Name all your tips, tricks, and hints, on prepping a new motor for installation!!!
05-16-2007, 03:29 PM
#1
Name all your tips, tricks, and hints, on prepping a new motor for installation!!! I have a shortblock, intake, and will be getting heads and cam soon. This is going to be a procharger build with nitrous on top of it looking to make around 900+ at the motor. The shortblock is built, and i have parts picked out for the rest of the motor. But theres lil things like drilling the hole in the lifter trays and stuff like that that i may not be familiar with that im looking for. Also lil stuff i might forget or not know about like the lil barbel thing that goes into the oil passage in the back of the block. Im used to old school SBCs, and 5.0 fords, LSX's are new to me. So ANYTHING you guys can suggest, remind me of, tell me about, feel bored and want to type about etc. go right ahead. Even stuff that seems simple and basic throw it out there, i have a lot going through my head and want to make sure i dont do anything stupid when putting this thing together. Ill be using parts like the front/rear/valley covers off my old motor as well as rockers and misc items. Anything i should replace while im swapping those parts?
Also any tips on cleaning the shortblock prior to assembly? Ive seen pics of people using soapy water and a hose to clean a motor, but im guessing thats for the bare block only as you'd wash all the assembly lube out of an already assembled shortblock! So just some clean rags/paper towels and brake clean on all the gasket surfaces?
Again anything anyone wants to add would be great.
Also any tips on cleaning the shortblock prior to assembly? Ive seen pics of people using soapy water and a hose to clean a motor, but im guessing thats for the bare block only as you'd wash all the assembly lube out of an already assembled shortblock! So just some clean rags/paper towels and brake clean on all the gasket surfaces?
Again anything anyone wants to add would be great.
05-16-2007, 08:09 PM
#5
Hmmm... I havent BUILT an LSx yet... so I cant really tell you all the little hints for putting it back together the way a sponsor that builds engines could, but I'll throw out some stuff that I have done/heard on the parts that I have worked on:
Iron LQx huh? Nice choice. From what I understand all the sensors are set up the way a Gen III is, not like a Gen IV where you would need adapter harnesses. Hopefully no worries there.
Heres a wonderful little tip: When you're putting your oilpan back on, do yourself and your engine a favor and torque the bolts ONLY to their required specs. I believe its 18ft/lbs. The broken oil pan bolt in the back of MY engine(the real long one) next to the starter broke off because my torque wrench decided not to click
The kicker is that my awesome craftsman Tqwrench starts at 20ft/lbs... and my cheap-o goes into the inch/lbs. So, get a good set of torque wrenches...no cheap stuff. Torque with caution.
Now would probably be an excellent time to do some poly or solid mounts
Putting the balancer on was a sinch. I went with the longer bolt (M16, 2.0 pitch, 120mm long) The shorter stocker might strip out the first few threads on the crank. The idea behind the longer bolt is so you have enough bolt threaded in there before you go cranking the harmonic balancer on. Also, you'll need a new balancer bolt. The old one is stretched, and you will stretch the new one too...but thats what they're meant to do. Acquire a big big breaker bar with a pipe.
Always use anti-sieze and locktite when needed... but what ever you do dont mix them together... I dont even want to know what would happen then... I doubt it would give you something like anti-tight or lock-sieze...It might be like mixing pop-rox and pepsi!!!!!....you might destroy time and space as we know it... or even worse your tools might just run away!
Iron LQx huh? Nice choice. From what I understand all the sensors are set up the way a Gen III is, not like a Gen IV where you would need adapter harnesses. Hopefully no worries there.
Heres a wonderful little tip: When you're putting your oilpan back on, do yourself and your engine a favor and torque the bolts ONLY to their required specs. I believe its 18ft/lbs. The broken oil pan bolt in the back of MY engine(the real long one) next to the starter broke off because my torque wrench decided not to click
The kicker is that my awesome craftsman Tqwrench starts at 20ft/lbs... and my cheap-o goes into the inch/lbs. So, get a good set of torque wrenches...no cheap stuff. Torque with caution.Now would probably be an excellent time to do some poly or solid mounts
Putting the balancer on was a sinch. I went with the longer bolt (M16, 2.0 pitch, 120mm long) The shorter stocker might strip out the first few threads on the crank. The idea behind the longer bolt is so you have enough bolt threaded in there before you go cranking the harmonic balancer on. Also, you'll need a new balancer bolt. The old one is stretched, and you will stretch the new one too...but thats what they're meant to do. Acquire a big big breaker bar with a pipe.
