tommypenguin

Hello all, I found myself in a tough predicament a couple weeks ago regarding my 01 C5.

Background:

I drive an 01 C5 with manual transmission, 243 ported heads, beehive springs, very mild thunder racing cam 220/220, fast 92 manifold, ls2 TB, long tubes, methanol and A & A Supercharger with 3.6 10psi pulley. I made 651whp last year when tuned.

Long story short I had gone to a car show, ran into a neighbor on my way home a block from my home, turned the car off to chat with them. Then when restarting my car, saw 0 oil pressure, and the low oil pressure warning appear. Car sounded fine, thought it could have been a bad OPS, so I drove it a block to get home. While driving the oil pressure went up to 50psi and appeared normal, then when I pulled into the garage, oil pressure needle slowly sunk to 0 at idle not under load. At which point I shut the car off and began diagnosing it. I drained the oil and cut filter open and saw an alarming amount of shavings indicating there is damage within the motor.

I am close to having all parts out of the way needed to pull the motor and will be picking up a cherry picker soon. I have not removed an engine previously or rebuilt one.

I was extremely happy with the power I was at and wouldn't be upset even if I lost a bit of power. My situation doesn't allow me to afford dropping a small fortune on an engine. My budget is around 2,000.

Questions:

Based on my goals, budget and setup would I be better off trying to rebuild the LS1 with stronger internals such as a forged rotating assembly 383 stroker kit, assuming the block is salvageable. Or should I drop in a junkyard L33 with 130k on the odometer. I drive probably 5000miles a year on the corvette.

If I go with a junkyard L33, would all of my mods, transmission and accessories bolt up without modification? I believe I read that I may have to drill an additional hole for the alternator to mount up.

Would I be able to reuse my corvette crank pulley? I'm probably most concerned with the supercharger being able to bolt up and line up for the belt with all the spacers included in the kit.

I am VERY receptive to suggestions on which approach would be best and any tips regarding pulling the motor from the top for that matter. Thank you all so much for taking the time to help me out.

91FormulaKiller

iTrader: (28)

The last car I built had an L33 in it and I ran all F-body accessories, which you can bolt everything you've got on that LS1 (including the crank pulley) right onto the L33 (I don't think I even had to drill the alt mount hole as the head had a pre-tapped hole for it). If you want just about the same power (+/- 10--15hp/tq) the L33 should prove to be the ticket, not to mention it has better rods from factory than the LS1 in your vette. I'd strip every last bit from the LS1 and install on the L33 and drop it in. I don't have any tips on pulling the engine out as I only do old school firebirds.

J-Rod

You are going from a 5.7 to a 5.3. If you are looking at a junkyard motor, why not find a "junkyard" 5.7 or even a 6.0L shortblock instead of going to 5.3 truck motor?

Were you going to try to re-use the 220 cam and bolt your 243 heads on the motor? If you have enough trash in the motor you may have killed the cam. What CC are your heads, and have you factored in the change in CR to what you want to do?

You should factor in the cost of a retune if you change cubic inches as well to your cost/benefit comparison.

tommypenguin

I was fairly confident I would be safe in terms of everything bolting up but wasn't positive.

A primary reason for going with an L33 is because finding a junkyard LS1 is cost prohibitive. I've looked mainly on car-part.com, lkqonline and a couple other locations and can't seem to find a used LS1, LS6, or other comparable LS motors for less than 2,500 with somewhat reasonable miles. I would still need to upgrade internals to support my current configuration, increasing the costs. Any web sites you guys have used that I may not be looking at?

Another reason for going with the L33 that 91FormulaKiller pointed out is that the bottom end is a bit more stout on than the LS1. I was hoping to get away with running an L33 with a couple of head upgrades and leave the bottom end as is.

I do not have the specs on the heads in terms of CCs, I purchased the car already built last year with all the performance mods I have listed. I'm walking into this build expecting all parts in the motor to be trashed and hoping to be pleasantly surprised if anything is not. Regardless of which option I go with I am planning on getting re-tuned. Going to need to pick HP Tuners so I can log and eventually learn how to make tweaks to my map if and when needed like I did a few years ago with old legacy gt using ecuflash.

Much appreciated for the feedback thus far guys. Any other considerations I should be aware or suggestions you have on which route will help me accomplish my goals are welcome.

91FormulaKiller

iTrader: (28)

Yes, in your particular situation I think the most cost effective way to simply replace basically what you already have (and given the cam and heads are still in good useable condition, no damage) is just to swap everything to the L33, pan and associated parts, heads, cam, intake---everything except the short block essentially and run it. I would look on here for a cheap L33 short block for sale. Worst case scenario, a 5.3 LM7 iron shortblock and take a 30-40 hp decrease and a tune will be a higher requirement.

RebelExtrm02

iTrader: (3)

Wouldn't it actually be cheaper to strip the block to the crank, rods, and pistons yourself and take it to a machine shop to have the rings and bearings replaced, crank turned, and cylinders honed? Even if you had to replace the crank and cam you're still not that far in. Add some ARP rod bolts and you're ahead. Then you'd have a solid refreshed motor instead of mystery condition 130k motor. That's exactly what I would do if I wasn't interested in changing displacement.

tommypenguin

Leaning toward a rebuild at the moment. So far the upper portion of the motor looks ok. Can you guys look at the pics, specifically of the valve guide with a little scuff on the top of it and two minor scratches on the cylinder wall. I can't even catch my nail on them, but can see them when the light hits them and wanted to know of if either is cause for concern or perhaps my untrained eye is missing something obvious. Thanks for looking over my pics. I can take more if it will help provide clarity.


Valve Guide on the right...



Driver Side cylinders...



Driver Side heads





Passenger side heads...





Passenger side cylinders...



Notice the bottom right corner scratches...

RebelExtrm02

iTrader: (3)

What you are referring to as a valve guide is actually the tip of your valve. The guide is the shaft that's pressed into the head that the valve moves up and down in. It's below the spring. I can't tell by the picture though if the tip is damaged enough to hurt anything. I'm doubtful it is.

As for the other pictures, I can't really see much. You're not missing any chunks of anything. As long as there aren't any deep straight up and down grooves in the cylinders that can most likely be honed out.

I do notice some witness marks on a couple of your pistons from the valves. If these are from the valves you're running now you might want to get them checked to make sure they aren't bent. You will also want to verify your piston to valve clearance and check your springs. Valve float from weak springs at high rpms can cause those markings. I had them on my motor when I ran patriot dual gold springs for too long with too aggressive of a cam and floated the valve when the springs wore out. This caused my valves to be tweaked just enough to look and feel straight but still beat up my valve stem oil seals and guildes making the motor use a lot of oil.

93Polo

iTrader: (5)

You would also need to verify the reluctor wheel on the L33. If it is not 24x then you would need to swap it on the crank or buy a Lingenfelter converter box.

https://ls1tech.com/forums/generatio...-reluctor.html