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Ran into some problems today i was going to swap cams and removing the front cover had developed a crack. I may have made the mistake of not removing the oil pan bolts first so when reinstalling the cover you torque the front bolts in sequence and the oil pan bolts last? The last thing i want to do is damage any parts. Does gm use orange gaskets from the factory? The lower side of the front cover is clean vs the top side which is completely stained. It wouldnt hurt to put any silicone on the bottom side of the front cover or oil pan gasket? The pan gasket appears to be in good shape.
I like to leave all the timing cover bolts loose until I get the balancer fully seated and installed. This will make sure the front seal is concentric with the balancer. Then I tighten all the front bolts and leave the two bottom ones for last.
Sorry about your cover, but it should be easy to find a new one I think.
I have a spare cover but it does look to have some cast or stuff on one of the bottom bolt holes. Im waiting for the new thrust plate and flywheel locking tool to arrive tomorrow. While i was cleaning this cover i noticed the previous owner used some black silicone on both the front cover gasket as well as bottom side of the cover. Im thinking i should do the same too a light coat of black silicone on the bottom edge of the cover. You dont use any loctite on the thrust plate or cam gear bolts correct? Yes the original cover is clean on the bottom side compared to this other cover which is completely coated. Not sure if its because of the front cover seal leak or what happened.
I put a little dab of RTV in the lower corners where the block, pan, and cover all meet. Some people also like to use a very light film of RTV around the cover to help hold the gasket in place during installation.
When I did my timing chain replacement, the cam gear bolts didnt have loctite on them from the factory so I didnt use any on my reinstall of the cam gear. It should be fine either way.
I installed the pac 1219s, elgin 1839 cam and new thrust plate. 18 ftlbs on the thrust plate and 26ft lbs on the timing sprocket and 22 ftlbs on the rocker arms. I maybe should have went with 1218s for less spring pressure on the lifters and durability miles in the long haul. I still need to drop the passenger header, starter install the flywheel locking tool and torque the balancer to 235 ftlbs unless someone thinks the 20v milwauke 1/2" impact will do the job. I'll have to rent oreillys 250ftlb torque wrench. Does anyone just torque the balancer bolt to 235ft lbs to seat the balancer or torque it loosen it and retorque it to 235 ft lbs. Also will it be fine to just use the oil i have in the car only has 1500 miles on it to run the car for 20 seconds or so to clean out the engine assembly lube then change the oil with a 5w-30 synthetic. You may think dual springs are better after looking at this as they will stay compressed as the car sits. I did the rocker arm torque per haynes manual and you are still compressing the spring while torqueing the rocker arm bolts. It may be easier or best to just torque them all 22ftlbs at one time. I turned the crank over a couple times to confirm the timing was still dot to dot. You can definitely feel the heavier spring pressure when turning the motor over by the balancer bolt vs not having the rocker arms installed.
How are you suppose to heat cycle the springs before revving them up? 3-4 15 minute heat cycles kept under 3k rpms or is this unheard of?
Last edited by Justin Raney; Jan 15, 2022 at 08:01 PM.
Got the arp bolt torqued to 235 ftlbs and used the old bolt torqued to 235 ft lbs before installing the arp. Oreillys has the 250ftlb torque wrench for rental tools. Im going to button up the exhaust, coil packs and throw the air intake in there to make sure the cam runs and no strange noises from the valve train before putting the rack and radiator back in there. Would be a lot of trouble to finish it up to find out theres problems and also check for balancer wobble. The assault racing 91$ balancer has a steel hub vs the aluminum hub which wears out over time and hopefully doesn't wobbe its also sold as professional products balancer for ls1 corvette from jegs for 108$.
How are you suppose to heat cycle the springs before revving them up? 3-4 15 minute heat cycles kept under 3k rpms or is this unheard of?
Not unheard of, keep the rpms low until up to full operating temp, shut down and let cool (cold), repeat. Some people do this, and some people never do and don't have issues.
Started it with just the balancer and accessories off. It does seem to have some valvetrain noise evenly. Im thinking i should run it for a while to see if it quiets down and change the oil. I did use the stock pushrods which somewhere i read were 7.385" in actual measurements vs the 7.4" pushrods which would give it the extra 15 thousandths preload. To be honest this cam sounds small or close to stock just with the extra valvetrain noise. Not sure if it would even need a tune. Ill try to get some videos of the valvetrain noise and exhaust. It may run fine on the stock tune as it doesnt chop much i would expect the tuner would get it to idle rougher or whichever. I do need to change out to 7.4" pushrods tho i believe.
Any ideas what oil 10w30 10w40 synthetic or conventional would quiet down the sewing head valvetrain noise? I used pac 1219s i think 1218s would have been easier on the stock lifters, valvetrain. With the stock base circle 1839 cam i believe it leaves the lifters at stock preload around 60 thousandths. I watched a youtube video of someone measuring a stock 4.8 and measured 7.325 i believe with the lifter plunger all the way up so stock 7.835 pushrods would give it 60 thousandths lifter preload and 7.4" would make it 75 thousandths if i did my math correctly.
I'll get it buttoned up the power steering rack and accessories. Ill try to get some videos of the valvetrain noise as well as idle its close to stock size so may run fine on stock tune. Does rev up quicker.
I've never heard of any oil that would "quiet down" valvetrain noise. So, you didn't measure for pushrods, went with what you had?
