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My LB7/LLY build

Well engine is here. UPS said it was scheduled to be delivered today but after calling them , they don't come this way until mondays so I made a 3 hour one way trip to pick it up. Ohh so pretty. Even painted/powdercoated black, hell I was gonna do that anyway, front cover and balancer, rear cover, flexplate,flywheel and water pump installed. Only problem is I haven't found the head studs so that sucks and is gonna put me way behind. Also the pistons ARE NOT SoCal, I can tell they've been cut, don't look like they are coated but I'm not sure how to tell. There are NO proprietary marks on pistons from SoCal. I was quoted and paid for SoCal's.
Anyhow I'm pretty much excited to have it in my hands finally and just hope tomorrow after looking I find the head studs under the engine, stuffed under crank. If not I'll be staring at the thing all weekend long........
Thanks to all.
And again thanks to Tony Burkhard for getting on the ball and overnighting me an oil dipstick tube. thanks Tony!
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Well I don’t have the studs, so I went about installing the turbo, feed line, and lower heat shield and the CP3 and test fit the oil cooler. I’m missing some gaskets and have a few questions, pictures to follow.

1. Do the up-pipes have gaskets at BOTH ends? At the turbo AND at the manifold? I have a total of 2 gaskets, forget which they are but they are not new.

2. I am missing a copper washer for the turbo feed line, the one that is actually 2 washers connected together, but I MAY have moved it when I installed the twin turbo setup, anyone know?

3. Out of the top of the water pump, there is a small pipe, approx. ½” in diameter that looks like it gets an o-ring and a gasket or maybe another gasket. I have the o-ring but I’m not sure if where the pipe meets the water pump if it is gasket, o-ring, or silicone stuff???

4.Does anyone know if the oil pressure sending unit has a copper washer? I thought I seen somewhere, maybe Brandon’s write up that there was one.

I wasn’t smart enough to snap pics of the areas in question, can Monday.

Other than that I’m missing exhaust manifold, upper valve cover, coolant to oil cooler gasket and o-ring and these other gaskets. It’s a lil hard to make sure you have everything in place before hand when it’s your first time…
 

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looks good man.
1: i believe they do have gaskets both sides.
2: not sure
3: the water pump should have just the oring. it is held on by 2 bolts correct???
 
Ok slowly but surely it's going, David overnighted me another set of head studs as one set must have got lost with UPS.
Tony Burkhard has been a HUGE help with overnigthing parts and answering my questions. Thanks Tony!

I trial fit the intakes, exhaust manifolds, and thermostat housing on the heads. Few questions....

I have 18 bolts labeled as intake manifolds but there are 22 holes.
I have 6 thermostat housing bolts but there are 8 holes.
I have 8 studs and nuts that were in the heads just don't remember where(no not the exhaust manifold studs, the small ones)
Where do these studs go? I'm thinking maybe 4 on each head, 2 for thermostat housing, and maybe 2 for intakes. Wrong? or right?
Check out the pics below and it may help what I'm trying to ask.

Also just a DOH on my part and a FYI, DON'T FORGET TO INSTALL THE OIL PICKUP TUBE before installing oil pan!!!!! Yea I got in a hurry and with the ol lady asking question I installed it and THEN realized I didn't have the pickup tube, so off with it I went and reapply sealant. DAMN IT!!

David installed flywheel for me and the 2 bolts from the flywheel housing to the oil pan were NOT easy to get a socket/wrench on to install but I made it. I actually could not find one of the bolts so I had to use a main cap side bolt, almost exact same.

Also I don't know what those few longer bolts with the thermostat housing bolts are for.
oops I'm on the wrong computer, pics to come.
 
Head studs on..........:holyshirt: 4 times the torquing!!!! Good god that was exhausting....and then I realized my torque wrench was out of spec.......:pissed::mad2: Anyway the pic below is me after finishing the passenger side, yes just the passenger side, remember I don't weigh a whole hell of a lot more than what I had to torque those babies to....4 times!

So heads are on, rocker arm assemblies, now just got to set the valve lash, install covers, injectors, exhaust and fuel lines and we're GOOD!!
 
Well I've got her in and everything hooked up. She'll turn over but not crank. Getting fuel because I have a small leak on a return line. Anyone? I've primed the fuel twice if not three times. Checked with efilive and there were a lot of codes, all lost comm. with different modules, cleared em.

On a side note I wound up with an extra banjo bolt............has two holes in it. Where all do we have banjo bolts? two in turbo, two in FICM, any more?? other than oil pump?


Oh yeah I have a small leak in the radiator, like pinhole size .....anyone know of a temporary fix?
I jb welded one on a truck I had before after trying the "stop leak" crap to no avail. How can I fix this at least temporarily?
 
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well still the same kinda. Seems the more I mess with the WIF plug the faster she turns over, and a bit comes out everytime I open it. I'm wondering if there was water/condensation in the lines after sitting so long.. Maybe a long shot but I'm gonna change the fuel filter and see if it starts.

