Head swap problems

Damn the luck if it's one it becomes another. I got the heads installed and went to put coolant back in the system and it wouldn't take it. I pulled the bypass lines off the head and it helped to get some coolant up to that point. Now when I start the truck I have no flow at all through the radiator. The head gaskets were put on with the "FRONT" markings to the front of the block with the drivers side gasket turned upside down since that's the only way "FRONT" will be in the front. LOL Any suggestions like maybe a bad water pump or thermostat? Anyone ever ran into a problem like this before?

Bummer, is it raining something again? :laugh:

straight from ls1how to's head swap instructions

"Lay the new head gaskets in place. NOTICE how they go on...there is writing inscribed on them pointing to what should be facing front, what should be up, and what is visible. If you get these wrong you will block coolant passages so make sure you do this correctly."

i think my gaskets said top side and front on them when i was doing it.

These say front only. Talked with GM and they said you turn the drivers side upside down since the gaskets are identical. If you lay them both front up the drivers side ends up in the rear blocking the passages so I know the gaskets are correct and I looked at the passages. The original gaskets that came off had the drivers side upside down.

Notice the gaskets both in the up front position. If I were to install them this way you would block the passages on the drivers side rear. One has to be flipped upside down. I even tried the old ones out on my spare block.

http://www.who-sells-it.com/images/c...g2006_0191.jpg

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(NITROUS &#064; Jan 4 2007, 05&#58;26 AM) [snapback]78270[/snapback]</div>

Quote:

---

These say front only. Talked with GM and they said you turn the drivers side upside down since the gaskets are identical.[/b]

---

What ya waitin&#39; on? That&#39;s the remedy right there. :laugh: Git &#39;er dun&#33; :pics:

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(1BADC10 &#064; Jan 4 2007, 07&#58;00 AM) [snapback]78272[/snapback]</div>

Quote:

---

What ya waitin&#39; on? That&#39;s the remedy right there. :laugh: Git &#39;er dun&#33; :pics:
[/b]

---

???

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(NITROUS &#064; Jan 4 2007, 09&#58;39 AM) [snapback]78297[/snapback]</div>

Quote:

---

???
[/b]

---

Your block&#39;s like this, right?

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ngIssue005.jpg

Those gaskets should line up with the imprinted word &#39;front&#39;, with the four rectangular holes positioned toward the top of the motor. Excuse the pic below, I had to rotate one of the gaskets so you&#39;d see my point of gasket placement/positioning.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...eadGaskets.jpg

Those gaskets should be identical on both sides, as far as the sealing material for the ports & openings. Don&#39;t worry about reading the word front properly, but just have it positioned where the front of the motor is, and those little tabs are toward the front. That&#39;s what they meant about turn the gasket upside down. Notice in the pic below, the guy who sold me my motor also removed the heads to clean & polish, and put the gasket on wrong, thus causing my overheating problems. That is the driver-side head. Note that the tabs are toward the back of the head (right-ward in pic). One design of the 5.3L head gasket shows that only ONE of the coolant passage ports is open on the gasket. The rear-side is not needed b/c my year/model 5.3L does not have a rear passage to flow coolant on the back of the block, hence the closed part of the gasket. See what I&#39;m talking about?

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ngIssue010.jpg

You look as if you have the right gasket, if you have the ones like the pic I posted. I can&#39;t imagine still having problems with those gaskets b/c the extra provisions for coolant flow are there. Got an update???

Great pics&#33; The gaskets are installed with both tabs in the front and the word "FRONT" to the front of the block with the drivers side upside down. I know the gaskets are installed correctly because I verified them upon installation. I haven&#39;t had time to look at the problem but it acts like the systom is air locked but I can&#39;t imagine that either. I&#39;m going to pull the thermostat and drain the coolant to inspect. I&#39;ve been to busy to mess with it but I&#39;ll figure it out. I"ll keep you posted with the results. As far as the pics you posted, I&#39;m sure someone that doesn&#39;t know how to install the gaskets will defininetly benefit from this post.

