DIY by BobtheMonkee, 2009-7-13, G8board.

com (with comments from others)

1. Remove Rotofab (or stock intake).

2. Drain coolant and remove radiator. Didnt take many pics of this, as it wasnt that
exciting. Getting the radiator out was kind of a pain to do alone, as the bottom mounts
actually sit under the AC condenser, so you have to lift the AC condenser up and then
slide the radiator out and up

3. Remove fuel rail/intake manifold assembly. All PCV hoses will need to be
disconnected before you can remove the intake manifold. The only hickup i had here
was not having the fuel line disconnect tool. Its a 3/8" fuel line disconnect used by ford
and GM...readily available at any auto parts store. Also, it’s important to ensure the
engine is COLD before removing the intake manifold. The stock bolts SUCK HARD and
are very ductile when hot...thus prone to braking. So, removing and installing the bolts
cold is the best idea. Now is also a good time to remove both drive belts.

4. Remove DoD valley cover and install new non-dod valley cover. Before installing new
valley cover, remove oil pressure sensor from the old valley cover, give it a bead of
Loctite, then screw it into the new valley cover. Make sure it’s nice and tight as to
prevent any leakage. Now you are ready to slap on the new valley cover.

This electric plug to the left of the oil pressure sensor on the L76 valley cover? When
you swap over to the LS2 valley cover you will just leave this little sensor unplugged as
there is no provision on the LS2 valley cover for this plug. Tie it up out of the way and
removing DOD in your tune will take care of what it did. It served a DOD function.

5. Remove coil packs and rocker arm covers and then remove rocker arms, rocker arm
brace, and push rods from heads. This part is very simple and very quick. Make sure to
keep the rockers in a clean spot and ensure they get installed in the same positions that
they were removed from. This is also a good time to remove exhaust manifolds/headers
from heads.

6. Remove heads. I'm convinced there is no really good way to completely void the
heads of coolant. The only real way to do it is putting a very high powered vacuum up to
the water pump and start sucking. Regardless, you should just prepare for a
WATERFALL of coolant while taking the heads off. To make things a bit easier, there is a
plug on the passenger heads that can be removed to drain some of the coolant. It was
my first time ever busting down an engine and "rebuilding" it so i didn’t know any
better. When I replaced my head gasket, however, i got very little coolant spillage due
to using the drain plug on the heads (like i should have the first time)

Also as far as getting more coolant out of the heads before pulling, take the blockoffs
out of the heads. There is one at the top back held in by a 10mm bolt and the front has
the crossover tube that goes between the two heads. Once you pull those you can put
the tip of an air hose in there and blow a lot of it out. With that said I never worry about
it and just pop the heads off, put shop towels in the lifter holes and blow everything out.

Now, here is where i went wrong with my install. I'll explain how it SHOULD be done.
Before removing the head bolts, ensure that all coolant bleed lines, wire harnesses, and
zip ties are disconnected from the heads. This is pretty straight forward except for the
zip tie holding the wire run going to the back of the heads. These can be popped out
with a small flat head screwdriver. Instead of doing that, i opted to cut the zip tie
instead and ended up slicing 5 wires in the main wire run! So, DONT DONT DONT DONT
DONT DONT DONT DONT cut the zip ties!!!!!!!!!!!!! You will also need to remove the
power steering pump bolts to get the driver side heads off, i just removed all of the
retainer bolts and left it dangling in the front of the engine bay.

Before you remove each head note the following:

Driver's side head: There is a wire run that is attached to the back of this head at the
firewall. Pop it out with a flathead screwdriver. There is ALSO a grounding wire closer to
the headers on this head that you must unbolt.

Passenger side head: There is also a wire run attached to the back of this head at the
firewall at the bottom of the head. I cussed at this one a LOT and eventually had to just
snip the dang thing off as I could not get a flathead to pry the little christmas tree out of
the head. No ground on this side.

Once all of the stuff is disconnected from the heads, they will slide out easily once the
bolts are off. There are 2 place holding dowels on the lower side of the heads that need
to be retained in the BLOCK...not in the heads. They may follow the heads, but can
easily be removed with pliers. Make sure not to lose these, as they make head re-install
very simple.

Make sure to be careful with the block side of the heads. Any damage to the gasket
surface can cause a leak and could make for a BAD day when you put stuff back
together. I just laid down a large blanket and placed them carefully on the blanket so
that i could disassemble and reassemble them.

7. Remove the lifters. You do not want to install the new lifters until the new cam is in
place. Makes things a LOT easier.

