Mrjack55

Yeah, I know. But, what fun is that?

I did not keep them, but replaced them with new stock replacement flat top pistons.

Yeah, been through that. I hate electrical gremlins.

I'll try to make this as short as possible, but it's a lot of information. Sorry in advance. I have a 2013 Silverado 1500 ext cab LTZ with an LC9 5.3. The truck has 194000 on it so I decided to build a new motor for it. I moonlight in a machine shop, so I used a 2007 doner LC9. I rebuilt it with mostly stock rotating assembly, but added a BTR Truck Norris cam and springs. The DOD and VVT have been deleted. After the swap, I had no gauges, no interior or exterior lights, no ignition, nothing but the CEL. We tried a few different tricks, but swapping keys seemed to work. Could have been something else, but I'm not sure. The other night I was working on the tune getting the ECM set to the new cam. The engine was running (poorly) but everything seemed fine. I made a few changes to the tune, shut the engine off, and removed my HPT from the OBD. Everything went dark again. Nothing other than the CEL and the 4WD selector knob showed power. No locks, no windows no lights, no horn, no power to the OBD, nothing. Has anyone else experienced this? The "pros" on the tuner forum say it's not the ECM but maybe the BCM. I looked for blown fuses, but couldn't find anything obvious. This truck is my daily driver, and it's now a big red brick sitting in my driveway. Any ideas, or has anyone else seen this? Could it be the antitheft system locking me out? Thanks Jack

The whole drivers side of the engine block is wet front to back with oil, but it's all lower (under the exhaust manifold). The valve cover gaskets are fine. Truck has 160000 miles on it, so yes it's been well driven, but how does the head gasket leak oil and no coolant? According to the shop I took it to, they said the UV dye showed it coming from the head gasket. Is the front cover gasket or front crank seal a more likely source? They quoted me $3K, which seems like a lot for head gaskets. I know it's about 12hrs worth of work, but $3K? I'm not bashing the shop, as I understand the labor. I just don't have $3K. Has anyone else had anything like this? Am I way off the mark thinking this could be something else, and not as expensive to repair? Thanks in advance for all help/advice. Sorry for the rant. This one has me fired up.