UPDATE:

Cam is in! DOD gone!

Been a long couple weeks (lost phone with some of the swap pics, had to wait on some parts I didn't have before hand, etc). Also ended up getting my heads cleaned, springs and seats installed and milled .013. Just enough to clean the deck of the head and slight bump in compression. Also had old broken exhaust bolt still in head so got that sucker out.



Also had a leaky oil pan gasket that needed to be addressed, so dropped steering rack, crossmember, and oil pan and replaced.

Removal of top end was pretty straightforward. Except for welded on LTs, which made getting heads off and on enough of a pain to fill a decent size swear jar lol. Thought I was gonna need a fuel disconnect tool for intake fuel line but managed with 2 small flat head screwdrivers. Intake came out as whole assembly with fuel rails.

Most time consuming part was getting the deck of the block squeaky clean. I went with brake clean and razor blade method. Took better part of a day to get both sides clean.

Install of cam was easy since lifters and guides were out so no worries about a lifter falling.



Decided since I was going with a HV/HP melling pump it be a good idea to drill my lifter trays to help with oil drain back. Didn't go full 1/2 inch as suggested in other threads, just about 1/4 in to not risk too much stress on the trays.




Notes
* Cam retainer plate on newer engines have counter sunk bolt holes and aren't compatible with the ARP bolts (flat hex bolts) I had purchased. Dealers no longer sell the old plate but found an old style flat bolt hole retainer plate at carquest part #B31822.



* I wasn't able to use my 3158kt timing set due to it being a 1x cam gear, so I just picked up a 4x 3 bolt cam gear and a ls2 timing chain and kept the original crank sprocket on. So 3158kt set up for sale..



* Oil pick up tube o - ring install was a breeze since the oil pan was off. No pinching and slid in nicely into pump. Idle oil pressure sits around 45-50 and high rpm gets up to 60-70.

* When Justin (BB) tuned my truck I mentioned a cam in near future so rpms were bumped up a bit and dod/afm was turned off so the trucks drivable and sounds mean as hell but have an appt to get it dyno tuned by local guy NicD and should dial the tune just right for my cam setup.

Only drivability issues I'm having is when idling for longer than 20-30 sec the Idle gets choppier and "service stabilitrak" and shifts hard into second. An issue that I'm sure will get addressed with the tune.

Performance wise I can say its snappier and feel no loss of low end and actually feel much better throttle response. Can't wait for this thing to get tuned though!!!

 

looking forward to seeing your dyno sheet, should be interesting

 

I know! The 31st can't come soon enough man! Anything over 330 rwhp would be nice!

 

Awesome. Nice write up.
I'm also interested in your results after your tune.
Man that would drive me nuts having to wait a whole 8 days for that tune, .

Lookin forward to your updates.

 

Well tomorrows the big day! Time to see what my money, blood, and sweat has done to this thing LOL!

Dyno is for 4pm and here in Phoenix it will be around 110* and it's monsoon time so there will be some humidity, hopefully that won't bring down numbers too much. And yes I know dyno is just a tuning tool and it's just a number, but won't be out to the track till at least fall so I'd like some sort paper giving me a pat on the back now haha!!

Stay tuned!! (Pun intended lol)

 

Nice, in for updates
How'd it go?

 

This was on a 2nd gear pull, converter locked. I'm told 3rd gear pulls add +20-30 rwhp. They didn't want any mishaps with the driveshaft so went with 2nd.

Hard to see but temp was 109 and humidity 11%

I'm not to hung up on the numbers though, the thing runs night and day difference! I guess in my previous tune the timing was all out of wack and AFs all over the place. Shift points set to 6700.

 

Good numbers for it being so hot Nicd tuned my truck two weeks ago.

 

Thanks man! Yea Nics a real cool dude, knows what he's talking about.

5.3 nnbs cam dyno - YouTube

What's your truck setup?

 

I have an 07 gmc Sierra rcsb, 4.8,ls7 cam and valve springs, 799 ported heads, fully built 4l60 with 3000 circle d stall.323 gears with true Trac. Oh yeah I have a old mp 112 blower on it,need to go with a tvs asap. It puts down 401 to the wheels and that was in 2nd gear.