When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I bought a nice car from an older friend who had bought it from his life long best friend, the original owner. The original owner added a cam 220/220 553/553 112°, shorty headers, aluminum Lingenfelter intake, (SLP ram air, smooth lid, maf and Y pipe),Canton sheet aluminum oil pan, remote oil filter, BMR torque arm, metco lca's, and frame connectors. The original owner came into financial issues and sold the car to my friend for basically nothing, but it had a rod knock. This is a 99 Z28 with 16,000 miles on it at the time, 10 years ago. I helped my friend R&R the engine when he had it rebuilt. He is older so I ended up doing most of the job, but he was involved as much as he could be. When my friend picked up his fresh engine he told me the guy dropped it with a fork truck somehow, maybe set it down hard or something. The sheet metal oil pan dose not look damaged. My friend has been complaining about an oil leak and some noise ever since it was installed. I have done work on the car for my buddy like poly engine mounts, CHE trunion upgrade, a few intake swaps. I heard the noise not long before I bought the car and did not think it was a serious issue. He gave me all his old parts like intakes, throttle body and a new factory oil pan. He took the car somewhere to fix the oil leak. They say they replaced the rear main seal and then they smeared caulk on the rear main and block to oil pan area, still leaked. He sold me the car before he had me install the oil pan for him. When I bought this car I fully intended to pull the engine to swap the oil pan and investigate the noise. My friend gave me a great deal despite the issues I discovered. This car currently has 25,000 miles on it and is in great condition.
THE STORY
It's just sad, both of the previous owners trusted the pros and got the hose. My pal told the engine builder to build him a strong reliable street engine. He specified a forged crank and pistons. I pulled this engine and wanted to puke after opening it up. The local engine builder used loctite on the lock nuts that hold down the windage tray. He also fitted it with pistons that have valve reliefs cut into them. The rods are assembled in the way you would for an old sbc, half of them are backwards. Rods caps 7 & 8 are poorly aligned. The timing chain looks pretty loose for 8,000 miles. Receipt says Melling 295 oil pump, looks nothing like my 296. The guy didn't clean anything before he assembled this engine. The main caps and timing gear are dirty. The oil pan is just disgusting, at least 1/8 thick gunk on the bottom of the pan. Where dose that come from ? In 8,000 miles ? Beautiful aye. 7 & 8 here, flat side should be towards the front on all the rods Really ? Less than 10 minutes and 1 can of brakleen. There it is, the noise.
So where do I go from here ? I do not have any desire to spend money or build 1000 HP. I have a .010 over block, lame cam, and a forged crank. I also have a truck crank and a set of gen IV rods laying around. My thoughts are to use the truck crank, gen IV rods and pick up some flat top pistons that will work. I am not sure if I will reuse the lame cam do to its condition, not it's lameness. I would have the rotating assembly balanced. Or do I cam it up enough to utilize those valve reliefs and see how long those gen III rods last ?
And a better cam. You can do quite a bit of cam without valve reliefs.
It's really hard to tell what would be best without knowing more about the pistons and crank. But if the forged pistons have a little dome to them and reliefs I would prefer those myself. Forged pistons do have a tendency to be noisy though.
Last edited by 00pooterSS; 01-20-2020 at 11:14 PM.
Flat pistons with valve reliefs. I want to hang on to that forged crank for a different build. I just want to fix it at a close to stock power level with inexpensive factory parts. The car is a nice cruiser and when I have it repaired I will sell it as that. I do not want to screw anybody over. I have another vehicle that is hopped up a little bit and I just like that one.
So this noise that would come and go I figured it to be the rod bolt hitting the oil pan in the last pic. I can knock that pan down just a bit or toss on the factory pan, then throw it all back together as is. I would not want to do that because I do think it is only a matter of time until 7 & 8 let go. Worst case scenario is it dosen't sell and I keep it, awe boo hoo. If that was to happen I would be happy with just a clean reliable cruiser.
It do. I believe that was left in the pan by the last engine builder. The main caps, cam gear and oil pan are all dirty. The things that were replaced like the crank, pistons and oil pump are clean, the rods are clean also. The guy I bought it from takes good care of his vehicles maintenance wise and he said the previous owner was also very particular about maintainance. I think the remote oil filter is to blame for the sludge. Just plain dumb in my opinion
The mark on the pan is odd. Looks like a rod bolt, but you said there was a windage tray. Was the tray cut there? I don’t think the remote filter has anything to do with sludge. Looks like overheated oil to me. My 434 did the same thing in 40 miles. Pan sludge looked just like this. I feel that tune (poor) has a lot to do with this scenario.
Yes there is a windage tray, it is the short F body version so rods 1 & 2 are exposed. The ARP rod bolt heads are a little taller than the factory bolts and the engine was dropped or set down hard enough to effect the pan clearance. The original owner had all the mods done shortly after getting the car back in 99. The cam was from Thunder Racing and the tune was through them also. When the previous owner and I installed the rebuilt engine we shortened and rerouted the oil lines to the filter. There were large loops hanging down and routed poorly. The oil pan and filter set up are unwarranted for this application, just a waste in my opinion. What issues with the tune caused the sludge buildup in your case ?
Agreed. I’d lose the pan and oil filter setup, even though I’m the first guy to stand up and say that the LS oil filters are grossly undersized for performance usage. Perhaps the original owner was looking to autocross or roadrace the car? My pan sludge was from overheating the oil badly along with a super rich startup tune that “gassed” the oil quickly. Perfect storm.
The rod bolt just about finished the clearance work!.
I really like the Morose 21550 kit for the 4th Gen. I purchased the Milodon remote oil filter relocation kit and I use the K&N 3001 oil filter.
K&N or WIX are all I use and those oil filters are HUGE! When I'm filling it up prior to installation it will hold almost a full quart of oil in itself..
I was letting my ls swapped 3rd gen with a tubular k member down with a jack. I had a piece of wood on the jack cup and the cross tube slipped off of the wood and the jack cup went into the oil pan. I ordered a new pan, put it on and for life of me I could not get the oil filter on. Turns out the new pans do not have the bypass valve, the port isn't even drilled. They outfit the new pans with a different oil filter adapter that accepts a different oil filter that I believe has a bypass. I switched adapters and run a truck sized Wix 51522 that dose not have a bypass either. It is just a bit lower than the pan.
01-20-2020, 08:30 PM
Looking for Ls1 rebuild advice 