8. Disassemble and reassemble the heads. This part is a bit tedious, especially if you
get the dual valve springs. I used an "in car" valve spring compressor and it worked just
fine. You can also use a c-clamp compressor, which will make things a bit easier, but i
think its unnecessary. The handheld compressor worked just fine for me. For the
livernois kit, you will need to completely disassmeble the heads...meaning remove
springs, locks, and retainer cups, as well as the valve stem oil seals (vice grip pliers
worked fine to get these off). You should also remove the spark plugs and keep them
out until later in the install.

Apparently i didn’t take any pictures of the assembly, but it’s just the reverse of
disassembly. There are a few tricks to getting the new viton valve spring seals on the
stems. You can use a press, but most people doing the install in their garage will not
have a press. So, i used a deep socket that fit perfectly around the outer edge of the
seal, lubricated the seal a bit with some clean engine oil, and tapped them down using
the socket. the new seals will not sit flush with the retainer cups on the heads, but you
will feel when the valve oil seals are fully installed as you are tapping them down. Be
careful not to tap too hard, because the seals are easy to damage.
Remember to leave the spark plugs out of the heads.

9. Disassmeble front of engine. Crank pulley removal can prove to be a huge pain in the
ass. There are a few tricks to keeping it from turning while you are cranking on the
pulley bolt. You can install a bracket on the flywheel to keep it stationary. You can stick
a wrench in the flexplate on the bottom of the transmission to keep it from spinning.
You can stick a wrench in one of the spokes of the pully so that it rests against the
engine block as you are cranking on the bolt. You can stick a pry bar in the flexplate and
rest it against the ground. All of these methods work. As for removing the pulley itself, i
used a regular 3 jaw puller. I wish i had an LS1 puller, as it actually is small enough to
grip the inside of the pulley, making removal much easier than using the 3 jaw and
pulling on the outside ring of the pulley.

Take off the water pump. You will get another nice gush of coolant from the water pump
when its removed...

Now remove the engine front cover. This is kind of a pain in the ass. There are 2 bolts
on the bottom side of the engine front cover that hold it to the oil pan. Once those are
out, taking the engine front cover off is simple.

10. Now comes the most difficult part of the install...the oil pump. There are a few ways
to get the oil pump off of the crankshaft. The best way to do it without damaging the
pickup tube o-ring is to loosen all bolts on the oilpan and dropping the pan just a bit in
the front. The BIGGEST pain in the ass is getting the bolt that holds the oilpan pickup
tube and the oilpump together. It is on the underside of the pickup tube and removing
the bolt without dropping the oilpan a bit takes an act of complete magic. Somehow, i
managed to get the bolt out without dropping it into the oilpan and without having to
drop the oilpan, but later i decided to drop the oilpan for reinstalling the pump, so you
might as well drop it in the beginning.

Once the pickup tube retainer bolt is removed you can wiggle the oilpump off of the
crankshaft. Be careful not to bend the pickup tube too much as you get the oilpump off.
With the oilpump off, you can remove the cam sprocket bolt, cam sprocket, timing
chain, and timing chain dampener.

11. Finally, the actual cam swap. Start pulling out the DoD cam, twisting it as you pull. If
you feel any resistance, do not pull hard. Cam degreeing takes a bit of patience and
some steady hands. To get the old cam out and new cam in, you need to make some
clearance in the front of the engine. you can either pull the AC condenser, or bend it
down under the camshaft. I decided to bend it down, since i did not want to recharge
my AC system. Looks brutal but worked pretty well.

Once you get the DoD cam out, give the new cam a good cleaning with some carb
cleaner. I used a whole can on it to get it clean. Then slap some clean oil on it for some
lubrication.

I believe the original poster when he refers to degreeing the cam is actually installing it.
An easier way to install the cam once you have the cam about 3/4s of the way in is to
put a long (I use a 20") 3/8ths drive extension in the hollow part of the cam and it allows
you to get some leverage so you don’t bang the lobes of the cam so hard on the cam
bearings for the last cam journal.

12. Now you are ready to start putting stuff back together. Get the new timing chain
dampener, cam sprocket, and timing chain back on. Now you are at the second biggest
pain in the ass of the whole install...getting the oil pump back on the crankshaft without
damaging the o-ring on the pickup tube. I talked to several people about this before
actually attempting to install it and received several tips about how to go about doing it.

I decided to go ahead and disassemble the oil pump and remove the smooth toothed
gears. This allows you to actually see the pickup tube entering the hole in the pump. To
finish up getting the o-ring in position, i tightened down on the retaining bolt and the o-
ring was sucked right up into the pump. After that, i re-assembled the pump and that’s
it. I've heard of this process taking a couple of hours to complete. Took me all of 30
minutes.

I don’t have many pictures of the rest of the install, as it was just the reverse of how i
started. But i will still describe the general steps i took after this point.

