The highlander

Hello,

First and foremost I would like to give a billion thanks to Katech/Jason and Tony Mamo from AirFlowResearch. These guys have been instrumental in this build and the fact that finally I am going to be able to enjoy my LS7 like I always wanted.

I had bought a busted LS7 with 4 bad sleeves. The engine was sent to be resleeved and built. Ever since I fired this engine up I always complained about the oil pressure. With a 30wt oil my oil pressure was 17psi at 225F idle. This always made me uneasy. This was the first start. Thinking to myself that this was a "built" engine since it had nice forged wiseco pistons and completely resleeved the clearances were a little looser than factory from what I have seen bone stock in these engines. I quickly changed to a 40wt oil and I decided to buy a Katech oil pump and sent it to Tony Mamo for porting.

Tony quickly told me that the oil pump I had just bought was a VERY nice piece. He reworked the oil pump on the pressure side and told me that I had the best oil pump money can buy for my engine....

It came with a sticker that said "BAD AZZZ MAMOFIED OIL PUMP". LOL

Installed this oil pump after trying the melling without success and still geting lower oil pressure at warm idle and there was a nice change in the idle oil pressure. I was getting 25psi at warm idle... I rechanged my oil to 10w-40 mobil and oil pressure came up to 30psi at warm idle... I was content with this....

I used the engine and besides the unusual louder engine noise it all worked out well. Engine didn't give me the HP i expected from the same combo's I had built for other LS7s but I always thought that since this is a C5 and the ECU is a tad slower you couldn't always get such a perfect mixture like I can with an E38. I have seen this also between E40 LS2s and E38 LS2s. I usually get some more power out of the E38s. Not much, but quantifiable.

Anyways... after a hole year of a few issues my rear main seal exploded... I decided to open up and see why...

I found all my bearings were busted.. Specially main bearings which were on the copper....

I went to the machine shop to have the crank mic'd and it speced out correctly...

After getting a new crank (didn't want a cut crank and in the end was what I got from my builder)

I decide to drop an email to Tony... after about 30 emails in total his most important reply was this:

Check this thread out, this guy is going through your same situation and wants to do it himself to avoid hassles.

https://ls1tech.com/forums/generatio...i-build-9.html

Inspired by this thread almost a thousand later, I am measuring my own engine. Block comes out correct and so does the crank. Ended up with around 1.5 thousands inch clearance on all the mains. Which was great.

Then I went to measure the rods ... Torqued my ARP 2000 bolts supplied from my builder to 35 lb/ft 3x and a final pass of 45 lb/ft.

Here are the results of my measurements.

2.2252
2.2255
2.2264
2.2255
2.2257
2.2260
2.2257
2.2262

Keep in mind that the limit for the LS rods is 2.2250. Clevite bearings have a max bore of 2.2252

Calculating clearances for bearing thickness and crank diameter i got:

0.0023
0.0026
0.0035
0.0026
0.0027
0.0031
0.0027
0.0035

Here is my oil pressure problem!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I gave Jason a call.. and always so helpful he asks.. what kind of rod bolts are you using... I told him ARP-2000s. He said.. There is your problem... 2 days later I get my Katech Rod Bolts....

Torque them down 35lb/ft 3x and 45lb/ft one last time....

Results...

2.2250
2.2249
2.2250
2.2250
2.2249
2.2251
2.2249
2.2250

0.0021
0.0020
0.0021
0.0021
0.0020
0.0022
0.0020
0.0021

HUGE DIFFERENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So the naysayers that claim that Katech Rod bolts deforms the rod.. It doesn't. But beware, be sure to clean them up and use ONLY the molykote lube for the titanium rods. Otherwise it will streak and you will get inaccurate readings.

Thanks to Jason and Tony for all the help. I know I can get annoying sometimes with all of this stuff. I just don't want to have issues with this engine and have it where I want it... I usually left these types of jobs to machine shops, but it's something I'll do myself from now on. Thank YOU!

to ckpitt55 I say THANK YOU... the thread was extremely helpful and very detailing. It certainly led my way and payed off.

ARPs are not direct swap and should be rehoned like ARP says they should. This is in no way a thread to put down ARP, on the contrary. Instructions are clear. This thread is to advise to everyone using ARPs as a install and forget to use Katech Rod Bolts for these type of situations where the stock rods are concerned.

End of communication.

RezinTexas

Great writeup! If you are starting with guidance from the likes of Tony M and Chuck in PA, then you will have a successful build for sure. I also strongly recommend buying Joseph Potak's book for LS engine building.

Post some pictures

Regarding the rod bearing clearances, they were on the high side, however I'm not sure if that was really your problem. I'm running 0.0026" - 0.0030" on all my rods, and I still get 55-60 psi hot idle with 40wt oil. Unfortunately, I don't have any advice on what else it could be. Did you see anything else unusual in the engine?

Jimbo1367

I am assuming the oil pump has to be shimmed @ the gears during installation like all non LS7 dry sumps?

The highlander

The other thing i found today was 4 of the rods where installed incorrectly!



Look at the rod and piston's dimple! They do not align!

Anyways i doubt that contributed to anything since they are full floating pistons but i am sure having too many rods over the 3thousand could have impacted the oil presume greatly!

We will see! I'll post pics later on!