Well, appears my luck may have gone from bad to worse...

To try and make a long story short, tuner asked if the oil pump had been replaced during the H/C swamp (it had) because he noticed the oil presure gage tanked during his last WOT pull when he was finishing up the tune. Scared him a little so mentioned getting a mechanical gage to double check as soon as I could. He commented that you had to be really careful with an o-ring during the install of a new one.
Picked up the car yesterday and drove it home in a pretty solid rain (which I NEVER do) and noticed a random sqeak in the idle at the last few stops before home and then in the idle itself in the garage. Hoped it was just a result of the rain. Nothing squirly with the OP gage that I noticed. Did not drive it hard at all though.
Was finally dry this morning so was anxious to take it for a spin and noticed the minor squeak again after pulling out of the driveway but by the time i got out of my addition that had morphed into an awful "thwapping" kind of sound. Limped around the block back into my addition and popped the hood expecting to see a belt had come off and was smacking against something...not the case. Limped it back thru the addition to home with it wanting to die the whole time.
After talking to tuner, sending him a vid I took and pulling apart the oil filter and seeing shavings, he's pretty confident it spun a bearing. ☹
I'm sure it could always be worse...pretty hard to imagine right now though!

 

That sucks

 

man that really F!@#$%^ sucks and i hate to hear that. can you post a video here ?

 

Here's a pic of the filter. Unsuccessful in my first try at uploading a vid from my phone (mp4). Need to research exactly how to do that I guess.

 

damn Brother sorry to hear this turn of events. Hopefully she'll come back better and stronger.

 

So I think I'm going to take the advice of tuner # 3 (who I really do like) and just detach from the car for a while and regroup over the winter. From his perspective, it sure sounds like the culprit could be a botched oil pump install by the original tuner/installer but I'm sure that's next to impossible to prove at this point. Other than potentially saving some money, I would want no part of him doing any more work on the car so might be a lost cause.

Initial off-the-cuff response from new tuner was "new bearings, rings and polish crank" but it sounds like you really have to open it up before you know the full extent of the damage. He ballparked $4k to pull it, machine work, and reinstall everything but I do plan to research best bang for the buck options. Nothing worse than spending money just to get back to neutral!

Just thought I'd pose the question as to what initial thoughts/recommendations might be to make the best investment moving foward? Although, honestly, the idea of fixing and selling has ran through my mind but probably a result of what a horrible experience this has been. Always had visions of potentially trading up to an LS vette someday down the road once kids are older and don't want to continue dumping money in this if Im just going to take a huge loss if/when I sell it. Was really hoping my next/last real investment in the TA would be a rear end/gear upgrade possibly next year and then leave it alone for a few years. So much for that one though!!
My dads company is owned by LKQ so I do have some connections there for a parts resource. Maybe I can add some power through the rebuild that makes the Vette dream go by the wayside?!

Anway, thanks to everyone for all the advice/feedback/support up to this point! Thought I should include a pic of the car just so everyone could see what I've been fighting for here. She really is a beauty @ only 29k miles. Probably should've left her alone!...

 

Maybe get a pull out 6.0 from LKQ

 

This was precisely what crossed my mind but have a LOT or research to do! Sounds like an lq9 shortblock is pretty much a direct swap but not sure about my exisiting H/C setup and what benefits I could see on something like this vs sticking with the 5.3. Had originally planned on going with TF 215's on the build but transitioned to the PRC stage 2.5 ls6s due to availability (and price a bit). With time no longer being an issue, the idea of potentially going with some TF's and custom ground cam (and just selling existing) was another idea as well but cant imagine Id see a huge bump in performance compared to the $ spent.
Would love to just see even just another 50ish rwhp out of the build when its all said and done but long ways to go!

 

Sweet looking car.

That's a rough and rotten turn of events.

Sometimes it helps to take a breath before getting back to sorting the issue. Makes it easier to come back and upgrade better than before.

 

Agreed 100% with this statement. Sometimes 3* of separation is what helps in these situations. I know it sucks having to look at your car sitting there but again. Be deliberate and make a financially savy decision.

 

my 5.7 blew up and i was determined i would not go back with a 5.7 because i wanted to go bigger. Went back with a aluminum 6.0 L76. took my time got my parts together and did my first ever install. pulled my 5.7 in my gravel driveway and installed the 6.0.

