2001 HD

What kind of oil pump seal do the LS1 based engines have? O-rings or gaskets. felton316 is having dropping oil pressure/oil level problems. I'm wondering if he may have gotten a piece of gasket material in the block and is restricting or blocking one of the oil galleries. The oil circulation path on the LS1 based engines is different than the old style SBC's. According to GM's description of the oiling system, oil travels to the top end first, then to the lower end. If the block has a restriction afte the top end galleries, that would force more oil to the top end and would take longer to drain back to the oil pan. What do you guys think? <img border="0" alt="[bang head]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_banghead.gif" />

Zeta

It is synthetic rubber. It is more compressable than typical black O rings.

Guess. Same durometer as the built-in intake gaskets.

2001 HD

Thanks Zeta. But it's a gasket right? Not O-rings like the valve cover or timing cover seals. Am I correct? I've never torn an LS! based engine down.
<img border="0" title="" alt="[Confused]" src="images/icons/confused.gif" />

Zeta

The only 'gasket' the oil pump has is the Quarter sized O ring situated between the oil pickup and the pump.

www.ls1howto.com

felton316

Yeah, there is only the o-ring on the pick up tube. The pump mounts flush to the block without any gasket. Currently I have the heads off, so I'm going to touch them up a little.... and I'm going to check for any cracks in the block that maybe leaking pressure. I checked for any obstructions in the lifter valley(under the heads and under the intake) and found nothing. There is not too many parts left to check. I talked with Barry from ARE and he explained to me how they set up their oil pumps, so I'm going to check to make sure that it didn't get too many shims, and I'm going to try another stock pump. Hopefully something will help. I appreciate all the help everyone has given me so far (LS1Tech.com crew, and all the sponsers I've talked too).

I'll try to keep everyone updated, but it'll be at least a week before the heads will be ready to be put back on.

Thanks everyone!

<small>[ April 08, 2003, 08:04 PM: Message edited by: felton316 ]</small>

pekkaz

Felton, I believe my problem was oxidation due to bad oil pump storage, the valve piston was moving very poorly probably causing first too much pressure spraying the oil all over the place and then zero when the valve moved. Used some rust remover and now it's OK. I probably get to test this during the weekend.

2001 HD

Yep! Thanks from me too. I'm learning a lot here!
<img border="0" alt="[cheers]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_cheers.gif" />