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I was able to locate some green plastigage last night and today I was able to go through all 5 main bearings. Anywhere from .001 to .0015 clearance. Calling it good!
This morning I got the cam bearings knocked in. I'm going to go through the oil passages one more time in case the bearings shed some material into the passages, check the fit of the cam, final clean on the crank and get the crank installed today. Maybe even clean up the pistons and rods although that might be wishful thinking.
I got the block brushed clean, gave the crank a final degrease and scrub with a scotchbrite pad, hot water bath then a bath in wd40, and another run through the passages with the brush. Wiped all the excess wd40 from the crank with my hands since I currently dont have a roll of lint free towels. I'm using lucas semi synthetic engine assembly lube. Went together well and spins great. All downhill from here
Probably the only real tricky part is the rods, as there are two different sides. One side is to face the crank and the other side to face the other rod. There will be a difference. Most of my engines that I've built were industrial engines that only had one rod per crank throw. You have rods that are bushed or pinned? I think that stock LS are bushed?
Somewhere in 2003 or 2004 the LQ4 started getting Gen4 parts so I was fortunate enough to buy a 2005 model that has the Gen4 rods which are bushed. Verified this with the book I am using to assist me in the rebuild. I'm hoping to get these cleaned up this week and check new ring gaps
So while my pistons soak in a can of berrymans chem clean (one at a time, 4 hours each seems to do the job) I drilled and tapped this little guy from ICT Billet for 1/4" NPT threads for the factory oil sensors. I think it'll work. Scratched it up a bit not thinking I should wrap it in tape before putting it in a vise, but its down low so no big deal I guess.
Made some more progress, finally all the pistons, pins and rods are clean. Finished up my rockers using the Brian Tooley trunnion upgrade kit which was super easy with a press, and cleaned and painted the front timing cover.
I also used #1 cylinder and piston to check ring gaps and top ring is .018 and bottom ring is .022. From what I've read that is damn near perfect.
Today I got the pistons in. My crappy ring compressor tried to stop me but I prevailed. 2 1/2 hours to install rings, bearings, and final torque plus angle. Good quarantine times!
No I bought just the cam then added summits ls7 lifters, PAC 1219 springs and a speedmaster gasket set that had the valve seals in it. But yeah the price is good and I got a discount when they were doing their spring deals. I set up my orders so I'm just over the price point of the deal that way I can get some parts for free basically.
Last edited by banditt1979; Apr 22, 2020 at 07:37 PM.
I modified my lq4 wind age tray to mimic the f body tray and it worked with my f body oil pan. Not so much with my oil pickup. Had to do some clearancing on the wind age tray to get the bracket to fit down right. No big deal. Then after test fitting the oil pan I discovered that the pick up tube was hitting the baffle in the pan, so I removed the baffle and did some more clearancing. Which resulted in the front part of the baffle falling off. The tiny welds holding it on just broke right off. So once I got enough clearance for the pan to sit flat on the engine with the baffle installed, I went to the drill press and match drilled 4 holes and bolted the front part of the baffle to the top part using red loctite. I think it will work.
Then I watched some videos and figured out that I could cut off the tab that mounts the pick up tube to the oil pump, off of my lq4 truck pick up tube, and modify it to hold the other side of the f body pickup tube to the oil pump. Much like a distributer hold down bracket. I think this will work as well, using a longer bolt and blue loctite.
I wish I had known you needed and F-body windage tray and baffel. I have both sitting in my shop and i'll never use them as I got improved racing stuff instead. I would have sent them to you for free. And if fact if you do want mine your welcome to them just say the word.
I wish I had known you needed and F-body windage tray and baffel. I have both sitting in my shop and i'll never use them as I got improved racing stuff instead. I would have sent them to you for free. And if fact if you do want mine your welcome to them just say the word.
Thank you very much for the offer, I bought mine off eBay a month or two ago and am installing it tonight. Right after I get the summit harmonic balancer on to help line up the front cover. Instructions say to hear it up to 250 degrees for 15 minutes and it will just slip on. First attempt no bueno gonna try again in a few minutes.
I ended up with a stock style pump from melling. Everything I've read says that will be sufficient for my power level.
I read through and searched this thread the best I could. Are you putting a stall converter in this?
The torque plateau with your cam is going to start in the 3800+ rpm area range so a stock truck converter is going to be a big slouch in this much lighter vehicle.
My 5spd '84 LQ9 w/ LS3 heads & 220/224 cam puts down over 400 rwtq from 4100-5300 rpm.