With my pistons being cut to lower compression.............probably only adds to the cranking problem. But they were only cut to approx. 16 as I was told.


Where is everyone at??? Oh **** I forgot ....memorial day
 
could you just pinch the tube closed for now on the radiator? Maybe put a little solder on it? sounds like you're not getting any spark. Better check your plugs and wires. J/K LOL :) You should be proud of getting your motor back together even though it hasn't fired yet. I would never have made it as far as you have. Good luck on everything
 
could you just pinch the tube closed for now on the radiator? Maybe put a little solder on it? sounds like you're not getting any spark. Better check your plugs and wires. J/K LOL :) You should be proud of getting your motor back together even though it hasn't fired yet. I would never have made it as far as you have. Good luck on everything

Thanks.

I talked to Ben and he's helped out a great deal. I've bled the filter several times even the WIF plug, it's really close to cranking seems like, it's trying.
I did read FRPACT with Efilive, which is actual rail pressure and it shows 180 before I crank and approx 180 while I crank. Even unplugged the fuel pressure regulator and tried, still same. Thanks to Ben for the help. Gonna keep crackin at it I guess.
 
Well I've busted my ass since Tuesday. After many showers my body reeks of oil, diesel and grease. I have more bumps, bruises, scratches and more sore than I have ever in my life. Physically I turned this shortblock into a longblock and installed it by my damn self. Not one hand helped other than the old lady that helped watch stuff as I was lowering engine into truck.

I've had to do a few things over, and let me tell you installing the turbo as one of the first things because I was anxious and waiting on the head studs was a HUGE mistake, what a PITA.

tRUCK will still not crank. I've tried everything I can imagine. And I couldn't have done this without the help of many people including my wife Holly, Ben Tyler, and Tony Burkhard and others.
I've checked the fuel lines over and over and over and there is not one leak. I did have a small leak in the #2 injector return line fitting, replaced it all is well now. I have a small leak in my radiator, think I punctured it installing lower fan shroud.
After checking I"ve found several loose connections, all grounds and corrected them. I've unplugged and replugged the connectors all over just for ****s and giggles.

I've primed the fuel filter NUMEROUS times, drained the WIF plug NUMEROUS times, I even opened the fitting on the fuel line right before it goes to the CP3. I took off parts of top of engine to get down to the cp3 to make sure there was no fuel leaking there. I've tried cranking it with the cp3 electrical connector unplugged to fool it into default max rail pressure (thanks Ben). I unplugged fuel rail pressure sensor and tried. Oil pressure connector is not connected as I installed it in a different oil galley by accident and now cannot get the connector on. I've checked fuses over and over.
Took a glow plug out and cranked to see if fuel would shoot out, nope.
kept battery on charge..... Has almost half tank of fuel, and it primes well. It turns over really well, just won't crank. Truck even shakes pretty good now, like it's REALLY trying to start up.

At first I couldn't even get it to turn over but come to find out the tranny selector was in Reverse, so I jerry rigged it to make it think it was in neutral....can't find the nut to bolt it on correctly.......
I read the tune installed with efilive and replaced it with a stock tune, checked DTCs and erased them, had lots of them "lost communication with......." ovbiously cuz motor was pulled.
I used the scan tool (Thanks Ben) to read actual rail pressure, mainbpw, and a few others.
Actual rail pressure while cranking was average of 191, which I can't remember if it was MPA or PSI, I imagine it was PSI. Which I'm told isn't enough pressure, maybe lots of air in the lines..............Again I've primed and primed and primed..............

I'm at a loss here, ready to throw my hands up...........I did have fun screwing with the onstar computer lady:biggrinjester:...........she just wouldn't talk back:confused:

It's been a VERY long week, hell YEAR AND A MONTH!!!!
sOMEONE please give me some ideas before I freak!
Again thanks to all!!
 
I've taken glowplugs out and tried cranking, no fuel.......
I've cranked it with cp3 electrical connector and rail pressure sensor disconnected.......no go

pulled fuel lines, no fuel or VERY LITTLE comes out.

my rail pressure is less than 200 psi while cranking.
 
have you checked fuses? double check your ficm connectors as they may have loosend or bent a terminal they are real tight. i'll think more.
 
FPRV was finger loose. Fired right up, ran 15-20 minutes with heavy white smoke, died won't crank again, turns over a lil different now, burnt up a starter and a Optima Red Top, replaced both. It turns over, stops, turns over and stops again all with key held over.
Wifey snapped the clockspring in steering wheel, no airbags, no steering wheel buttons.
checked all grounds, rail pressure is fine around 1500+ while cranking.

Valve lash?
electrical?
torque conveter/tranny?
injector?
a ghost?

a beer? it's what I need!:holyshirt:
 
white smoke is probably from all the fuel from the endless cranking prior to. the crank stop crank stop, could be a lot of things. check all grounds, and hook both batteries up. these engines are tough to crank on 2 batteries let alone 1. did you re bleed the system after you had it running? maybe you have a loose line or something sucking air and it took 20 mins to get air bound again.
 
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