Daily Driver Advice!

[ccracin]

Ok, here is a glimpse into Chad's luck! 2 months ago I purchased a 2002 B4C Z28 with 72K miles on it. I just wanted it to run back and fourth to work in and maybe have a spirited drive here and there. It ran great, no issues. No noise, rattles, misses, smoke etc. I mean 72K on an LS1 is not much at all. Before I bought it, I checked the oil. Clean and no smell. Looked like it was just changed. So I ran it a couple weeks and checked again. Good level, still clean, no smell. So I think all is well. A couple weeks ago I drove it to work as usual with no issues. I parked it in the lot and at the end of the day I go out to go home. I hit the key, it turns over, and just as it went to start BANG, SHAKE, (Me : ****!). Locked up solid. I get it home on the trailer and jack it up and find a nice window in the side of the block just in front of the starter. I haven't down anything since. I was as you can imagine pissed! I have no idea what happened. The only thing I can think of is it developed some kind of coolant leak and hydrauliced a cylinder.

Anyway, What to do now? I obviously have a junk block, oil pan, and at least 1 rod and maybe the crank. At this point I have not been able to find a drop out with similar or less mileage. What do you think an LS1 with 75K or less miles is worth? I only need the long block or even a good short block for that matter. Re-manufactured long blocks seem pricey for a stock engine. As I said this is just a daily driver work car. Anybody have any ideas?

I tried to talk Dad out of the Wegner LS415. No dice! :lol:

Any ideas or suggestions are much appreciated. :cheers:

[jimbo]

Contact Clevlend Pick a Part, a vendor on here.
Schrams Auto Parts in Michigan deals with new take-outs and short blocks.
Both of these places have web sites and ebay stores.

[ccracin]

Thanks Jimbo. I have already talked to Gus at Cleveland Pick A Part. He is supposed to be getting back to me if he has something. I will check out Schrams. Thanks again.:cheers:

[GregWeld]

I have a complete 2002 LS6 without accessory drive - but with a ECU - Make me an offer via PM or email if you want to Chad.

It has 3 or 4,000 miles on it but hasn't been run or turned over in 4 or 5 years.

[ccracin]

Ok, so I am going to discuss this engine with Greg. Here is my question with regard to that. What do I have to be concerned with as far as the computer goes? He has the ecm which was most likely from a 2002 Z06. Would it be easier to reflash my ecm with a proper tune or could that one be used? Greg may have these answers as I have not talked with him yet. Just thought I would throw it out there. :cheers:

[GregWeld]

Not much news here Chad since I sent you that LS6.... I know you had some issues with the heads (stripped bolt holes) etc.

You get that bad boy running yet??

[ccracin]

So you back in the land of the free and the home of the brave? It is in fact running. 175 miles on it to be exact. It is running good. After some research and a very helpful conversation with Mike Norris it was determined that it was plug and play! I have to give props to Mike, I was willing to have him do a reflash, but he said unless I wanted every last drop out of it I didn't need to do that. He said there would be no problem as far as hurting it. :thumbsup: It did take a while, as you said the head problem had to be corrected. That turned out to be challenging. It seems a lot of the parts that are part of the stock LS6 cylinder heads are being discontinued by GM. I was able to get a new casting from GM. But, the number one intake valve was bent. I am assuming this happened in the accident that took the Vette's life. This is where the problem was. GM has discontinued that valve. It is hollow and very light. So, unless I could source a new one, I was going to have to disassemble the other head as well and replace all the intake valves. I had been working with PACE performance on all these parts. I can't say enough good about them. Chuck Fitch the manager is a great guy. I recommend anyone dealing with them. He went to GM powertrain direct and struck out. Just when I was going to pull the trigger on taking the other head off, he called and said he found me one. Katech had it. So after a couple weeks of looking I had the valve and got it back together. Then as you may or may not know, to change the engine in a 4th gen it has to come out the bottom. Yea, what a pain without a hoist. So since our shop has an exploded truck all over it, I made arrangements to have it switched at a local shop that does this stuff. That took 2 weeks as racing season is getting into full swing here and he was backed up. In the end, I got it back this past weekend and have been going back and forth to work this week. So far so good. It definitely runs better, but I think there might be a tune in the future as I think I am leaving ALOT on the table with the stock ecm. That will be way way down the road. I have to recover from this. This is just a daily work driver and was an unexpected expense. Thanks for offering the engine up buddy, my search around here was yielding nothing. Very please, plus I learned alot about the LS stuff along the way. Ill be in touch, I was waiting till your whirl wind tour of Italy was over. Hope you had a great time.! :thumbsup:

[Garage Dog 65]

What ??? NO pictures of the pull out carnage ?? None ??? Really !!!!!

OK, you asked for it ....

:ttiwop:


With pleasure, Jim

:lol:

[GregWeld]

What ??? NO pictures of the pull out carnage ?? None ??? Really !!!!!

OK, you asked for it ....

:ttiwop:


With pleasure, Jim

:lol:



Jim -- The LS6 motor was a motor I bought several years ago that I had rolling around the "shed" and never used. It was a 2002 Corvette ZO6 wreck pullout. So there's no pullout carnage for that motor.

[ccracin]

What ??? NO pictures of the pull out carnage ?? None ??? Really !!!!!

OK, you asked for it ....

