The engine in my 2002 Z28 is completely destroyed. It threw a rod and cracked one side and made a pretty major whole in the other side, it even cracked the oil pan. My dad and I are looking to do everything to it ourselves and my parents were talking about getting a loan for $5000. We are also replacing the catalytic converters and all O2 sensors. We have found a couple of places that will sell a remanufactured block with the heads and everything. Since we HAVE to replace all that I wanted to take this opportunity to ask everyone on here for some advice. Instead of just sticking with the stock LS1 block i was looking to see if we could possibly step up the power with a different block and heads or something else that will still keep us within that $5000 range or not too much over. I will admit that I myself don't know too much about it which is why I am coming here to ask.

 

Sounds like a good time to upgrade to a 6.0 iron block lq4 or 9.

Are your heads still good, or did they get trashed too? If you could still use them that could save a few bucks, or you could get a set of 5.3 heads or 243 heads.

Big thing you have to include in your build price is around $500 for a tune when you change from stock.

You have a lot of options depending how far you want to go with it!

Good luck and if you have any questions feel free to ask, you are in the right place!

 

I just went thru this, but my block was good. I would take a look at thompson motorsports, they have some killer deals on long and shortblocks. I opted to rebuild mine, which in the end, I could have just bought a shortblock already done, wasnt expecting that much to be done.

Just remember, if you change it from stock, you would want headers, y pipe with or without cats, possibly new injectors, fuel pump, new clutch for the new power, possible new hydraulics. motor mounts.

I comptemplated just going back the way it was, same cam, but since you have it all apart, I would upgrade some things, believe me, it took me over 24 hours to put the motor together and put the k member, tranny and all the other stuff back on, and I have a lift !

 

After blowing up my motor and swapping to a lq4 I think its the best move I've made on my car. I did my swap for $2k but that also had a lot of miscellaneous stuff and a clutch being one of them. $5k you can get a low mile lq4 or lq9 heads and cam and some Bolton's and make some good power if you do it right and do it yourself. Lq4 makes a lot more torque BTW. My car with the ls1 and full bolt ons ran a best of 13.17@107 the lq4 with same mods but a frost mail order for nitrous with 18° of timing went 12.73@111 on street tires with a m6

 

Instead of taking out a loan why not find an LQ9? I just got one for $850 with half the miles of my LS1...

 

like mentioned above maybe look for a low mileage 6.0,you can find one for under $2000..you can get a conversion kit from Texas Speed.the 6.0 comes with good heads and a 4 bolt intake and TB,90 mm opening..get a cam kit from TSP ,and you can make 400+ hp for under $4000.

 

I agree with the 6.0 pull out route. I found one locally for $800, with only 30K miles on the clock from a 2005 Silverado 2500. You add about 100 lbs, but the extra power and torque more than make up for it. If your doing this on a budget, about all you will need to buy will be a new Fbody oil pan, since yours is broke, and a few inexpensive items, like a new balancer bolt etc, as you will need to swap your balancer and accessories over. Most of what you need could be found on your broke LS1, ie intake, injectors, TB, MAF, etc. I would think you could possibly get it done for about $1500 including a tune if you were really watching your costs. For $4-5k you could build quite a performer, swap the cam and springs, pull the heads and get them ported, fast intake and a bigger TB, etc before you install the 6.0.

Buying an iron 5.3 would also be a possibility, for budget reasons, but you may take a little performance hit. I did see a decent looking 5.3 pull out a while back that could have been had for $300 cash. I have seen at least 1 camaro with a 5.3 truck engine swapped into it. It had a cam in it, and ran close to what I would expect a stock LS1 to run at the track.

This is just personal philosophy, but I would walk before I borrowed $5K to fix my engine, where there are good options around for about 1/3 of that.

 

6.0 block 300-600 243 heads 350-700 stock crank 100-250
Rods and pistons up to you depending on future goals
Forged about a 1000 for rods and pistons and a tsp cam kit 600 ls2 chain 50 ls6 pump 100 and reuse ur ls6 intake