The engine assembly went pretty smooth even if it was slower than I would have liked. I felt like I was building my first engine! All the torque to angle bolts were a real pain to me. I like setting the torque wrench and getting on with business. It did get easier the more I did it, but I still didn’t really like it.

Then there was the whole oil pump alignment thing. What a pain! Disassemble the pump and scrape up enough shims to hold everything in alignment while you tighten the mounting bolts. It’s obvious that this engine was designed to be assembled by robots that can stab a part in perfect alignment with nothing other than what it’s camera sees.

I did get lucky a few months ago and scored a set of front and rear cover alignment tools. These the are Kent Moore tools that GM recommends for this job. They were laying on the shelf at a local pawn shop and I picked them up for chump change. This set of tools is stupid expensive for what it is. Something to the tune of $300-$400!!!!! The set is a cast brass(bronze?) part that does the actual alignment and a plate that bolts to the oil pan rail to keep that surface aligned.





The rear seal came with it’s own installation tool already in the seal. It’s a double lip seal and is marked which way is out. The trouble is. The writing is very tiny for my 62 year old eyes. I had to get it out in the sun to actually see the markings. I marked it to make sure I got it right in the shop.



I made one mod that the block didn’t come with. I added this LS2 timing chain damper. The boss was there on the block, but it wasn’t drilled. Getting this thing lined up for drilling was tricky. I made a tapping guide out of aluminum to hold the tap square to the block. Sorry no pics of that operation, but it turned out ok, I think.