kjreed

I don't get it, my car was driving great, no check engines, no noises, oil was good, about to turn 94,000 mi., driving to work and boom. 2 huge holes in the block. I don't understand, some people say its the year??? Seriously? I loved that car.

01WS6/tamu

iTrader: (37)

Depends 94K of how hard of use if you are the first owner then you know the whole story. But, if you are #3,4,5 then who knows. Then other times it's just a matter of a metallurgical part failure. Sounds like a rod crumbled. The 98's had some teething problems as it was only the second year of the new LS engines. But 17 years old is nothing to sneeze at either age is catching what mileage isn't on these cars now.

Time to either scrap it or upgrade it either another 5.7 or 6.0,6.2,7.0 depends on what your budget is.

kjreed

Yeah, I was the third owner and had it less than a year. Second owner had it 12 years but mostly sat in his garage, he always had something else he was working on first so finally gave it up. I drove it hard but not ridiculous...or badly. I drove it the way it was supposed to be driven. The rod crumbling matches pretty perfectly the horrific noise it made. So sad. I already sold it, would of loved to project it but am broker than broke, actually put it on Craig's List that morning cuz couldn't afford it and a car I could use in the snow...now I'm totally assed out. Thanks for the response, makes sense.

DietCoke

iTrader: (18)

we bought a 98 t/a with a block motor for cheap. car was cherry, same thing. 2 holes in side of block. rod snapped in half. **** happens, 98s are all grenades

CO_BlackHawk

That sucks sorry to hear that...

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

Junk internet rumor.

It's shocking how many '98s are on the road and doing fine with a ton of miles, and yet they should all be blown up I guess.

So far, the only LS1 I've personally seen put holes in the block (rod failure) was an '02, with low mileage in fact.

JC316

iTrader: (1)

Agreed. I had 176K on the original motor in my 98. That car saw 6K RPM at least three times a week with me driving it and it never gave an issue. AFAIK, the new owner is still driving it.

Rise of the Phoenix

iTrader: (27)

Guess it's time to go out and find a junk yard 5.3 or 6.0.

Nickshookie

I also had a 98 that threw a rod out of the block. It was a clean break right in half the rod was not even bent. I bought the car like that and the trans was also bad so I'm going to say previous owners were hard on it. Sorry to thread jack but is there something weaker about 98 ls1's rod material? Sounds like this happens quite often to the 98s.

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

It might sound "quite often" because you have a few people in the same thread that have had bad experiences, but the thread title is likely to be most noticeable to others who happened to have experienced this as well. This is how things tend to get blown out of proportion, leading to rumors that are much worse than reality. You will find an overwhelming majority of '98 owners have not experienced this sort of catastrophic failure with well maintained/non-abused engines. It's very hard to identify a trend with periods of unknown history on these multi-owner examples.

I've never heard of any difference in rod material between any of the LS1 model years, but rod bolts were supposed to be upgraded in the later years. This isn't really an issue for engine speeds below 64-6500 or so. In fact, there are many that have spun much higher on the stock '98 rod bolts without issue.

the_bandit77

iTrader: (3)

I have a 98 with 76,000 miles on it and haven't had any issues, making 416whp. I'm not super hard on my car but I'm not afraid to beat on it every once in a while. This is the first time I've heard of any issues with 98 rods.

y2k_ta

iTrader: (80)

Parts can and will fail at any time. There's no guarantees. Some vehicles eat rods, some transmissions, some rear ends, etc.....

I am sorry to read of your misfortune. If you are able, take this opportunity to make the car better than before.

85_300zxt

iTrader: (1)

My 99 has 175xxx on her right now and runs like a dream.

kjreed

Thanks for all your input and condolonces. I guess it just comes down to live and learn--and don't buy 98 LS1's or you risk a hole in the block. Oh well, everything happens for a reason...

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

Actually not at all.....no more or less risk than any other year.

Just for the sake of discussion, I did a quick search on examples of stock LS1s that have broken rods for no apparent reason, and the first one I happened to click on was a 2000 LS1 with 53k miles, basic bolt-ons and no warning signs at all:

https://ls1tech.com/forums/generatio...up-my-ls1.html

There are examples from every model year, I didn't read them all but most seem to be modified engines.

So much for the '98-only rumor.

Reminds me of another '98 rumor regarding oil pump issues. No idea how that one got started, considering that the '99s and '00s received the same exact oil pump with just as many posted examples of failures due to a stuck pressure relief spring. It wasn't until 2001 that the updated LS6 pump was released.

Part of me doesn't want to fight the rumors though; these rumors help keep the prices down for those of us who know better.

redbird555

iTrader: (14)

Theres no difference between a 98 and any other ls1 besides the heads and rod bolts really. Its just as likely to throw a rod as any other year. bad things happen though and it sucks sorry man

DrEvyl

iTrader: (5)

Yeah, '98s have their drawbacks, but they're not really any less solid than any other year.. I drove my '98 pretty hard, and it had 91K on the stock motor.

DirtyBirdMKE

98s had different sleeves that could only take one bore and hone, some 98s had C5 camshafts too

redbird555

iTrader: (14)

yes I know that they can take .005 while 99-up take .010 there are also oiling improvements made to the blocks. however neither of those thing effect what the op was saying about the likely hood of throwing a rod. the cam spec difference were so minor they're hardly worth mentioning, on the verge of a couple degrees, never had any effect on performance

01WS6/tamu

iTrader: (37)

98 is just as solid as the newer ones no reason not to buy one because it's a 98. There were improvements made as the years went by but non were due to a lack of reliability from earlier models. Mostly service and power improvements.