13. Install engine front cover. I put a small amount of RTV on the bottom ends of the
engine front cover to fill in the gaps in the gasket.

14. Install crank pulley and torque down new crank pulley bolt.

15. Install new lifters and lifter guides. I soaked the new lifters, rocker arms, and
pushrods in clean oil overnight before re-installing everything. you can never have too
much lube

16. Install heads. Make sure two dowels are in place on both sides...this makes re-
installation of heads much easier. Before i put the heads on, i cleaned out the bolt holes
very thoroughly. All the coolant that leaked out of the heads while taking them off made
a mess of the holes, so cleaning them took a while. I used long q-tips and lint free cloth
to soak up all the coolant from the holes, then used the old head bolts to clean the
threads up a bit. Remember, the head gaskets are single torque gaskets, so make sure
you have everything set before torquing the heads down. If you have to take the heads
off for some reason after torquing them down, you may get a coolant leak (like i did) or
maybe something worse. Once the heads are in place, you can secure the power
steering pump back to the driver side heads.

17. Install water pump.

18. Install pushrods and rocker arms. leave rocker arm cover off for now.

19. Start cranking the engine by hand. Ensure you have no snags and that the cranking
is smooth. Observe all rocker arms moving while you are cranking. Once you are sure
that you have no snags or issues with your rockers, install rocker arm cover. You can
now install the spark plugs into the heads.

20. Install intake manifold. It helps to get the non-DoD PCV plugs in place before setting
the intake manifold down. Also, before putting the intake manifold back, ziptie the DoD
actuator cable to the back of the engine bay somewhere to ensure it does not get stuck
between the flywheel and transmission.

21. Install coil packs and start hooking up the PCV system and all electrical connectors

22. Install radiator, connect all cooling hoses, and fill it with coolant. Leave fill cap off for
now.

23. Install belts then install the intake.

24. Make sure you have a tune that has DoD electronically disabled.

25. Double, triple, and quadruple check all connectors, hoses, and PCV lines. Also,
please dont forget to hook up your spark plug wires. Then reconnect your battery.

26. Start it up and pray. Let it idle for 10 minutes while pouring coolant into the radiator.
you may need to play with the inlet and outlet hoses a bit to burp the system and
ensure its full, so keep an eye on it.

27. Take it for a test drive and enjoy the fruits of your hard work!

PARTS:
1) Custom Camshaft. This will be the same as any normal LS1 type camshaft with a 3 bolt
core from manufacturers such as Comp. Typically you'd want something with a split favoring
the exhaust but with minimal overlap.
Something like below will normally achieve close to 450rwhp in this combo.
[email protected], [email protected] (Livernois)
.581int, .590exh LSA 114

Here's some stock GM numbers for comparison sake.

08/09 L76 6.0 ---->200/208......0.472"/0.479" (D.O.D. grind)
MY01 LS6 5.7 ---->204/211......0.525"/0.525"
MY02 LS6 5.7 ---->204/218......0.551"/0.547"
MY05 LS2 6.0 ---->204/211......0.525"/0.525"
MY06 LS7 7.0 ---->210/230......0.593"/0.589"
MY08 LS3 6.2 ---->204/211......0.551"/0.525"

LS3 Hotcam ---->219/228.......525/525........112

[Note PTV clearance must be checked in every case]

 12560950 LS6 Cam (2001) 207/217 525/525 LSA 116

 12586484 Springs
  12565308 LS6 Cam (2002-2004) 204/218 550/550 LSA 117.5
 12586484 Springs 219/228

 12480033 LS Hot Cam Kit

 88958733 LS Hot Cam 219/228 525/525 LSA112
 12565117 16 LS6 Springs and retainers

2) 12586481
Camshaft Sprocket
• Fits LS1, LS2 and LS6
• 4X camshaft gear
• 3-bolt design; uses (3) bolts P/N 12556127

3) 12588670
LS2 Timing Chain Dampener
• Production LS2 Dampener
• For use with standard oil pumps
Re-use the 2x fasteners from the L76 chain tensioner.

4) Valve Spring Kit (typically dual spring) to match or exceed valve lift.
Example:
Patriot Gold .650" Lift Dual spring Kit PAT8401
5) Chrome Moly Pushrod Kit. Consult with your engine builder to determine the correct
length of pushrods....this will depend upon the base circle of the chosen camshaft & other
possible geometry changes such as head gasket thickness and any head milling.

