6.2L Winter Refresh

[SpareParts]

So im going to refresh this 6.2 and it all starts with collecting parts to do a garage refresh.
Keeping a cheap ish budget in mind, using name brand parts with no machine work and keeping everything std size.
This weekend i need to figure out how to get this dirty block clean enough to even mess with.

Here is a little article i found on the TTY bolts.

Which LS Fasteners are TTY?​

On a GM LS engine, the cylinder head bolts are TTY and cannot be re-used.
The connecting rod bolts are also TTY, but can be tightened up to three times for bearing checking.
The balancer bolt is also a torque-to-yield fastener.
The intake manifold, rocker arm, and rear cover bolts can be reused.
The vertical main bolts can also be re-used, but the side bolts are often replaced because they have sealant on them. These can be re-used if sealant is re-applied.

So far, here are the parts I'm looking at.

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If anyone see's an incompatibility, please say so.

 

[j91z28d1]

sloppy mechanic builds are great on youtube.

lots of tips about what can be reused and what can't. things like what to tq used rod bolts too, since doing tty technique twice isn't good. once it's yielded. you don't want to try and yield it twice. but it's sitll very strong.

head bolts are interesting too

 

[SpareParts]

I have 52fp for rod bolts and 65fp for used head bolts that i wrote down some time or other.
I also remember on some video the dude said cam bearings are not bad if you don't look at em.
Used bolts are probably ok as enough people have done it, it is assumed to be safe now.
Cam bearings are getting changed no matter what if they look like the ones i have removed from a few engines.

 

[j91z28d1]

I agree, if an ls out. it's getting new cam bearings.

 

[strutaeng]

The connecting rods bolts are Torque-to-angle (TTA), which is different than TTY.

I used the Durabond CH25 cam bearings on my 06 LQ4 refresh. I used the dedicated Summit LS cam bearing installer, which works really well.

You can buy the crank bolt (ARP) that gets tightened to a ft-lb instead of the factory TTY bolts. I've done both and both take some effort to tighten to specs. TTY a bit more. Put a 2x4 under the crank pulley because you'll be tightening and the engine stand will start deflecting downward...

AAP also sells head bolts that are tightened to ft-lb instead of TTY factory bolts. Don't really need them for factory use tbh.

I also honed the cylinder with one of those flex dingle ball honestly from Summit Racing (Flex Research?). I think it was like the 320# grit? Rod/main bearings, piston rings(pistons were fine), and gaskets and sent it...

 

[strutaeng]

Here's my adventure in my rebuild. Post #18 has a service manual pdf for the LQ4. Most information will still apply to your Gen IV engine, except head bolts (look up that on Summit Racing they have reference with a photo of the head bolts).

TTY head bolts with engine in-vehicle

Hello. I'm doing a top end refresh on my 06 Suburban LQ4 (lifters, cam, refreshed heads, gaskets). I removed the heads yesterday and found the rear most head bolts are pretty tight to the firewall. I happen to have just bought a 24" flex head ratchet, which was perfect for the job (admittedly ...

www.tahoeyukonforum.com

Chevrolet LS Gen. 4 Aluminum Block Torque Specs · Help Center

I hope this helps.

 

[2016Dom]

I bought a cheep power washer and some degreaser, and used WD40 for after washing. I must have power washed the block 3 times through out my refresh, 2 before and once after dingle ball hone.
Or you can take it to a car was, just bring WD40 or/and wipe the inner surfaces with some oil .

 

[Geotrash]

So im going to refresh this 6.2 and it all starts with collecting parts to do a garage refresh.
Keeping a cheap ish budget in mind, using name brand parts with no machine work and keeping everything std size.
This weekend i need to figure out how to get this dirty block clean enough to even mess with.

Here is a little article i found on the TTY bolts.

Which LS Fasteners are TTY?​

On a GM LS engine, the cylinder head bolts are TTY and cannot be re-used.
The connecting rod bolts are also TTY, but can be tightened up to three times for bearing checking.
The balancer bolt is also a torque-to-yield fastener.
The intake manifold, rocker arm, and rear cover bolts can be reused.
The vertical main bolts can also be re-used, but the side bolts are often replaced because they have sealant on them. These can be re-used if sealant is re-applied.

