borrone821

iTrader: (3)

Hey folks,
I just picked up an LQ9 with 243 heads and Elgin cam.
I don't know the guy who built it from a hole in the wall, but the motor looks good, he showed me pics of the build (and about 6 other builds he's done in the last few years), receipts of everything, and all the escalade accessories that are now in my garage. He's literally just a backyard mechanic who looks like he knows what he's doing, but i'd rather find things out now as best as I can w/o completely tearing down what he just built before I put it in my WS6

How much do I trust him, how much do I tear it down to check, WHAT do I need to check, etc?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Jim

01CamaroSSTx

iTrader: (3)

First thing that comes to my mind is having a look around with a bore scope and performing a compression and leak down test.

borrone821

iTrader: (3)

am about to rent a leakdown tester at autozone this week, but didn't think i could do a good compression test on a stand

01CamaroSSTx

iTrader: (3)

With a starter, battery and remote start switch you most certainly could.

Che70velle

iTrader: (6)

Did he tell you what bearing clearances are? Cam thrust? PTW numbers? Ring gaps?

_Red_SS

I’m here to whine…

borrone821

iTrader: (3)

said he didn't touch the bottom end so he didn't measure most of those. didn't replace cam bearings. He said during teardown that all of this stuff was perfect and the escalade clearly had scheduled maintenance.

cam thrust was 0.007 (he said).. but this is the kind of stuff that I'm asking you guys how much I should trust vs. ripping this thing down.




ALSO, I've read conflicting stories about the Elgin cam and its low end manners. I've read and seen the Holdener videos about Dynos 3k+ but what about idle to 3000?
I've read a bunch where people say it's very tame, and others that say it's an absolute dog down low.... any info on the low end would be beneficial to me as this is going into a cruiser (w/ T56) and ZERO racing

borrone821

iTrader: (3)

So Leakdown test for sure.
Do I undo most of his work, pull the timing cover, cam and heads to check his work?

I've got it on the stand right now and plan to replace the oil pan this week.. once I have it upside down, I should be able to check the cylinders (he said there was still cross-hatch) and can verify he didn't touch the bottom end.
If that holds true, I just need to check the valvetrain, right?
Do I pull the timing components to check and verify the cam thrust?
How much will the compression test tell me and what else will i need to check?

grinder11

iTrader: (1)

As '01 Camaro said, check those things. I'd also pull a rod cap or two, and a main cap or two, and maybe use plastigauge to determine clearances, and maybe the oil pump cover. If all checks well, send it......

borrone821

iTrader: (3)

OK, so leakdown test was good on all 8 cylinders... in the good range as soon as a I hit 70ish psi... by the time i got to 100, they were all in the "no loss" section of the gauge.

Bottom end looks really good. nice golden color, no discoloration or blackish coloring.

Do i pull the crank pulley and timing cover? If so what do i look for and/or check?

Thanks to everyone who provided all this info thusfar

mk3cn4

iTrader: (3)

I think just rolling the crank back and forth slowly should show if there's any timing chain slack by watching the corresponding cam movement. I think timing chain and oil pump issues are somewhat rare on these engines.

I wouldn't bother pulling the balancer or timing cover unless you want to inspect oil pump too. Not sure what you're paying for the engine, but the ones I get are cheap enough I just check the "very expensive" hard-to-fix things like bottom end and cylinder health. The other things are easy/cheap enough to fix that the inspection effort outweighs the benefit IMO. But then again, my engines have been junk yard engines LOL

However, I will say one of the best decisions I've made on my most recent engine was to install a 2 piece timing cover while the engine was out. Cam swaps no longer need the balancer pulled and oil pump problems don't need the coolant drained. I'll do that for every engine I buy now.

gagliano7

What are the specs of the cam? No way to give you an answer without knowing that.