I really have no problem with the stock power levels for 97% of my driving. I have had a couple hills with both the camper and the race car where you had to go embarrassingly slow unless I wanted to flog the hell out of the truck. But I don't see that changing unless I substantially change things.

 

Hi folks. Sorry for being hit and run on this site. I'm back to it and serious this time. Ordering stuff tomorrow and starting the tear down this weekend. I've pretty much got it all figured out now for parts but I'm struggling with a few things.

The first is the head gaskets. I've found felpro part# 26191pt which is the MLS gasket but I can't find a graphite version?

Lifters. I've found Chevrolet Performance 12499225 from Jegs for $127 & JEGS Performance Products 20850 - JEGS GM LS Hydraulic Roller Lifters & Lifter Guides. I'm at a bit of a loss here. From what I can see the these performance lifters will bolt right in but I'm not sure. I've found some plain lifters but they are $20 each so lots more money. From what I can see I need four of those lifter guide packs, lifters and maybe tappets.

Otherwise I think all parts are found and sitting on order forms. Just need some help with lifters and a part number for the graphite gasket in case I end up with notched heads.

THANK YOU!!!

Edit - looks like I should have called Texas Speed for some of this..

Am I looking at this right that I don't even need to take the timing cover off to do this? I've got timing cover kit on the list and valve cover gaskets. But not 100% sure I need them. I'm going to examine the water pump but I'm not going to replace it unless there's obvious signs of leaking around the shaft seal. I know that will count as insane to most but I do have my reasons for not doing it at this time.

 

Well we got the heads off today and found nothing of what we expected. The heads that came off were 862 heads and they look OK. The only things we really noticed is that the driver's side head is weeping at the freeze plug & the bolts around 7 & 8 were almost finger loose. I'm pretty sure some miss fires were reported on 7 & 8 when I had the codes read and that's also the bank that the O2 sensor quit recently. Beyond that the lifters looked OK but did have a good bit of crud on them and the push rods were really pretty coked up. Not much oil getting in there. Everything showed some signs of heat but not horribly so. Cylinder walls still show a good bit of cross hatching. not as much as I'd like, but it's still there, no piston slop that we could feel and all cylinders seem to be burning equally.

Not sure what we are going to do. Probably put the rebuilt heads on with new lifters and push rods. I think I may replace the knock sensors while it's all apart too since they are so far buried down in there. Then have the heads that came off checked for cracks and have the oil analyzed just for more info.

Again the problem was coolant loss and and scary noisy lifters. The lifters would get quiet with new oil but 1500 miles later they would hammer again until the engine got good and hot. While I'm surprised it wasn't obviously cracked Castech heads in there I really don't regret tearing it down to this point and getting rebuilt heads for it anyway. Those lifters are hammering for a reason. Hopefully with all this all will be well. Hate to think it's the block.

 

replace the exhaust manifold bolts with stainless ones they like to seep the smallest amounts of fluid and rust the bolts that's what causes them to break when removing

 

Definitely would recommend replacing knock sensors and oil pressure sending unit when you are in there.

 

We actually only broke two of the manifold bolts. One on each side. I'll take a look at getting stainless to replace them in case it all has to come apart again soon.

I don't remember seeing the oil pressure sensor but I'll look for it. Knock Sensors seems to be a no brainer though. Perhaps the harness for it too.

I'm beginning to questions if oil and water ever mixed. I need to have an oil sample tested. I'm beginning to wonder if it wasn't just an issue of repeatedly getting hot and coking up the lifters & pushrods, causing the nasty valve train noises from oil starvation.

 

Well it's back together. Very smooth and quiet, TONS of power and so far no burning coolant smell at all.

It is very hard starting though. It's too early to tell if that will clear itself out or if we missed something. Vac leak, maybe intake or something allowing the fuel pressure to bleed off. Even with all the problems this truck started instantly. We'll see how it starts in the morning. But I'm pretty sure it's not going away and we either missed something on putting it back together or messed up a seal or something.

Oil pressure seems lower than it was. It's always sat at 38 with a hot idle and 43 or so at a gentle cruise. Hot idle is sometimes 38 but seems to be occasionally down around 30. Still not critical, but has my attention.

Just got it back together a few hours ago and drove the 45 miles home with it. So still really early to tell. But it is really damn smooth and feels like it's up 50HP. Still don't really know what was wrong but it seems it was blowing the coolant out, rather than in at the head gaskets.

P.S. We heard a pretty loud sucking sound. It's coming through the PCV line. I assume the check valve is bad but so far I'm not finding the correct part for this truck for PCV. Just N/A stuff.