work_truck

I'm also suddenly a lot more thankful for this thread because I've changed my plan from a ls1 based 302 to a destroked LS3/6.2L.

nsogiba

I'm assuming you want to destroke to spin her high. I don't see why you couldn't spin a stock stroke 6.2 to 7000 with the right supporting hardware, without giving up the low end torque.

Sam Handwich

Here's to the C-5 section on the CorvetteForum!!
also known as "the gift that keeps on giving".

work_truck

I’m hoping more around 8000+. Should be rad.

I’m a Honda fanboy at heart so torque down low just doesn’t do it for me the way horsepower up high does

nsogiba

It has been really cold here



So I've been doing my best to stay warm. The glass came all the way from the NCM in Bowling Green.



Some parts came in...






Drilled drainage holes in the lifter trays. Never did this on any other LS engine builds, but then again I never ran those cars on the road course.


Although the L92 valley cover features O-rings to seal these DoD towers, I will drill and tap them for 1/8" pipe plugs for peace of mind. (This will occur with the engine upside down on the stand, to prevent chips from falling into the oil galleys.


Spent an hour per side with a razor blade, solvent, and rags cleaning the deck surface.


The weather was actually decent over the weekend, so I took the car out for a cruise to a buddy's place to pick up a part:


Which was a threaded adapter, allowing me to use this old cue ball **** with the MGW shifter assy.


The cue ball has sentimental value, I ran it in my old LS swapped BMW, everybody hated the **** and thought it didn't match the character of the car, which I thought was hilarious.




Finished up the weekend on Sunday night pulling the old valve springs off the heads while watching the game.

work_truck

Ha!

I put my seats/mounts together on the coffee table watching TV too.

Wife wasn't a fan

nsogiba

Ain't the first time and won't be the last. The key is to make sure you leave no trace you were ever there, then it's fine.

work_truck

Too cold in the garage here too, and my wife would rather me work inside than leave her car out overnight lol.

Awesome progress too by the way. Shifter is cool and would have been perfect for a LS BMW to hint at whats inside.

Is that a C5r chain?

Do you plan on working the heads at all?

nsogiba

The BMW was a fun car that turned a lot of heads but ultimately didn't meet my performance needs without throwing a LOT more money into it. It went through a couple new owners and the current guy loves it to death.

It's a replacement LS2 OEM chain, will be fine for my needs.

The heads will stay as cast, no changes. From what I read there are little to no gains found with porting, and I don't want to introduce any variation from cyl to cyl that might make it difficult to tune.

I'm dropping them off today to get cleaned, checked for straightness, that's it.

work_truck

very smart way of going about things!

work_truck

Also glad to see the car on the road in the winter, especially Buffalo

Shaolin Crane

I did the same, redid all of the seats inside the office cause it was 114* at the time.

Shaolin Crane

There are significant gains from porting, IF you have a camshaft that makes use of the porting. Most places CNC now will insure that the chambers all match exactly. Your prospective cam choices though won't yield a ton of power having them ported.

Most of any increase on these type of heads will come from bowl work though.

Also totally unnesessary to tap the DOD plugs, that's just asking for trouble, even doing it upside down. If you're that concerned put some gasket schlack on them before putting the cover on.

Also, I know it's a bigger expense but if you plan on running it on a road course a ton, I stress HIGHLY the importance of a link bar style lifter. The extra $200 is good insurance. Those plastic trays don't keep the lifter from spinning at continuous high RPM work and you do not want a lifter turning in the bore on an aluminum block. Google spun/collapsed LS3/7 lifters and you'll see the multitude of failures and it's not pretty.

nsogiba

I went through multiple threads of folks complaining of low oil pressure caused by the o-rings leaking. For 30 min of my time and a under $20, it's extremely cheap insurance to make sure this doesn't happen to me.

CNC work on my application is 100% overkill. This is a street car that will be driven to work most of the time, not going for max effort.

I do not plan on running on the road course "a ton". I've used the LS7 lifters with much success in the past - just like all the stock C5Z, C6Z, and LS2/LS3 cars out there that get the snot beaten out of them with no issues. On a dedicated race car yes, but not necessary for me.

Shaolin Crane

No I agree, you don't need any CNC work, but to say that CNC on an LS3 head doesn't offer any power improvement isnt the whole truth.

I'm not sure what valve springs you're running but if its the same BTR 660s most people run I can assure you the stock lifters do not like that much spring pressure. This is just my experience with johnson style lifters, it is by no means the holy word.

Thanks for the heads up about the DOD ports though, I'v heard no reports from anyone I know having issues so I wasn't aware it was a problem point, I don't really see how it could be but I guess I get to do some research.

nsogiba

Snuck in a couple hours Sunday night to finish tapping the DoD towers for 1/8 NPT. The pipe plugs came from Summit racing and were very affordable (I used the steel ones). These were torqued in place using Red Loctite as extra security.



The old L92 valley cover was nasty and the o-rings were smashed pretty flat. Pretty sure these would have eventually caused a low oil pressure situation...



Buying a whole new L92 cover (which included all new o-rings, bolts, and the main gasket) was somehow cheaper than buying the o-rings individually, so that went on and got torqued to 18 ft-lbs.



I dropped off the heads at Klispie's, a local machine shop that I used in the past. To keep costs down, I removed all the valve springs/seals/keepers/retainers, but kept each valve in its original location. The guys over there bead blasted the heads to look brand new again. As a precaution, the heads were checked for flatness and only needed a .006" skim cut on each to bring them back in again. Pics to come, I really have to start using my Nikon for this again.

work_truck

That plug install looks great!

jlk16188

subscribed. Awesome build

Shaolin Crane

Since you've got the heads apart I have 7 Ti LS7 intake valves with lows miles you can have for cheap, if you wanted to tinker with that. The engine I bought busted the rocker stem tip off or I'd have 8.

nsogiba

Lots happening recently, spring is approaching quick so it's time to get stuff done.

Although the aluminum block was fairly low mileage it was obviously a north eastern truck with lots of scale and oxidation on the surface. This was after a couple cans of degreaser, brake cleaner, and compressed air...



Threw on an old front cover from an iron 6.0 to protect internals.


Taped up and sprayed with high heat engine enamel.