:ttiwop:


With pleasure, Jim

:lol:

Thanks, appreciate your patience! :lol:

Don't worry, I'll get some. I only had time to drop the dead horse off the truck in the garage when I picked the car up last weekend. It's been a busy week. I was out of town 3 days this paste week for work. Then this weekend was my daughter's dance recital. I ain't getting nothing done! :mad: Stay tuned!

[ccracin]

Well, because some people can't live without pictures (Jim!) Here are some of the LS6 I got from Greg. It's a very low mileage piece. The only thing he and I were concerned about was sitting in his shed for years. The concern was maybe it being slightly rusty or something in the cylinders or the other carbon steel parts. As you can see that was not the case. Looks brand new!

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r35/ccracin/2002%20Camaro/2012-04-21_15-58-42_317.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r35/ccracin/2002%20Camaro/2012-04-21_15-58-34_618.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r35/ccracin/2002%20Camaro/2012-04-21_15-58-01_334.jpg

The only thing I knew for sure I would have to do is change the corvette pan out for an F-Body pan. After searching many sources for used, I got a great deal on a new kit from Pace Performance. Everything needed for the switch:

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r35/ccracin/2002%20Camaro/2012-04-21_16-10-48_867.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r35/ccracin/2002%20Camaro/2012-04-21_16-24-26_668.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r35/ccracin/2002%20Camaro/2012-04-21_16-24-11_586.jpg

So I had that all buttoned up and was feeling good about getting the engine swapped. Then, as I was cleaning old duct tape residue off the cylinder heads that was used to protect the exhaust ports I found a problem. I'm not exactly sure how this happened, but I'm thinking the yard that pulled the engine used the exhaust manifold bolt holes to mount the lifting device. They must not have been flat to the head when they torqued the bolt. The drivers side head had one hole that was stripped and actually bulged and cracked the head. Check it out:

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r35/ccracin/2002%20Camaro/2012-04-21_16-49-55_79.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r35/ccracin/2002%20Camaro/2012-04-21_16-51-03_616.jpg

Greg never would have seen this under the tape that was used to cover the exhaust ports. So it was time to replace the head. I mentioned earlier the issues with discontinued parts. Here are some pics of the bent number 1 intake valve and some further damage to the same head. I think this damage and the bent valve was done in the wreck of the donor corvette. Upon further investigation it looked like the yard replaced the drivers valve cover and coil bracket. The valve cover had noticeably less dirt and corrosion on it that the passenger side. Again, this is something Greg wouldn't have known until he either rebuilt the engine or tried to start it.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r35/ccracin/2002%20Camaro/2012-05-01_20-28-44_40.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r35/ccracin/2002%20Camaro/2012-05-01_20-28-05_322.jpg

So I got the new head casting and Intake valve which I mentioned in my earlier post as well. Here's a pic of the reassembled head.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r35/ccracin/2002%20Camaro/2012-05-09_19-47-35_344.jpg

I got it all back together and and built a pre-luber to get it all lubed up before firing it after sitting so long. Worked great! 60 psi of pressure while we rotated it by hand. Fired up with minimal noise and quieted right up in seconds.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r35/ccracin/2002%20Camaro/2012-05-11_22-01-56_936.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r35/ccracin/2002%20Camaro/2012-05-11_22-01-20_617.jpg

It has been very good so far for the 175+ miles I have on it. Greg is great to deal with and very helpful. It worked out well, my car is back on the road and he has an extra 4 square feet of floor space in the shed! I'll post pics of the broken LS1 this week!

You happy Jim? :lol: :thumbsup:

[GregWeld]

I'm so glad to hear this all worked out okay - even if it entailed a bit of extra work for you...

Funny -- I bought the motor from a friend of Charley's YEARS ago... and I never once inspected it or anything other than just pushed it around on that dang dolly. Just never got around to using it (I have a few "parts" and pieces more than a guy needs! :D )

Hope it lasts you a zillion years Chad!

[Garage Dog 65]

You happy Jim? :lol: :thumbsup:

Now THAT'S more better !!!

Did I miss the dyno charts or did ya just forget to post those ...

AND, the big smokey burn out video too !!!!

:P :P :P

:rofl:

Great work Chad !!!

[Flash68]

Very cool. Those LS6's are a great motor and are very desirable I've come to read about on the Vette forum as far as track motors. Can't say the same about those LS3's! :thumbsup:

[ccracin]

I'm so glad to hear this all worked out okay - even if it entailed a bit of extra work for you...

Funny -- I bought the motor from a friend of Charley's YEARS ago... and I never once inspected it or anything other than just pushed it around on that dang dolly. Just never got around to using it (I have a few "parts" and pieces more than a guy needs! :D )

Hope it lasts you a zillion years Chad!

Thanks again Greg. I hope it lasts too! LOL I have a truck to finish, my Dad said I don't need any more distractions! :thumbsup:

Now THAT'S more better !!!

Did I miss the dyno charts or did ya just forget to post those ...

AND, the big smokey burn out video too !!!!

:P :P :P

:rofl:

Great work Chad !!!

No Dyno charts or burnouts! This is transportation to and from work! I can't break it! :lol: The last one blew just trying to start it, I don't dare chance a burnout! Oh, glad you"re happy!

Very cool. Those LS6's are a great motor and are very desirable I've come to read about on the Vette forum as far as track motors. Can't say the same about those LS3's! :thumbsup:

I almost feel bad using this engine for just transportation, but I literally couldn't find anything that didn't need a complete rebuild.
:lateral: