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davesters 2012 Silverado 3500 DRW revival

16K views 297 replies 12 participants last post by  davester3500 
#1 ·
This will be my "build" thread on this new-to-me truck.

It's a 2012 Silverado 3500, drw, crew cab, long box, pretty basic model. It appears to have been worked pretty hard, and has had a variety of equipment that was installed in it, cut out pretty roughly.

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#80 ·
Made good progress on tearing down the engine, w a whole bunch of sandwich bags holding a variety of bolts/parts w labels so I know where they should go.

First, my quick & dirty oil cooler line blockoff plate, just drilled two holes the right distance apart, and then ground a shallow groove in the middle for oil to flow between the two passage. It still leaked a bit, but just drips instead of a steady stream, when turning the engine over to do the compression test.
Wood Automotive tire Composite material Gas Auto part

Course, I still made a mess, as I had unbolted the valley cover yesterday:
Automotive tire Motor vehicle Gas Bumper Suspension

Zapped some bolts in, and finished doing the compression testing.

3 were at 120
2 at 110
1 at 100
2 at 90
I retested the 90's after squirting some oil in the cylinder, and they shot up to 150. And after getting the pistons out, I found lots of carbon in the top rings, and the top ring was mostly stuck in about 1/2 the pistons.

I was pleased to see that there was very little burnt oil or sludge in the engine, either up top or in the oil pan. Main spot where there was some was on the pistons around the wrist pins, but that's not unusual. The LQ4 in my '04 Sierra, there was/is way more, from when I replaced the oil pan and valve cover gaskets.
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Made a plug on my lathe, then used my 3 jaw puller to take off the harmonic balancer (for this one, that's how you do it). My puller just barely fit, I had to take off 1 jaw, insert the 2 jaws into the balancer, then install the 3rd jaw to get it in place, it pulled it out nicely.
Automotive tire Hand tool Motor vehicle Tread Alloy wheel

Pulled off all the rockers, separating them so I can put them back in the same spot (as with the lifters), then pulled the heads:
Motor vehicle Automotive lighting Vehicle Automotive engine gasket Automotive exterior
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Not great, but not terrible either. Not much of a ridge at the top of the cylinders, as the pistons came out easily enough later.

...continued...
 
#81 ·
Then pulled off the timing chain and out came the camshaft. IDK enough about wear patterns to know if this is bad or not, I would say it's fine and that not of the lifters turned (they are rollers). I'll look up the specs and see if I can measure the lobes to see how much they are worn, to see if I should replace it.
Automotive tire Tire Gear Motor vehicle Tread

Shot of some of the cylinders. They all look like this, with just a bit of carbon on the top edge, center "worn" section, then bottom inch or so that still has cross-hatching. I looked at the rod bearings, they all look pretty evenly worn
Automotive tire Wood Door Motor vehicle Font
Automotive tire Motor vehicle Wood Rim Automotive wheel system

I pulled all the bolts from the main bearing caps, but I need to fab a puller to get the caps off. After getting the crankshaft out, all that's left is pulling out the oil divider plug in the rear of the engine, an oil galley plug I missed because it's covered in dirt, driving out the cam bearings and stripping the heads.
 
#82 ·
Forgot to mention, when taking off the exhaust manifolds, about 1/2 the bolts weren't tight anymore, and the gaskets showed that the 4 end ports were all leaking.
 
#83 ·
Today, I started with fabbing a pulling tool similar to the one GM sells (J 41818). I googled for it, and it sells for $70 or more, with one shop wanting $450? crazy.

The main caps are a tight fit into the block, and need to be yanked straight up to not damage anything (either the cap, crank or block). The two posts slide into bolt holes in the cap (which have a smooth bore), then the bolts at the top are tightened (the bolts are screwed into the bottom piece of each post). With the angled cut in the middle of the post, tightening the bolt clamps each post into the hole. Then, attaching a slide hammer to the center hole, which is used to drive out the cap.

