Dozer gets her hair did (somewhat of a build thread) (1 Viewer)

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They all look like that inside, completely normal. The 5.3 engine in my FJ62 that only had 55K miles when I purchased it looked like that. I've opened up probably 25 more of these motors in the past two years, some with 250K-280K and they look exactly the same. nothing to worry about.

I'll post up a pic of the 95K mile 5.3 I have here that's about to go in a customer FJ62 and we'll see what it looks like inside.

And one more note, I consider 160K miles to be "low-mileage" on an LS. 250-280K is broken in nicely, perfect for turbo builds :)

That's awesome news. I'm happy to hear that.

Do you know why the odd bank has the oil buildup, but not the even? If they are all like this, I'm fine with that... but damn, the engineer in me wants to know why!
 
Every engine I've pulled apart looks more or less like that. The sludge is more to do with the PO's maintenance schedule than anything else. Nothing to worry about. You can clean the pan, then run a bit of seafoam in the oil up to temp a once or twice, then change the oil again, to clean it up better.
 
Every engine I've pulled apart looks more or less like that. The sludge is more to do with the PO's maintenance schedule than anything else. Nothing to worry about. You can clean the pan, then run a bit of seafoam in the oil up to temp a once or twice, then change the oil again, to clean it up better.

I'm replacing the oil pan, with a new pickup tube. Windage tray will get a good cleaning. I'm really not concerned with the sludge... people don't seem to value on scheduled oil changes :/

I'm just REALLy curious why 4 rods have oil baked on and the others are clean as a whistle. Maybe it's typical based on the direction of oil splash??? That's what I'm trying to figure out.
 
The plot thickens:

Pulled the oil pan tonight.

Gritty sludge, no big chunks

View attachment 2525803

More interesting to me was the oil that was baked on some of the rods, all on the odd cylinder bank (pics of best (2) and worst (5 and 7) )

2:
View attachment 2525805

5:
View attachment 2525807

Not sure what to make of this and if it's of major concern or not.

:beer: Ramon

Nothing to worry about there, every truck ls I've ever opened up looked the same.

For me if not adding power id just replace the gaskets slap it in there and call it good.

Been on a lot of 5.3 pulls and throw them in cars, miles be damned.

As far as total miles to get out of them at my last job the ls motors were the only gas motors that really lasted. The older genII vortecs were also pretty damn good. But my personal work.truxk.for a while was a 6.0 in a 2500HD. Had 394k on it when I started and 430k when I stopped. All original motor and trans and it lived a hard life.

If I didn't have the turbo for the 3f sitting around already and found that rebuilt 3f for a low price, and had a bit more time on my hands this swap is what would be happening to the 80, using a trans that I could later mate the 4bt to if needed.

While ive never personally seen a million mile lsx im sure they exist. Highest I've seen with my own eyes was another work truck with 723k on it.
 
Some progress... not rushing by any means.

Got the block scuffed down good, primed, painted and cleared with Duplicolor. Actually really impressed with the finish - the color is "cast iron" funny enough.

IMG_3882.JPG


Timing set replaced with a single roller. Pretty cool surprise when I opened it that it was adjustable (let's not rehash that from the other thread ;) )

IMG_3856.JPG


Spent a couple hours working on the block mating surface with brake cleaner and razor blades, and finally put it on pause to research a better method. Was orignally going to go with 3M roloc finger dic, but saw a lot of warnings about ceramic dust they produce. Since I'm not going to be disassembling the rotating assembly to clean the block, I opted to try a carbide tipped scraper:

IMG_3878.JPG


This little thing is pretty dope - makes pretty quick work of the old gasket material and oil residue:

IMG_3865.JPG


The iron is stained so it appears there is still gasket material, but I worked it until smooth and able to tell I'm down to base iron.

Oil pump shipment was delayed, should be here tomorrow for install. That will take me to getting the front cover back on. Next steps are to remove the back cover to replace the leaky rear main and oil diverter for cheap insurance. Then comes the new LS7 style lifters and new trays, and heads can go back on.

Really enjoying this build!
 
