I sometimes wish I could speed things up a bit Ive had my car off the road for nearly 7 months to do my engine build all myself and it's my daily. I thought it would take two months max.

​People often ask me why it's taking so long, there are a few reasons

1 I​​​​​​ am new to this
2 read lots of info that says take your time (I do one thing then sit down and think about next)
3 could easily make a mistake so research a lot.
4 don't want to do anything again.
5 try and do it with the precision of a surgeon for peace of mind.
6 I enjoy most of the process

 

Because you only make half of your point. Such as measurements but no information as to what youre talking about. Then reference after. You could have been talking about the clearance between needle bearings or the oil hole size.

Your arguments are started from your incomplete info.

Also, rod ends and piston pin bores arent just reliant on "splash oiling"
Some pistons have holes drilled in the pin bores and some have slots and oil relief channels that will basically direct or funnel the oil down to them.
There are also rods that can provide direct shot pressurized oil to them and not just on perf5 aftermarket rods. Some old ford small block rods had an oiling jet cast into them. Was pretty trick for its time. Some rods are drilled from big end to small also and will use pressurized oiling.

 

My argument was simply that dirt grit sludge or whatever is a common cause of lifter failure which is true. You are right I did not need to mention the fine tolerance in the 2148 SE lifter to support my argument but thought I would as I found it interesting that the tolerances can go that low and cleanliness is likely to be an even bigger factor.

If you go to the net and see there are lifter free cleaner additives available to clean dirty lifters while running an engine, I have first hand experience of cleaning lifters in an engine working. Cstraub recently said a tiny fraction of their lifters were returned due to failure most were caused due to debris stuck in them but even without all this if you think about it it makes good sence, don't really need the supporting arguments they are included just for interest.

Quote from Cstraub
Returned Morel lifters for warranty inspection has never exceeded 1% of lifters sold. LS hyd. lifters shipped last year to board sponsors numbers 1626 sets. Returned for inspection was 14 sets of LS. Of the 14 sets......8 sets had debris in lifter...4 sets checked just fine, no issues...2 sets had a leak down issue and were replaced. This is documented data. Any mfg would take this return rate and RAVE about it.

Quote tech@W6store
Also, rod ends and piston pin bores arent just reliant on "splash oiling"

Yes I know but it appears to be very inadequate on the LS take a look at this video.
I had my engine apart recently I oiled my small rod end to piston from both sides and it took some real work to get the oil in there.
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​​​​​​https://youtu.be/bbq24Ufsqhw

 

Tim there are just piles of these engines in yards now. You just need to find something to work on that you aren't afraid to scratch up and have a little fun and stop worrying about it so much, you aren't learning because you aren't breaking anything.

 

I'm learning heaps !!! And how to avoid breaking stuff, seems a strange comment?

​Yes less worry does result in more fun so long as it isn't costly long term​​​​​​

 

There's some truth in his statement. Basically he is saying you'll learn more by just getting in there and getting it done. We tend to get less done when we fret over details. Details are important but I think he's saying grab a cheap practice motor and thrash on it without a care in the world then use what you learned mixed with research and care, on the build you really wanna do. And unfortunately a lot of good lessons are learned through mistakes so make the mistakes on the practice motor... basically what he's saying

 

I understand there is some sence in that, but I really wanted engine to be as near to perfect as I could get it, it was a different goal at the outset from most, it was not about power or even functionality primarily, it's was about getting everything operating at its optimum or better than new if possible.

 

Two things.
I've been rebuilding car engines since I was 16. When I wanted an engine rebuilt I got to it and got it done. All I had back then were carcraft and hot rod magazines, and a real (as in NOT Chiltons or Haynes) manual. The manual seemed more useful for torque specs and the magazines for performance bearing clearances and real world tips.
Also had the machine shop who has known my family since the 70's. If they put my pistons on my rods, ground the crank, bored the block. They're always there to answer any questions I had.

There's no reason to drag it on. I have a friend who does that and just about everything he dreams of eventually never happens. There have been a few times I've told my friends what to order and what to have a machine shop do to the block, crank, rods, heads, and I ended up assembling the whole thing.
This is especially awesome when you go to the local car meet and a bunch friends of my friend show up and ask if this is the engine you've been talking about that you've been building and the "friend" says yea check it out. All while I'm standing there. Not a word is ever said about my contribution. Like I'm not even there.

Built transmission, set up rear ends, picked the parts and assembled engines ALL FOR FREE. I've wasted so much time away from girlfriends, family, etc helping people for absolutely nothing just so they could have a car to cruise in or take to the track. I have never had a friend go to the track with their car, only mine.

