k, oilpan came off very easy with the motor lifted as in the pics. Much easier than my 3rd gen for sure....another 30-45 min I should have the timing cover off after a break.

 

Where did you place the jack to jack up just the engine?

 

Mine sounds a bit more like a scraping sound then a grinding sound - it is certainly a noise I've never heard anything quite like before. It's fine on cold start but after the engine warms up it starts making the noise. Oh the other thing - if the engine is sitting idle, and it's not making the noise, revving the engine sometimes will cause it to start making the noise.

I pulled the timing cover on mine expecting to see grinding in the timing cover from something, but there was nothing. Everything looked just fine.

Having said that, pulling the cover on yours is definitely a good idea, we could be talking about two different problems here.

For cam/valvetrain, I'm running the LT4 HOT cam, and the parts that came with the LT4 conversion kit (1.6 aluminum rockers, LT4 cylinder heads, LT4 valve springs, etc)

 

On the harmonic balancer hub, not the balancer itself, I wedged a 2X6 wood block between the balancer and timing cover to lift by the crank shaft.

That siad...I'm having a hell of a time getting the hub off now even with a puller its worn me out tightening it down and its only budged about 1/16"

 

If there is any true scraping or grinding then the evidence in terms of marks and debris will clearly be there, no doubt about it.

Check the water pump drive shaft esecially where the two gears mesh together as well as the bearing. Longshot might be a shot front cam bearing too.

Maybe that chain is just noisy as hell, people have been posting that the LT4 ED set is noisy. I dont really understand why, maybe someone can explain.

 

That balancer hub is a pain. I had to modify a balancer puller from a Gen I SBC to work the the LT1

Cam bearings should be OK. They were all replaced when I rebuilt the engine. I thought about the waterpump drive also, but you can't really hear the noise through the water pump. I probed the whole front area and accessories with a stethoscope, and found it is the loudest on the distributor base, which is why I changed the distributor (thinking the bearings in the distributor were gone). Man was I frustrated when the engine kept making the same noise with my $300 replacement distributor installed. ;-)

 

I'm in the same boat as vgeglie, took about about 2.5 hours to get the hub off, which included 3 hardware stores to find a dam 7/16-20 bolt that was longer than 2.5 inches Anyway, cover is off....and no signs of wearing...trying to get the timing gear off so I can check whats under it and the cam retainers...

At least I found all the missing pieces of the dipstick, none left as I reconstructed it next to my new one..and the dipstick tube is fixed so it won't happen again.

 

I must have been lucky, my hub came off extremely easy with the steering wheel puller. Not a single hitch.

Let us know if you find a smoking gun.

 

Can't say I really found anything except for this thread I posted on the back side of the cam gear sprocket making contact with the cam retainer surface.
http://web.camaross.com/forums/showthread.php?t=485401

It appears that it is supposed to contact it, otherwise what would keep the cam from walking back towards the rear?

There is some shinny spots on both the cam gear back and the cam retainer where they have been contacting, but I wouldn't call it "wear"..looks kind of shinny like a cam lifter lobe is all and not all the way around the entire 360 degrees of the circle surface where it contacts.

And I found a freakin hole in my oil pan, so I guess I need to buy another one ASAP so its going to be a while before its back together ..looks like a bolt was tightened down with the tranny line holder on it too tight and it spun around piercing the pan...another good reason to do all your own work I guess..next time I'll do my own cam swap.

 

Well....
Maybe I have found something after all..
I have a few threads on related topics of how the cam gear and everything go together..Ricardo notice in a pic that I had some strange wear marks on the LT4 Cam sprocket gear.
http://web.camaross.com/forums/showthread.php?t=485401

In this thread about what the ED LT4 wp gear should look like..it appears that the wp gear was not installed on mine..notice in my pics I have the one with 6 holes..the LT4 should have 3.
http://web.camaross.com/forums/showthread.php?t=485468


So those having the noise...do you know that the ED LT4 water pump gear was also installed?

 

I THINK I FOUND IT!!!
Well after a good nights rest and a fresh mind and after work I went out to try a few things out of curiousity more than anything.

I smeared a very thin coat of grease on the front of the cam retainer with it installed also put a very thin coat on the top of the retainer bolts.
Cleaned the back of the sprocket with carb cleaner.
Bolted the sprocket on carefully, and then took it right back off..

I found a trace of grease on the sprocket from the retainer bolt tops! the grease on the retainer was untouched.
I began looking closely at the back of the sprocket before this and noticed some grooves inthe back of it, they are not even scratches and these no change in color, they are not even visible in this pic from before
http://hometown.aol.com/onebadwskier...ocket-back.jpg
but they are there.
The cam retainer bolts are the stockers with the torx rounded head, because they are rounded they did not gouge into the sprocket. Examining the bolts there is a very slight shinny wear spot about the size of a pin head...but from the grease test, they are definitely making contact and that would have been the sound I was hearing and the contact would get worse as the heat makes things expand.
I took the retainer bolts out, and then bolted the sprocket back on and the back side of the sprocket then made slight contact where the shinny spot was on the cam retainer but not enough to really push the grease out so its very light if any as the grease coat was probably a little more than .010 inch thick. Guess I should put some of those bearing clearence gizmos in there and crush it together to see what the actual clearence is, but the wear on theretainer is too smooth to be making the noise it was making.

So now the question is....are the stock factory retainer torx head bolts supposed to be used with the LT4 ED tining set?? If so should I grind them down slightly? I'll make that a separate post as this is getting confusing in here... THANKS!

 

Plastigage...

 

Check this out. The back of the cam gear is rubbing the cam retainer plate. What's up with this? How do I fix it?

 

Holy smokes! And everyone thought my wear marks were bad from this thread:
http://web.camaross.com/forums/showthread.php?t=485401

ProjectZ28 says to check the cam end play..the movement of the cam back and forth, should be between .004 and .012" according to my rebuild book, I'm going to check mine when my bro brings a gauge over but I think the sprocket and retainer plate are suppose to contact each other and probably will no matter what the end play is because the cam grind may tend to push the cam forward or backward so there's goign to be wear on one side or the other of the retainer...BUT..this is not my area of expertise by any means.

Now just how many miles are on that sprocket/retainer??
And you did not have any noise coming from the front....so I'm certain my little bit of wear isn't my noise...I'm sure its the retainer bolt hitting the back of the sprocket ever so slightly..not even enough to gouge or scar the sprocket.

 

No.. not at all. In looking at your pictures in your thread it appears something very funny is going on in the front of that engine. Your cam should not be flush w/ the cam plate.