I used a variety of bits to get the correct angles and such. If you expand the ports on the LIM, DO NOT match them to the gaskets unless you are porting the heads! Otherwise, you will over do it and create a "step" you don't want. That pic I sent you is what you want to change (and of course follow that change into the runner). But do not change the corner at the injector boss (check my web page link at the bottom if you want to know more, I explained a LOT of this and more).
What I used was a bunch of different carbide bur bits (and NOT the little engravers). The ones I used for the ports were cylinder and cone shaped. But the runners I buzzed with spherical ones and bullet shaped ones.

I not just port matched my LIM, I plugged the holes for feeding coolant to the t-body AND I expanded the coolant bypass. I have a bunch of pics and explanations. My dad plugged the holes on his '98 Grand Prix (to avoid buying a new UIM), but did not expand the by pass, no problems seen.
'04 Monte Carlo SS - Port Matched LIM

 

yep i think its a great price for the hoist and stand haha

lol the autozone's here are very friendly whatever parts they dont have i always try NAPA. what do you think about them? lol

i have several diff kinds of carbide bits that should do the trick, the dremel kit i mostly got for when i polish my UIM, it should help out a little
i think im going to try and polish my TB too, or probably just paint it, it looks like a pain to polish up :p lol
and i did checked out your link, really helpful, thanks jason
i know i'll get back to this topic when i actually go to do this so i'll probaby have more questions

BTW where can i get set bolts from?
really dont feel like ordering anything online at this point lol i hate waiting

 

The valve covers are gonna look great polished up. I can't wait to see them. Someday I would like to get a set I think. Also great deal on the combo for 150. That looks like the same style engine hoist I have and the stand will work great for all the mods your doing