walleyejack

title should have been manual cranking


Am trying to find a way to crank the engine by hand on a c6 ls3, question is,how does one crank the engine over manually without bustin knuckles ? Obviously can t get at the crank bolt, can get a socket on it but no rachet or bar. Has to be another way. All opinions appreciated.
Tia Al

rjacobs

bump the starter at the relay in the fuse panel under-hood. There is a thread somewhere on how to do this.

Are you just trying to tighten the rocker arms while the lifter is at the base circle? Or are you trying to use an adjustable push rod to get push rod length?

walleyejack

I appreciate that, done that, have valve train noise, i am trying to determine the preload on lifters and weather i need to swap pushrods. So i need to be able to rurn it by hand to get the correct valves closed at the right time.

am using the EO/IC method

sevinn

You could pull the starter and turn the flywheel slowly in neutral with a big screwdriver. Slow and a pain but it will be the most precise way without getting to the bolt. Will be easier on a manual car for sure.

Could also potentially get a cheap socket that fits and grind some flats onto it and fit a big wrench around it..or try a strap wrench on the socket just be careful not to let the socket slip and round off your bolt.

rjacobs

What parts are you running i.e. cam, push rod length, rocker arms, any head milling, new lifters vs. old lifters, etc...

walleyejack

i think i have a fix.. got the lad in the shop here where i work, to heat a box end wrench up, and put a big S into it. should work. looks good on paper
my next is, i have a broken breaker / johnson bar, gonna get him to cut out the 1/2" drive of it, and weld a half inch bar on it, then the socket will fit and should be able to make that work, maybe a little grinding to make it fit between the bolt and the rack.

thanks for your input sir.
Al

walleyejack

618 / 610 cam, 3/8 hardend 7.40 pushrods, original (bs) lifters, no head work, stock rockers.
i think it is not a pr issue, as it does not make the lifter noise on one lifter at start up, could happen any time, so to me, that is def. not a pr issue, more like a lifter bleeding down, i need to change them before too many more miles, but i want to check manually for lifter preload and pushrod lengths, to make sure is all good.

thanks al

schpenxel

I've used a short extension and a crowfoot wrench to get at the balancer bolt before to turn the motor over. I used that method when changing valve springs (rotated it to TDC for each cylinder I was working on valve couldn't drop). It isn't fast or much fun, but it does work if you just need to turn the engine over a bit

Could also try removing the motor mount bolts from underneath and picking the engine up. I'm not sure but I think that will give you a bit more space to get to the crank bolt. It might not.. but worth a shot. It's easy to do.

rjacobs

dont waste your time. Pull the heads and replace the lifters.

I helped a local guy last month in your exact same situation. Cam was changed, pushrods were changed, springs were changed, but lifters were original 75k mile lifters. 6 lifters were OBVIOUSLY bad, 2 more were marginal, the rest seemed ok. Put all new LS7 lifters in and buttoned it back up. Tapping noise gone.

walleyejack

ya am going to do that, but am curious also .

thanks for the input.

rjacobs

probably not the input you wanted(it wasnt for the local guy either).

These lifters supposedly will live about 40k miles with a bigger cam and more aggressive spring if you change lifters when you change the cam. If you dont, who knows. The guy I helped locally had ~10k miles on the cam, so factory lifters had ~65k miles on them, then the cam went in and they lasted another ~10k miles. His cam is not aggressive at all as its a blower cam. You dont have a very aggressive came either IMO.

walleyejack

probably not aggressive to some standards, but i don t like bucking going down the street, and this one does below 1800, so is enough for me for the street.

CMY SIX

cut a 1/2 drive 24 mm crafts man socket down to 1 1/16 put socket on first and then the ratchet, ARP bolt 27 mm offset box end wrench 12 point. I used high lift "bee hive" springs comp cams no problems yet

walleyejack

this is what i did, works great

walleyejack

going to swap my pushrods out for 7.425 should fix the some of problem, i think, i hope.

walleyejack

going to swap my pushrods out for 7.425 should fix the some of problem, i think, i hope.

rjacobs

bandaid... Unless the base circle of the cam changed(usually they dont get SMALLER) OR you've milled heads, you usually dont have to change pushrod length.

For what you are going to spend on pushrods, you can have the heads off, change the lifters, head gaskets and bolts and fix it for real.

walleyejack

I appreciate your advice, i m not trying to start a peeing match.

pushrods - 200 and done.

lifters -225
head gaskets -82
head bolts -80

total -400 vs 200
and my buddy will buy the pushrods that i don t use. so works out i think.
and what ever incidentals happen.

next week, lifters probably heh

rjacobs

No pissin match here. I just hate to see people chase a problem with the wrong parts only to eventually get to the real problem after spending money on stuff that didnt end up fixing it or was a band aid for a little while.

lifters are $130...oh wait you are in Canada, so yea 225 might be right, although I think the exchange is pretty decent right now, but the import fee's might get you.

Summit has the lifters with new trays(do these too) for 150 right now. I think Jeg's has the lifters alone for 130. Amazon usually also has lifters for ~120-130.

And head bolts I would go to the ARP's(I did) for 120 or whatever they are so you can re-use them if needed vs. the GM one time use bolts.

So yea, a bit more expensive than the push rods alone, but IMO its the proper fix instead of trying to chase bleeding down i.e. bad lifter plungers.

walleyejack

no import fees, i have my items shipped to Buffalo, then pick up there. and declare everything, only have to pay 13% tax, which i have to if i buy here also, so that really doesn t play into it, but have a 2 hr drive both ways,so, in the end is probably a wash.

i have new trays, and the head gaskets and bolts, just waiting to try this first, then get the lifters i imagine.