Carbide scrapers are intended to remove metal. Think scraping of metal ways in machine tools. Hope you weren't too aggressive with it.
 
Carbide scrapers are intended to remove metal. Think scraping of metal ways in machine tools. Hope you weren't too aggressive with it.

I made sure to use even pressure to not gouge and stop when old gasket / crap was removed. Fingers crossed :)
 
looking good. put a dab of FIPG or RTV in the corners were the front and back cover meets the oil pan and block.
 
While i'm glad I found a rebuilt 3f close to me so I don't have too much down time swapping it over when the rig gets here, and i'm glad that i'll be able to use the turbo kit. I still feel like I should have gone LS..... especially when I hear a Donald Thump idling, sounds like my old Z28 idling although it wasn't quite as an aggressive cam I swapped in.

 
I love that choppy idle. And thought I'd try and find a cam for this motor that would give that chop, but what I found is it opens a big can of worms that I didn't want to deal with. Not to mention, any more HP in a 40 is just more overkill that could wind up costing drivability :(
 
Yes you should have. There is still time.

Yeah I know but I at least owe it to myself to run this kit at least once before I get rid of it. If I do, I dont think selling a proven (to work) turbo rebuilt 3fe will be super difficult.
 
Not to mention, any more HP in a 40 is just more overkill that could wind up costing drivability :(
Says the guy putting an overpowered motor into a 40 :lol:
 
Good bit of progress to report, but sadly I haven't had a lot of solid blocks of time to work on this until yesterday:

F316AB90-E909-4310-9A53-443B4A7A50BC.jpeg

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@NCFJ , @mwalls54 , @Cirbo @cruisermatt @lt1fire

Update: I found a picture of my motor pre-disassembly and looks like the DS hole is for a plastic splash guard but the PS hole was unused. Hmmm.


Any of you guys know what these 2 threaded holes on the back outside edges of the oil pan are for?

9D34EB20-5F0E-449C-A04B-6C9C87F96A35.jpeg


Driver side one is tiny:

C7925B5C-9CB7-4FE2-A161-FA4B12202759.jpeg



Do they need to be plugged? I still have my factory pan at my storage unit, but if you guys know off hand it would save me a trip.

:beer: Ramon
 
Last edited:
@NCFJ , @mwalls54 , @Cirbo @cruisermatt @lt1fire

Update: I found a picture of my motor pre-disassembly and looks like the DS hole is for a plastic splash guard but the PS hole was unused. Hmmm.


Any of you guys know what these 2 threaded holes on the back outside edges of the oil pan are for?

View attachment 2558484

Driver side one is tiny:

View attachment 2558485


Do they need to be plugged? I still have my factory pan at my storage unit, but if you guys know off hand it would save me a trip.

:beer: Ramon


Yeah those are for mounting the plastic covers that go on the rear there. I think GM calls them closeouts or something like that. Google that if you need a picture.
 
As Al said, Its a black filler piece that closes out the bell housing.
 
Here is the one that goes on the starter side.
eyJ3aWR0aCI6ODAwLCJoZWlnaHQiOjYwMCwiZml0IjoiY29udGFpbiIsIndhdGVybWFya2VkIjp0cnVlLCJrZXkiOiJhc3NldHMvaW1hZ2VzLzIzODM4NzgvbGFyZ2UvODI2NjI2NDcyNWFlZDZkNzRiZWFiNjM5NWUzZWFjMWYuanBnIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6Mn0=.jpg
 
Here is the one that goes on the starter side.
eyJ3aWR0aCI6ODAwLCJoZWlnaHQiOjYwMCwiZml0IjoiY29udGFpbiIsIndhdGVybWFya2VkIjp0cnVlLCJrZXkiOiJhc3NldHMvaW1hZ2VzLzIzODM4NzgvbGFyZ2UvODI2NjI2NDcyNWFlZDZkNzRiZWFiNjM5NWUzZWFjMWYuanBnIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6Mn0=.jpg

Thanks, my motor was missing the starter side piece. Not sure if these will be required with the H55F adapters or not, but if so I'll just need to track one of those down.

Cheers guys.
 

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