RedWS6 00

I brought my 2000 T/A with 86,000 miles on the clock, had it 3 years doing approx 10,000 miles per year, now at 115,000 miles. Not burning oil, seems to run fine, thinking of putting a different CAM in it and new heads, but wondering are these mods worth doing if the engine is at the end of its life. What is the expcted life, i was thinking more like 250,000 but someone said to me at the car club its getting near the end, he usually deals with iron blocks, and may not be all clued up on the LS1. Of course the engine life is effected by how you drive it. I just wondered if any one had any thoughts on this.

PREDATOR-Z

Best thing is to evaluate your block status.
That is done by a compression and a leakdown tests. If within the accepted ranges then to mod is no more harmful than doing it on a fresh block.

Ryan02SS

iTrader: (3)

Predator is correct. Also perform a wet compression check after the initial dry check. When compared to the dry test will usually give a better idea of ring & cylinder bore wear.

GuitsBoy

iTrader: (4)

Its too wide to speculate, as it depends highly on mintenance and driving style. It could be anywhere from 100K of hard driving to 350K+ if its driven easy and you keep on top of maintenance. There was a vette guy who turned 350K+ miles without major incident.

RedWS6 00

Thanks for your help, I dont know much about the history of the car, the log book shows no maintanance, I imported the car from the states with 86K miles on the clock and no history.

I guess if I take it to a garage they will know about a dry and wet compression test.

I have used EFI Live on the car to do some form of cylinder check, but as i have nothing to compare it with I dont know if the results are good. Middle cylinders showed to be worst than the outer ones.

The car seems to have plenty of power, had it over 160mph, so I guess there sin't too much wrong with it. I'll get the compression checked.

Thanks again for the info.

GuitsBoy

iTrader: (4)

If shes running smooth and strong now, just mod the hell out of it. Keep up with maintenance from this point on and she probably wont fade on you any time soon. While youre inside the motor do all the normal upkeep like a new ls2 timing chain and a new oil pump. Use a good synthetic oil and im sure youll get plenty of life out of her. The compression and leakdown tests will give you extra piece of mind.

I didnt cam my car till 75K and I plan on really racking up the miles since I drive 32K a year.

RedWS6 00

I'll get the LS2 triming chain when I get the cam and get it fitted, just deciding on the cam to go for, not too sure what i want to mod on the engine yet, like I would love the Vortech Supercharger but cant afford $7000 any time soon. Wouldn't mind heads with the cam but only have about $3000 to spend, When i get the cam I'll change the rockers, dual springs and the push rods. I probably have nearer $3500 dollars, but need to take into account import tax and shipping to UK.

I change the oil about every 3000k miles, along with the filter. you think its worth changing the oil pump at the same time as fitting the CAM and timing chain? I'm getting between 40 and 70psi depending on temprature and revs.

GuitsBoy

iTrader: (4)

with a MY 2000 car, its hit or miss wether you got the old style oil pump. The older style had a problem where the pressure releif valve would stick open and lose oil pressure toasting a motor. Its cheap piece of mind while youre in there. The parts arent too expensive. You could probably do heads and cam easily for that kind of cash if you were doing the work yourself.

snketr

iTrader: (3)

I had 150+k on my 99, all stock except the bottle of juice that I ran through it weekly.

It never gave me any problems. Just take care of it and you should be good to go.

snketr

iTrader: (3)

If you don't change the pump and cahin when you do a cam. You're just asking for trouble.

777

iTrader: (21)

I don't know anything about import tax and shipping, but you could get a heads/cam for close to 3,000 here in the states.
Cam - $400
Spring kit - $250
Pushrods - $150
Gaskets - $50
Oil pump - $150
Timing chain - $50
Total - $1050
That covers it for the cam swap.
If you want heads as well.
PRC 2.5 heads - $1500
Head studs - $250
Head gaskets - $100
Lifters (opt. but recommended) - $200
Total - $2050
Est Total for complete heads/cam w/o labor - $3100 (of course price will vary on parts used) I'd say it could be as low as $2500 and as high as $4500.)


Then you have oil and coolant and the tools and whatever else (little misc. things) you will need that you don't have.

GuitsBoy

iTrader: (4)

If you do heads and cam at the same time you savve the $250 on the spring kit since the heads come assembled

RedWS6 00

Thanks for all the info. I have a freind that has offered to install a cam, he usually builds Chevy blocks, he hasn't touched an LS1 before, but I guess all the mechanics are the same, just the LS1 has more sensors etc.. If the heads can be fitted without an en gine out job I'm sure he will do that for me too.

Now my next problem is selecting the parts to get. 777 you seem you know what parts are required, would you like to go shopping for me? or can all these parts be purchased from one place.

Import tax is about 20% of the items value gets charged as it comes into the country. Also being in another county, I'm not going to send my current heads off.

The items you list 777, can them parts all be pruchased from one place, I have looked at ThunderRacing, they dont have much of a choice of heads.

Thanks for all your advice so far.

Cop Car

iTrader: (14)

unless someone has sprayed on it a lot and/or been missing lots of shifts (you would probably know because of a bent pushrod) your motor is just getting warmed up... my car has had the crap ran out of it for 140k and still turns a 13.3 @ 104 1/4

you cannot access the lifters from the top, you have to remove the heads to get to the lifters. the good thing about LS1s is that they have a place for these two bars to hold up the lifters while you do the swap.. dont let someone experement with your car... id get a book and read lots of times over so that you would know whats going on