Why does my valvetrain color look different on each bank?

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eric_ss

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Hello all, first post here. I’ve built plenty of Chevy motors before but this is my first time wrenching on a Vortec 5.7. My 1998 Tahoe 2 door leaks all over the place with 195k miles on it so I figured I would tear off the intake manifold and timing cover to fix some of the leaks, upgrade to MPFI, and replace some other stuff. To my surprise the passenger bank valvetrain is a yellowish color and the drivers bank is more of a reddish color. As far as I know the valvetrain has never been touched and if you look at the passenger pushrods the bottom portion of them in the valley is the same color on both sides. Any ideas what would cause this? Thank all.

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eshaw

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It may be that you have two batches of rockers that came from two different suppliers in the same engine.
 

delta_p

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Well that is the side you pore in the lube juice?
I really don't know, but damn that looks good and clean.
 

jdla140

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The side with the PCV (passenger) will always be dirtier, it's much more pronounced on LS engines. Totally normal.
 

eric_ss

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It may be that you have two batches of rockers that came from two different suppliers in the same engine.

They’re the same color when clean i’m sure of it. The bottom of the passenger side pushrods are a different color than the top. That would have been interesting though!
 

wheelman

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Could be running a little hotter on that dark side.burning the oil a little bit.low weight oil may be doing it.i think they are using like.five weight something now.like 5/30.i grew up.every one was using 10/40..but the dealers herd so much crap about lifter noise.on cold mornings.they changed to that.thin oil.for quiter start ups on cold mornings.
 
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