BrandonHall10

I got the left head stripped and started doing a little cleaning. Then I remembered those broken studs. I tried doing the weld a nut trick. Couldn't get it to stick. Maybe my shaky hands or ignorance for the proper welder settings. I ended up just building a ball of weld big enough to get the vise grips on. Once I had that, the screw backed out without a fight. No problem.



Then I knocked out the expansion plugs. You couldn't tell from looking at the outside, but they were rotted through as well.

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BrandonHall10

Okay... Boths heads on and torqued, exhaust manifolds bolted on, valvetrain in, and valve covers on. Tomorrow's goal is to get the valley cover off and start cleaning that.



I managed to get the angle gauge on all but one of the head bolts. The bottom most back bolt on the left head was a no go. Fortunately that was a 90°+90° spec, so a sharpie line was called good enough.

TahoeNate

That motor must have had pure water for years lol. But in the desert I guess people can do that...great bargain you scored on this one Brandon

Beatdown Z

iTrader: (18)

BrandonHall10

Well, I suppose you CAN do that here, but it'll cost you four expansion plugs. LOL

Thanks man. I am thrilled! My wife has already started calling it hers. Not sure how I feel about that...

I am definitely adding this trick to my mental toolbox.

Thanks! Slow but steady. Cleaning everything as I go, and trying not to make any fatal mistakes.

Yesterday I got the knock sensors out and buffed, valley cover off and cleaned up, and cleaned the gasket surface on the block. Popped the knock sensor grommets in the cover and set it and the gasket in place. Today I torqued the cover and the knock sensors. Not sure if I want to clean the engine bay now, or wait till it's fully back together... I have coolant and oil speckled all over the place from when I was blowing out the head bolt holes. I'll probably do it now since it's so open in there without the intake manifold and tube. Maybe pre-flush the cooling system while I have the hose out. Speaking of that, I figured on taking the water pump off to get the hose right up in the block and to have a good look at the pump itself. So I bought new water pump gaskets.

$1151 - Previous
$11 - Water pump gaskets

$1162 - Total

BrandonHall10

IT RUNS AGAIN!!

Got it all put together last night minus the fuel injector and coil connections. I wanted to cold crank it before actually firing it up. Which is what I did today after work. Cranked it for a minute or so to pump some oil into the top end and to make sure I didn't mess anything up too bad. Once I felt confident with that, I connected the injectors and coils. After all the final connections were made, I hit the key and it fired up right away. Sounded good aside from the rattling coming from underneath. That's how it sits.

Tomorrow's plan is to dump the radiator flush in and bleed the system. Get it up to temperature so I can check for leaks and all that jazz. Maybe drive it around the block a couple times. I don't trust any of the gauges, so I'll hook up the laptop and run the VCM scanner to monitor all the critical stuff. Oil pressure, coolant temp, trans temp, volts, etc...

First MAJOR hurdle is done. No pictures because it's just a stock LQ4 in a Silverado. We've all seen that before.

$1162 - Total

BrandonHall10

Alright... So first thing this morning I dumped in the radiator flush. Quickly discovered that I forgot to close the radiator drain petcock. Oops. Didn't lose too much though. Since I left the T-stat out, I was able to pretty much fill the entire system through the upper radiator hose. Got that put back on, topped off the recovery tank, and fired it up. A couple minutes in, it got warm enough to start burning off all the WD-40 I had sprayed everywhere. My kid asked me if it was on fire. LOL! Eventually the smokeshow subsided. I let it run for about an hour. Mostly idling, but occasionally revving it a bit. No issues. Leak free. According to the laptop, it only ever got as high as 125°, again, because no thermostat. Later today, I'll drain and flush the system and put the T-star back in and do it all over again.

I did get another code. P0522. Engine Oil Pressure Sensor Circuit Low Input. Ordered a new sensor. Really wish that would have popped up before I put the intake back on, but what can you do...

arthursc2

iTrader: (5)

BrandonHall10

LOL! Yeah, I was pretty stoked to have it driving again. I blasted around the block and parked it there so I could crawl underneath have a listen for the noise.

I don't know... I kind of like the idea of leaving it rough. Really rough. Then I have zero cares if something happens to it. I can't have nice things because of kids.

Yes! Great point. I might let the trans fluid slide for a while. PO said it was recently changed and it looks good, but I will check the diff lube.

Update: Flexplate noise is gone! I pulled the inspection cover (kind of a chore...) and the flexplate looked okay. However, I noticed the starter gear was touching the flexplate. "Odd" I thought... Pulled the starter off the LM7 I have on the stand for the K10 and popped it on the '06.​​​​​​​ Hit the key and it was silent! I feel bad robbing parts off another engine, but I did what I had to do. The K10 engine will get a new starter and the Silverado runs quiet. $0 on the Silverado budget. I'll hide that cost on the K10 swap. The benefit of having multiple LS engines around. LOL

So that's the good news... Now the bad news; the heater core is plugged up solid. Can't even blow air through it. My mechanical Yoda/mentor tells me he has seen them that plugged before and managed to (back) flush them clean. I'm hoping my luck continues there.

Heater core, oil pressure sensor, fuel pump/level sender, and emissions test... Getting close!

Mconcha

iTrader: (1)