Ok as some of you know, I have been chasing valvetrain noise and bucking rockers for a while now. This is what I found when i really put my brain to the grind and starting looking at my build and not my problem. I started with an 08 5.3 with AFM. I deleted the DOD lifters in favor for the LS7 ones. Did a tune from a sponsor, along with a cam thats fairly mild. When I ordered a gasket kit for the rebuild it didnt come with head gaskets. Me being me i just got on the ringer and called up JEGS and ordered a nice and pricey set of Felpro ones threw them on there and started chasing problems shortly there after. I never checked lifter preload, figuring it was put together as a "kit". Well come to find out, the Felpro gaskets were at .020" some odd compressed thickness which in turn made my PR's the same reading too long. As I pulled the engine down yesterday i was sickened to see that I had a cracked head. Soo off to the salvage yard to buy another 243, bought the correct set of GM gaskets that mic'd out at around .051". Bolted them up and checked my lifter preload with an actual length checker rather than doing the whole one turn equals some many.000" method. Lifter preload looks good now and the engine runs like it should now. The moral of this story is that all of this could have been omitted if I had actually done in depth research before the build. A 15$ part could have saved me around 300$ and the time that it took me to replace everything. Thanks for all the help in my search for questions over the months. I had a lot of people stumped with my situation. PT.net rules!!

 

It happens, just part of playing the game.

My truck is still down from a me putting in a used converter that failed shortly after. The money I'm spending to get everything fixed could have bought me a brand new 15 disc, billet gold, custom painted converter, hand delivered and installed by Megan Fox.

Live and learn...

 

Glad you got it figured out bud!

Before i did my 6.0 swap i fuked up a head on my 5.3 due to over tightening the rocker arm bolt, stripped the hole and couldnt be retapped, so i have a 100$ paperweight now haha.

Now enjoy that LS engine!

 

Been there...

 

Glad to hear that you got it figured out. Sucks when things like that happen.

 

Glad you got it fix.

 

Yep, the GM head gaskets are the only way to go unless you're doing a radical build.

 

Glad you got it figured out, but I disagree with only GM head gaskets. I am using felpros with a .041" clench, and reduced my PR length by .010" and all has been good for 30K miles. maybe I got lucky, but I did hound the members here about PR math for a solid month before i made my choice. sometimes it just works, sometimes you get a cracked head.

 

Quench

 

if I am not mistaken, "quench" refers to the area between the top deck surface and the bottom of the head / CC. I was refering to the squish of the gasket itself (which determines the quench). Squish would have been the better term i think. semantics.