5.3L issues after head gasket
 

Well I had to change out the drivers side head gasket on my 99 5.3. The other issue that I got me to finally change it out was a broken valve spring (only lost the top two coils and the engine has 200k) on #7 cylinder . Now after changing all the springs out for a set of new stock LS6 springs and a new head gasket, I got it fired up and now I have 3 dead cylinder on the left bank. I pulled the valve cover and turned the engine over a few times and have no oil coming out of the pushrods on 1,3,5. Just looking for ideas before tearing the head off again

Are you sure you put the pushrods in correctly and that they are seated correctly???

I did doubt myself so I took them out and reinstalled the to make sure they are right. I did call around to a couple engine builders in the area and none of them had an idea as to why I would have this issue. But I guess I am going to pull the head off and see if something is amiss in the oil galley.

Did you have the head milled?

How long did you let the motor run with valve cover off. I've had a few of these motors really take a while to bleed the lifters.

The heads are factory 862's with ls6 springs and not milled at all. As for letting it run it actually wasn't at the point of it starting to knock after reassembly it died off and quit. I can see that the rockers are not moving all the way like they should. So it was just turning it over with the starter. Now one other question is what should the oil pressure be just cranking it over with the starter.

... so how long did the engine run after it was put together?

3 cylinders are dead completely meaning no fire at all on those 3 on that bank?

Even if the valves where not opening completely, you would still get air and fuel into the chamber...

I would go over your injector connections, coil pack connections, etc etc.. if 3 cylinders are completely dead.

If they aren't dead but not firing correctly, give it a bit longer run time and let the lifters pump up... most likely the reason the valves are not opening as far as you think they should be. I also don't think oil is going to make it through the pushrods if the lifters are dry since oil is coming from the lifter...

The only thing that would cause DEAD holes would be lack of spark, fuel, or compression... run a compression test on those holes to knock mechanical issues off the list.

-Chris

Well I did a compression test today and all cylinders were even at 120psi except for #7 it was up at 150psi. But after putting it all back together it ran. But the bottom end is ticking bad so I guess it comes out for a rebuild.

Was it ticking before the work?

If not... perhaps its something to do with the work that's been done...

Just an idea.

Glad you got it running... sucks its got a rattle

-Chris

well the second part of the broken valve spring is that the keepers did let the valve drop into the cylinder and lock up. I was just hoping that just doing the head gasket with a new valve and new valve springs would be ok. I checked everything I could and its ticking in the bottom end. But such is life you win some you lose some. Now got to do head gaskets on a 02 olds to pay for the rebuild and hope it doesn't turn out like my truck did