So far, here are the parts I'm looking at.

Pardon Our Interruption

Pardon Our Interruption

Pardon Our Interruption

Pardon Our Interruption

Pardon Our Interruption

If anyone see's an incompatibility, please say so.

View attachment 471930

I used ARP bolts for the heads, balancer, cam, and exhaust manifolds on my 6.2. Given that I had to do the job 3x, they saved me a fair bit of money over the TTY bolts.

Your parts list looks okay to me.

 

[West 1]

There was a time that honing a block was absolutely. necessary for ring seal. That technology is now almost 40 years old. Cylinder finish is now an ART, good finish gives great results but it is no longer a DIY in your garage technique.

Please NEVER use the dingle ball hones in an engine. They destroy the desired cross hatch. Not my opinion but direct from Sealed Power Engineering. They say use dingle ball hones only for mixing paint.

Modern low tension moly factory rings will seal perfectly on your existing slightly worn cylinder walls with no hone needed. If your cylinders are damaged by piston scuff or particles scratching them leaving vertical scratches you will need a quality hone done.
A good machine shop can give the cylinders a factory type hone for not that much money. The cross hatch controls the speed that your pistons rings rotate at, the rotation is what controls ring sealing by dragging oil film over the rings as they work. Cross hatch angle is very important for oil control. Don't even think a hand hone will give you a new engine. Sealed Power had 26 dyno's working 24/7 to develop proper cylinder finish recommendations to the OEM engine builders. Why throw all that engineering away to introduce a roughed up surface with a dingle ball hone.

The GM modern cylinder wall hone using the modern moly piston rings seals perfectly to 300,000 miles today or more while still showing Leak Down tests under 4% leakage, so about as good as you can do with modern technology. If you see high leak downs in modern GM engines built since maybe the year 2000 it is most likely loss past the valves not the rings unless it has been overheated badly or scratched by dirt in the cylinders or piston scuff due to overheating.

I have been out of the industry since 2019 but we used to be able to go into a machine shop that was having ring sealing issues and take impressions of their ready to go cylinder finish, send those impressions to the Sealed Power labs and they would tell us how much oil would be consumed on that finish. Many times we could improve the shops cylinder wall finish so the engines would go from using a quart of oil in 500 or 1,000 miles to less than a quart of oil in 5,000 miles or better. The factory shoots for 1 quart use in 20,000 miles or less. This is to meet tough EPA oil use standards. ( the EPA also pushes zero oil leaks, this is the reason we see much better gaskets and sealers used today than the old days where cork gaskets were so common.)

As far as ring seating, modern moly rings on a good cylinder wall finish will be fully seated by the second pull on a dyno or in a passenger car the first time the engine is loaded, maybe driving up a hill that puts a load on the rings. Cylinder pressure when the engine is under a load is all that is necessary to make modern rings seat perfectly and the modern rings want to run and break in on a very smooth cylinder finish with the correct cross hatch angle. The cross hatch angle used to be standard 45* but today with light tension rings that angle is not always a 45* cross hatch. Light tension rings need maybe a 60* angle but don't quote me on that since my information is now several years out of date and I do not know what they are using today.

The dingle ball hone technology was used on Cast Iron faced Piston rings to help them seat. Does not work on Moly Rings or Chrome faced piston rings.
Cast Iron rings went out of use way back in the early 1980's although many are still sold today to people that do not know any better or just can't afford better rings.
Dingle ball hones will actually leave a finish that wears your new Moly right off the piston ring so you will lose ring seal and oil control quickly.
In the 90's it was even proven that dingle ball hones shorten the life of even the old cast iron faced rings by more than 50% but this information does not reach the general public so people still use the hones thinking they are helping.

You are building your engine, you are free to do any type rebuild you choose. I just wanted to share some information from the same people that advise GM, Ford, Chrysler, Mercedes and even the Japanese when they have issues with oil control or cylinder finish.
Sealed Power was not the only advisor for cylinder finish but they were very well respected by all the OEM manufacturers and the Production Engine Rebuilders as experts in this field.

