LS3 Oil pickup O-ring and LS2 chain tensioner

[InFiD3ViL]

My new to me LS3 is on the stand right now. I am getting it prepared and waiting for parts.

I have a new rear cover/seal coming, as well as alignment tool. Today I received a new LS2 style dogbone tensioner. After careful inspection of the OEM timing chain tensioner, it looks to be in good shape. Should I replace it anyway? There is currently no balancer on the crank, so it won't be much work. But I will have to remove the oil pump and gear/chain to remove and install the new one

My other related question is, for the single bolt cam gears, is the bolt reusable or are they TTY?

Luckily, the previous owner installed a still brand new Melling 10296, but I noticed it has a blue O-ring. So I ordered a new Melling O-ring set from Jegs, which comes with a green and black o-ring, just in case. Pretty sure based on our pickup tube style that it gets the black O-ring. But I see a ton of conflicting info on this.

[Gordy87]

Since your motor is on a stand, I would install the dog bone, especially if your camming it. You will need to pull the pump off, but will be a lot easier out of the car. On my 1st cam swap, I opted to leave in the LS3 tensioner, but I also only performed cam swap. This time I installed all new lifters, trays, larger camshaft, springs, oil pump, which I used the green O-ring on, but my kit came with it and and a blue one. I will need to verify my thread on this, but pretty sure it was. You can also google Melling oil pump print, and they have a YouTube video to tell you, or look at my post. One of the guys posted it over there.

[InFiD3ViL]

Unfortunately, I am not installing a cam now. This was an unplanned swap due to my L99 failing. Money is tight, and all these little extras and tools are killing me. But pulling the oil pan, pump, and front cover will probably take less than 10 minutes. Luckily I noticed the previous owner of the engine also upgraded the pickup hold down tab to the kind that uses 2 bolts. My point in ordering the extra O-rings was just in case I nicked or damaged the O-ring when installing the dog bone.

I think I found that Melling video. Thanks!

[olblue75]

Can you post the video link?

[InFiD3ViL]

[hammdo]

I love how on the second video they tell you ‘to closely control the install of the performance pump, take it apart and use shims’ — then tell you you voided the warranty doing that.

Nice...

-Don

[Gordy87]

Good deal. Yea the video is very helpful, but I also noticed how they said that. Guess theres always a price to pay for modding.

[christianchevell]

Green has been the color for the Oring of choice on here for years, and I always have thought the dampener could be replaced with a Dremel to cut the stock POS tensioner off so you don't have to remove the chain,,,but your doing the high volume pump anyway …… and of course keeping any debris out of things is important. And Balancer bolts are TTY.....so you can use the first bolt to help snug the Balancer back on then take it out and toss it and then a couple rounds are needed to torque the new bolt properly.... I know all this and still use the Best tuner around to do my work, I cannot afford to fail>>>>LOL I am a old motorhead who works too much and is too old and done way too many engines ...LOL Good Luck.

[InFiD3ViL]

Originally Posted by christianchevell

Green has been the color for the Oring of choice on here for years, and I always have thought the dampener could be replaced with a Dremel to cut the stock POS tensioner off so you don't have to remove the chain,,,but your doing the high volume pump anyway …… and of course keeping any debris out of things is important. And Balancer bolts are TTY.....so you can use the first bolt to help snug the Balancer back on then take it out and toss it and then a couple rounds are needed to torque the new bolt properly.... I know all this and still use the Best tuner around to do my work, I cannot afford to fail>>>>LOL I am a old motorhead who works too much and is too old and done way too many engines ...LOL Good Luck.

Yup, already bought the new TTY GM bolt, an install tool, and a really nice balancer puller to get my crank pulley off the L99 to swap to the LS3. Wish I could afford to go with ARP hardware and ATI balancer, but my wallet already hates me.

It's not so bad to get the chain tensioner off since the engine is already on the stand and doesn't have a balancer on yet, so that makes life so much easier. My new torque wrench will be here tomorrow. My current 1/2 incher only maxes at 150 ft. lbs. The new one goes to 250, so I can properly torque it. Already got a new angle gauge as well. I guess one positive out of all of this is that I am stocking up on a bunch of tools that I will never have to buy again .

Alright cool, so it's pretty much in agreement the green O-ring is the way to go. Apparently that is a slightly thicker one than the black one. I definitely don't want to deal with oil pressure issues at startup, so this will be a bit of piece of mind. Going to prime the pump via that access hole per the Melling video.

Going to take my time with this install and triple check everything. Replacing any seals or gaskets that look at me funny.

[christianchevell]

Good Luck!

[QUICRNU]

Have fun, since you will have the pan off, I would loosen the pickup tube bolts to get her seated in the pump. Might not be nessecary but I found it to be the best chance of eliminating the pinched oring i experienced when I first installed the pump.