Example:
Comp Cams CC7955-16 7.400" 5/16" 0.080"WT

6) Valve Lifters

Example:
12499225
LS Series Camshaft Lifter Kit
• Set of 16 lifters for LS series engines
• Same lifter used in LS2 and LS7

or

88958689
Racing Hydraulic Roller Lifter Kit
• As developed by GM Racing and GM Powertrain
• For use in Gen III and Gen IV engines where sustained
high rpm’s are typical
• Special reduced-mass internal components allow for
higher limiting speeds with aggressive camshaft designs
• Improved valvetrain dynamics and stability will improve
horsepower, and high rpm’s
• Tested to 8000 rpm in GM Racing applications
• Set of 16

7) 12610046
LS3, L92 Head Gasket
• Single gasket, (2) required
• For LS3 and L92 engines
• .051" thick
• 4.080" max bore
• Standard LS bolt pattern

8) 17800568
Cylinder Head Bolt Kit
• Kit of 15 bolts for LS Series engines produced from
January 2004 and later
• Bolts are 5mm shorter than previous design
(2) required

or

ARP134-3610 Hex head bolt kit, 2004 & up LS1/LS6/LS2

(1) set per engine required.

9) 12558573
LS Series Header Gaskets Pair
10)
12570471 LS2 Valley Cover
or
12599296 LS3 Valley plate.
Those 8x O rings underneath block off the previous oil supply from the L76 Lifter Oil Manifold
Assembly to the Collapsible DOD Lifters. Some engine builders additionally like to tap
threads into these galleries and plug them with (Qty 8) 1/8"NPT allen plugs.

That's going to be down to the personal preference of your engine builder. Some like to do it
with all Gen4 blocks. The plugs might cost eg $20 and an hour to tap the threads...so it's not
a huge deal to perform for that extra piece of mind.
11) PCV Hose - Dirty Air (as per LS2)
Part# for the LS2 dirty air hose is 12594779
It goes from the LS2 valley cover to the side of the intake manifold.
12) Plug (as per LS2)
*Part# for the LS2 Plug is 12579145*
The existing L76 PCV outlet on the drivers side rear valve cover needs to be plugged.
Plug....Bottom left in this pic.
13) 17803305
Lifter Guide Kit
• Includes (4x) lifter guides and (4x) bolts
• Makes for quick and easy cam swaps without having to
remove the intake manifold, valley plate or heads
• Works in Gen III and IV applications (except with AFM)

or

LS2 Lifter Guides 12595365 (Qty 4 req).

14)
12557840
Crankshaft (Harmonic Balancer) Bolt

Included in 12499228, “Cam installation kit, LS Engine”

 12574294 Gasket Engine front cover

 12588372 2 Gasket, Water Pump
 890604413 Gasket Kit, Intake Manifold
 12612045 2 Gasket, Valve Rocker Arm Cover
 12557840 Bolt/Screw, CR/SHF Balance
 12585673 Seal ASM, CR.SHF Front Oil
Additional consideration should be given to the DOD oiling system.
The L76 oil pump displaces 1.24"/rev compared to non-DOD 6.0 engines (LS2 and L98)
which have 0.95"/rev oil pumps.

There is also a DOD specific oil pressure relief valve inside the oil pan. When main oil
pressure exceeds 55psi this relief valve exhausts excess oil to the sump. You can leave it
alone.
Why some people choose to remove it is because it's a $10 part that's hidden away where
you can't see it. If it fux up and starts relieving oil pressure when it shouldn't, then you can
chase the low oil pressure problem for days and not think to look in the oilpan. With no AFM
solenoids to protect, it serves no useful purpose after AFM delete....it can only cause grief
IMO.

A suitable plug IMO would be the Dorman Auto Grade Oil-Tite Drain Plug Part No 65386.
This plug comes with a copper crush washer to seal the thread.
65386 thread is M14 x 1.50
Hex head is 19mm AF
Underhead length is 12.3mm (you lose about 1.5mm of thread engagement due to the
thickness of the copper crush washer, so the 65386 will still utilise the approx 11 mm depth
of thread as the original valve).

Dorman 65386
Did a ton of reading about different cam options and wanted to throw in my 2 cents-I
wanted a good idling cam that was affordable. I installed in an LS6 cam and valve
springs- replacing the valve seals with stock seals for the L76. The cam required a

 new cam gear #12586481 &

 3 retaining bolts#12556127.

We replaced the lifter trays with

 4- #12595365,
 the valley cover with #12570471

- completely removed the old dod cover and sealed the connector- you will need to turn
off the dod feature- I accomplished this with a Cortex tuner using a 93 octane tune and
advanced settings. You will need to replace the dod lifters- I used 8 additional l76 non-
dod lifters. The head gaskets and bolts need to be replaced- don't reuse the head bolts!.
Replace the

 crank bolt -#12557840.

Car idles smoothly, no ses light, no stall converter required. I have the stock air
intake and replaced the mufflers cat back so this car is quiet. Power is terrific- by my
guesstimates its pushing about 435 at the flywheel. Total cost was under 300.00