Lather, rinse, repeat for each cap. Couple hours, a few bucks in raw materials, and using the slide hammer from a bearing puller set, much cheaper than buying it and waitng a couple weeks for it to arrive.
Hand tool Wood Metalworking hand tool Tool Household hardware
Gear Bicycle part Rim Automotive tire Engineering

Main bearings all looked pretty good, just worn.
Automotive tire Motor vehicle Automotive design Alloy wheel Rim
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Gear Automotive tire Nickel Engineering Gas

Then out came the cam bearings. Again worn, with the pictured one looking the sketchiest, where it didn't look worn evenly across the bearing (2nd from front):
Automotive tire Motor vehicle Vehicle brake Rim Gas
Musical instrument Wood Body jewelry Rim Automotive tire

Then pulled all the valves from the heads. Used the wrong valve spring compressor to begin with. I've got 3, one for small engines, one for "car" size engines, then one for bigger, industrial engines. I initially selected the biggest one, without comparing it with the medium one, and also not checking that the spring-side fingers were the correct distance apart. The first valve came apart ok, but for the second one, the cap slipped out of the fingers and disappeared into the dark recesses of my garage (it's a mess of projects and stuff). After that, I switched to the other compressor, adjusted it for width, as well as depth, and also covered the end with a rag just to make sure the retainers didn't zing away, and they went find. All the valve seats look decent, the valves on the driver's bank have more carbon buildup on them for some reason.
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Automotive tire Audio equipment Rim Wood Engineering
 
#85 ·
Yeah, there is/was packed on mud everywhere. And I don't think there is a harness retaining clip they say where they didn't go "Hey, let's bust this off and then zip tie the harness down." They even ziptied some brackets in place instead of bolting them down.
 
#87 ·
After getting the engine back on the hoist and off the engine stand, I drove out the final part, the oil galley plug, then phoned around to machine shops to find costs for cleaning and inspecting the block, heads and crankshaft. Found one that could do it by early next week, and dropped it off. Once I get the results, I can start spending more money on parts.

I still need to chuck the cam into my lathe to measure wear on it, but I expect it to be fine, and clean all the valves. I did happen to find the spring retainer that zipped away during disassembly, so now I just need to find the cap. I will wait until results come in before cleaning the pistons, as I may need new ones (I hoping to not need to bore the block out).
 
#88 ·
Curious what the rate is for the machine shop there. I was quoted $400 for a bore, deck, and check then another $500 for block assembly for my car
 
#89 ·
All prices in Canadian $
Clean & Inspect block $145
Rebore & hone block $345
Clean & Inspect both heads (hot tank/wash) $110
cut valve seats $250 (both heads)
Clean/Inspect/measure crankshaft $110
polish crankshaft $110
clean/wash/wrap crankshaft $55

I just did the clean & inspect, as they were more interested in selling me this stuff, then even telling me what the results were of their inspection. I had to ask to see the inspection reports. And $110 for putting in a helicoil, not gonna happen for me.
 
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#90 ·
I have been busy at work and fixing other equipment, but starting to make progress with this, in that I just submitted an order for $1265us, including shipping with rockauto. Got somewhat lucky I guess, w adding/removing items to reduce shipping charges, as it went from shipping from 7 locations, down to 4. I do still need to order a couple more things, including rod bolts (aren't supposed to be reused) and a block heater cord. May or may not need other bits, such as exhaust gaskets, depending on what some gasket sets include, as they just show a pic of stuff, and it's not clear what all the various seals/o-rings are for.
 
#91 ·
dammit. was searching for rod bolts, come up with gm part #11570662, start googling for that p/n and...RA has them. They just didn't attach the bolts to any particular engine or anything, so it doesn't show up in vehicle part lists.
 
