Recently, I had a 4 bolt 350 that I didn't want, so I sold it to a guy trying to hurry up and finish a project. While talking with him, I found out that he had an LS1 block that he didn't want since it would be much more expensive to build than the 350 would (his words). I asked him about it and he said that it had spun a bearing and that he had a machine shop clean it up, and that it was greased up or something and in a plastic bag for storage so that it wouldn't rust. It is just the block, doesn't even have the main caps. He wants $100 for it.

What should I do? What should I look for when looking at the block? Is this just a bad idea? What's the standard bore size of an LS1 so that I can check those?

Thanks for the help!
Adam

 

id buy it and flip it on craigslist

 

Well, I've got a '79 Z28 that it could go in. I was wanting an LS2, but a stroked LS1 would work too, especially for the price. I'm just wondering if this is too good to be true. Should I be worried about no main caps?

 

i dont see why it would be bad. arent main caps replaceable?

 

3.898 is stock bore, 3.903 is max for 97 thru mid 99 and 3.905 is max for mid 99 to 04. The mains can be replaced and align honed to match.

If he is close by, I say try to take it to a machine shop to have it checked out before you buy. However, 100 bucks is not a bad deal.

 

not a bad deal, and if you don't want to stroke it or just want to build it and sell it I've got the factory internals and heads off an 02 LS1 had 17k miles on it, I put some afr heads and added a 383 stroker kit, will sell cheap.

 

Okay, here's another question: Where do I get main caps. I can find aftermarket billet ones everywhere, but they're ~$500 or more, and I think stock ones would be fine. I just can't find stock ones anywhere. Also, how much would an align hone be, generally?

Thanks for all your help guys!

Nissan, I do plan on building it up and putting it in my '79Z.

 

is it all aluminum? if its an iron block, most likely its not an ls1

 

It is. He said it came out of a 'Vette and had spun a bearing. Not sure why it doesn't have it's main caps with it.

 

probably spun bearing damaged main cap, so caps thrown away with crank

 

Ah. I see.

I just remembered something. I blew up an LS1 a few years back, and kept all the pieces with the idea that I could make a coffee table out of the block and rods/pistons and what not. I should still have the main caps from that block, and I'm pretty sure they were fine. Can I reuse those on this other block? If so, then I would only need new bearings and an align hone, correct?

 

align hone and measure for bearings, don't think standard size bearings will fill after an align hone unless hardly nothing was taken off.