Finished head swap, loss of some oil pressure?
03-20-2008, 07:21 PM
#21
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I'm thinking maybe a piston gave out, judging from the smoke coming from the oil fill cap...could be pieces of it bouncing around in there. No SES light and everything was hooked up properly.
03-20-2008, 08:33 PM
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My friend who put the lifters in did not set any preload, lifters were the same as the ones taken out, and that preload will not effect oil pressure. He has done a lot of head and cam swaps on many motors even biult the 327 from scratch in his garage he has in his mustang.
03-20-2008, 08:43 PM
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So we finshed up my head swap tonight, added TSP stg 2.5 5.3 heads with LS7 Lifters. Started it up was alil noisy at first but quieted down pretty quick. Runs just fine but I have less oil pressure for some reason. I usually have about 39-42 lbs at idle and about 50 just cruisin. After I let it warm up I took it on like a 5-10 mile trip and noticed I only had about 40-42 psi driving and 28-30 at idle now. What could be goin on here? Oil is full and clean.
My friend who put the lifters in did not set any preload, lifters were the same as the ones taken out, and that preload will not effect oil pressure. He has done a lot of head and cam swaps on many motors even biult the 327 from scratch in his garage he has in his mustang.
not to be a dick, but a GenIII motor is not the same as SBC, similar, but a different animal.
03-20-2008, 10:06 PM
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so they were in fact the exact units used before, or another set of LS7 lifters? preload is kind of a big deal. your story sounds to be like a blown head gasket or spun bearing, maybe even a hole in a piston. were the 5.3 heads checked? had they been milled? did you clay the motor for PTV clearance? did you check for correct pushrod length?
not to be a dick, but a GenIII motor is not the same as SBC, similar, but a different animal.
not to be a dick, but a GenIII motor is not the same as SBC, similar, but a different animal.
03-20-2008, 10:08 PM
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He dont know, but believe me he will be helpin tear it back down to figure it out. Gotta remember it ran fine the night we got it done and for the first 10-15 miles the day before, if the install was fk'd up it shouldnt have run right at all?
03-20-2008, 10:24 PM
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Any smoke out the exhaust? Have you drained the oil and checked it again? It seems that if was running fine before the swap, it would be something to do with the heads. Like was said before, maybe a head gasket.
03-20-2008, 11:25 PM
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will check oil tomorrow, got off work late. Ran fine after swap also. Aproblem with brand new GM haskets? They looked fine.....what about the gradually decreasing oil pressure and the smoke out of the oil dipstick?
03-20-2008, 11:57 PM
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smoke out the dipstick? sounds like compression in the crank case. blown head gasket or bad piston. they didnt seal right or a valve hit a piston. are you sure you installed them right? i usually spray mine with copper spray prior to install. just something i picked up along the way.
it is imperative that these little measures be done any time you do motor work. things like checking preload and pushrod length, claying for PTV clearance, all the little things, especially if youre adding a cam or swapping heads, and even moreso when you are messing with heads that might be milled/different casting regardless of what whoever told you. they will tell you the same.
good luck and i hope im wrong.
it is imperative that these little measures be done any time you do motor work. things like checking preload and pushrod length, claying for PTV clearance, all the little things, especially if youre adding a cam or swapping heads, and even moreso when you are messing with heads that might be milled/different casting regardless of what whoever told you. they will tell you the same.
good luck and i hope im wrong.
03-21-2008, 12:03 AM
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That is what I was thinking. I bet if you took off the oil fill cap while the car is running there would be smoke coming out of it as well. Regardless.. either out of the dip stick or oil fill, that's usually bad news.
03-21-2008, 12:24 AM
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Correct was coming from the oil fill cap too, as stated in one of my previous posts, I think its safe to say something's toast from the sounds of it.
03-21-2008, 12:37 AM
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if something like that happened why though, was running just fine, wasnt running it hard at all never went past 3500rpm and didnt overheat no coolant in the oil...
03-21-2008, 10:29 PM
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Well got to pull the plugs, one side had some oil on the DS head the PS looked fine, Drainded the oil Metal shavings all over the plug and my oil is black with shavings, oil is 6 days old has 20 miles on it if that. Any ideas? If a bearing gave why would this happen right after a head swap and why was it slowly loosing oil pressure the more I drove it. Remember I only put maybe 15 miles on it after head swap and never went past 3500rpm's. Something isnt adding up here.
03-21-2008, 10:33 PM
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when you check your dipstick, you say its not milky, any water droplets? what head gaskets did you use? also, did you have a chance to do a compression test?
03-24-2008, 02:07 AM
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Nope, didnt do a compression test, there was lots of metal in the oil though, I cant see a head gasket doing that. What I would really like to know is what would cause oil pressure to slowly fall over the course of a 20-25 min drive AFTER the engine is already at full operating temp?
03-25-2008, 02:54 AM
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