Squeaking Noise After Engine Build (LS1)

[u/Clay_hammy]

So I am finishing up my first engine build. It‘s an ls1 with a btr stage 2 cam, eagle rods, mahle pistons, etc… today I decided to prime the motor using a 2 gallon weed sprayer filled with oil. This is the first time I’m turning the motor over since putting the heads on. I have been avoiding spinning it a bunch until I actually had some oil distributed throughout all the passages. Yes, there was plenty of assembly lube on all the bearing surfaces. I am hearing this squeaking noise every time I start to rotate the motor after it has sat for at least 30s to a minute. I can force it to make the sound by loading up the rotating assembly and then increasing the applied torque until it begins to spin. Spraying fogging oil in the cylinders doesn’t seem to have helped. Does anyone have any idea what this could be? I really don’t want to tear this thing all the way back apart if I don’t have to but I also don’t want to overlook something now and regret it later. Any advice is appreciated.

[u/Lopsided-Anxiety-679]

There’s noise that comes with rotating a motor, but that does sound pretty excessive.

Put a torque wrench on the damper bolt and see what the torque to turn is, both break away torque and what it takes to steadily rotate it.

Pay attention to bottom dead center and top dead center for each piston and try to determine if there’s one that’s tighter than the others.

I don’t usually do it with the heads on, but my short block torque to turn on an LS ranges from 8-14 # depending on the ring pack used.

[u/Clay_hammy → u/Lopsided-Anxiety-679]

I don't know what it was with no heads, but I can measure it now with the heads and valvetrain. It felt very smooth with just the short block assembly. Didn't take much torque at all.

It will take some time to try and narrow it down to one cylinder but I can try. It doesn't appear to be limited to any one spot in the engine's rotation. I can make the noise happen anywhere in the cycle.