Alright. I’m back. Holidays had me busy with other stuff. I did finish the bottom end. I ended up having to buy two more rod bearings. The first one, I had a very rough feeling half. It’s almost like they spray a coating on it and it was real splotchy And rough feeling. Didn’t like that so o bought a new one. Then my dumbass installed one of the rod caps backwards. How? I dunno. Probably when I had company over one time. Luckily I caught it when I was checking my side to side play on the rods. Motor would spin over just fine but one rod wouldn’t move side to side. It scuffed the bearing up so I bought a new one. All is good now.

I pulled the trans out last weekend and started prepping to yank the motor out. I should have it out Sunday and I’ll put my top end on the new motor. I have to wait on my convertor before I get it running but I can stick the motor in probably next weekend.

 

This thread is worthless without PIX!

 

yea my bad. I’ll post some.

 

Here’s some pics.







sfi flexplate, arp flexplate bolts, jp billet timing set, arp crank bolt, gm lifter guides, ferrea valves (not sure I’m gonna use) and polyurethane motor mounts and trans mount insert.

 

Got the motor out just now. Forgot to drain oil. Doing that now. No metal on the drain plug and oil looks good. Report soon

 

Progress....

 

Subscribing as this post has some good information in it and wanting to see how your build ends.

 

Alright fellas. I have figured out the problem with my LS1. It’s exactly what I thought and where I thought. Busted ring land in cyl7. Luckily no damage to motor. And other good news. It’s a gen4 bottom end. I think I’m gonna put forged pistons in and an bag it for a spare.

 

Ported the oil pump. Shimmed it .080 because why not. Installed cam and lifters and oil pump. Jp billet timing chain set and called it a night. I did swap over all my sensors too.

 

Looking good. Thanks for keeping the community updated with the build progress.

 

NA LS1’s will bust ring lands. #7 is common.
They will also bust the ring lands between the top and 2nd rings. I have a 20k mile block that had that issue. It was procharged for awhile.

Gen IV Rods. You will have to let us know if it was full floating. Prob not?

Ron

 

I'll pull the one rod and piston out tonight and see. i'd like to find another piston and just fix it. Unless i can find a set of drop in forged pistons. i'm not paying to balance another motor.

 

THX. I may put the engine in next weekend if I get back in town early enough. Wont be running till my converter gets back tho.

 

So does that mean the original motor is going back in with new pistons or the 2nd motor you were building is going in?

 

Built 5.3 going in it for sure. I’ve already started swapping heads and cam and stuff over.

 

 

I’ll check the ring gaps tonight. Good idea. I’d like to know.

no they didn’t show any more heat, but I’ll double check tonight.

no way to add fuel to the rear except get injectors flowed and put the highest flowing ones in the rear.

​​​​​​​enlarge the holes in the gaskets? Hmmm. I’ll look into that.

 

The LS rebuild book I got with my WS6 store rebuild kit had a nice table for ring gap based on intended power and NA/boost/etc. I feel like it was 22 top and 26 second, but would have to confirm.

 

Most of the out of box rings are about .016-.018 BUT if youre tryin to use a 3.898 piston on an og ls1 bore they are likely more. Sometimes by quite a bit. And wont be very consistent bore to bore. This coming from customer supplied info.
And theyll change gap top to bottom.

As far as the other drill holes etc. Dont jump through unnecessary hoops. Use a good steam vent system and gap rings and go.

 

Modified head gaskets for improved cooling. https://www.yellowbullet.com/threads...power.2591383/

Not sure where the link went for the small bore version. Check with Chris. https://straubtechnologies.com/ls3-p...arch=346-4411P