Ok guys, I just did a full rebuild on my 5.3. New cam bearings as well. I was very methodical and double checked everything I thought. I F'd up somewhere. When I prelubed motor I only had oil out of 2 pushrods. I reprimed it twice with same results. Gonna tear back apart Monday. Any ideas what I missed? It has a new barbell and plug to right of oil pump is there. Any help would be great. Thanks in advance

 

you might have nicked the o ring to the oil pump pick up tube during assembly . losing pressure there. what color was the o ring you used?

 

Melling green seal that came with new pump.

 

Did the barbell have its o-ring? What about your valley cover? Which one did you use? If you're talking about the 5.3 out of the tahoe, I'm sure it had AFM/DOD, which means you would e needed to block off those oil feeds, or just use the ls3/2 valley cover that has the 8 o-rings built into it.

You just primed it, you haven't started it yet?

 

Well I'm finally over being sick etc and took motor apart. Jordan barbell had o-ring. I did dod delete with new valley cover. I pulled the cam and checked to see if bearings were installed correctly, they were. Then I noticed the retaining plate. The seal is smashed flat.

So I've ordered a new one. AND hopefully will have it back together soon. But I have been thinking about having rings gapped for boost since I'll boost it down the road. I can't wait to get this thing back on the road.

 

All new cam retainers have countersunk bolts so make sure you have the right bolts for your new plate.

 

When I installed my new cam retainer, 3 of the 4 bolts were replaced by the bolts included with my Trick Flow LS2 dampener and the other bolt was replaced with an ARP. Should I be worried about alignment issues?

 

Doubtful, but the plate is bolt specific. I had to search all over to find the non countersunk plate for my new motor as I don't like the counter sunk one.

 

Ha yeah I bought ARP bolts and now I can't use them.