Difficulty of changing rod bolts in the car?
Thread Starter
Banned
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,875
Likes: 1
From: Naperville, IL
Difficulty of changing rod bolts in the car? Is it hard to get the oil pan off an LS1 and out of the way? Is there enough room to get at all of the bolts without trouble? After doing some reading and research, I need to get some better rod bolts in my 99 with a strong head and cam car. What's the difficulty level of this on a 1-10 scale? Also, what does a typical shop charge for doing this without pulling the motor?
I don't have the answers for you but "Lithium" installed some in his car.
Here is a search string from his huge thread. Maybe you can find your answers in there. I have a feeling it's a fairly time consuming swap.
https://ls1tech.com/forums/search.php?searchid=3233579
BTW what's the deal with rod bolts? Are the pre-2002 bolts weak?
Here is a search string from his huge thread. Maybe you can find your answers in there. I have a feeling it's a fairly time consuming swap.
https://ls1tech.com/forums/search.php?searchid=3233579
BTW what's the deal with rod bolts? Are the pre-2002 bolts weak?
Thread Starter
Banned
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,875
Likes: 1
From: Naperville, IL
Originally Posted by ShevrolayZ28
I don't have the answers for you but "Lithium" installed some in his car.
Here is a search string from his huge thread. Maybe you can find your answers in there. I have a feeling it's a fairly time consuming swap.
https://ls1tech.com/forums/search.php?searchid=3233579
BTW what's the deal with rod bolts? Are the pre-2002 bolts weak?
Here is a search string from his huge thread. Maybe you can find your answers in there. I have a feeling it's a fairly time consuming swap.
https://ls1tech.com/forums/search.php?searchid=3233579
BTW what's the deal with rod bolts? Are the pre-2002 bolts weak?
and yes, the 98-00 rod bolts are a weak link if you want to spin the motor.
Originally Posted by Asmodeus
thanks for that link. I just read most of the thread, found where he said the swap was a bit time consuming, but lower the k-member and jack the motor up a bit and everything is very reachable. I just might do this swap myself.
and yes, the 98-00 rod bolts are a weak link if you want to spin the motor.
and yes, the 98-00 rod bolts are a weak link if you want to spin the motor.
Launching!
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 286
Likes: 0
From: Abilene, Tx
Originally Posted by Asmodeus
were the clearances real tight? a lot of knuckle busting? or just real time consuming with odd arm positions?
Good luck to ya!
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Originally Posted by BriGuy
Yes, very tight on space. But it is very doable. I just swapped out the rod bolts in my wife's car yesterday and I am in the process of putting everything back together now (working on it after I get off work everyday). It is very time consuming, but you really do need to take your time and make sure you are doing everything right. I would agree that it is about a 8-9 on the difficulty scale too. I took my time finally getting started on this whole project, but ever since I finally jumped into it I have only come to a stop/questionable area once or twice. I just jumped on here and people were more than willing to help me out, including Lithium.
Good luck to ya!
Good luck to ya!
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 286
Likes: 0
From: Abilene, Tx
Yeah, just about got it finished today. But when I was putting the timing cover back on the very last bolt that I was torquing down never tightened, it just kept spinning. So, I went and bought a heli coil insert and I will install it tomorrow after church. Hopefully I will have it started tomorrow too!
Do you guys have any more good tips on removing the oil pan? I have the k-member lowered as far as it wants to go (it could probably drop farther buy I can't fugure out whats holding it back) and the engine is jacked up but I still need a little more space. Besides the 3 bolts and the steering knuckle, what else needs to be removed to get some more space with the k-member?
Thanks,
Kevin
Thanks,
Kevin
I just took out the bolts on the motor mounts and picked up the motor with a cherry picker to remove my oil pan ( needed to replace the gasket for some reason a year ago). But had no reason to replace the rod bolts at that time (car wasn't making enough power, but not any more) should've done it while I was there 
