Check my thinking here.

Jay Ratliff · February 8, 2025

She's over 275k miles. Oil pressure isn't bad, just not what it used to be. Very light tick at idle from around cylinder #1 for the last thousand miles or so, doesn't seem to be getting any worse, yet. It does it at operating temp after a run on the hwy when dod is cycling on and off. If I keep it in town town under 50mph it never does it. Needs valve cover gaskets, not a biggie. Up to about 80k miles on the current transmission (its 3rd), which is a GM reman'd unit with the dreaded OEM JMB converter. Previous converters failed at 97k and 187k. Radiator tank is weeping where it meets the core. And there's a few other little items to deal with as well. Time to show her some love, again.

So here's what I'm thinking.....

Yank the engine out and do a DOD delete with OEM grind cam and LS7 lifters, and all that's involved with that. Putting a new oil pump on it, GM or Melling. The motivation behind pulling the engine to do this is, besides it being easier to do the engine work itself, I'm planning on swapping out the torque converter with a billet unit. I probably won't take much to turn this into a full rebuild/refresh should the internals look sketchy in any way. And of course a tune at the end to disable DOD/AFM and a few other minor changes I want to make, but no real performance changes. Looking to keep it pretty much as-is, just freshen her up a bit.

Anyway, anyone with experience on this endeavor please chime in with any advice or constructive criticism that's pertinent.

Thanks

rlcole321 · February 13, 2025

A lot to do on a heavy millage motor, if you're pulling it, I would take it down to the block, if cyl. walls are good, then cross hatch hone w/new rings. if you want to stay close to stock, pick a good "Stage 1" Cam from the aftermarket, BTR is my pick for LS/LT motors, and do the DOD delete. You still might have to install a small VVT limiter, then clean up the heads and I suggest investing in a HPTuner system and learn how to use it, you'll need it to turn off DOD systems and other things, Good Luck!

Jay Ratliff · January 23

I generally wouldn't resurrect such an old thread, but I have to come back and brag a little bit.

So from the above post, in the past year I have replaced the valve cover gaskets, they got bad enough that oil leaking from the passenger side soaked the starter. But I did find the driver side tick, it wasn't a lifter at all, but the plug on #1 had backed out. Of course it can't turn much with the wire on it, but it did just enough to sound like a tick on the compression stroke. Easy fix.

Most recently did work-around on the dreaded P0420 and P0430 codes that have been intermittent for the last year or so, but constant since about October. Let's just say park plug anti-foulers worked magic, lol. So I got it passed emissions inspection yesterday. The guy inspecting it had to take a second look at the mileage, he thought it was 30k and change at first, then saw it was really 300k+. He was even more amazed that it is the original engine with DOD/AFM still active. Good oil changed often helps, I guess.

I did go to 5w30 oil a few changes back. Oil pressure was a few psi lower than it had been all its life, now it's back up to where it used to be with the specified 0w20 and doing just fine. Even better that it's the same oil the LS3 in my Camaro uses, so easier to manage inventory in the garage.

But I have decided my path forward. Next week I'm going to pick up an L83 pull-out with 50k miles on it and wrap it up in the shop. At the first sign of failure I'll swap it into the truck and then start the build on the one that in it now. I'm now more curious about how far I can get this one to go.

Anyway, 302k miles and still going strong. She's nickle and diming me on bolt-on parts but the heart still beats strong.

Spendit · January 23

You did nothing to the 3rd tranny either? Man that is some miles on the thing, here in Michigan they are way rusted out by then

Jay Ratliff · January 24

All of them were under warranty to one extent or another. First under 100k mile extended warranty, they wanted to put a used one back in it but I paid the dealership the balance to put a crate unit in, which came with its own 100k mile GM warranty. That one got me to 187k miles before it crapped the bed. I offered to buy the billet converter myself but they wouldn't have it, said they had to do it GM's way or nothing at all. So I was stuck. So this trans has about 116k miles on it o far, but running it much cooler than the previous two so we'll see how long that lasts. I kind of thought the motor would be next and I'd deal with the transmission upgrades at that time, but it has yet to happen.

But yeah, in Texas we don't get much salt on the roads so mine is still rust free. I've managed to keep it pretty nice for it's mileage too. Obviously, it sees a ton of hwy miles. I think it's been to about 31-32 states so far.

Edited January 24 by Jay Ratliff