hey guys,

i have a 2000 c5 and i'm fairly certain that i have some gasket problems. oil pressure was acting crazy for awhile, everything is fine now, but it is slowly leaking oil from the timing cover gasket and i was told by a chevrolet mechanic several months back that the head gaskets are blown as well. i've been too busy with deployments to take care of it, but i'll finally be coming home for thanksgiving and i want to yank the engine out and start fresh. i've already talked to one engine builder who said he could re-ring the pistons, polish the crank, do a valve job, and replace the gaskets that are bad. what else should i do while the engine is out of the car?? i was thinking a port n polish of the heads, a cam, and long tubes. is there anything else i should look out for, like pistons or rods? im trying to get 400 at the wheels, i'll be happy with that for now.

i already took care of the handling, put the T1 leaf springs and sway bars on there back in the spring. picked everything up on craigslist for $600. also put on a LS6 intake manifold and nittos all around. now i just need an engine that works. Thanks for your input.

 

First off why does your mechanic think the head gaskets are bad? I'm not saying they aren't but it should be pretty obvious if they are. The oil will look like sour chocolate milk if coolant is getting in there and you would see white smoke coming out the exhaust if coolant is getting into the combustion chambers. The pistons shouldn't need to be re-ringed unless a compression check shows problems.

If the compression is good, but there is coolant in the oil then all you should need to do is pull the heads and put in new gaskets. This won't require the engine to be pulled. The timing cover gasket can also be replaced with the engine in the car.

If the heads are coming off, then it's a great time to swap in some better ones. I wouldn't bother with having someone local try to port/polish the 241's unless they have extensive experience with LSx heads and proven results. If your budget is tight then a set of ported factory castings is your best bet. I'm a fan of TEA myself though there are many competent vendors out there. If you can afford the aftermarket castings, then either AFR or TFS offer excellent heads.

With the timing cover gasket replacement you're only about 15 minutes away from swapping the cam. I would definitely swap it. You should also swap in an LS6 oil pump and replace the timing chain. You'll get a hundred different options on cams. The only advice I can give you is to figure out your power/driveability goals and find cams that fit. Be sure that whatever heads you get have valve springs able to handle whatever cam you decide on or plan on swapping them before mounting the heads.

Longtubes are pretty much a given when building a cam or heads/cam setup. So you should plan on getting a set. Kooks, LGM, and ARH all make good ones. The coated TSP longtubes/x-pipe are a great deal.

Another thing to add is if your car is a 6spd, your clutch is going to die quickly with the extra power. So that will need to be budgeted for. If it's an A4 it will likely last a while on the street, but you should be planning on beefing it up in the near future.