can i "rebuild" a 2007 5.3

long story short, my wife's 2007 saab 9-7x has developed a knock from being run low on oil. she assumed the low oil light would come on and alert her so she didn't have to check it. came home from work "it's making a noise" - checked oil and it was 2 qt low and the oil is sparkly. so i have a knocking 118k mile aluminum 5.3 with displacement on demand.

used engines look to be around 2 grand in similar mileage. i'm thinking pull it and disassemble and go from there. worst case should be send the crank in, change cam bearings, inspect cam and lifters, and put it back together. nothing should be wrong in the heads, but i do have another set on the shelf with rockers and pushrods. i've never gone this deep into an LS engine, i have bought and swapped them.

what kind of tools would be required for this? LS specific balancer puller and cam bearing tool?

for what people want for a 100k mile used engine i could put together a DOD ls2 shortblock from all new parts and swap over the top end.

Id certainly won't hurt anything to pull it apart and see what the extent of the damage is. You could swap any old iron block 5.3 and delete DOD if you want a quick, easy, budget fix.

That sucks, I too vote to delete DoD.

Unless DoD changes things, you could be a 9th generation inbred lacking any form of cognitive intelligence and put together a Chevy v8....so there's a plus.

You can do it! I have nothing else to add. Good luck.

Down 2qt is not good but should not have resulted in the motor going bad. Sounds like there is more to it. Or the motor was on the way out for a while and your wife just had the bad luck of being the driver at the time. A small knock can be mistaken for detonation by those that are not familiar with things.

dean1484 wrote: Down 2qt is not good but should not have resulted in the motor going bad.

I can vouch for that. Assuming your wife doesn't load the car up in the corners (so the oil stays in the bottom of the sump), you don't typically see oil pressure fall off until there's ~2 quarts total left in the system.

Your coming to the challenge yes?

http://jacksonville.craigslist.org/cto/5267471969.html

Greg Voth wrote: Your coming to the challenge yes? http://jacksonville.craigslist.org/cto/5267471969.html

thought had come to mind. but this one needs fixed either way so buying something else would enable me to put off fixing, then it'll just sit like everything else that breaks does around here.

i agree detonation could be mistaken for a real knock, unless you have my experience with knocking diagnosis and the oil is all sparkly like some fancy metallic paint.

at this point i've got a blank slate and 3g's of wiggle room but obviously spending less is better as this is "use the credit card and treat it like a car payment" wiggle room, not actual cash. i should be smart and find a non DOD 5.3 with correct crank reluctor wheel and drop it in and tune the DOD out of the computer and leave everything else the same. i'm going to not buy anything until post challenge, to give a deal a chance to pop up. honestly it would be fine with a 4.8, it's just a kid hauler. i need to type this junk out sometimes to keep me from taking said credit card to summit and buying a new ls2 block/crank/rods/pistons/cam and taking the ls2 heads slated for my impala off the shelf and turning this thing from 300hp to 400 right quick. if it was MY kid hauler, yes i would do that - well i'd go bigger cam and headers and shoot for 500hp, then blow the trans sky high. but my wife needs to put up with it every day. and not break more stuff.

You know she needs a LSA rite?

bah. LS9 makes slightly more powah. however, the ls9 crate engine is about 10k more dollars than i paid for the whole truck.

i've been scraping together parts to build an ls2 with ls3 heads and lsa takeoff blower, when i can find stuff cheap.

looks like the most cost effective route here for the saab is buy an 07-09 4.8 with the correct 58x crank wheel for the computer and drop it in/tune out the displacement on demand with hptuners, and be back running for sub $1500 with less miles and no mess of DOD engine oil consumption that i've been reading about. and potentially be able to get an engine with a harness, computer, and accessories that can all be sold to make some $ back.

The only engine-specific special tools you REALLY need are a damper puller/installer. I wore out an elbow trying to beat a damper on an LS1 with a mallet. (Literally. Gave me trouble for 3 years afterwards and I still can't hold it at certain angles)

All bolts are TTY in the bottom end as I recall. The damper bolt is also one use only and they mean it. It's also super mega ultra tight. Like it stalls my 2135TiMax before it finishes the angle torque sometimes.

I haven't had to fight a DOD engine but I keep hearing that one of the cam journals is only half supported and that bearing likes to wipe.

figured as much on the balancer tool.

i might pull the heads off it(243 or 799 castings, same as ls2), use the ancillaries to help my impala along, and sell the shortblock as a core.

Didn't I deliver you a bare 5.3 last spring?

Sucks to hear that.

no, you delivered a bare 4.8 to andy from me. which would be a perfect shortblock to remedy this situation.

Doh

I've never used an LS balancer tool. Old ones come off with a standard jaw puller. To put a new one on, boil it for 15 minutes in a big pot of water and it slides right on. Tap tap with a mallet to get it most of the way on, then thread in the bolt. Torquing is tough since it takes something like 250 lb-ft. Once you have the torque wrench, cut a piece of 2x4 to fit between the oil pan and the floor. Have a buddy use a pry bar pushing down on one side to counteract your torquing down on the other side.

have an 09 4.8 non DOD engine with 48k miles coming in a few weeks. lose 20 ft lbs, 0hp, but 70k fewer miles and will use hp tuners to disable the DOD in the program.

what i'll probably do is strip the aluminum 5.3 to a shortblock and sell it as rebuildable, keep the heads for future use(theyll be either 243 or 799 castings, same casting as ls6/ls2), and swap the needed stuff over to the new engine.

Greg Voth wrote: http://jacksonville.craigslist.org/cto/5267471969.html

Are they really that cheap?