Well, little late but never rip the lifter out the bore. Take the cam out and drop it down. Just did one today like that. The cut's in the lifter bore will probably bleed oil pressure. Hopefully not too much.
You should replace all lifters and use the cam you want. We pull the oil pans to clean them out but could probably just flushed the motor 3-4 times with cheaper oil. You want to do this because any small metal material can get into the new pump and lock up the pressure valve in it. Seen that many times.

^ I thought of that after the fact. Let the lifter drop.. Oh well. live and learn. I got the lifter bore cleaned up this week. It feels pretty good. Just felt like a couple rough spots. Cleaned it with a file and emory cloth. Gonna flush it out with some oil. Going to run some cheap conventional for a couple hundred miles to flush everything out.

I got all new LS7 lifters, new cups, Melling 10295 pump, LS6 springs and a stock cam for a 2000 Camaro. I was trying to pull the oil pan last night. I have to get the crumbs out of there. I don't want it destroying a new oil pump or anything else. The pan wouldn't clear the pickup tube so I lifted the engine off the mounts a little and it still wouldn't clear. so I proceeded to pull the engine out but it won't let go of the trans. I think the alignment dowels are swelled up. I'm going back at it today and going to button it back up and drop the front differential. I got a truck guy that is gonna stop by. he knows that front end pretty well.


The heads are iron... Not even 317s. No casting numbers other than this. I kept the tool pretty flat and used a medium wheel.
https://scontent-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hp...17&oe=55A1492A

This truck is filthy. Got the oil pan off this morning. Had to drop the front diff.

Shrapnel in the oil pan. The cam bearings looked pretty good. Still had a white-ish hue to them. Looked almost new actually. We have a fiber-optic scope with a color display and I snaked the cam bore.

Cleaned the pickup tube, Camaro cam installed, Melling pump installed (old one looked pretty beat up from what I could see but I haven't taken it apart yet), was ready to put the oil pan back up but I still have a couple things left to button up before I can do that.

Stock cam was pretty beat up. a nice divot on the uphill side of the cam. Camaro cam on the right with almost no miles on it. (30k, ish)
https://scontent-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hp...6b&oe=55B763B2

Truck is so filthy.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.n...ec79662e6e5df1

https://scontent-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hp...20&oe=55A4C112


And... the shrapnel in the oil pan. I went fishing with a magnet.. lol GOnna cut the filter open.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.n...45c1cafa92f39c

yikes

Valve springs came in today finally. LS6 blue GMPP. good for .570" Parents are coming out for a visit tomorrow so I won't really be able to work on it till Monday.

Did some mild porting on the heads to clean up the rough casting. and ported the TB out. I Also a mild port on the exhaust manifolds.

https://scontent-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hp...53&oe=55B247E0


My first time doing this (head porting) but I'm pretty happy with it. I didn't go heavy and just kept the tool moving. Felt like I was shading with a pencil. There was a ridge above the intake valve that I got rid of.

https://scontent-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hp...98&oe=55AAFC40

I'm not comfortable completely hogging them out if I can't measure it. I may pick up a set of junk/stock heads to practice on.
https://scontent-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hp...b5&oe=55A2AE5D

I didn't get into the port above the valve seat much because I didn't want to nick the valve seat. I hit everything with an 80gt flap wheel after. Port is still a little dirty above where the valve would be.. I went over it with the flap wheel to get rid of the remaining baked on crap.
https://scontent-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hp...68&oe=55A7E10D

Lapped the valves. Exhaust valve seats were pretty bad.

First pass
https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.n...1bc303af5f58a1

three passes taking more time. (finish coat of 15-40... I'm a diesel tech so it's prevalent here..)
https://scontent-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hp...b8&oe=55E3BA10