I currently have a 2000 SS that is knocking very loudly, which I am convinced is a broken piston skirt. I just put in a C1 hammer cam with some TTS longtubes. I motor ran great, but if I have to replace the shortblock I was thinking of finding a complete LS6 and selling the mods. What will need to be changed other than the tune for this swap? Is it worth the money? My main concern at this point is RELIABILITY. This is my daily driver.

Thanks in advance

 

Why would you sell the mods? They would all bolt right up.

However, if you're just looking for a replacement motor, I'd go with an ls1 shortblock. You can find LS6 heads for 800 bucks quite often lately. Keep the C1 if its still good and re-use your longtubes.


What makes you think its a broken piston skirt? Have you mis-shifted lately? Overreved her?

 

Why would you do a LS6 swap?

If you have a dead shortblock then you need to talk to a sponsor about building youself a forged bottom end, I think you should be able to get a 346 short block for 3k + shipping pretty easy or a 408 stroker for around 4k.

They will even install and degree your cam, oil pump, seals, etc for free most of the time if you send them the stuff.

I'm curious about your old short block though, does it still get oil pressure? What makes you think its a skirt?

 

I am not looking to go crazy just a good running car, but the important thing is reliability and driveability. I motor was replacing with a used shortblock before I bought it and it had a spun bearing, so my friend (who I bought it off) replaced all the bearings.

Then after one night of racing it started knocking (completely differant sounding knock than now) and it was a bearing again. I had the crank turned, replaced all the seals and bearings, but used the stock pistons. I had bad piston slap before and still does.

Now it is knocking very loud after about 1000 miles but runs perfect. I don't want to mess with building a motor as I just did it 3 weeks ago.

 

Oh and oil pressure is the same as before, I ended up driving the car home after it happened and if the knock wasn't there you couldn't tell there was a problem. No miss shifts, shift it at 6000rpm everytime (not tuned yet)

 

If you had bad piston slap before, why didn't you look into fixing that when you had the motor apart the first time?

 

 

from someone with 15 posts, thats really kickin my ***.

however, if it was knocking before, and its knocking now, and he KNEW it was knocking before, its perfectly legitimate to ask why he didn't look into it before.

next time please think before you post something like that.

 

Hahaha...off topic? How is it off topic? It's a legitimate question, if the motor was messed up previously, it should have been addressed prior to assembly.

 

You can buy an LS6 long block with a three year, 50,000 mile warranty for $5300 from GM. All the external parts (considering you have the LS6 intake, throttle body, etc...found on 2000-2002 cars, and headers, lid, etc...) you have will bolt right up and you would need to just have it dynotuned by a competent tuner.

Why put this motor in? Because it will provide you with about 400 hp at the wheels with a good dynotune out of the box with all of the external parts you already have bolting right up, and with just a change in camshaft/pushrods/springs/dynotune you have a motor capable of putting 475 hp to the rearwheels, and you have the better flowing heads so theres little need to go out and buy another set of heads unless you just have to make over 500hp at the rear wheels. Factory LS6 heads are great, flow nicely, however there are aftermarket heads that flow much better available but cost a few bucks more

As far as driving on a daily basis, I drive mine everyday, its very reliable, has given me zero problems since putting it in and I love the power and knowing that until I change the cam out this fall, the motor is covered by a warranty. GM builds some nice engines to use as a platform to mod up from and this is one of them in my opinion. I know alot of people who build their LS1's up as well and drive them everyday too, but this is another very comparable option to consider I believe.

Currently, most bolt on only LS1 cars I have raced have to run nitrous to keep up with me in the quarter unless they are spraying or have serious heads/cam packages and other supporting mods.

Alot of people would recommend building an LS1 up for the same amount of money and I can certainly see and support their point of view as you can get ALOT of motor for the money, but this is a serious choice to consider as well. If I had to do it all over again, I would consider buying a nice stroker package and kickass set of heads from TSP and lay down some silly power, but I'm very satisfied with the choice I did make.

Just my opinion and experience so far.

 

i love my ls6

 

I had a tuner REPLACE (with labor) my 90,000 mile LS1 with an 8,000 mile LS6 for roughly $4500.00 (the shortblock itself was about $2200). Many tuners (especially C5 tuners) have low-mileage LS6 shortblocks from owners who are upgrading. For my purposes (I don't race) a stock LS6 shortblock was perfect and a lot less expensive than a $3500 non-installed forged shortblock.