I have the rad, water pump, balancer, and alternator out. Since im replacing these should I do the oil pump and timing chain? How hard can it be? Never worked on a LS1 before. Car has 120k miles.

 

its pretty easy since you have all the other stuff out of the way already. unless its a corvette then you still have to remove the rack. pull off the balancer (if M6 put it in 5th with the parking brake on to break the old balancer bolt loose. if its an auto, you need a flywheel holding tool or you can use a strap wrench and an assistant to hold the balancer in one place while you break the bolt loose,,, after that pull the cover off, unbolt the old oil pump, put a new timing chain on (LS2 chain), install the new pump without pinching the o-ring.. bolt it all back together and you good to go. make sure you use a new balancer bolt thought they are TTY and can only be used once... check out LS1Howto.com the have a good write up on this process... its pretty strait forward and good for experience if you have never done it before... good luck

 

Everybody advocates replacing the iol pump as cheap insurance any time you get into the motor, but I don't share that opinion. Other than the bypass spring, there's nothing to wear out. Plus, the new pump I bought is made in mexico and looks like hell inside. I decided to port my old pump and re use it. You may want to take yours apart, check it over and consider doing the same.

 

A new timing cover/crank seal, too.

 

Why do you sugest a LS2 chain?

 

take a wild guess which one is ls1 timing chain and the ls2 one.

 

because its alot better than the LS1 chain,, it is a true solid roller chain... look at the pic posted above and you will see the slits in the rollers on the LS1 chain, you don't see these slits on the LS2 chain... with that being said there are other chains you can go with that are even better quality than the LS2 chain. most of these chain manufactures require/request that you change timing sets with the chain. cloyes hex adjust is a great set (probably the hands down best), then would be the Katech c5R chain (another great product), the you have Pro gear (high quality products) and Rollmaster (great product).

 

here is a better pic of the split on the rollers on the LS1 chain vs solid LS2 chain


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Just to clear up a few things, the splits in the rollers are not a big deal. If you buy the C5R chain, you will see they have the splits. The C5R timing chain is a JWIS G68V-2 3/8" chain, which is the best chain that JWIS makes in that size. It is used on the BMW M5, which is a high revving OHC motor.

Cloyes makes the OEM timing set, so when you buy the Cloyes Hex-adjust, you actually get the LS2 timing chain (made by Renold). This chain was originally developed for the GM V6 with two single roller chains when these motors were breaking timing chains.

 

I'm with this guy on this one. Clean, port, polish by-pass area and new spring(to prevent valve from hanging open) and call it good. Unless there is something there that's not apparent.

 

Even the spring is probably ok. My 130k mile spring felt just as firm as the one in my new pump. Is there a place to buy new springs?

 

does someone have a part number for this LS2 timing chain as the idiots I have to deal with cant seem to find it

 

IIRC, SLP sells a new spring with a shim to place under spring for increased oil pressure.

 

You could just as easily use a washer too. In my case, I wanted to retain stock pressure, so I didn't add any shims.