brians91formula

iTrader: (12)

Yeah I have LS7 lifters. They went in when I did the heads.

Should I take the spark plugs out and try turning over the motor real slow ?

Slowhawk

iTrader: (12)

Pull the plugs and look at them to make sure they were not hit.
Take a good look at the rockers.they ussually don't break but the bearings come out the side of them.

Loosen the rockers and make sure all the valves are at the same height.

bills98ta

iTrader: (14)

pull the push rods yet ?

brians91formula

iTrader: (12)

Rockers are fine and they have all their bearings. No bent push rods and valve springs look fine. I honestly see no issue. Perhaps a collapsed lifter ?

My84Z

iTrader: (18)

I know this sounds daubtful but could it be a nasty exhaust leak? That sounds like the motor? Try making sure the header bolts are tight. Another member justin had a similar problem and it was a bad header gasket after he pulled the heads etc...

bills98ta

iTrader: (14)

Good Point... Might be a black spot where the leak is. Sounds very similar.

brians91formula

iTrader: (12)

definitely not an exhaust leak. lol

don't think a valve is bent. They are all even with the rockers off. I'm thinking a collapsed lifter is the only other thing it could be ?

BlackScreaminMachine

iTrader: (17)

Just throwing it out there.

Have you removed all the push rods and rolled them on a flat surface? Always worked for me to verify straightness or did you guess based on the tightness of the rockers?

Hopefully will get your answer soon!

brians91formula

iTrader: (12)

I took all the pushrods out. They all looked straight as far as I could tell. I did not roll them on a flat surface.

I inspected all the rockers and they all looked fine an had their bearings.

BlackScreaminMachine

iTrader: (17)

At this point if you have not been talking with Slowhawk, I would be since he has a great wealth of knowledge and for my sake if it was my car, I would roll them to be certain that is not a reason.

Let us know how it works out.

bills98ta

iTrader: (14)

You might be able to see the tops of the lifters, with a small light in the hole... A bore scope would be nice. See if one of the plungers is sunk, below the retaining clip...
If all that looks good, compression test it.

Zturd

iTrader: (12)

Great info here. If you can do the above mentioned would be the next thing. Crazy opinion I had a friends clutch come apart and it sounded like a bad lifter, bad bottom end and took it all apart and found the clutch came apart and was making noise. He had a textralia clutch 0Z700

ABA383

iTrader: (1)

We chased a similar problem when I had my car and also with an LS1 car after a heads and cam install. It turned out to be a nasty header gasket leak. They can be really tricky to find. We wound up using welders gloves and grabbed each primary at the exhaust port and found the leak. Just throwing it out there. On my car it had me so stumped I basically did a complete top end freshening, which was probably a good idea anyway, when all I needed was new header gaskets. In both instances we had used the Kooks gaskets that came with their headers. When I called for replacements they recommended Fel Pros...lol. I would have never thought in a million years that either of the two cars had header gasket failures. The LS car's leak was the number 2 cylinder and mine was cylinders 7 and 8. The leaks sounded mechanical, but they just weren't. Good luck with the issue.

--Alan

Slowhawk

iTrader: (12)

It could be as simple as a header gasket blown out or even a spark plug loosening. With an over rev before I'd be thinking the header gasket.It had alot of P/V clearance when we checked it.

A blown lifter can be found easilly by rotating the motor and checking the rocker play.

brians91formula

iTrader: (12)

Thanks for the input everybody. I really appreciate it !

I'll look at the car again this weekend and hopefully get to the bottom of it. If all else fails I will haul the car down to you Don.

Mike Morris

iTrader: (55)

Please let us know. I have never ever seen a newish LS7 lifter fail-very curious

brians91formula

iTrader: (12)

Will do !

jetaws6

iTrader: (3)

Have you tried draining the oil? That may tell you whats going on if there is and metal in it.

BlackScreaminMachine

iTrader: (17)

Post # 1

I limped the car home and parked it. Today I drained the oil to look for any metal shavings or metal pieces. I ran the oil through a paint paper filter and it was as clean as can be.

When I have blown things like bearings, once it spins, your generally already have shavings and glint in the oil. Even doing a fresh change will show immediate contamination upon inspection.

01 CamaroSS SLP

Any updates?