INTENESS

iTrader: (4)

Do yourself a favor and cut open the oil filter see what it looks like that will tell you whats going on in the motor.If i was you I would get that oil pressure gauge working thats most important you see the pressure start to fluctate or go down its not good.

Monte4ever

iTrader: (2)

If the cams you had installed was grinned on a different base circle than your stock cam then you will more than likely need differnt pushrods. If not, the stock length pushrods should be fine.

Mike-Omologato-G.

I used the pushrods that were specified for the application. 7.4.

Thanks again for all the replies.

Texas_WS6

iTrader: (9)

This is the best first step. An oil filter is cheap and a good gauge you can trust is not too high in price. Do these things first and see what you find in the filter first. If you just changed the oil you might want to put a few miles on it before pulling the filter and cutting it open. When you say you had this work done a year ago, how many miles do you think you have on this new cam now? If you have say 5 to 10 thousand miles on it now then I would doubt there is a problem with the bottom end, if there was it should have failed by now. If you hardly drive this thing and there are few miles on the new cam then there may be a problem.

So before going to extremes, take the filter off and have it split open to see what you find in it. If you have a bearing problem you will find brass flakes of different sizes in it.

Personally I have the kind of personality that I could not stand to not know the condition of the bottom end. Here we usually pull our engines in the off season and inspect everything, and usually make a few changes as well. If you have access to the tools and equipment to pull the engine yourself, the cost of inspecting the bottom end is really not that much. I just changed all my rod and main bearings in my engine (only 300 miles on it at the time) and I think they were around $150 from Scoggin Dickeys. It also would not be a bad time to upgrade the rod bolts. I did this in one day and I took it out the bottom (F-body), so $150 for parts, bear and pizza for your buddies and one weekend, not really that expensive. If you get in there and see the bearings are good you might as well replace them, but you will know the oil pump o-ring was not the problem in the first place. It is possible your first cam was not hardened properly or your original lifters rollers were failing. If you see damage to the crank you do not have to pull the engine down. You can remove the dampener, front cover, oil pump, and timing chain, rear cover, and remove each piston pushing it all the way to the head. You will need to remove the rocker arms so the valves are closed too. Once all the rods are off the crank you can pull the crankshaft out and have it reground. Grinding the crank will cost you about $100 dollars. Still only about $250 plus beer and pizza and two weekends, not too bad on price. As long as you do not pull the heads off you can most likely reuse all the gaskets EXCEPT the rear seal. You can also pull the cam and inspect the cam bearings. You can change them yourself with the right tools if need be, but cam bearings do not see the same loading as the other bearings and will probably be OK. If you are using stock main bolts you will have to replace them if you do remove the crank, $150 or so and the dampener bolt, so now you are up to $500 with the beer and pizza. I would think this is most likely the most you will be out of pocket if you check it and catch it before failure.

As for oil additives, we (my group of racing clan buddies) always christen a new or fresh rebuild with a splash of beer (or Jack Daniels depending on what we have left) for our fallen powerhouses of old, but never more then a beer cap full . We have no proof it helps or hurts anything.

Look into the oil filter first and get a good gauge you trust before you do anything else. You may not have a problem. The new lifter noise could be a lifter not holding prime at idle or a loose rocker or even piston slap. LSx engines are known for lifter noise and a little piston slap with age. Heavier oil might help the lifter stay primed and might quiet down some piston slap. I personally use 20w50 in mine but like I said before we have hot summers so our oil temps are usually high and I run extra clearance on all the bearings and the soft forged Ross pistons I run call for allot more clearance then stock pistons do.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Mike-Omologato-G.

Fantastic reply. The new cam has about 6000 miles on it. I have heard of poorly hardened cams, and I had originally assumed that was the case. I also live in Houston, so the car almost never sees freezing temps.

hymey

How much preload are you running Mike? If its noisy it may be at like zero preload, With some lobes especially with unmilled heads I need to run 7.450" pushrods I end up with 50 thou preload. With a 7.400" pushrod we had 0 lash and with stock pushrods which are 7.388" We had 12 thou clearance. It sounds to me this could be an issue I would be checking everything. Most workshops don't check and just install 7.400" in everything. I have recently overheard a couple of mechanics saying they run 7.400s in everything I don't reply as it sends business my way more eventually lol. If this is the case it could create issues with lobes and lifter rollers damaging prematurely. If it were the oil pump o-ring the big ends would be gone by now.

I wouldn't drive it until its sorted. And I would remove the lucas additive and run a 15w40 dyno oil minimum. 20w50 is OK aswell but depends on your climate if you have cold winters 20w50 is no good. I run 20w50 mineral motor is quieter but I run 2618 slugs with 5 thou ptb clearance lol.

glocklimited9

iTrader: (3)

IMO all the thin mobil 1 and mobil 1 type oils are really not all their cracked up to be. Good diesel oil is very good, and when i got my Z a few months back i changed the oil with mobil 1 and saw my oil pressure go Down. Changed the oil the next day with diesel, and what do you know the pressure shot back up. As said before it also has alot of good zinc in it which most oils dont have

Mike-Omologato-G.

