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Flipping it upside down will work just fine for holding the lifters in place.
I'd say the chain and pump are up to you, to me if it's not broke or bad don't fix it. It's not that I'm cheap, it's just money I know I don't have to spend or maybe I'm cheap.....
I'd say the chain and pump are up to you, to me if it's not broke or bad don't fix it. It's not that I'm cheap, it's just money I know I don't have to spend or maybe I'm cheap.....
Yeah, I'm trying not to be cheap and regret not doing something while I was in there. But at the same time I don't want to mess with anything that I might risk doing wrong. I'm still learning a lot as I go.
It looks like I could align the oil pan with the back of the block using a straight edge and feeler gauges, but I'd have to pick up a true straight edge which looks like it that would cost almost $100 and then I'm not even sure I could get it across the back of the block and the pan at the same time because of the mounting points for the engine stand. I'd have to find another way to hold the engine while I did it.
At this point I might just go ahead with the cam swap and see what the chain looks like when I get in there. Maybe with the engine flipped upside down it might be easier to get the oil pick up tube bolt out of the pump without even touching the pan. At least it wouldn't fall into the pan if I dropped it.
Got the cam installed over the last couple weekends:
Engine upside down to keep the lifters from falling.
Factory cam out next to the new cam.
Picture of the front cam bearing.
At this point I wasn't thinking straight because I couldn't figure out how to install the Trick Flow bracket and LS2 dampener without removing the oil pump, so I decided to go ahead and take the pump and timing chain off. Once I did that I realized if I had bolted the dampener to the bracket first I probably could have slid it behind the pump. So, since I had the pump off I went ahead and ordered a new LS2 timing chain, a Melling High Pressure Oil Pump, and a new cam retainer plate.
New chain on and new green o-ring from the Melling pump on the pickup tube.
Aligning the new oil pump.
Engine right side up again and cam gear back on with new ARP cam gear bolts.
Still need to get the front cover back on, but I want to be sure the timing gear is on correctly first.
I think that I've got it right, but with the LS2 dampener I am having a hard time seeing the dot on the crank gear. There's only one spot where I can see it and I'm looking at an angle so it's hard to tell if it is straight up.
What else can I look at to be sure I've got the gears lined up correctly?
Well, the 5.3 finally lost all oil pressure so I started to pull it out this weekend.
Have a couple questions I wanted to see if anyone could help me with.
1. I wanted to get the factory y-pipe out to take to an exhaust shop and have a bung welded in for a wideband O2. I can't figure out a way to get it out. My suspension lift seems to be causing some problems. I've taken the lift compression struts off and the transmission cross member out, but I'm still hitting the transmission bell housing and the aluminum mount for the front differential on the passenger side and the lower cross member from the suspension lift is keeping me from going forward any more. What's the trick to getting the y-pipe out on a 4WD?
2. When I got the intake manifold off the whole top of the engine is covered in oil.
Just for my curiosity, what are the common places for oil leaks on the top of the engine? Did all this come from the passenger side valve cover gasket? What about at the back, the only thing I see back there is the cam sensor and the oil sensor are these places that commonly leak? Only other thing I can possibly see leaking is the valley cover?
The y-pipe should just slip out if the cross member is gone, nothing is really ever in the way. I've never taken one out with a lift kit so I can't see what's going on. Maybe you'll have to remove the exhaust manifolds so the y-pipe can be pushed forward a bunch and then angle it out. Or just take the motor out and you'll have tons of room to move it around.
As for the oil film, that just looks super common if you never wash the engine bay. Oil seeps, road spray, dirt build up. Once that stuff holds moisture it never gets dry up there. Looks just like the engine in my old 2006 sierra that I did intake gaskets/valve cover gaskets and knock sensors on at 255k miles.
Ended up being a lot messier than I expected cause coolant kept coming out every time I tilled it a little more. But I didn't think it looked too bad once the heads were off. Just pretty dirty in the cylinders
I'm taking the heads to a machine shop tomorrow to get them cleaned and checked out. Found a broken exhaust manifold bolt at the rear of each head. Hopefully the shop can get those out without any trouble.
And I got the exhaust out finally. Once the engine was out and the transmission was able to be pushed over a little bit it came out pretty easily.
I still don't see how it would ever come out on a 4wd with the engine in place. The passenger side doesn't fit between the transmission bell housing and the aluminum mounting bracket for the front differential. Pushing the transmission over got me the clearance I needed. But would have been a ton easier to get to the transmission bell housing bolts with the exhaust out first. I'm not looking forward to putting those bolts back in with the exhaust in the way.
Good work. Keep it up. Make sure to use a timing cover alignment tool when putting your timing cover back on, or the seal will leak. Ask me how I know.
Good work. Keep it up. Make sure to use a timing cover alignment tool when putting your timing cover back on, or the seal will leak. Ask me how I know.
Yeah, I've got the front cover on the new engine right now. I put it on just with rotating the crank like in the Ls1howto.com guide, but between that and me second guessing the timing gear alignment I'm planning to open it back up and double check before it goes in the truck.
I've got a new seal and some gaskets to do it again and I picked up a front cover alignment tool from saccitycorvette.com. Hopefully it works good and I don't end up with any leaks.
08-01-2016, 11:02 PM