I went with stock length because according to elgin the 1800 series cams are on stock ls base circle while the 1200 series is not. He showed me their 7.4 pushrods .110 walled vs other companies thinner walled pushrods. I went with stock to get the car running he stated that the 7.4" would take up the extra .007 lash vs the stock 7.393 pushrods. Im going to swap in some aftermarket 7.4". I've seen guys run the stock pushrods with the sloppy elgin cams on youtube that appear to run fine. This is what they told me before purchasing their cam as i contacted them directly about the ebay knock off cams that are supposedly reground on a smaller base circle which would require longer pushrods. The cam i dont think is too big or steep to where it would require 7.425 pushrods. I may try a pushrod length checker but theres no way to confirm if the lifter is at the top of the plunger when doing this. Im not sure what ramp rate or lobe ex: XER elgin uses but id be curious to know as well. Someone i know uses stock pushrods on a stock ls1 like mine with a tsp torquer 2 i believe it is and its valvetrain is quiet but does have a louder exhaust system. The stock c5 mufflers are pretty quiet. Looking to putting some 2.5"-3" dumps behind the rear tires with the stock 2.5" exhaust piping if total flow doesn't get the 2.5" by 4" length minibullet mufflers back in stock to run out the rear center exit.
The 1800 series cams have a stock base-circle, so a stock length push rod is fine if all other components are also stock. The 1800 series cams were the Test Cams, and should not be expected to pass emissions. The 1200 series cams do not have a stock base circle as the crate engines use different combinations of components. Changing head gasket thickness (common), rockers, heads, or anything else in the valvetrain could change the geometry of the valve-train and require re-measuring push rod length. Especially if the heads are milled, or the block is decked. A stock typical LS pushrod measures 7.393”. Newer LS based engines use different lengths
.PR-15740 is 7.400” (.007” longer should be fine to take up in the lash), and is one-piece thick-wall chrome-moly (5/16”, .110” wall, 4130, 210* radius ends, 700+ spring pressure) Elgin Pioneered the centerless-ground one-piece pushrod instead of using separate ends welded or pressed. Other companies offer copies that are thinner walled.
PR-15745 is the same as above, but 7.450”. Some guys running turbos beyond 7,000 rpm are reporting valvetrain noise from steeper cam ramp profiles that is taken up when using this .050” longer rods.
Last edited by Justin Raney; Jan 18, 2022 at 12:26 AM.
I've never heard of any oil that would "quiet down" valvetrain noise. So, you didn't measure for pushrods, went with what you had?
I think it was just a first start issue with the new cam and assembly lube on the rocker arms and such. It quieted down a bit. Im going to finish putting the rack and pinion and accessories back on then i'll see where its at. I do need to swap in some 7.4" pushrods asap but as i asked others that run the bigger 1840 cam in 4.8s said they used stock pushrods no problems. Im just going to go with 10w30 what i've had in there. Someone told me conventional oil was better as synthetic is really thin and according to my haynes manual change it every 3000 miles and 7500 miles at the most.
Last edited by Justin Raney; Jan 20, 2022 at 06:38 PM.
I talked to chuck cow about tuning he wanted to do it thru autocal or tune and said it would be 600$-650$ and that he could get the best tune. Said you couldnt mail the pcm in and simply upload a tune file. In 2008 i thought most people went with mail order tunes where they sent their pcm in for head cam lt1s but i guess not. He said the stock corvette rev limiter was 6200rpm and that he'd raise the rev limiter to 6700rpm but stated that he wouldnt use single springs at 6700 they got valve float with 3 customers and recommended a dual spring.
I found a local ls shop that does dyno tunes for 450$ and 2hrs time to tune it.
Ive got the rack, water pump and alternator exhaust all hooked up. Just need to finish putting the belt back on and the radiator and top off the power steering fluid and 1qt synthetic 6 fluid that came out the radiator transcooler. I have 1500 miles on the current 10w30 supertech oil thats on it but i guess once it gets up to operating temp im going to change it to quaker state 10w30 full synthetic. I havent used quaker state oil since 2007-2011 on an old 66 351 with hydraulic cam but hopefully quaker state oil is still a good oil brand. Its was about 1.75$ more then the walmart supertech full synethetic oil. Only thing i dont like is they dont have the foil tamper proof seal but do have the cap locking ring that breaks.
Got the car running the oil change has less then 1000 miles on it so i may wait to change the oil. Installed new balancer, arp bolt, pac 1219 springs, 7.40" tsp pushrods, comp valve seals and the elgin 1839 cam.
The car runs fine with the stock tune. It does jump when thrown in to drive from reverse im not sure if thats because of the stock torque converter. I didnt notice it much when putting 10$ in gas in at the gas station on going from start to drive. It does have a "low reserve" gauge reading when its low on gas and my inst miles reads 20mpg vs 22mpg with the throttle lightly pressed. I installed some 7.40 texas speed pushrods. The tuner requested that whatever intake filter set-up or descreened, ported maf ends the cars tuned with needs to stay with that and the current tune if i do get it tuned. He said the twin ram filters with the y similar to the vilont intake caused turbulence with the maf readings. I havent had the car tuned yet but was thinking of putting the ported maf ends with a straight filter off the maf.
For some reason it throws the code p1111 and p0113 for the iat sensor.
Hey all. 2001 49,000 miles with slight movement. Everyone usually says it will go in time. I did read to change out a few things while you’re that deep into this job like water pump, timing chain and cover and some of the pulleys. Does anyone recommend anything else and can I get a higher performance cam with stock heads or do I need to do the heads as well? I think my biggest concern is this, I can’t do this work myself. Does anyone know where I can get a job like this done with proper planning anywhere for queens NY 200 miles all around. I have a home in PA and a hunting lodge in upstate NY. I would love to get the balancer done especially durning the times we are living in. Corvettes jumped up in price from 2001 and up. I just figured to grab America’s car before they are truly gone.
