MaroonMonsterLS1

As the title states, I spun all 8 rod bearings. This was a fresh rebuild with less than 500 miles in my 2002 camaro. 799 heads, 232 cam, etc spin to 6800 ish maybe a tad higher. Rods mic'd and plastigauged at around .0015-.002 for clearance.
Using a melling 10296 High volume/High pressure pump. I'm getting feedback that this pump could be a culprit for my issues. Sucking the sump dry and drawing air...or clearances too tight for this pump...both of which mayhave caused my issues. I had good oil pressure for the first 100 miles then it started to dwindle and by the time I had enough and just pulled the motor, it was around 10 psi at idle and hardly any rise with rpm. (this was after switching to 20w50 to try and save the oil pressure)

Stock rods, stock rod bolts, clevite bearings.
Anything else I should look for while it's apart? I'll be getting the crank machined/polished and put back together with new bearings everywhere and a stock oil pump.

I should also mention that the pickup tube o ring used was correct (melling Black with the stock f body pickup tube) and looked fine when I tore it down...didn't seem pinched or rolled awkwardly.

Any ideas of other stuff to check? Places to look while it's apart before I put it back together and try again?

ddnspider

iTrader: (26)

I'd have to check my book when I get home but isn't 1.5 pretty tight for rod clearance?

RockinWs6

Post up some pics of the rods and the mains, tells a lot what could have happened. How did you set the rod clearance? Were the rod resized?

G Atsma

Don't you need AT LEAST .002 on rod bearings? It's been a while for me, so cut a little slack.... lol

KCS

iTrader: (20)

When the rods get toasted, it always seems to be oil starvation. I never had a problem with a 10296 and an Fbody pan personally. I would be looking at the pickup to pan clearance. I’ve seen the oil pump spacer for a double roller installed upside down cause issues too. Blocked off about 1/3 of the oil passage.

JoshHefnerX

Possibly something up w/ rod bolts?

MaroonMonsterLS1

Here's the rod bearings. They were checked at the machine shop then I double checked with plastigauge when installing just for peace of mind. .0015-.002 was pretty consistent.

Rods were not resized. Stock rod bolts torqued to factory spec.

Pan, pickup tube, windage tray are all the stock parts from GM. This is in a 2002 camaro so I didn't do any mixing and matching of pan/pickup like if I were doing a swap or something. I suppose I can check the screen to the bottom of the pan and measure the clearance if need be.

Always filled to 6 quarts.

no oil pump spacer

Thanks for all the replies guys!

01ssreda4

iTrader: (96)

run 7 quarts, pan holds it easily

RockinWs6

What do the mains look like?

MaroonMonsterLS1

I've heard that more and more. it will get 7 from now on.

Do you think having 6 instead of 7 lead to the cause of this?

MaroonMonsterLS1

Mains were worn. Nowhere near as bad as the rods. Barely worn through the coating on 2 of them, coating still in tact on the other 3 but the coating looked like ****.

My assumption based on how everything looks, is I think the rods were the real problem and they went first, then just having the oil pressure drop let the mains get screwed.

RockinWs6

They certainly are worn very evenly.

wannafbody

iTrader: (2)

Since you have it apart, might want to upgrade to Katech rod bolts.

truckdoug

iTrader: (25)

How many miles before the first oil change?

s30.hybrid

iTrader: (3)

Launch

Important question: Do the original 4th gen ls1 f-body oil pans that came with the ls1 cars, have an oil filter bypass for when the filter clogs? Because I know the ls1 filter itself, does not.

I have a new from GM replacement ls1 fbody pan on mine, not an original, and mine uses a different size of oil filter, and these oil filters all have an internal bypass valve in them. The ls1 filters do not have one, no matter the brand of filter.

Seeing as the oil filters that the original 4th gen ls1 pans that came with the cars don't have a bypass in them at all, is there a bypass in the pan itself for when the filter blocks?

In my previous ls1 swapped vehicle I had a custom canton oil pan with no bypass valve on the oil filter adapter that came with it, and it used the ls1 style filters which as I said above none of them have an internal bypass valve in them. Well the first K&N filter I used blocked after 1000 miles and my oil pressure dropped to 5psi. Luckily I was near home I got it back no damage. Then the same thing happened again. 2 new filters, both blocked up in no time.

Since then, that car was pulled apart and i fitted that same engine above into my 94 Camaro with the new GM replacement oil pan that uses the newer style of filters.. and I haven't had the oil pressure drop on me once and the engine is still going strong.

All of these oil filters are so small that they clog up fast even if you don't have any engine damage, even with no bearing material going through them. I had no metal in the filters.

01ssreda4

iTrader: (96)

Old style pans had the bypass in the pan, new style have the bypass in the filter.

MaroonMonsterLS1

100 miles before first change

I put the engine together

Outer shell of bearing was dry as was the rod...inner face that rides the crank got assembly lube

stock 2002 pan/pickup/windage/baffle

RB04Av

Definitely looks like oil starvation... not a clearance problem.

Did you use the correct pickup tube O-ring? Was it intact at teardown?

Did you by any chance use a cooler bypass plate that has a pressure sensor port in it? Reason I'm asking is, some pressure sensors will protrude so far into that passage, that they almost completely block it off.

I have that pump in my truck. Works fine.

RockinWs6

Was the top end noisy?