 

This was pretty much my exact sentiment when I started contemplating last weekend as well. The idea of dropping another big chunk of $ just to get back where I started is a tough one to swallow. Granted, I really never even got a chance to experience/enjoy the h/c/i build.
I know if I just stick with my current h/c setup, going to an lq9/4 probably wouldn't do a whole lot for me and my current block only has 29k mi on it. Granted, this is assuming there's no major damage once its opened up. Illusions of FI down the road have popped into my head but probably pretty unlikely based on the $ I'm looking at just to get up and running again. Never know though I spose! Gonna take some more time to digest everything but don't envision going overboard on anything. If there's anything worth doing during the build that could help down the road if I did want to explore FI, those might be worth considering.
I spoke to an employee of my dads the other day who has a close contact at Lengenfelter here in Indiana and he said he could help me out as well so may pursue that one a little more. Will probably run through options with tuner #3 (really like him) in a few weeks and then weigh all options and go from there. I'm actually glad it's cooling down here, doesnt hurt as bad not being able to get the car out!

 

It sounds dumb but it works:
write down your goals with the car. See what all it's going to take to get there. Meaning parts and attach a dollar amount to each one and a dollar amount on who's doing it. If it's you then you have to pay yourself also. When you do that do not add it all up. Keep each part individually priced. Open a bank account and start puting money in there. Per paycheck set a certain amount a side and if one paycheck you miss a payment, you have to double it next paycheck. Believe me this works if you're as strcik.withbit as you are with your other responsibilities. Once you start saving money, check off a part. This thing called life is a marathon. The things that we choose to add to it are part of the marathon. As a terminally ill cancer patient who loves this fast car thing I can tell you that life is still a marathon and my build still has be done in the confines of my disease my income and my ability to get it done on the days I have energy. Don't worry about tomorrow because tomorrow isn't given and realistically humans tend to worry about the things we have no control over which is everything. So sit back write it all down and let it take as long as it needs to. If you want to give it a time line do so, but make sure that it works for you, your loved ones, and your life.

Remember these are things you will never get back, which are time and yesterday.

 

+ 1 to taking your time. When I built my 98, I got in a bit of a rush, since I’m military and I’m always on some sort of timeline. Needless to say, mistakes were made. But I learned. In fact I learned so much over just a series of failures, I now have valuable insight into problem solving on these particular cars. I’ve been turning wrenches for many years, and I’ve seen a lot of problems, but none like the ones I caused myself by rushing things.

To the post above, couldn’t agree more. Time is one thing you can’t get back, but trust me you’ll spend more time doing it again by rushing things. I had to re-engineer a number of things on my 98, and it’s funny when my wife says it’s a Chevy, and when I have to clean up the next little issue that is bugging me (which is ongoing lol) she makes fun of me because she’s a Ford fan. It’s then that I can at least tell her Chevy had nothing to do with it because there are almost no GM parts left lol. Basically just the sensors, block, body (mostly) and trans case. That’s about it for stock parts. I learned a lot about a lot of things making that a reality.

Since, I’ve helped a lot of folks build theirs too. I enjoy that part, and being that honest mechanic. I’m even honest about it if I have to shade tree something to save them money lol. I stay in contact with almost all of these folks and I still help them if there are issues.

I say all this to say, an engine rebuild is not actually that difficult. You have plenty of help here and of course lots of great info on YouTube. I would save yourself a few thousand and rebuild it yourself. You’ll thank me later. Get over the inhibition and fear of the task and remember it’s just nuts and bolts. Everything you need to know is readily available online as far as combos, specs, torques, procedures, etc.

If it has been done, someone here in this forum probably did it.

 

Wow...great advise/words of wisdom all-around! Can't thank everyone enough!

I've been thinking more and more about droppong the motor myself but don't want to monopolize ALL of my time on the project (which I tend to do once I start something!) and take away from family time with my two younger kiddos. That said, I do have a friend with a lift and it really looks like dropping the motor out the bottom is not a difficult job. May end up going that route to at least save some labor costs then get help with the machining side of things as needed.

Will no-doubt be spending LOTS of time on this forum (and YouTube) throughout the project! Would still love to net some additional power gains out of the build but I dont think twin-turbos are going to make the christmas list...😉

 

I pulled mine from the top. It was no where near as hard as I've heard other people say. pretty straight forward process and any questions you have you can look or ask in here.

 

Hey all -
Wanted to get any intial feedback today regarding a couple potential alternatives to rebuilding the ls1. My dad has some close connections with ATK performance and looks like I could get ahold of either of the following options at a pretty substantial discount. I know at the retail prices they really don't make much sense but might be worth considering at the discounted rate. Just curious what opinions might be!

 

Do the short block and with money saved do some nice AFR or TF heads.

 

That seemed like the better option of the two. I have the basically brand new PRC stage 2.5 ls6 heads (assuming those didnt get fouled up) with the Tv2 cam from my build so initial thought was to just swap those over. Maybe??

 

I'd sell those heads too and get something new. Do a seriously solid top to bottom build. New heads and just spec it out exactly how you want to.