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Ls3 diagnostic?

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Old 03-31-2024, 02:56 PM
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Default Ls3 diagnostic?

Got an 03 Silverado with ls3 swap, TSP 821 head and valve kit with TSP .640/615 cam(don't sound right but I cant remember lol) with true dual exhaust. Anyways a couple months or so ago i noticed one of the pipes blowing smoke and chalked it up to the cold weather like the smart kinda guy I am.
Well about 2 weeks ago I lost oil pressure so i checked the oil levels and it was almost completely empty. Don't change oil as much as I should but I've never burned up 6 quarts by going a month over my change. Was in a bind being where I was so I tried just doing a roadside oil change hoping I could limp it home. Found some metal pieces when I drained the oil didn't think to drop the pan to find more but I'll be doing that in the next couple days. What I did find looked like a half cylinder in about 1.5 pieces don't have pictures and didn't think to keep them but I tried seeing how it ran with new oil and it was popping off gunshots on the same fire that was smoking shut it off almost immediately and haven't ran it since

​​​​​​I know enough to strip a motor and put it back together but not so great with diagnostics lol. Got the head on the suspect side off and going through what I do know to go through, but all my rockers, rods, springs and retainers are good only thing I haven't checked on the head is valve seats. If anyone has a better idea than me on what to look at I'm all ears
Old 04-01-2024, 03:43 PM
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I'm going to guess you had a piston come apart. Any time you find metal like that, the WHOLE engine needs to be disassembled.
Old 04-02-2024, 04:34 PM
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Got a crappy picture on my flipper when it happened though
Old 04-02-2024, 04:36 PM
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A couple of those were needle bearings, bout to drop the pan so I'll know if there's more or if it's leftover from whatever failed and wasn't cleaned out of the engine by the previous owner. Got most of the top end taken apart tho
Old 04-04-2024, 07:49 PM
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The only place you should find needle bearings is in the rocker arms, so I'd pay close attention to those. Probably will want to do a trunnion upgrade to them.



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