 

[Charlie207]

So im going to refresh this 6.2 and it all starts with collecting parts to do a garage refresh.
Keeping a cheap ish budget in mind, using name brand parts with no machine work and keeping everything std size.
This weekend i need to figure out how to get this dirty block clean enough to even mess with.

Here is a little article i found on the TTY bolts.

Which LS Fasteners are TTY?​

On a GM LS engine, the cylinder head bolts are TTY and cannot be re-used.
The connecting rod bolts are also TTY, but can be tightened up to three times for bearing checking.
The balancer bolt is also a torque-to-yield fastener.
The intake manifold, rocker arm, and rear cover bolts can be reused.
The vertical main bolts can also be re-used, but the side bolts are often replaced because they have sealant on them. These can be re-used if sealant is re-applied.

So far, here are the parts I'm looking at.

Pardon Our Interruption

Pardon Our Interruption

Pardon Our Interruption

Pardon Our Interruption

Pardon Our Interruption

If anyone see's an incompatibility, please say so.

View attachment 471930

Find a machine shop that has a hot-wash machine to clean your parts (block, crank, heads, oil pan, pickup tube, valve covers, etc...)

They can also measure you main and con-rod bearings to see if you even need to replace them.... might not even be out of spec... no need to spend money just to spend money.

They'll slam in your new cam bearings while the block is there, and do the cylinder head service to freshen those up too.

 

[Charlie207]

Forgot to mention, it's also time to paint the block. My block was iron, so I used a torch to heat up the entire surface several times to force the water out. (Not sure if Al is as porous as Fe) Then I went over the whole thing with acetone and clean rags. Repeated the torch over the block to force out any trapped water.

Then another round of cleaning with acetone and clean rags.

I primed the block with Rustoleum and a paint-brush, and let it dry for a few days. Then applied the top coat of blue. It's held up muuuuuch better than prepping with brake-cleaner, and spray-bombing.

 

[SpareParts]

I do have a pressure washer. I have not found anything that cuts the baked on years of accumulated grease very well. Any suggestions?

I have the summit LS cam bearing tool. It does work very well!

New TTY head bolts are only $60 so that's no big deal. I already have all the torque specs for new TTY bolts or reusing the old bolts
I have reused crank pulley bolts a few times. No problems at all.
What i can not find a clear answer on is the main cap bolts. Some say ok to reuse, others say replace.

Honing/Deglazing. I 100% agree, a quality machine shop can do a better job then a person ever could, but im pretty sure i can do it "good enough" I have read a few articles and all say about the same thing. For the average home builder a proper deglaze with a ball hone is good enough.

A machine shop that would clean the block, install cam bearings and hone would be the best option. That ain't happening. I'm not driving 2 hours 1 way to wait 2 months and pay $500. My sweat equity and plastigauge will suffice.

The thing that really tic's me off is the price of gaskets. $400 ish for all the gaskets is insane from what i can find on summit.

I'm painting the block & valley cover Chevy orange before assembly. Pan, heads and front cover will be Aluminum. Current plan.

 

[Charlie207]

I do have a pressure washer. I have not found anything that cuts the baked on years of accumulated grease very well. Any suggestions?

I have the summit LS cam bearing tool. It does work very well!

New TTY head bolts are only $60 so that's no big deal. I already have all the torque specs for new TTY bolts or reusing the old bolts
I have reused crank pulley bolts a few times. No problems at all.
What i can not find a clear answer on is the main cap bolts. Some say ok to reuse, others say replace.

Honing/Deglazing. I 100% agree, a quality machine shop can do a better job then a person ever could, but im pretty sure i can do it "good enough" I have read a few articles and all say about the same thing. For the average home builder a proper deglaze with a ball hone is good enough.

A machine shop that would clean the block, install cam bearings and hone would be the best option. That ain't happening. I'm not driving 2 hours 1 way to wait 2 months and pay $500. My sweat equity and plastigauge will suffice.

The thing that really tic's me off is the price of gaskets. $400 ish for all the gaskets is insane from what i can find on summit.

I'm painting the block & valley cover Chevy orange before assembly. Pan, heads and front cover will be Aluminum. Current plan.