I bet you had flow through the radiator even with your gasket backwards huh? I have no flow whatsoever. I bet you could bolt plates to the top of the block and still have some sort of coolant flow because the pump pulls off the block, not the heads. I could be wrong but I doubt it.

Thanks

When you pull the stat, drill an 1/8" hole near the top of it as an air bleed if there isn&#39;t one already. I think I remember Dustin saying something about pulling the upper rad hose off the radiator, pour coolant into the hose until fluid starts coming out of the top of the radiator.

I&#39;ll give it a try Greg. I haven&#39;t had time to mess with it and it&#39;s driving me CRAZY.............................I&#39;m ready for some dyno pulls as soon as i finger this out.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(RedHeartbeat &#064; Jan 5 2007, 01&#58;52 PM) [snapback]78414[/snapback]</div>

Quote:

---

When you pull the stat, drill an 1/8" hole near the top of it as an air bleed if there isn&#39;t one already. I think I remember Dustin saying something about pulling the upper rad hose off the radiator, pour coolant into the hose until fluid starts coming out of the top of the radiator.
[/b]

---

I&#39;ve done both...

As for flow with passage blocked, yes I got flow. I hope it&#39;s not the pump, but I know of a couple LS1 powered formy&#39;s that currently have cooling issues today. Pumps aren&#39;t that expensive (&#036;120) at the local parts store.

sounds like you done everything right, I would definately say it has a vapor lock due to the head swap. I seem to have the best luck with squeezing the heck out of the upper and lower radiator hoses like your pumping them up or something. this should be done with the cap off and the engine running. Youmay have already done this but if not its worth a shot. When i purchased my first ls1, the thermostat was froze....I had to go purchase a new one from gm. Im sure that isnt your problem but thought i would add that i have saw them freeze.

There&#39;s not a lot that can go wrong with a pump, the impeller blades can corrode off and that&#39;s about it. Anything else and it&#39;s catastrophic failure or water pouring out on the ground from a weep hole. I hear the new stats are designed to fail in the open position somehow. I&#39;m not sure how that works but our BMW&#39;s stat is stuck wide open and it takes about 15 minutes of driving to warm up the engine and it gets too hot when parked with the engine idling. I&#39;ll be replacing that one tomorrow. Park that dude with the nose high so that the air bubbles come to the front of the engine, remove the air bleed plugs and start filling the engine through the upper radiator hose as mentioned earlier. When you quit getting air out the bleeds, block them off again. Fill the engine until water runs out of the top of the radiator and then slip the hose back on it. It should be full enough to have the reservior automatically fill the radiator as the engine cools.

I wonder if it could be a bad set of gaskets that they failed to punch out a couple of holes? You should be getting water out of all four corners when you fill it up with the plugs removed.

Get one of the rubber tipped air nozzles and blow into the air bleeds and see if it comes out somewhere else, if not you&#39;ve got something plugged somewhere.

Cooling problem is solved and the beast is alive...............Seems the system was vapor locked. I know this isn&#39;t a common problem but I drained the system down, pulled off the upper radiator hose and filled it with coolant holding it as high in the air as I could to let head pressure push the air out. Once I knew most of the air was out I pulled a fan relay and let her heat up and the thermostat opened&#33; I&#39;m running a little lean at idle but I&#39;ll fix that. As far as hauling ass goes, there&#39;s no problem there. I can&#39;t wait for someone to mess with me. I now have a full blown LS6 plus with the mods and matching numbers.

Thanks for all of your suggestions and help. Eliminating all possibilities is how we work these things out.

Sweet&#33; Glad it was that simple.

Hey, Red... I said pump b/c a co-worker&#39;s LS1&#39;s pump is busted. Guess what... formy sounded like something was grinding. Swapped the pump, and problem gone.

Sucks to be stomped by the simple stuff, but always end up happy not spending a life&#39;s savings fixing problems.

I hear you on the bad pump. My cooling problem on the BMW was a defective stat. I took the water neck off and the stat fell out in pieces. :bash: POS bimmers&#33; :laugh: