5.3 or 5.7, which would you do?

[BoominSVX]

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Ok guys, I'm in the middle of all this now and I have some questions. The cam, Water pump, Oil pan gaskets, Timing cover, Rear main, Header gaskets and everything I would want to check when freshening up an engine are all here. I went out back and started kicking around in the pine needles. Sure enough, a set of pace setter headers were buried down there. I grabbed an old fish tank, some rebar, and a charger. Threw it all in with some salt, and let electrolysis take over for a bit. I'd never get in to those tight spaces with a wire brush or even a sandblaster from all angles. Sure enough they came right back. I'll attach some pics of that. Now, I know the top end was recently gone through. All new stuff from the head gaskets up, and I clean EVERYTHING when I get that far in to a job. The bottom end seems great. Timing chain had a little slack but not much. All in all I have no worries.

Today, I started hunting for info regarding cam timing on the L31. Quite a bit of info to take in using tools I'm not ultimately familiar with. The Cloyes roller timing chain set that I ordered has 3 possible marks. Stock, 3 degrees advanced, and 3 degrees retarded if I recall. One way is the oem timing. One gives some low end grunt (I like that idea) and one gives high RPM horsepower. Does anybody have any experience with this? I haven't played with it much, but I have about 32 other things to research tonight including a random cylinder misfire in a 6.0 LQ4 that has me stumped. Should I mess with the cam timing with the 395 going in? Will it cause ping? Hurt fuel? Run hotter? what's the side effect of doing so? I only ask because somewhere out there, somebody knows exactly what the answers are, and I don't. Also, anybody ever done a cam swap without pulling lifters? Knowing everything is nice up there from the recent top end work, I'd like to avoid ripping the valve train back down. I still can't even get a definitive answer on whether or not to torque the rocker bolts or adjust to zero lash. When I rebuilt, it was torque to so many ft lbs in my haynes book. Now everyone talks about zero lash, but I find guys that "Can't zero lash without rockers loosening up". Ugghh. Also, can anyone tell me why my APN settings on cyanogenmod will either give me spark service or working MMS but not both? Yea, guess I'll have to hunt that one out too. Lets learn linux today while we're at it. Bug reports never work anymore. I'm also looking for a radiator for a 1953 john deere 50 if anyone has one laying around. It won't hold coolant long enough to plow the way it is. Got cold here this winter. (See why I ask you guys about cam phasing?) ;-)

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And yes, I'll weld the o2 sensor bung closed and add on a small pipe from the collector for the EGR. Still waiting for my argon tank to come back from pressure testing.

 

[slowburb]

Dammit boy those headers look good!!


Zero lash is when everything touches. Cam lobe/lifter, lifter/pushrod, pushrod/rocker. It's easiest with the intake off. I'm right handed so left hand on the pushrod, right hand on the ratchet. This is the best way to explain it. Tighten until the pushrod stops spinning between your fingers. This is too far. Too much preload. Back off until it is loose again. Now tighten slowly and watch and feel. As soon as the vertical play between the lifter pushrod and rocker is gone, stop. The pushrod will still spin, but it wont jiggle up and down. This is zero lash. As you start to tighten from here you will see the pushrod push on the lifter plunger down into the lifter. It will stop. Tighten until it bottoms out so you can see it. Gently. That's the bottom of the stroke. You want thel pushrod holding it halfway down its stroke. Centered in its strike. Back off, set it halfway down its stroke. Move to next lifter by sequence through firing order.

 

[Ironhead]

We used to set valve lash on Chevy hydraulic lifters by tightening the rocker stud nut until the tick just went away, then turned down another 3 quarters of a turn. To do this, we tightened all the other rockers down until they were quiet.

The engine will run rough until the lifter settles down in it's new position. And, LOL, before we learned that, we used to spray the inside of the rocker covers with undercoating to shut the engine up, just before we sold the vehicle.

That's when a running beater was $50, and we were really ignorant of what we were doing with the mechanicals.

 

[BoominSVX]

Dammit boy those headers look good!!


Zero lash is when everything touches. Cam lobe/lifter, lifter/pushrod, pushrod/rocker. It's easiest with the intake off. I'm right handed so left hand on the pushrod, right hand on the ratchet. This is the best way to explain it. Tighten until the pushrod stops spinning between your fingers. This is too far. Too much preload. Back off until it is loose again. Now tighten slowly and watch and feel. As soon as the vertical play between the lifter pushrod and rocker is gone, stop. The pushrod will still spin, but it wont jiggle up and down. This is zero lash. As you start to tighten from here you will see the pushrod push on the lifter plunger down into the lifter. It will stop. Tighten until it bottoms out so you can see it. Gently. That's the bottom of the stroke. You want thel pushrod holding it halfway down its stroke. Centered in its strike. Back off, set it halfway down its stroke. Move to next lifter by sequence through firing order.