Don't be that guy, get off your *** and build an engine. IMO if it takes you too long to figure something out, you're never going to "get it". If you can't figure something out within a reasonable amount of time, you're going to be struggling and probably end up doing things wrong. Just my opinion based on what I've seen over and over again.

 

Thanks, yesterday I spent a lot of time chipping off all the little pieces of slag left from the casting process on the bottom of the oil pan. Then I tapped two seperate areas for fitting a new oil pressure gauge because I wasnt sure if the oil sensor would not hit something in the way when I installed the engine. I'd better stop typing I still haven't got the oil pan on. 😉

 

Jay, I still read car craft, in fact it's always been my favorite magazine of all time. Tim, I should mail you my old car magazines you need them. I really liked the iron maiden series but I thought that the stock 853 head deserved way better than what it got in the article, before they moved on to the 706 anyways. Dished pistons and the oem ls6 cams suck in any Ls engine so I built my own LQ4-853 headed engine with the cheap LS3 replacement flat tops and just a simple but way better than the actual ls6 cam, comp cams "ls6 replacement" cam. It's just a simple daily Tim, a daily driver shouldn't be stressful imo, just simple, cheap, and reliable.

 

I took a look at your LQ4 combo and I like it; good flowing heads, a mild cam, and a whole lot of cubic inches. That to me is a recipe for success and the way I approach the LS1 in my '01 Camaro.

 

Thanks Dave, I'm really happy with it. Hopefully I'll have some performance Data here soon so I can get an idea of what kinda power it's making!

 

Do you have a track near you? I have Irwindale which is 1/8 mile and Fontana which is 1/4 mile, so I gauge my progess by running it. I have no idea what kind of power my LS1 puts down, but it's enough to be back in the game with modern muscle. If you have a track near you that would be awesome.

 

I do have a track near me, 1/4 mile at Gateway in East St Louis, sadly with all that's going on it probably won't be open any time soon

 

Cool so when things go back to normal you have a chance to run your 6.0 liter at the track. I'm curious to know what your car can run. I'm waiting here in So Cal for either Irwindale or Fontana to open as well. I'm finished a cam swap in my '01 Camaro, so I'm hoping to run my car while the mornings are still cool.

 

Hot idle with the new Castrol synthetic 5w40

I was looking for 10w40 to try and see if I could get away with a lighter weight oil but the price was right on this stuff and the engine really seems to like it so well see how it works!

​​​​​Folks the Lego 376 keeps on going, well over 4k miles, almost 5 on it now, I've been delivering pizza with it this whole time. Anyways there's a lot here about the oil I used initially in this engine and I have to say I need to eat some humble pie on this one though it's actually a pretty delicious lesson learned haha.
​​

 

Good for you !!! I used some 5w 30 Castrol edge Titanium a few days ago it has a 95,717 psi film strength (re in link)
Castrol GTX is good too, has a really high rating and is not expensive

https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forum...Number=3019857

Full details at bottom of link
https://540ratblog.wordpress.com/201...-test-ranking/

 

Thanks Tim, I wasn't afraid to start it up and break the rings in with 5w30 after I put it together but the oil pressure got so low during my hard break in that I was convinced that I needed the thickest stuff I could squeeze through the oil filler neck to keep it from spinning a main bearing. I don't regret running the 20w50 as long as I did at all given the abuse it receives or the pressures I was seeing with it, but now I understand that once I'd confirmed that the pressure was well above factory minimums with the 20w50 I was safe to drop down in weight and so I figured hey, if its good enough for Porsche it's good enough for my Machinery lol.

I use GTX in my 5.3 that I built the same way as this engine and it runs great.

 

I just realised the Castrol GTX 20w 50w I've been using in my other car is too thick for it, doubt there is any harm done.

I will hopefully will get my LS1 started in next few days, it's taken 8 months, feels so good to finally have it all come together.

Just have to finish my 255 ltr fuel pump (probably a waste of time for my baby cam) mod my exhaust and put intake manifold on.

 

Im using the 20w50 GTX in the 5.3 truck engine that put together for my Suburban with all used internal parts a few months before I got this 376 together (it was so gruesome of a build I didn't document it in here, it's actually a 4.8 stroker, a 4.8 block and pistons with a 6.0 crank dropped on its original main bearings with and a mix match of 6.0 and 5.3 press fit rods from a box on the floor at the machine shop lol), though I realize now that it's too thick so I'll do 10w40 at it's next change and I'm sure it will work out fine.

I don't think a 255 is ever a bad idea, I feel better about my stock injectors operating above 100% with it back there I guess. I'm sure yours will run great

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