I've been having nothing but problems with my 98 SS, bought it off a private seller, has various upgrades including a z06 cam, weiand intake, eldelbrock heads and full slp exhaust. Since i bought it in July ive driven less then 2k, its been at Eastside Performance weekly for repairs starting with a pair of bent intake valves, broken springs and ECM issues. Now its ticking like a sewing machine and the oil pressure jumps all over the place. ESP is telling me the motor is toast. Estimates on an Engine rebuild are approx. $5000. Is that an average cost, or should i go ahead and try and find a new motor? thanks for any help offered.

 

You can find an ls1 complete off here for round $1500. Or you can rebuild yours, for prob next to nothing except a lot of time.

Pretty much all that would be needed is to have the block honed.
Buy new piston rings. I would have the crank turned .001 and buy new main and rod bearings. While the engine is at the machine shop, go ahead and have the whole bottom end balanced.
Replace your oil pump with a ported and shimmed ls6 pump. I would take the heads to the machine shop to make sure everything is within spec and prob go ahead and get a valve job on them. Then just buy all new gaskets for everything.

Put everything back together, and you have yourself a new engine pretty much. All the above will prob cost you right around $800 or so.

 

Ok so your suggestion would be to rebuild the motor myself? im not sure i have the resources to do that isnt a full removal of the old engine required?

 

I bought a shortblock from a member here, and then sold my good block and rotating assembly to offset the cost. Price shortblocks, then subtract what blocks with rotating assemblies go for, and you can figure about what this cost me. Heres the thread:

https://ls1tech.com/forums/racers-lo...ew-engine.html

 

seriously only $800 for all that, that seems a little low.

 

Local machine shop here told me $900 for hone, deck, cleaning, turn crank, all bearings, assembly, and balancing. The heads were $150 for mill and basic valve job. Head gaskets were 80, lifters 140, pushrods 100, oil pump 100, intake/tb gaskets 35, stock head bolts 50, ARP rod bolts 80, coolant and 2 oil changes 75.....a motor teardown gets expensive quick.

 

What is your end purpose? Power or everyday driving....
If you want more power then rebuilding it with all the right performance parts will will lead you to your end result.

I am a big fan of OEM reliability, I would buy a stock motor and do a nice cam/intake combo on it...

you can buy a nice ls1-ls2-ls6 engine anywhere from 1k to 4k(roughly) install it then go without really worrying about, did my rings seat right? will I spin a bearing? why am I eating so much oil...ect ect.....

In conclusion, if you buy a stock ls1 for 1500, install a nice new cam in it with associated hardware 1k, then pay someone to install it 1k...

hope this helps

 

Good information
Just play around to read some issues on replace new LS1 or rebuild Ls1.

 

x1 It all depends on the combo. I had an ls1 with a 230 232 cam ls6 heads n intake tune n LTs with true duals. Also a 125 shoot. Run a 10.97 1/4 at 125mph.

 

can you remove the engine your self?if not pay some one to remove it.take the engine to your local engine builder and see what it will cost,and get a better cam.

 

My friend and I worked on LS1, take out from 2000 Camaro yesterday. He wants rebuild on that LS1.

We want to hear what LS1tech guys say on that Ls1 engine. We will talk with the machine shop to get quote to do hone,cleaning.

He wants have Ls1 engine for DD, sometime do road course on the track open and drag weekends.
Pixes >>
2000 Camaro Ls1 eng. out

Heads:







Bad oiil films

 

What are your capabilities?....mechanically wise. As for direction all the resources are right here on this site.