I'm in middle of a cam swap and I got the dogs lined up with the chain on, but their is a decent amount of slack in the chain. Is this normal or should it be a pretty tight fit?

 

Did you buy a new chain? I would not re-use the stock chain, at least get the LS2/GM heavy duty chain. It should be a pretty tight fit with a new chain.

 

It is a new ls2 chain. It's not a TON of slack, but its not super tight. I can move it roughy 1/4th of an inch when wiggling?

 

Dont worry about the sideways slack the real measure is to turn the crank so as to have the cam move, then move the crank in the opposite direction slowly and see how little the movement of the crank there is until the cam starts to move. With a new chain it wont be much.

 

Get the trickflow timing chain damper.. It's designed to keep the ls2 chain on point and help with the slack