To be honest, I have no idea what the lifter preload is. I guess whatever the installer did. I am going to get her checked out really soon.

Wish me luck.

Texas_WS6

iTrader: (9)

Checking it is not hard to do yourself. Again, you need a few tools, but buying the tools is less expencive then paying a shop to do it. I am not trying to talk you out of going to a shop, but from what I have learned about you from this thread is tend to not 100% trust others doing the work. That is not a bad thing, I am the same way. The only way you are going to feel comfortable about this is for you to do the checks yourself. To do it right you need a dial indicator and some metric hand tools/socket set. You will need to pull one of the valve covers, which ever is easiest for you to get to. remove the spark plug in the cylinder you want to check. Get a friend to help (here is the beer payment system again ) roll the engine over in the direction of running rotation with a ratchet and socket on the Dampner bolt. While he is rolling the engine by hand, place your finger in the spark plug hole. When the piston starts coming up and it is pushing air out of the hole, it is on the compression stroke. Continue rolling the piston to the top of the compression stroke. Take a drinking straw (NOTHING SOLID!) and place it in the spark plug hole. You will be able to feel the piston coming up and you wil be able to feel when it stops and reaches the top. Once it is at the top stop. Both the intake and exhaust valves will be closed and the lifters on that cylinder will be on the base of the cam. Untorque one of the rockers on that cylinder (do not remove it). with the rocker loose you will be able to spin the pushrod with your fingers. Slowly tighten the rocker until you feel the clearance between the rocker and lifter is taken up. Do not continue to tighten the rocker and push the pushrod into the lifter yet. This point is called zero lash. Once at zero lash, set up your dial indicator on the top of the rocker right above were the pushrod touches the rocker. If you have a magnetic based dial indicator you can remove the other rocker on that cylinder and place the magnetic base on that spring top. Zero the indicator, then tighten the rocker to OEM specs taking care not to bump the indicator. When you tighten the rocker it will push the pushrod into the lifter, this is preload. Read the difference on the indicator. Now you know what your preload is. If it is off you can order the correct size. There are other ways to check it without using a dial indicator, maybe some one else can shime in on the other methods.

6000 miles on this cam, I dought you presently have a oil pump O-ring problem. If you did it should have shelled the bearings by now and you would hear a deep knock in the lower end if the engine. You still could have had the problem with the first cam that could have caused the first cam to be lost. Please go ahead and check the oil filter like we advised earlier. If it is clean then I bet the bearings are healthy and your present problem is a lifter loosing its prime or a little piston slap. Correct me if I am wrong but didn't you state that when this cam was installed it sounded good up until resently? If this is the case then I dought there is an issue with pushrod length. I would suspect a lifter is loosing its prime or maybe a rocker arm has loosend up or maybe a rocker arm has lost its needle bearings in the tip, or a worne rocker arm/ pushrod. If its a rocker arm, retorque it if its loose, or replce it if it has bad needle bearings or excesive ware. Make sure to look for and remove any material that could have come out of the rocker arm. If it is a lifter, then going to a heaivier oil can help keep it pumped up if it is not too bad. Other wise there is not much left you can do about it other then replacing the lifter. LSx lifters are known for not staying pumped up. The Caddy lifters and LS7 lifters are supposed to be better as well as the aftermarket lifters, but they still have issues with noise too.

Check the filter before you do all this other stuff.

mowton

Thanks for the great writeup on preload. I was a bit confused as well.

I am having a bit of a problem with a new setup that is comprised of a stock LS2 shortblock, Trickflow 215 heads, Harland Sharp rockers and a fairly large cam (not sure of the exact specs but 230/240 or so with .570 -.6 lift and 112 LSA...I quess). It is being looked at by the shop who did the install and I trust their ability, but they seem to be no closer to a resolution. The main problem is tappet noise (I know the standard sewing machine noise is expected) which seems to get a bit worse under load at about 2500 rpm and above.

All has been checked such as PR length, preload, mechanical inspection etc. The heads (rockers and springs) were used from my old LS6 set up that burned a piston and probably saw over 20K miles of normal driving and 10-20 1/4 mile runs. The car seems to run very well but I was wondering what the procedure would be to check the springs and more so, determine if they are the right ones for the setup. Right now the heads are all apart and the shortblock is assembled and on an engine stand.

Look forward to any insight and suggestions.

Thanks

VERTC6

iTrader: (1)

I agree with Texas WS6 sounds like a oil starvation issue.

I 2nd the GC 0W 30, the best off the shelf oil on the market, do a search on it.