I'm trying my best to not have mission creep with this thing, but all the "what ifs" have me questioning my sanity. As of right now, my initial inspection has shown the bottom end is in good shape. That's just pulling the pan and looking for blued rods, metal pieces, etc. The block is just absolutely filthy on the outside.

I've decided the heads have to come off, for a few reasons. 1) Too big of a chance that something fell into the cylinders when removing the engine. I had to pull the intake to get it out of the truck, and it was caked with dirt. 2) I need to inspect the heads for valve guide issues, etc. No point in installing the engine if the guides are shot and it has valve sealing issues. 3) Most importantly, I'm boosting this thing. I have to gap the rings. Every time I see an SBE combo blow up, it's usually due to rings seizing and breaking the pistons. A little extra effort prevents that from occurring.

So that leaves me with not knowing exactly what to do with this beyond that. I have to delete VVT, that's easy enough. I'm on a budget though, so part of me just wants to swap the valvetrain over from my 5.3. The cam will work just fine in a 6.2, especially if I drop my peak RPM down to 6500-7000. It's a 226/235 with a 114+5 LSA, .610/.614 lift. I'd considered just doing a Sloppy Mechanics "Best Cam" as a budget option, but it's slightly smaller and I don't know if it would work that well in a 6.2. There's no real reason I can't use the valvetrain from the 5.3, other than the risk of blowing up the SBE 6.2 and hurting the cam.

Other than that, I have to source an LS3 intake as the L92 won't fit under my cowl, but otherwise it should be a bolt in proposition. So, would anyone have any recommendations as to anything else I should take care of while I'm in there? I'm tempted to disassemble it and have the block hot tanked but leave the cam bearings intact, and reuse the rest of the bearings. I do have a set of .001 larger rod bearings I didn't use in the 5.3 build, if it seems like the stock clearances are too tight. What about reusing the oil pump? It's the Gen IV high volume pump, which seems like it would be okay, but I obviously had some oiling issues with a 10296 pump and a stock F-body pan, and I wouldn't want to repeat that. Do I just source a 10295 pump since I'm leaving bearing clearances stock, most likely? As you can see, there's a lot of things I need to consider. I'd just like some input from others as to what direction to take here.

 

If it were me, I'd reuse the valvetrain from the 5.3, gap the rings, check out the heads, closely inspect the cam bearings, hot tank the block and heads if it's cheap, put in new main/rod bearings (extra tolerance is up to you), and a new Mellings HV/HP oil pump.
@lsxfox iirc has an SBE 6.2 that he's been making 1Kwhp with for years now so perhaps he can chime in.

 

I think it's @ls3fox , actually. I'd definitely like some input from anyone who has built one of these things.

 

You're right, that's the guy.
He didn't do much to his iirc and he's been running it for three years I think, I'm sure he'll chime in at some point.

 

Gap the rings ls9 gaskets arp head studs cam and valve springs is all i did to my 6.2

The stock oil pump makes almost 100psi going down the track ive run 15/40 and 20/50 in it with stock clearances

my motor is still together after 200+ passes and a couple thousand street miles its been 7.75@178 in a 3200lb fox

Lmk if i can help with anything else

 

Did you replace the bearings in it, or did you just leave it as you found it?

 

Left them alone just took the rings out cleaned the ring grooves then gapped the rings and put it all back together with the stock rod bolts

 

There's an LS3 intake in the parts classifieds too.
LS3 Intake Manifold - LS1TECH - Camaro and Firebird Forum Discussion

 

More than I want to spend, unfortunately. Someone answered my wanted ad, and I found some near me on marketplace, I'm just trying to get the cheapest one i can find.

 

I always ask myself is it easier to do a ring and bearing now, as opposed to installing it and having to rem it because of a problem. Esp an alumn. block I want to open up and ck things, I have 2 LS3's sitting in the garage with blocks that spun the #1 main, they are ruined, saw posts from others #1 main wiped out. Sometimes you are lucky, sometimes not. I understand budgets, never been able to stay within one yet, lol.

 

Since I want to hot tank the block, I will be disassembling it fully, so I'll be checking everything. If I'm lucky, I can just put it back together with added ring gap and be good to go. Since it was in a big SUV, I doubt it was really beat on, and the fact that it doesn't have AFM means it's less likely the cylinder walls will be destroyed. From what I could see from the bottom side, the cylinders looked good. There was a very small amount of oil sludge in the heads and in the pan, which if it was over 200K isn't surprising. We'll see what it looks like when I finally get it torn down.

 

Spent some time scrubbing and cleaning all the grime off the long block today. It was absolutely filthy. I think every gasket leaked, except for the rear main. That actually looked dry.

 

@ls3fox Did you pull the crank as well when you pulled the rods to gap the rings? If so, did you reuse the main bolts or did you buy new?

 

When we dissasembled my LM7 the bearings looked new so we kept them. I trusted the judgement of my buddy Manna.

I did however have the heads decked.

 

i neved pulled the mains on my motor as it only had 27k on it I've done a few motors for my buddies cars if I pull the mains I just reuse the bolts unless it went to the machine shop then it would get lined honed with arp studs

 

Did Manna recommend having the heads decked or was it your call?

 

I tore the heads off last night. I wasn't happy seeing that I had about 5 bent pushrods. I know at least one valve wasn't seating because air was leaking through, but that could be from debris between the valve and seat. I'll be checking all the valves when I tear the heads down to get hot tanked. Might just have to get a set of LS3 hollow stems and get rid of these heavy stockers.

 

If the heads end up needing love, keep these in mind before spending the money rebuilding the old ones.
Assembled 255cc Intake Runner 72cc Combustion Chamber | LPC

 

That website didn't work for me. It's not terribly expensive to get the heads fixed either way.

 

He suggested it. Didn't cost much.