Well and I'm wondering if he's getting aeration in the oil at high rpm and its manifesting in the lifters and causing them to lose their pressure perhaps.
Factory LS oil pumps are known for aerating the oil at high rpm versus the Melling HV/HP offerings.

 

I don't have a factory oil pump, I have a mellings pump

 

Im definitely open to suggestions, I measured the pushrods and according to data im within spec but who's to say that cant cause an issue. I even did the the old school way of setting at zero lash and tightening to 22 pounds and counting the turns and to be exact i got just a little over 1 full turn. You can call it 1 and 1/4. I ordered the head gaskets and my exhaust stuff but I can definitely return the gaskets if thats not the issue and if you think its worth a try I can order shorter pushrods. I have 7.375 pushrods so should I try 7.35 or 7.325?
also what makes you say its alot of preload? Can you explain that because i thought I was on the lighter end?

 

Have you ever checked out my exhaust set up? I think it's pretty killer. 4" dump with a CO2 powered cutout at the end, and a 2 1/4" exhaust that terminates before the rear axle. All controlled by the Holley system. Could be made more analog by substituting a vacuum actuated cutout instead, with no manual control. Here's a link to my thread with a video I made: CO2 Powered Exhaust Cutout Vid - LS1TECH - Camaro and Firebird Forum Discussion

 

It's very cool!

 

Been doing flat Tippett my whole life but the hyd principles are the same . With 3/8" fine thread studs on a sbc we'd use 0 lash then turn the Allen lock screw in snug , then tighten the adjusting nut , that would equal about an 1/8 of a turn and very little preload. That was for 6500 rpm or circle track stuff. Mild street stuff get 1/4 turn. Honestly don't remember what that yielded in thou but less than. 030" don't have time to do the math now . On a 5000 rpm Olds which was set up with shims and dial gauge would shoot for .020 - .030 . So to me .080 is a ton . Did my cam/springs only 6L the way you described was about 1/2 turn - called it good. No issues but only 6000 rpm and pac 1218s so a different animal. I was thinking if you have 70 -80 thou now and went to 20- 30 you'd have enough to cover the block and head expansion and end up with just a little preload. I don't have a ton of ls experience and would hate for you to buy stuff that doesn't work but it is what I would try

 

im not too familiar with it either, ive always been an import guy and ended up buying this truck a few years ago and as usually with me it spiraled out of control into what it is now. The Honda stuff im use too was dohc motors so there was no pushrods. Im definitely open to suggestions though. I think im just going to bring it to my tuners house and put it on the dyno and have him help. He is way more experienced with ls motors then I am. Ill get him to check my pushrods while im there as well just to have a piece of mind.

 

So hear me out and tell me what yall thinking, ive been looking over my truck and the 4 inch pipe isnt going to fit past my manifold on the passenger side, the only way it would fit is if I use oval pipe or change my manifold to a log style so it got me thinking. I have a full 3 inch exhaust in my back yard with a magnaflow muffler that was on the truck when it was all motor and I know it fits past the turbo manifold because when I first put the turbo on I was using that exhaust. So what it i put this cut off on my fender exit and keep it there and pie cut the fender exit and weld in my 3 inch exhaust so I can have it back on the truck and also habe the fender exit? The exhaust video earlier made me start thinking.

 

It would work similar to mine, but I stayed away from electric for a couple of reasons - The motors are notorious for burning up, and they're fairly slow. My set up is purely mechanical and instantaneous if I want it to be. Should be no reason you can't make it work, though. I personally like the sleeper effect of having the cutout closed and then progressively open with throttle/speed. I have a PWM table set up that controls when mine opens up. If you're just wanting to have a cutout available for the track, it will work just fine.

 

well I started looking at it like this, the fender exit is already there so if i got rid of it then i have to get a new fender and get it painted and my original plan of just 4 inch exhaust got screwed when I tried to stick a 4 inch pipe between the manifold and realized it hit the fire wall. I actually had a 3 inch cutout years ago and I never had issues with it and it was mechanical. Maybe I got luck. I like the one I posted because its true 4 inch and very easy to install. One clean cut and weld and it's on. Then I just had the magnaflow exhaust just sitting behind my house so this route actually came out way cheaper. I plan to hook the cutout up to holley as well. Im just going to run it to an output and have it tps activated. I have the can bus module on my truck so I have plenty extra inputs/outputs.

 

Sounds like a good plan. I have the CAN module as well, it made having a Terminator X a lot easier to deal with. I love how I set up my cutout, as it's quieter at idle than my N/A Camaro. If it weren't for the lopey idle, it could almost pass for stock.

 

oh yeh man it definitely makes the terminator x much better, i have all my extra inputs/outputs ran to my glove box as well. Everything is separated and rolled up inside of it so if i need a wire all I do is open the glove box and grab one and pull it to wherever I need it. I also have a power supply in there as well so to wire the cutout will be quick. I remember when my truck use to have thag maganflow exhaust. It had a nice sound. Im sure it will be a little quieter with the turbo then it was NA, and my truck has a is a little Lopey as well so im sure you will still hear that. Im off work for 5 days for new years starting tomorrow so ill bring it to my tuners house within those days and see if we can fix the tap issue and weld on the exhaust. I might not accomplish everything but thats my plan at least.

 

That's funny, I have my CAN set up identically in my glove box, along with positive and negative buss bars for power. Definitely makes things simpler. I'm going to be installing a driveshaft speed sensor in the next couple of weeks, and I've already got the wiring ran. Just have to cut the lead from the sensor shorter and add a connector.

 

my tuner has been telling me to do that to my truck, eventually i will. From the way he explained it to me it sounds fairly simple. He mentioned putting a speed sensor on the driveshaft and using the ABS from the front. Not exactly sure how that works but he's pretty familiar with it.

 

I have a front wheel speed sensor that is using the backs of my wheel studs. Not ideal, as it's low resolution, but it works for me. I may change my setup to use the ABS tone wheel if I can somehow make it work. I have heard using a signal converter is not ideal. I ended up having to switch out my rear pinion yoke to one that had a machined step to mount a reluctor wheel on. Low Doller Motorsports sells inexpensive steel reluctor wheels for this, which is where I sourced mine.

 

ah ok, yeh I have a few more plans with the truck. After I resolve this tap issue and get the exhaust back on i plan to change out all my suspension components and do the whole traction control thing. Im just doing one thing at a time or maybe 2. I dont like my truck to be down long so I try and do things in phases that I can accomplish in a few days. I usually work alot and my tuner would do the work for me if I asked him too but his speed and mine are different. My focus is always solely my truck where he has multiple vehicles to tend too so his time is a little more spaced out then mine. Of course its his only source of income so I understand.

 

Truck isnt doing it on the dyno, one thing my tuner did say is that its dropping off after 6600 so im thinking i just drop the shift points down and let it ride. We had is set at 12 psi on the dyno and it made 630 on 12 psi.

 

The only thing I can think of that would be different on the street to the dyno would be the oil sloshing to the back of the pan.

 

drivers side lifters, coming from the front. We finally got it to make the noise after a full pulls .im going to pull the drivers side hesd tomorrow and bring the whole set off lifters back and get them to replace them. I got them from O'Reillys.

 

Get some LS7's from ICT Billet?
You only need eight lol.