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At least it was something relatively easy to fix.

Agreed. I was having them throw a plug in there while they had it anyway for piece of mind.

yourgrandma wrote:Talked to the shop that has the engine. They said the balance shaft bearing was where I was loosing pressure so it's tapped and plugged like I wanted. Should be picking it up tommorrow.

Ordered mls head gaskets as well so I won't be able to install the engine til those get here.

Meaning it wasn't the first time?

First time for what?

The balance shaft bearing wasn't plugged the first time?

Used a bearing pressed in backwards, which was obviously a bit of a mistake.

So was this their fault and not cost to you or not?

I'll share the blame but it was free.

This is great news! Hopefully those head gaskets arrive soon! My offer for help if you wish to take advantage still stands. Not a gearhead, but I can turn a wrench haha

I think I should have it covered but I'll be at it all weekend and I never turn away a visitor.

Ahh the weekend is upon us. My mission to get the car running by Sunday may be in jeopardy though. When I took the heads apart, I noticed the valves were all closed. Flat lifters. All of them.

Not sure what to do now, but I'll put everything else together and hopefully I'll find out whether I need new ones in time to pay way too much for a set of comp oe-rs locally.

By flat lifters, do you mean they are drained of oil / not pumped up?

Because they do that after sitting for so long. Old lifters get dirty and don't so much, but if the valves are clean, the plunger is free in the bore,and they are getting oil it shouldn't matter.

That's good to hear. I think the fact that it had very low oil pressure last time it ran might also play a role. They're brand new ls7 lifters so they should work.

Low oil pressure will cause the lifter level to be low. You can see how my one lifter stroked about a 1/2" (somewhere in my build thread). As soon as the engine would idle, that lifter would start tapping as the pressure from the valve spring was enough to push the oil out completely after a few strokes without enough oil pressure. Once off idle, the pressure built back up to 40+ psi and it would immediately quit tapping, until it broke anyways. I think lifters need something like 20 psi to maintain the proper valve lash at idle.

It would be more accurate to say your lifters are most likely not pumped up because it was idling with low oil pressure long enough to drive out some of the oil in them. And the combination of sitting (new lifters will bleed oil past the check ball and plunger) and running with low pressure is what caused them to be flat. Also, keep in mind that removing the rockers/heads takes the valve spring pressure off them and they suck up a bunch of air to extend to their max height.

Well they've been soaking in oil for a few days and I've been rolling them around trying to het the air out. Motor is going in today so the ifters are going in either tonight or tomorrow morning. I've discovered its way easier to work around a longblock than a complete engine during removal and install...

So for ease of removal, what do you suggest removing from the engine first?

I basicall6 yanked the blower, LIM, then headers, power steering pump, a/c copmressor, starter and whatever wiring was in the way. I was searching for the oil pressure problem but learned that it's easier to relive the headers with eht blower off.

So today I got the new head gaskts on and the motor in. I made the mistake of plugging in the garage fridge so now I'm too drunk to finish putting it together. Sunday afternoon still seems like a good goal for a ire up/drive.

Hungry Bonneville


Time for desart


Getting there...


Ready to fire.


After the first drive


After the second drive

But does it have oil pressure, that is the question! :D

Show do. 54 psi at idle hot.

The puddle on the floor is all my coolant. Somehow the block heater/freeze plug I installed popped loose and spewed water everywhere. Not sure if its possible that it could have been caused by a boost leak or something. There was no smoke or anything, though.

Im only seeing roughly 5 psi of boost with a 3.2" pulley, so Im also wondering if I have a problem with my bypass system.