My local shop did all my work for under $650, so it's possible. The heads (clean, plane, valve-job, new seals, new springs) were $400 for both. The cleaning, cylinder freshing, journal polishing, bearing measuring, and chatting only cost an extra $250 or so.

 

[j91z28d1]

I haven't painted a block in a long time but back when I did an iron block, I just did the brake clean it down, let it dry in the sun for a bit. back then they had engine paint, it was have way before the Temps of regular pain and header paint. I did engine paint in primer, and then shot the engine with the same color as the car but a single stage body paint from an auto paint supplier. was doing a replacement spoiler at the same time.

if you wipe the dirt off the paint still looks brand new all these years later.

 

[j91z28d1]

I do have a pressure washer. I have not found anything that cuts the baked on years of accumulated grease very well. Any suggestions?

I have the summit LS cam bearing tool. It does work very well!

New TTY head bolts are only $60 so that's no big deal. I already have all the torque specs for new TTY bolts or reusing the old bolts
I have reused crank pulley bolts a few times. No problems at all.
What i can not find a clear answer on is the main cap bolts. Some say ok to reuse, others say replace.

Honing/Deglazing. I 100% agree, a quality machine shop can do a better job then a person ever could, but im pretty sure i can do it "good enough" I have read a few articles and all say about the same thing. For the average home builder a proper deglaze with a ball hone is good enough.

A machine shop that would clean the block, install cam bearings and hone would be the best option. That ain't happening. I'm not driving 2 hours 1 way to wait 2 months and pay $500. My sweat equity and plastigauge will suffice.

The thing that really tic's me off is the price of gaskets. $400 ish for all the gaskets is insane from what i can find on summit.

I'm painting the block & valley cover Chevy orange before assembly. Pan, heads and front cover will be Aluminum. Current plan.

looking back at my notes, this is what I used when I pulled my mains and rod caps to check bearings on the ls3.

rod 15lb and then 53ftlb

main. 3 steps
inner 65ft lb
outter 55ft lb

I don't honestly remember where I got those numbers but I do remember searching a lot to find something I was comfortable with.

 

[strutaeng]

Main bolts are perfectly fine to reuse, AFAIK. Side bolts I also reused on my builds, just added a dab of RTV to the heads. The side bolts are actually for noise harshness vibration (NHV)...not for strength of the main caps.

Unless you use ARP Studs, which will require an align bore (line bore) because those apply a larger force when you tighten to specs, such that the alignment of the main block housing bores become distorted.

 

[SpareParts]

Those torque number's look about right from what i have seen.

Yeah there will not be any ARP studs used. Just going with stock head bolts.

May switch to these rings though. Not because of cost but because i have used a ton of them in the past and never a problem.

GMC Hastings Piston Rings 2M5292 Hastings Piston Ring Sets | Summit Racing

Free Shipping - Hastings Piston Ring Sets with qualifying orders of $109. Shop Piston Rings at Summit Racing.

www.summitracing.com

 

[SpareParts]

Let's discuss bearings.
Bi-metal, Tri-metal, Coated?
I would almost prefer tri-metal but bi-metal seems to last forever.
Coated, I have no idea about.

 

[SpareParts]

Here is a good read, not too long.

Tech: Choosing The Proper Bearings For Your Engine

Are you planning to rebuild the engine in your ride? What engine bearings do you need? With the help of King Bearings, we outline some parameters.

www.chevyhardcore.com

 

[West 1]

I can only speak on bearings up to 2019 but to that time, Federal Mogul had the most OEM bearings, then Clevite had a large share, I believe ACL out of Austrailia had some OEM business also but King Bearing at that time had ZERO OEM business.
Maybe they have revamped all their manufacturing and are state of the art today, I have not looked into it but up to 2019 they were still building bearings using 30 year old technology. Japan and China were introducing bearings trying to break into the US bearing business and they probably have a significant share by now. In 2019 they had broken into the Heavy Duty Diesel markets with engine bearings at large discounts compared to the US manufacturers. King was a small player in the market the past 30 years but they had one advantage, when large companies discontinued older applications or large oversize bearings King would keep making them and fill that void. I share this to say if you want state of the art information check with other sources.