#94 ·
For a lark, I took off some old compression rings, to see what kind of gap they had. From the full-service manual, the 'service' end gap for the compression ring is from .0079" to .0181"/.20-.46mm

This one is about 1mm.
Automotive tire Wood Metal Auto part Rim

This one is WORN. Gap is about 3mm
Automotive tire Gear Motor vehicle Rim Bicycle part
 
#96 ·
Too late, already got GM bolts.

Rockauto sells this as a camshaft hardware kit, but EngineTech labels it like this:
Wood Font Material property Hardwood Flooring

Contents. Oddly, the printed contents list just has 3 bolts and 1 woodruff key, but the package contains 4 bolts and 2 slightly different keys...
Wood Material property Plastic Cap Cable
 
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#97 ·
Started cleaning up parts to begin reassembly.

Cleaned all the valves, first the backside w the bench grinder, but it's cheap PowerFist one that uses a very optimistic rating for HP, and it slows down with not much pressure. So, for doing the front side, I put a wood block w a hole in the vise, then inserted the valve in the hole and hit it with my Dewalt 6" angle grinder w wire wheel. That worked really well, as the wood block held the valves securely w/o damaging them, I could apply a bunch of pressure to clean the more deeply cupped exhaust valves, and going slightly to one side of the valve w the wire wheel would rotate the valve, so I could to the whole face w/o needing to manually reposition it (more needed for the exhaust valves).

Then fixed the stripped exhaust bolt hole in one of the heads. I've put in a bunch of helicoils before, but I managed to botch the job the first time. I'm not entirely sure what happened, most likely I didn't tap the hole deep enough, but I might have applied too much pressure when screwing it in (it did take unusually more force to screw it in than other times, I should have stopped at this point) and made it jump a thread in the middle of hte helicoil. And then both the tool for screwing in the helicoil and the tool for breaking off the end coulding be pulled out easily (which they should be), but rather the threads on the helicoil were holding them in (pointing more towards not being tapped deep enough).

I tried spinning a bolt into it, normally it will zip in with no effort, but this time would only go a short ways, and using a ratchet, it didn't take a lot of force, but more than it should. And taking out the bolt, the threads on the end of the bolt were damaged (so I need/want some new bolts now).

Fortunately, I stopped screwing the helicoil in just below the surface, so I could use a pick to pry up the end of the helicoil, then use a screwdriver to bend it inwards, then grab the end with small visegrips and unscrew it.

Blew out the hole, put some more cutting fluid on the tap and ran it down to the very end, removed it, and then installed a new helicoil, which did screw in like normal, and after breaking off the tab, the bolt could screw in all the way easily by hand. Disaster avoided...

I'm putting off asssembling the heads for a few days, as I wanted to lap the valves a bit, and I forgot to get the lapping compound, so I'll move on to cleaning the pistons, which is a more annoying job, as they are aluminum so I can't go at them with the wire wheel, it's plastic scrapers and parts cleaner...
 
#98 ·
Cleaned the pistons, some brackets and the front & rear engine covers today. The walnut shells worked really well with taking the carbon deposits off the top and side of pistons, then used a couple gallons of spray nine grez off in my parts cleaner to get all oil/grease off (and using old rings to clean out the piston ring grooves), before a final rinse under water.

Made 3 mistakes.

One, haven't used the face shield in awhile, and it was dirty, so I cleaned off off the shield so I could see through it again. Worked fine, but afterwards, I found this:
Hand Finger Gesture Gadget Thumb

Two, forgot to use a mask with using the walnut shells. I'm mildly allergic to nuts, so either the fact that it was nut-dust, or just plain dust, my lungs are clogged up a bit. I was doing it outside, but there wasn't much wind...s

Two, didn't pay attention to the irritant warning on the cleaner, as it was listed as biodegradeable and water-based. So now both hands have mild chemical burns on them, from the Grez-Off. I did switch to washing the stuff off and then using gloves, but it was too late.
 
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#101 ·
Continued with cleaning more parts, and did a bit of sandblasting w walnut shells in the heads, for the exhaust ports around the valve seats, to remove carbon buildup in that area.

