Awhile back I acquired a disassembled LM7 from a buddy. It was basically a short block. He gave me a set of 862 heads, but he also gave me two tubs full of misc parts and bolts which may or may not even go with this engine, most of which have no clue as to what/where they go. I've been stuck working from home due to an illness for the past 1.5 years and desperately need a hobby, So I've decided to finish disassembly and rebuilding it mainly for something to do in my free time. The cylinders look great and there are no signs of any internal stresses from its past life. This LM7 is a transitional year and has the gen 4 rods. The cam bearings need replaced but that's about it. A family friend owns a machine shop so I'm planning on dropping it off for a more thorough inspection, having new cam bearings installed and having the block cleaned. Because the cylinders look so good, I'm hoping to get by with just a hone and reusing the stock rods and pistons with new bearings and new OEM rings, most likely gapped for boost. I haven't touched an LS engine in over 6 years since I sold my G8, so I've been out of the game for quite awhile lol. If I even end up using this engine for anything, I'm not going for anything crazy, basically just cam and a little boost for a fun street vehicle. Otherwise, its worth more to someone else as assembled and running than the cluster of misc. crap taking up space in my garage.

Head bolts/studs - With this being a transitional year and having the newer rods, does this mean I will need the 04.5+ head bolts/studs? Is there an easy way to tell? I don't have the original bolts to compare. I've heard you can tell by the head size of the valley cover bolts (not sure if this is true) but I don't have those either. I would prefer not to buy both sets if I can avoid it.

Misc. Bolts - I don't feel like digging through the mess of parts I have for bolts for this thing and probably not having what I need. I'm hoping to get all new bolts to complete a long block, if that makes sense. Is there a good resource for OEM replacement bolts? I know right off the bat I need timing cover bolts, valley cover bolts, and bolts for all of the accessories at the very least. Or does anyone have a good list of bolt sizes that I can use to source them from a hardware store?

Let me know.

Thanks for any help!

 

Re: Head Studs/Bolts - I haven't heard of a 100% surefire way to tell, I've seen it as "'04 and up" but if you have it all apart, the good news is you won't need those bolts until you're ready to go back together, the head bolts are obviously gigantic, so you could mess with that pile of bolts and see if you have ten that are the same length or eight. Ten is 04 and up, eight 03 and down obviously.

You can also just stick a piece of weld rod or coat hanger in the bolt holes and see what ya got.

Re: the bolt kit- ARP makes one for the LS, Mr.Gasket also makes pretty cheap bolt kits for the individual accessories, Summit will have them in stock.

 

Don't look at the cam bearings.

 

All the big head bolts on the later years are all the same length. So if you don't have the bolts measure the depth of the big head bolt holes.