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New lifters, new camshaft retainer plate, if you went with the high lift cam and matching springs I'd go with a set of hardened pushrods. Since the intake was a "nightmare" I'm not going to recommend dropping the oil pan for a new oil pump, pickup & o-ring replacement. If the oil pump is not removed/replaced you can't remove the crankshaft sprocket to replace the full timing set. Inspect the cam gear and if there is no abnormal wear just install a new LS2 timing chain.
This is perfect thanks. I should have clarified - I'm doing all those items anyway (pushrods, oil pump, lifters, timing chain, etc).
Anything that I pulled off along the way, as long as it's not too expensive, is getting replaced.
I was thinking more along the lines of other items that I might not have removed, but are easy to get to with heads/intake off, like sensors, etc. I think the cam sensor is back there, so I think I'll probably do that.
Intake was mostly a nightmare because of the injectors/all those brittle plastic connectors. I don't mind nuts and bolts, I don't like flimsy plastic connectors lol.
Since pulling the pan is no problem I can add some info...
You'll need a puller to get the crank gear off. I had the cheap 3 jaw puller set from Harbor Freight that comes in a set of three. Using the largest puller I had to grind down the claws so they would fit behind the crank gear. I also ground the point off of the pusher so it would hit the installed (for safety) crank bolt evenly. I used a large hose clamp to hold the arms from popping off. It took a couple of tries to get the gear off. It helps if you have extra hands to hold the puller in place.... I did not. During my research I found the OTC 1025 5 ton two jaw puller works with no modification. I gave the OTC recommendation to another member here and he said it worked great. Amazon has it for $45 Prime. I actually bought the OTC but while it was in transit... the modded HF popped off the gear so I returned the OTC unused.
My modded Harbor Freight Puller with the claws and button ground flat (notice the 2 piggy backed clamps)
The new bottom gear from a quality aftermarket timing set will slip right on by hand. The installed balancer pushes against the pump drive to hold it in place. I used a Rollmaster Billet set (CS1180) that has the good IWIS chain.
You're gonna need a new crank bolt along with new head bolts. I used the ARP head bolts so I didn't have to do the torque by angle BS. They torque to a final spec making it much easier especially torquing over a fender with the brake booster and A/C box impeding lower bolt number 8 on each side.
Can you post a quick parts list and what all you did? Maybe ballpark cost too?
Doesn't seem to far off from what I have read on this site and others. Long tubes + "small" cam picking up around 80HP seems to be what I've read many times. Dyno sheet says "approx 403HP at engine" which is about a 100HP bump over stock. 245 RWHP vs the dyno tuned 314 RWHP is about a 70HP spread.
These HD trucks are heavy, drivetrain components heavier, 4x4, often oversized/large tires are run, it all adds up to HP losses.
Thanks for posting back here. Truck is probably quite a bit more fun now
If it was tuned with regular, midgrade or premium... that's what I'd run. If it was tuned with premium and you try a lower grade you may run into issues. If it was tuned with regular or midgrade, premium may be a good idea when hauling heavy loads or towing.
@RedXray - it was tuned with regular. Tuner told me to run at least midgrade, the higher the better. I've done probably 50-ish miles with regular and 50-ish miles with premium, and it seems to perform much better with premium.
@silentbravo - truck is quite a bit more fun! 40mph pulls are a lot of fun if you can get it to drop down to second gear. Shifts seem to be a bit quicker, but this truck has always shifted well. Not sure if the tuner touched the transmission shift points at all, but they do seem a tad higher. I haven't driven it in 7-8months so I may have just forgotten. Full build specs and pricing is below.
It already had RamAir intake and a Magnaflow muffler before I started this.
If I had to do it all again, I would probably just do a turbo setup. But I wanted to see how far NA would take it. It's not exactly a work truck, but sometimes I do need to hop in and drive 1000-ish miles hauling tools, so I wanted reliability.
Also along the way I also did:
Water pump
Gauge cluster rebuild (Circuit Board Medic) - had them do HVAC controls as well because it was going out.
Power steering pump
Fan clutch
Camshaft position sensor
Coolant temperature sensor
Oil pressure sensor/sending unit
A/C Condenser coil
Spark plugs
MAP sensor
Front wheel hub assemblies (was having ABS issue)
Transfer case motor
Both knock sensors and knock sensor harness
Both upstream 02 sensors
Oil dipstick tube
Bilstein steering dampener
Both batteries (2 batteries gas engine - guessing this was an old plow truck)
Thermostat
PCV tube
Of course any gasket I removed got replaced, including oil pan. Removing oil pan was a PAIN.
Last edited by colorado2500hd; Jun 22, 2021 at 07:08 PM.
Mar 8, 2021 | 02:51 PM