I've got what I believe to be most of the parts I need for assembling, or have ordered them, but one part I can't find online is the passenger side exhaust manifold to pipe gasket. The driver's side uses a plug-style seal (kind of like a toilet bowl seal I guess), but for the passenger side, I've only found is a crush ring. My '04 uses these crush rings for both sides, but they have a machined-in groove that the ring goes in, and when you tighten them up, the ring gets crushed a bit, making the seal. But neither the pipe flange or the manifold have such a machined in ring, and it uses this gasket instead:
Wood Font Hardwood Fashion accessory Audio equipment

The gasket itself looks in reasonable condition, so I could probably reuse it, but it probably should be replaced.

I've looked on Rockauto, a variety of gm parts sites, and even ACDelco's parts site, but no sign of such a gasket.

Any parts guru know/can find the p/n for it? VIN 1GC4KZCG3CF234062
 
#103 ·
Just another expensive day for the truck.

I bought a depth bore gauge, to evaluate the cylinders, since the shop I paid to do it, didn't make much of a report, rather they just did a sales pitch for a bunch of work.

There is a decent ridge at the top of all the cylinders, didn't seem to be carbon-buildup, but I wanted to make sure, so I honed the cylinders with a 4 1/8" flex-hone. I've got some other sizes, and had a qt of flex hone oil, but couldn't find it, so went out and bought another quart. Loaded up the hone & cylinder w oil, went to town for about 30 seconds w the drill on low (about 500 rpm), and the ridge was still there and pretty pronounced. Measured with the gauge, the lower 95% of the cylinder was good, within that 0.02mm range the FSM spec is, but at the top 1/2 or so, there is a groove you can feel, that's about .15 to .2mm deep, so way past spec. So, tomorrow, it's find a machine shop to bore it over 0.5mm (about 0.020"). I'd do 0.25mm (the previous shop, once I asked, recommended boring it over 0.010", which is about this size), but rockauto doesn't have stock of that size, and I can't readily find someone with stock of that size, at somewhat of a similar price.

So, that's about another $1000-1200 for boring and pistons... :-(

As a bonus, the new bottle of honing oil tipped over and emptied out on the floor while I was doing the first hole, so that's gone..bleh.

Switched to working on the heads, lapping valves. Sprayed on some machining paint to make it really easy to see, then lapped the first two valves and...the seat is about 2mm, when the spec is just over 1, so they need to be ground (too wide of a seat, it's my understanding that will cool the valve to much and get more carbon deposits on it, faster). I've got a used valve seat grinding setup (inherited from my dad), that I'll look through to see if it has the right stuff for doing this, and then try it out on some other heads, just to see if I cna do a decent job, otherwise it's another couple hundred for getting a shop to do it...
 
#113 ·
I bought a depth bore gauge, to evaluate the cylinders, since the shop I paid to do it, didn't make much of a report, rather they just did a sales pitch for a bunch of work.


Switched to working on the heads, lapping valves. Sprayed on some machining paint to make it really easy to see, then lapped the first two valves and...the seat is about 2mm, when the spec is just over 1, so they need to be ground (too wide of a seat, it's my understanding that will cool the valve to much and get more carbon deposits on it, faster). I've got a used valve seat grinding setup (inherited from my dad), that I'll look through to see if it has the right stuff for doing this, and then try it out on some other heads, just to see if I cna do a decent job, otherwise it's another couple hundred for getting a shop to do it...
I worry about that once I find somewhere for mine too. I need to find some older dude that's around 60-70 that's been doing it for 30 years and hope that's the right choice.

I have lapped a number of valves and done some 3 angle valve jobs its an interesting process for sure. Doing a 3 angle on these, or 5?

I know its not on your mind now probably but all that dust and dirt in the vents after some compressed air I would suggest a steamer but then you would get mud down in everything I suppose.
 
#104 ·
Wow...lots of internals work happening!
 
#105 · (Edited)
Still working on finding a machine shop to bore out the block.

