Some of you are familiar with my situation
https://ls1tech.com/forums/showthrea...8&page=2&pp=20

Ive been doing some reading and really think my problem lies in my valve train geometry and too much or too little preload.
I think the valves are either not closing all the way (too much preload) or they arent opening all the way (too little preload). I have tried different size pushrods .735 which created a very noisy valve train so I switched to .74 it quieted them down alot (more preload). I didnt notice any difference in power between the two setups.
Could adjustable or self adjusting rocker arms be the solution?
Is there a way to check if the valves arent closing all the way?

 

If the push rods were to long they would hold the valves open and you would have a miss due to compression loss.

 

makes sense, I dont have a miss the engine runs perfect right now its just my gains where crap.
Maybe the valves arent opening enough?
I really need to figure out how to check my preload, I think thats going to tell me where the problem is.

Another thought is the guy who did the install didnt check piston to valve (and I told him to specifically do that) they could have clearanced themselves in that case Ive got damage and that could have been what caused alot of the rockers to come loose the first time.
If I cant figure this out Im putting the stock heads back on and going from there.

 

Set a cylinder a zero lash and count the numbers of turns it takes to get to 22 ft.lbs. I think the general figure is 10 thousands every 1/4 of a turn. There is also way to do it with a dial gauge, but I haven't figured it out yet.

 

here's a link to another post of mine in the ls1 section

https://ls1tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=289214

 

I thiink you are having a tuning problem or the valves are too big for a 5.3. I know my new heads for my 6.0 are going tobe 2.02 and 1.57, I wouldn't go any bigger for the stock cubes. You are 2.00 and 1.55 right? I think the 2.00 intake valve is hurting the 5.3.

 

the 2.00 might be hurting but I had him slightly unshroud each side of the chamber.
I need to eliminate problems with tuning (not enough timing because of pinging)
currently Im running less than 24 degrees
and problems with valve geometry (valves not loaded enough or not opening enough)

I could eliminate timing by running race gas but I cant get any.

I could eliminate valve geometry probs with adjustable rockers.

This ******* thing is so frustrating I know this setup has so much more in it I wish I could figure it out.

 

If your preload was on the high side or the low side either way its not going to effect your total valve lift do to hydraulic lifters.Determining the approx push rod isnt hard.Just subtract how much you shaved the heads and then consider the cam base circle.I gather you are on the tight side now of the preload.Shaving .050 is a lot,i have not heard of anyone with good results doing that unless there was a custom piston engine build involved.If the head porter is use to the old smallblock chevy,he's old school.that doesnt work today.its easy to take performance away with these new modern day gen3 heads if you are not up to speed on them.When you cam up a small cubed motor its easy to take away low end.the time it takes to get to the power band is more than what you gain on the high end,so its possible to go slower with the wrong combination of mods.

 

don't put race gas in it.

 

You are trying to make power with stock exhaust maniolds, not possible on a N/A setup. The cam is way to big for stock exhaust manifolds, that cam is bigger than mine and I have a 6 liter. You are putting all that air in there and have no way to get it out. A set of long tubes will give you the other 30 hp that you are looking for. I also agree with gonzo.