Spoonylove

ive been lookin at alot of LS1s lately and ive seen many with over 120,xxx +. i was Wondering what everyones thought are on these high milage cars. Ive heard from friends that the LS1s are like honda motors in the fact that they last so long........

NJNETSFAN

iTrader: (15)

I have 176K on the original motor,car has great oil pressure and haven't had a problem. There's a guy that has a cam on a motor with over 210K. These things will live for a long time. I consider 120K average miles for these cars, remember the newest ones left are almost 7 years old. Taking the average of 12K miles per year times 7 years= 84K, so 120K isn't really "high" mileage.

BananaHead

iTrader: (2)

I just bought a beautiful Sebring Silver SS from Cali. It's got 106k on the clock now. Granted, the motor has been rebuilt after a spun bearing (and rebuilt with forged internals !!) but the rest of the car is original miles as far as I know. I love it!! It still looks great, and the car performs like it's just broken in. I'd say as long as there is no glaring, obvious flaws and the car looks as if it hasn't been beaten into the ground, it's probably got plenty of life in it. And also, make sure you get a good deal on it!

Spoonylove

thanks guys all your contributions help

ImStock

my dad bought one new in late 1997, a 1998 base model Trans Am we still have it and it has 291k on it. original motor

Camaroz

iTrader: (2)

148K on my 98 and the only problem at the moment is I blew up the 4l60E

Black99T\A

iTrader: (17)

99 t\a here with 145xxx, run it hard, still runs like a top

landonew

It depends on whether or not it will be your DD. If you have something else to drive then i would say that a mileage car would be just fine. If you are looking at it being your only mode of transportation, then I would proceed with caution.

People buy these cars to beat on them. 120,XXX miles is a lot of beating, so just remember what you could be getting yourself into. Good luck on finding an ls1. There are some grreat deals out there.

MYSTIC-1SC

iTrader: (14)

yea i've seen plenty ls1 cars running strong with over 120,000 miles on them

Camaroz

iTrader: (2)

That's what I did Got my 98 with 102K at 16 1/2 years old. proceeded to beat the crap out of it for 46K and I'm on my 4th (I think?) set of tires since then. Now a couple months ago I screwed up a sprag gear in the transmission and limped it home and parked it Still owe money on it for another year too haha gotta pay to play remember that. BTW when my car was bone stock.. I was beating brand new Evo 9's, S R T - 4's, Pre 03/04 Cobra's with full exhaust, gears and Drag radials... Oh and Modded 2nd Gen Eclipse GSX's with Upgraded Turbo and N2O Did I mention I know all these people personally so I know what's been done?

giant016

iTrader: (4)

There are some that last a quarter of a million miles while being beaten, then others that go after 50K (mine for example). It's a crapshoot, but these cars are at a low point right now, you can find some higher mileage for 5K.

They are bargains, but keep in mind if you get another 100K out of it you'll be in a rare minority. But for the price, 350hp, and relatively good MPG, you can't expect much more in any car. What's the saying? Fast, cheap, reliable...pick two.

hndakilr

these things last forever when properly maintained. just be very meticulous when your checking it out ie.. look under the car,pull a couple plugs,drive the **** out of it...

Mean87SS

iTrader: (21)

112k here and still pluggin along

JASON11WS6

iTrader: (7)

I bought a 00 Z with 126k on it as a project drag car. My girlfriend drove my daily driver (ssei) into a ditch and it went from drag car to daily driver for a few months. I put 3k on it in that time and felt more comfortable driving that thing with the high miles and all then cars with half the miles. It drives like it's brand new.
On the otherside, I test drove a 01 SS with 65k. Biggest POS I've ever been in. Car didn't drive right, rattles all to hell, had to fight right turns and dove into the left ones. Scary car but to be fair it was obviously in a pretty major accident.
So just make sure the car is in decent shape, keep up on the up keep, and drive it like you stole it.

Spoonylove

ya im gonna check it very thoroughly , im pretty OCD about my cars

any suggestions on what all to check that i may not know to check.....i will be checking the engine bay alot and i will pull plugs as hndakilr has pointed out.

TurbopigB4C

iTrader: (5)

I bought mine a couple months ago with 119k and all it had wrong with it was a broken trans mount cheap 20 dollar fix. I went to the 1/8th mile a couple of times and then my water pump started leaking and my power steering cooler went bad but still I prefer it over my 04 celica gt-s which I am now selling because it drives just as nice.

Dan Stewart

Bought my latest project there in my sig with 190,511 miles on it. Runs hard, real hard. Though, the tranny and engine were rebuilt about 4K miles ago. This car has been abused really bad by the previous owners, but that didn't bother me at all. It is a weekend track/cruise project anyway. It is the build part that gets my juices flowing. When I'm done, I'll get bored with it and find something else to wrench on.

jrob56

iTrader: (39)

mine has 109*** still runs strong and forsee no problems, two friends of mine brothers have 3 B4C cars(u know the cops beat the hell out of them) one went to 160000 before it got pulled for a built motor but no problems that i know of and one the fastest stock cars ive been around, second has 14**** bolt on car that pulls hard as ever, the last i want to say is north of 100 i think and is a strong bolt on car as well! i wouldnt be afraid of high mileage ls1's at all, just give the care a thorough look over.

Nabdrill

iTrader: (19)

If the engine isn't using oil and doesn't smoke(and not weird sounds) then you're good to go on that. Make sure you take the radiator cap off and look in the coolant for "Stop-leak". If it's got that in the coolant then run Forrest run! If it doesn't then that's good. Next, get someone to get in the car with it running and turn the steering wheel back and forth and you look under the front at all the steering components and make sure that there's not alot of slack. Then, if you can do it, jack the front of the car up inder the k-member and try to shake the front tires grabbing them on the top and bottom - if the front wheel bearings/hub are good then there won't be any slack in the wheel. While it's up look for any oil leaks in the front or the back of the engine where it meets the trans(front/rear engine seals). Now jack up the back under the differential with the car in park and try to rool the back wheels backwards and forward and listen for crazy sounds and feel how much slack there is(a little is OK, but you don't want to be able to turn the wheel a 1/4 of a turn)... also check the u-joints in the driveshaft when you're doing this. If all this checks out, take it out for a test drive and beat it up - do it with the AC on and off. Leave the radio off so you can hear any noises that might be there. After you've driven it for a while, just park it a let it idle and watch the temp and oil pressure for about 15 min with and without the AC on. Take it to a Chevy dealer or mechanic and pay the $40 to get it scanned for codes and low-idle misses.

It's a long list of things to do, but it checks all the easy stuff that can bite you in the butt. If you find some stuff wrong, I'm not saying you shouldn't buy it, but you should be able to negotiate a better price.

I've bought a few of these cars and the motors are bulletproof when maintained. I bought a B4C state trooper model with 150k on it and sprayed it with 175 shot with no issues.

Good shopping to ya!

hoss 2000 z-28

iTrader: (1)

The simplicity of a pushrod design gives the LS1 amazing reliability and durability. Plus one doesn't have to work it hard to commute, etc. Going to the store or whatever you are probably only using 15% of what the motor could give you. Keeping a stock longblock with a conservative tune and regular maintenance it should last forever!

Pushrods > OHC