I did spend a couple hours finally swapping out the lower shock bushing, which I found was wore out when I put on new shocks.

After unbolting the shock and strapping it out of the way and moving the cv axle, I used my ball joint press w a 15/16" impact socket to push the old bushing out:
Tire Automotive tire Wheel Tread Motor vehicle

Old vs new:
Shoe Photograph White Light Wood

New one pressed in:
Automotive tire Wood Bumper Hand tool Gas

Took it out for a test ride/get some groceries and...still have some banging happening when the suspension moves, so something else is still wrong. I'll replace the bump stops/jounces as they are also pretty worn, using the nicer looking ones from the parts truck and see if that helps, and recheck ball joints/sway bar/a-arm bushings...

To follow up on yesterdays valve lapping, I had bought this tool (crappy pic, it's OEM Tools large valve lapping tool). Simply put, it sucks. The "rubber" tips are anything but, they feel more like soft, flexible plastic instead. With moisture, either end would barely do a 1/2 rotation of the valve before coming off.
Drinkware Gas Metal Cylinder Titanium

I did spend the time (should have done this first) to find the similar tools I knew I had, just didn't know where they were resting. I found 3, that are all at least 20 years, and probably more than 40+ years old, and all of them had softer, actual rubber suction cups, that gripped and stayed on the valves like they are supposed to...

Also spent a bunch of time figuring out what pistons to buy, from what I can tell from going on various auto parts sites, there are:
GM 89017849 (actually I would want 89017850, which are .5mm oversize)
Mahle 2243664WR
ENGINETECH P5073
SILV-O-LITE 3518HC
These are all the same, chiefly cast pistons, w floating wrist pins, dished heads, and opposing valve relief cutouts. Once I get the machine shop nailed down, I'll order the pistons from whoever has stock.

Edit:
I'm sure there are other pistons that will work, but I'm going for a stock setup, with minimal risk and cost. There are forged pistons for way more, and maybe some other LS pistons will work, but I don't know enough about them to select them.

And a special shoutout to the ebay douches with the somewhat vague ebay lists for Mahle pistons for stupid money. They just have the p/n and charge 4.5x the price everyone charges for a single piston, but way less than what others sell a set of 8 for, and I know it's going to be just a single piston, w a return hassle...

Finally, a couple days ago, I ordered the Eonon Q80Pro head unit, w free backup camera and bluetooth obdii code reader, and the head unit came in (the other two bits actually shipped earlier, but from the other side of the country, so they will get here in about a week. I had planned on buying a similar setup to what I added to my '04 Sierra mainly to add Carplay support (an Alpine ILX-W650 HU, Pioneer NC-BD6 camera and PAC-Audio RP3-GM11 harness), but even with the xmas/boxing day sale discounts, this is about 60% of the price ($400 vs $500 for the Alpine, + $100+ for hte camera and $100+ for the right harness for my truck), and it includes the right harness for the truck, so it just plugs in.

Main HU, only about 2.5" deep so no problem with being too deep (way back the original radio I got for the '04 Sierra was a Pioneer AVH4000NEX, which needed a dash support cut out at the rear for it to fit in all the way).
Gadget Rectangle Gas Technology Electronic device

The main thing with installation is figuring out this rats nest of wiring:
Electrical wiring Cable Wire Electronic device Electrical supply

It's basically a bunch of plugs that go into the radio and the trucks wiring harness's. The manual has a single diagram to show how it all connects up, I expect it to be pretty straightforward, particularly since I've done this kind of thing before, but it may be a bit puzzling for someone who hasn't. However, I expect newbies will find it easier than the more traditional method, like what I did with my '04 (buying a head unit and a separate harness adapter, and having to wire the harness adapter to the radio yourself), and particularly if you try going cheap and just buy the head unit and then cut up the trucks harness to wire the HU up directly to that.

Edit: Misrememered the price for the unit, it was only $340 + 5% GST, not $400...
 
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