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*Updated with photos* Well my LS1 BLEW UP... :/ whos taking bets on whats still good?
So i built this motor from the ground up myself. Never built a motor before but followed along online with all the how to's posted. I went and got it tuned then while doing a hard pull it went up in a cloud of smoke.. over a years worth of work down the drain i am afraid :/
Looks like a spun a bearing? I know nothing as im a rotary guy turned LS what do you guys think happened? Showed no signs of going bad what so ever.
blew out both sides of the block. Looks like rod 1 and 2 decided they had enough.
Last edited by Will Northrup; 05-17-2015 at 10:09 AM.
What machining was done to the big ends of the connecting rods if any ??
New bolts or any thing.??..and did you measure any bore housings (rods or mains) with a dial bore guage.??..or just plastiguage during assembly ???
What machining was done to the big ends of the connecting rods if any ?? New bolts or any thing.??..and did you measure any bore housings (rods or mains) with a dial bore guage.??..or just plastiguage during assembly ???
I took my brand new crank into an engine rebuilder and they set me up with brand new bearings. I honed my block myself with a drill and engine hone just to remove the scratches from the Pistons but that's it. It was mostly just like a light sand. Otherwise I let the engine rebuilder tell me what bearings I needed and sizes.
A new crank will be on the high side of standard tolerance. Stock rods when released and retorqued...even using the required ft./lbs. and degrees method; they just distort. They for whatever reason become out of round; almost oval and often times require a few strokes on the rod hone machine to bring them back to round and into spec. for size. The best bolt upgrade was the now discontinued Katech bolts which were pricey but would only distort the big ends about .0003" from perfect. A simple re hone puts them in mid tolerance for size range where as the stock bolts need to be honed right to the high limit for size to be round again. This combined with a high limit standard NEW crank became the demise of this engine. The bearing shells in the rod (not the cap) start to eat themselves and eventually the clearances become so great that the piston contacts the head. It won't compress, however it is brittle enough that the pin pulls out the bottom of the piston and at high RPM speed the rod does what your picture shows to virtually everything in it's path until at rest.
I am brutally sorry for your loss and you will now learn the hard way to not trust anything that someone else says about your engine. The proverbial "it should be fine" just costed you thousands of dollars and a bazooka sized hole in your ego of "I did it myself"....
Buy the micrometers, and the bore guages, and know EXACTLY what everything measures from now on. There are literally hundreds of variables to account for when assembling an engine, and it only takes overlooking or assuming on ONE of them to have what you have...a pile of recyclables.
Again VERY sorry.....
A new crank will be on the high side of standard tolerance. Stock rods when released and retorqued...even using the required ft./lbs. and degrees method; they just distort. They for whatever reason become out of round; almost oval and often times require a few strokes on the rod hone machine to bring them back to round and into spec. for size. The best bolt upgrade was the now discontinued Katech bolts which were pricey but would only distort the big ends about .0003" from perfect. A simple re hone puts them in mid tolerance for size range where as the stock bolts need to be honed right to the high limit for size to be round again. This combined with a high limit standard NEW crank became the demise of this engine. The bearing shells in the rod (not the cap) start to eat themselves and eventually the clearances become so great that the piston contacts the head. It won't compress, however it is brittle enough that the pin pulls out the bottom of the piston and at high RPM speed the rod does what your picture shows to virtually everything in it's path until at rest. I am brutally sorry for your loss and you will now learn the hard way to not trust anything that someone else says about your engine. The proverbial "it should be fine" just costed you thousands of dollars and a bazooka sized hole in your ego of "I did it myself".... Buy the micrometers, and the bore guages, and know EXACTLY what everything measures from now on. There are literally hundreds of variables to account for when assembling an engine, and it only takes overlooking or assuming on ONE of them to have what you have...a pile of recyclables. Again VERY sorry.....
Wow :/ that's the nicest way I have ever been called a dumbass... And well deserved, I had no idea that could happen. I should have really taken more care when building it. Thanks for the information I'll never forget it haha
I don't think he was calling you a dumbass
Just another way of saying do it right the first time.
The average good ol boy machine shop is used to building sbcs and ****. An ls is very simple but it needs to be done the right way or you'll end up with similar results. Buying the tools and taking the time to put it together correctly is a good way to go, you'll know exactly what tolerances everything has and you'll know it was done correctly(hopefully)but it can be expensive and time consuming.
I had my last engine built at a local machine shop, they've built hundreds of ls engines, many in high hp boost builds, but I still checked everything as they were building it.
Sucks to see that it popped, hopefully it doesn't turn you back to those torque less Dorito engines, post some pictures of it when you tear it down
Hopefully some parts are save able
I don't think he was calling you a dumbass Just another way of saying do it right the first time. The average good ol boy machine shop is used to building sbcs and ****. An ls is very simple but it needs to be done the right way or you'll end up with similar results. Buying the tools and taking the time to put it together correctly is a good way to go, you'll know exactly what tolerances everything has and you'll know it was done correctly(hopefully)but it can be expensive and time consuming. I had my last engine built at a local machine shop, they've built hundreds of ls engines, many in high hp boost builds, but I still checked everything as they were building it. Sucks to see that it popped, hopefully it doesn't turn you back to those torque less Dorito engines, post some pictures of it when you tear it down Hopefully some parts are save able
I know he wasn't calling me a dumbass haha I was more making a joke at my own expense.
I will have to make a build thread with the new motor if I get one so I won't make the same mistakes twice just incase.
sorry to see, it'll be funny one day, just not today, bet the rotary guys are having a chuckle
It's not often they get to. They HATE the LS swap at RX7club. They claim you've taken the soul from the car. These same haters may be on their 6th reman 13B. I drove a FD auto, loved the handling, hated the power band. Years later I bought a FD roller and did the swap. Mine.
Will Northrup, you did get to drive it enough to know. Salvage what you can, do it again. Please bump this thread when you have more pictures.
Comp cam dual titanium valve springs with titanium retainers ls7 lifters with trunnion kit upgrade on the rocker rollers along with ls7 lifter trays and comp cam magnum rush rods. Arp bolts for heads plus comp cam high lift cam 102mm intake and throttle body ls6 oil pump and stock ls timing chain. Stock pistons and rods plus brand new crank. All new bearings. Stock bolts in bottom end.
Here is a question you can all help me with. So honestly i just want to get my car back going for the summer i dont care about making huge power or anything i just want to be able to drive it.
Hey guys I found an 03 hummer h2 with an LQ4 in it but i dont know if that will mate up to my t56 because of the crank length. Is 03 the year that has a removable spacer?
05-04-2015, 05:28 PM
*Updated with photos* Well my LS1 BLEW UP... :/ whos taking bets on whats still good? 