Always use anti-sieze and locktite when needed... but what ever you do dont mix them together... I dont even want to know what would happen then... I doubt it would give you something like anti-tight or lock-sieze...It might be like mixing pop-rox and pepsi!!!!!....you might destroy time and space as we know it... or even worse your tools might just run away!
Last edited by KurtRardin; 05-16-2007 at 09:27 PM.
05-17-2007, 05:01 AM
#6
Originally Posted by KurtRardin
Hmmm... I havent BUILT an LSx yet... so I cant really tell you all the little hints for putting it back together the way a sponsor that builds engines could, but I'll throw out some stuff that I have done/heard on the parts that I have worked on:
Iron LQx huh? Nice choice. From what I understand all the sensors are set up the way a Gen III is, not like a Gen IV where you would need adapter harnesses. Hopefully no worries there.
Heres a wonderful little tip: When you're putting your oilpan back on, do yourself and your engine a favor and torque the bolts ONLY to their required specs. I believe its 18ft/lbs. The broken oil pan bolt in the back of MY engine(the real long one) next to the starter broke off because my torque wrench decided not to click The kicker is that my awesome craftsman Tqwrench starts at 20ft/lbs... and my cheap-o goes into the inch/lbs. So, get a good set of torque wrenches...no cheap stuff. Torque with caution.
Now would probably be an excellent time to do some poly or solid mounts
Putting the balancer on was a sinch. I went with the longer bolt (M16, 2.0 pitch, 120mm long) The shorter stocker might strip out the first few threads on the crank. The idea behind the longer bolt is so you have enough bolt threaded in there before you go cranking the harmonic balancer on. Also, you'll need a new balancer bolt. The old one is stretched, and you will stretch the new one too...but thats what they're meant to do. Acquire a big big breaker bar with a pipe.
Always use anti-sieze and locktite when needed... but what ever you do dont mix them together... I dont even want to know what would happen then... I doubt it would give you something like anti-tight or lock-sieze...It might be like mixing pop-rox and pepsi!!!!!....you might destroy time and space as we know it... or even worse your tools might just run away!
Iron LQx huh? Nice choice. From what I understand all the sensors are set up the way a Gen III is, not like a Gen IV where you would need adapter harnesses. Hopefully no worries there.
Heres a wonderful little tip: When you're putting your oilpan back on, do yourself and your engine a favor and torque the bolts ONLY to their required specs. I believe its 18ft/lbs. The broken oil pan bolt in the back of MY engine(the real long one) next to the starter broke off because my torque wrench decided not to click
The kicker is that my awesome craftsman Tqwrench starts at 20ft/lbs... and my cheap-o goes into the inch/lbs. So, get a good set of torque wrenches...no cheap stuff. Torque with caution.Now would probably be an excellent time to do some poly or solid mounts
Putting the balancer on was a sinch. I went with the longer bolt (M16, 2.0 pitch, 120mm long) The shorter stocker might strip out the first few threads on the crank. The idea behind the longer bolt is so you have enough bolt threaded in there before you go cranking the harmonic balancer on. Also, you'll need a new balancer bolt. The old one is stretched, and you will stretch the new one too...but thats what they're meant to do. Acquire a big big breaker bar with a pipe.
Always use anti-sieze and locktite when needed... but what ever you do dont mix them together... I dont even want to know what would happen then... I doubt it would give you something like anti-tight or lock-sieze...It might be like mixing pop-rox and pepsi!!!!!....you might destroy time and space as we know it... or even worse your tools might just run away!
05-18-2007, 03:44 PM
#7
Anyone else have anything? Te stupid lil barbel thing taht goes into the back of the motor under the rear cover is the type of thing that could wreak havoc on my motor had i not known about it. Want to make sure theres no other surprises that will cause me problems. Also just want to make sure im not forgetting any of the basics from trying to figure everything out here. Sometimes we forget the simplest of things.
