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I have a 97 camaro lt1. Im replacing the oil pan gasket and would like to do oil pump, main and rod bearings and bolts with stock oil pan. Internally, the motor looks and sounds stock. car shows 167,000 miles. Im just trying to do preventive maintenance while im this far in since the oil pan is somewhat difficult to remove.Melling 10554 oil pump with yellow spring not pink, stock oil pan, arp bolts and std size bearings either king or clevite. This is what im thinking for re install.Any advice is appreciated. Thank you and hope i can answer any questions out there.
In a way, I would think that too under certain circumstances. The car had been street raced prior to me having it. Thats whats concerning me about replacing new parts while on location type of build. Ive already had to replace the rear end gears, guy had crazy wiring for aftermarket fans, the reverse lockout solenoid is gone, replaced struts/coil springs. I dont know what type of beating this thing took before me or how much longer things will last on it. Thanks for the response.
if your oil pressure is very good than bearings should be good. But since you will have the pan off just pull a rod & main cap and look at condition of bearings and replace if you discover bad wear
Yes, i plan on it. I kinda want to do rod and mains regarless of what they look like. 1997-2020 for bearings is a long time. Especially when you add the street abuse. Thanks for the reply. Would i be fine with the melling 10554 yellow sping set up being mostly stock engine ? Saw a few forms people runing the pink spring. Seems like the pressure would be to high for stock.
oil pumps themselves are a very stable part. Unless there was debris pulled through the pumps gars there is no reason to change it. IDK about the Melling color & #'s for springs but a common mod was to put in the "GM" HP spring in a stock oil pump
I believe th white gm spring is equivalent to the pink melling pring. They are higher pressure springs than the yellow melling one. Thats why i said yellow spring for mine since it still stock internally. Would the gm spring help a stock internal lt1? Im going to pull a main cap just to see how the bearing looks and go from there and use plastigage if they look bad. The crank is stock so i hope numbers are close. Thanks for the advice!
If you intend to spin the motor (rpm) beyond 5500 the high pressure spring is what many have done to a stock oil pump but generally that is also done when a cam is added which allows the motor to spin higher. IMHO for a stock cam motor it is not needed but won't hurt anything
plastic gauge....not a very accurate method of measuring so take it with a grain of salt. A visual inspection should quickly show bearing and its mating surface condition
I get that "while I am in here" position....but unless there is something indicating a oiling problem (low oil pressure, knocking ) than just leave it alone. I assume you have verified the pan gasket needs changing??
Oil migrates down to the lowest point of the motor which can make it "appear" to be coming from a lower source than it is. Oil pan gasket is not known as a common problem....rear intake leak and or valve cover gasket is.
Yes the oil pan was leaking where it mated to the timing cover. Im going to pull a main cap off and ill upload some pictures. If they look fine, ill let it ride. Thank you for the advice.
Just pulled the main bearing out. What do you guys suggest based on how just this one looks?
Oh and my oil pan is fown but nit completly out. I am fighting inches with this pan now
At this point If it were "me" I'd just go ahead and replace the bearings. You said you'd planned on replacing the mains as well but you're gonna need to pull the crank to get to the main bearings in the block unless you're really really careful and somehow manage to take all the mains lose and try to roll the bearing in, ugh, I just cringe thinking of this. Anyway, personally I'd pull the engine, and do it the right way if I insisted on replacing bearings. Have the crank checked, chamfered and polished. You mentioned replacing bolts... If you're planning on putting ARP bolts in the rods you'll need to have them resized. Isn't this starting to sound like a whole lot of work? Put it back together, change the spring in the pump to a Z/28 spring and save your money to do the job right. I'd find another block of possible that way you can freshen it up in spare time and have it ready to go in the car when YOU ARE READY. That way you don't feel rushed or pressured to get it done.
Personally what I've seen with cam bearings in LTX engines bothers me the water pump drive really loads the front cam bearing pretty heavy and I've seen it worn pretty badly in these engines even though the engine looked great inside otherwise. This is why I like the electric water pumps. You do completely away with the water pump drive gear inside the engine when you have it apart and just block off the holes in both the timing cover and back of the water pump.
Sorry that this got a bit off track from the original question but it's what I've seen so I'm passing it along.
Great information. Thank you. Ok, so im sure i can roll the bearings out with it in. I wont get the arp bolts. Its not going to be a dragster just commute to work and back on occasions. Stock bolts, bearings and z28 spring for stock oil pump? Is that like the gm white or melling pink one? I already bought a gear driven water pump unfortunately. Ill pull this motor when it completly cans out, ir hopefully have one on stand by. Did pick up a underdrive pulley set from ASP though. Ill send more pictures the furthure i go. headers are next, seems like a war between 1 5/8 or 1 3/4 runners on forums. I say 1 5/8 for what i have. Just my $.02
Lt1s don't benefit much from underdrive pulleys, since the water pump is cam driven. Idle charging issues can also crop up. Spend your money elsewhere, MHO.
I have the 34 undercrank and the15 over alternator pullys. I thought people were getting the low charge when they only did the under size crank pully. Thanks for the clear up on springs.
I honestly don't recall what equals what on the springs. I just remember that the Z28 spring was the same spring used in the high pressure pumps back in the late 60's/early 70's.
If you change main bolts you would need to get the mains line honed. Taking rotating assy. bolts out you should put them back in the same holes.
Bearings look like those with 167K miles on them.
Well, the main bearings do not look as bad as i thought since i saw a tad bit of coolant in the crank case. All main bearings are in, just got rods next. I grinded down a screw and put it in the oil passage in the crank, rotated the crank and pushed the top main bearings out. It works with install too. Hope this helps someone !Worst part of this job with engine still installed in my opinion so far is the oil pan clearance, rolling in the thrust bearing and 1 main over the cross me
mber. Got the melling 10554 oil pump along with install. More pics after rod bearing install. Thanks everyone!
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Std. Rod and main bearing replacement. 
