ig109

I can't be sure.. Junkyard said the truck had 178K but the rods have crayon marks on them and are stamped with #s so I think it is a rebuilt engine.

ig109

Seems the gauge in the car is dead even with the oil pressure read on the ECM.

15psi at idle..

How much does it take to keep the lifters pumped up?

ig109

I have done a fair amount of talking with the oiling guy that worked on the engine that this turbo came off of originally and he and I have came to an agreement that The lack of restriction is unnecessary in my application..

I have had a .125 inch orifice made for the top of the turbo oil feed and will see what effect that has on my oil pressure..

I have a Melling High Volume pump already purchased to go in the car.. No debris in the pan.. Hoping I can salvage it without too many parts replaced..

ig109

so today I went to install my orifice and the damn bearing housing is different threads than my spare turbo I used for mockup.. So I have to have that redone..

Just for giggles I started the engine.. let it idle.. pulled the feed to the turbo and capped it and started and let it idle for a moment.. No change in oil pressure.. I'm at a loss.. Anyone care to chime in..

For the record I am running 15w40 Rotella a Wix Filter and the engine is cold when starting..

Noise sounds about the same as it does in the link.

onequick383Z

Sweet elco. Great install too. It might sound stupid but since you do live in colder climates it might just be the oil. 15w-40 is really heavy even for summer months. I used to run 10w-30 in my LT1 during summer months and switch to 5w-30 in the winter. ( I live in PA, it can get pretty cold here too.) Anyways, on cold fall days my lifters where always noisy and I would sometimes even have low oil pressure because of how thick the oil was at those temps, but once it warmed up they would stop. That was only 10w-30 in an lt1. LS motors have much tighter tolerances. You might just want to try flushing the 15w40 for some 5w20 or 5w30.

ig109

I wish it were that easy.. However with the oil pressure going down every time I start it or move it. and with cylinder 3 injector unplugged and the noise becoming much less audible I can only assume it's the rod bearing on that cylinder

I have picked up a Gen 4 4.8 engine and a set of LQ4 floating pin pistons.. My intent is to make a budget friendly destroked 5.3L.. L92 heads and square port intake and convert to LS3 camaro accessories to make things a bit more asthetically pleasing under the hood.

I know the destroked engine has become something of a redheaded stepchild build.. but I think it would be fun. I mean the 4.8's made quite a bit of torque with some air.. and adding a larger piston to the top can't hurt.. plus so far I have 0 dollars in those parts.

onequick383Z

will L92 heads work on a 4.8?

I thought that all of the rectangular port LS heads require a 4.00" bore which as far as I know isn't achievable with a 4.8, 5.3, or 5.7 block. Well, unless you want extremely low compression or have a crap load of money or skill to sleeve the block.

I think part of the reason that de-stroked engines have become like red headed stepchildren (well aside from the fact that all LS engines share the same stroke except the 4.8 and the 7.0, thus making it stupid cheap to turn a 4.8 into a 5.3) is that there are probably a lot less people running stick shift. Personally I'd love to see a 4" bore 4.8 with a turbo and a stick. It would definitely be a screamer. Have the machinist spend a lot of time balancing the rotating assembly and get a Air to Air intercooler for it. I bet you could push 800+ hp @ 8,000 rpm all day long. GM fans could use a modern 302 anyways.

ig109

My intent is 6.0 block.. 4.8 crank and 4.8 gen 4 floating rods.. LQ4 pistons.. L92 heads.. Custom cam. Spin to 8000ish on dyno pulls at 15psi just for dyno graph and back it down to 7psi on street..

Supporting rod bolts and other mods of course..

onequick383Z

that sounds pretty sweet! Ignition and tuning could be Problematic at that kind of rpm. Might have to do some valve train upgrades too. Keep us updated.

twinturbo496

iTrader: (2)

Sucks to read about all your engine headaches...
Why .125 inch?
The one I installed is much smaller than that…. something like .065 maybe I need to change/enlarge it...

I also found that the small turbine housing spools very fast… it goes positive @ 50% throttle & 2200 rpm

Project GatTagO

iTrader: (7)

The noise in the video sounds too loud to be a lifter. My bet is that it is a rod bearing. Use an engine stethoscope and see if you can pinpoint the area where it is loudest.

Andrew

ig109

Are you running an HX55? What size housing. What base engine.

I was told that that size orifice should supply an ample amount of oil to the turbo with the change in viscosity 15w40 - 5w30.. I didn't question the guy.. he's been on the lube and cooling team for about 20 years.

01cherryreds10

iTrader: (9)

Unfortunately that sounds bottom end. Very hollow and disheartening sound. Love the build and really like the way the turbo and piping is done to keep the factory airbox. Gbodies look so weird without the hvac case under the hood.

Any chance you can pm me what you paid for your engine from the guy in iowa?

twinturbo496

iTrader: (2)

I have:
LM7 (approx 288K miles) all stock except Z06 Cam & H2 oil pan.
truck intake + 80 lb injectors
2010 Camaro manifolds (upside down)
2" SCH 10 SS pipe, two 38 mm Tial gates (currently with the lightest spring)
HX55 16 cm
single 4" exhaust all the way to the back with 4" diesel pickup muffler
4L80e with stock converter
MS3 Gold Box.

Considering how poor my tuning is, I am pretty surprised by how fast it spins up the turbo. It goes positive around 2200 rpm & 50% throttle, and is on the 5 psi gate spring before it reaches 3000 rpm.

I put in a pretty small orifice in the feed because it was smoking pretty bad when I first started running it with an full flow 1/4" feed line. I may drill it out to 1/8" and see what happens.

I am going to add a little adapter to the Gold Box so I can log the 4l80e input & output speed sensors, that will give me MPH and converter slip..

ig109

What is that combo in?

Can you provide the part # from the turbo..

Is it an internally gated 16cm.. I haven't been able to find a non gated 16cm housing..

littlereds10

iTrader: (10)

If anyone is looking for a turbo flange for the HX55:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HX55-Turbo-F...VWbtIR&vxp=mtr

I had these lasered out for a personal build and had extra made in case anyone else needed them. Check your bolt hole spacing as it might differ based on what your hx55 came out of.

ig109

Well finally got engine out of car and torn apart.. breakaways on rods were all within spec except for rod with spun bearing.. it was 30lbft.

Destruction:









Bearings offset rod enough to make counerweight smack piston







So needless to say it's trashed.. Starting the 5.3 build now.. trying to find a deal on a set of 823 / 0821 heads..

twinturbo496

iTrader: (2)

Well that sucks.

I wonder if running heavy oil with stock bearing clearances contributed to the bearing damage.

buktooth

I'm pretty sure that's the case. I'm in a forum with these new 4.2 trailblazer engines and it was the same case . The factory bearing clearances are very tight and need thin oil. These guys were running diesel oils 15w40 on the turboed combos and were wiping out the bottom ends before making a pass with them.

A swap to 5w30 , 5w20, or 0w20 solved almost all problems.

SickV

I just read through this whole build and am looking forward to an update! I have been running Rotella T6 Diesel 5w40 in all of my cars including an LS6 and 2011 5.3L and never had a problem.