LOL! I never thought they could possibly come up with a more wacky way of adjusting rockers than they had in the previous engines. Now all this jazz. So we want a "half and half" of what a flat tappet engine was. Still finding the "sweet spot at full relaxation, but then bottoming out the lifter lightly, and setting the final adjustment right in the middle of those turns. Is that the general idea we're after? Seems easy enough, though now I'll just have to pull all the lifters out and pull em apart to check things out. I pulled every little clip and plunger out and cleaned everything with gasoline last time, then pumped them in oil and left them for a night. They're clean, but I need to look at the springs and plungers and run them up my arm to know if that last tightening was too tight. The old cam lobes should give me an idea I guess. Oh well. The block looks great. Might as well pull the intake and clean it up. The valve covers are still spotless inside. Pretty blue Fel-pro gaskets like I just put em on. I'm $268 into this project right now not counting roller rockers, and have just about everything I need except for oil and filter. I was going to break the cam in with the 1.5 rockers, but if this is all coming off anyway, maybe I should just do the 1.6's now and be done with it. Now, about that cam timing... I still dunno, but I have a BUNCH of new ideas about that LQ4 coming in tomorrow! lol. Thanks for the help brother!

 

[BoominSVX]

We used to set valve lash on Chevy hydraulic lifters by tightening the rocker stud nut until the tick just went away, then turned down another 3 quarters of a turn. To do this, we tightened all the other rockers down until they were quiet.

The engine will run rough until the lifter settles down in it's new position. And, LOL, before we learned that, we used to spray the inside of the rocker covers with undercoating to shut the engine up, just before we sold the vehicle.

That's when a running beater was $50, and we were really ignorant of what we were doing with the mechanicals.

LOL! We've all done "custom quick fixes" before. I just went through and checked what Mitchell had on the subject. This is what I got.


Rotate engine until timing marks are aligned and Cylinder #1 is at TDC of compression stroke (firing position). Adjust exhaust valves at cylinders 1,3,4 and 8, intake valves at cylinder 1,2,5,and 7. To adjust, loosen adjuster arm rocker nut until up and down lash is present. Tighten adjusting nut until lash is removed, then tighten adjusting nut one full turn. Rotate crankshaft 360 degrees to bring CYlinder #6 to TDC of compression stroke and timing marks are aligned. Adjust exhaust valves 2,5,6and 7, and intake valves 3,4,6 and 8.

So that's one vote for the halfway mark, one vote for 3/4, one vote for 1 full turn, and me over here with the rockers torqued to 15 or 20 ft lbs (whatever it told me to do back then. I don't remember now). The engine has been sitting in my driveway for the last 4 years. Started it maybe 4 times. Still always started though! Rev'd quick as hell too.

 

[BoominSVX]

For anyone following and for my own personal future reference, Joker Z71 (he seems to love these cams) spat this out on another forum. I guess that answers my question. Straight up on stock.

As for the cam,you want to install it straight up,as the cam already has 3 to 4* advance ground into it.When installed straight up,ICL is approx. 105*.Advancing any farther will likely cause problems with excessive cylinder psi.
Pushrods will be the same as far as I know.Wouldn't hurt anything to measure & compare tho.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

yes, you don't want to advance that cam any. it already has good low end qualities ground into it.

advancing a cam generally brings the power in sooner and lowers the peak hp rpm.

 

[slowburb]

My '395 cam is installed straight up.

I don't use the "only have to move the crank once" method for adjusting lifter preload. I prefer EO/IC lifter by lifter through the firing order.



Find zero lash. Add 1/2 to 3/4 of a turn, and you should have the plunger set halfway through its stroke.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

I don't use the "only have to move the crank once" method for adjusting lifter preload. I prefer EO/IC lifter by lifter through the firing order.



Find zero lash. Add 1/2 to 3/4 of a turn, and you should have the plunger set halfway through its stroke.

this is how i have done mine for years. right, wrong, or indifferent.

 

[Rusty Nail]

If I had a GRAND to blow, I would STILL pick 5.7.
What did dude say "1500+" ?
Yep, 5.7.