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Bought a car for the wife and I to work on together. Was told it was a true LS6 with a "tick" and figured it was valve train related based on hearing the car run. It was cheap so I took a chance on it:
True LS6
Confirmed cam lobe was trash. Ended up being a XER 22x 112 comp cam.....which makes sense why we found titanium retainers and double springs in it lol. At this point I didn't want to mess around anymore.....
So out the motor came....shout out to ls1charged for helping pull it out. With the heads off it was cake.
I decided to do a full rebuild. I started looking around and realized WS6 Store had a bunch of what I was looking for including parts from other vendors like Straub and Cam Motion. Shout out to them because we put a package together so I wouldn't have to buy all this stuff from multiple vendors and saved some money too.
I decided to go with their full rebuild kit including their HD pistons, timing chain, and ported oil pump. In addition, I decided on:
ARP pro 2000 rod bolts
LS7 lifters and LS2 guides
Cam Motion Titan 2 cam
Straub trunion upgrade
BTR .660 dual springs
Nice surprise that the car already has a Ram Power grip HD and looks like it's in decent shape. I went ahead and bought new slave and master and pilot bushing because....well it's apart lol.
We also took some time to paint under the hood a black metallic
Overall, hoping for a nice driving 6 speed car that makes low 400s to the wheels. Car already has shocks, springs, subframes, PHB, Trac bar, what appears to be jet hot coated long tubes, cutout and a 3" catback, and lid.
Once the boxes start arriving from WS6 Store I'll post up.
I better document this stuff cause it's pretty random. I have an RDE ls1/ls6 timing chain dampener which is about the only company who makes it now since GM discontinued it. The more random thing is we figured out I have a LATE 2003 Ls6 block that is a crossover year. I have shorter outer head bolts and deeper center head bolts....but have the larger 2.34x cam bore diameter which is gen 4 lol. Good to know!!!
Always an adventure 😂 that's pretty cool that ws6store will package a full kit like that and let you add and subtract parts as needed! Alot of parts from my build was bought through them including my hood... They're prices are hard to beat!
Always an adventure 😂 that's pretty cool that ws6store will package a full kit like that and let you add and subtract parts as needed! Alot of parts from my build was bought through them including my hood... They're prices are hard to beat!
This is gonna be one of those "for the rest of us" builds that I love to follow. And a BIG shout out to ddnspider for giving credit to those here who do a good job for us little guys with great prices and service. ALWAYS good to know who's doing the job around here! Carry on!
Me: "You need to decide if you're going to get the heads ported. Its $525 for disassembly, cleaning, porting, valve job, and new seals, plus shipping. If we don't do it we can run it like it is, save some money, and hope we don't see any issues from when the cam got wiped out. If there's a problem we'll have to tear the heads off with the motor in the car and send them out anyways"
Wife: "Sounds like we should send the heads out to get cleaned and ported."
The table jack supports the engine/cradle/trans. Once you get the car high enough you simply lower it or raise it. You can put it in or out pretty much complete.
The table jack supports the engine/cradle/trans. Once you get the car high enough you simply lower it or raise it. You can put it in or out pretty much complete.
I thought thats where you were going with it. We did something similar on LS1charged's car. Had I not already had the heads pulled I may have considered it. Once the intake/heads are off, and you drop the trans, the motor is relatively small so we just yanked the short block.
Hind sight is usually 20/20....but right about now I'm pretty happy I didnt try to just throw a new cam in it and run it. All the bearings had junk in them from the lifter letting go. Bit the bullet to spend more up front, but saved a bunch of money on the backend.
The goodies have slowly started to arrive! Cam, main, and rod bearings HD RPMspeed pistons Pretty Arp 2000 rod bolts and ls6 timing chain dampener. New radiator because $70 and new master, slave, hydraulic line, and bronze bushing.
Thanks. According to WS6store they weigh the same or almost the same as a stock piston so they are drop-in without having to rebalance the rotating assembly.
Thanks. According to WS6store they weigh the same or almost the same as a stock piston so they are drop-in without having to rebalance the rotating assembly.
I would still get it rebalanced. Can't hurt and the reliability is worth it, plus, it's not all that expensive.
I would still get it rebalanced. Can't hurt and the reliability is worth it, plus, it's not all that expensive.
If a rebalance was required and I was planning on it I probably would have gone with forged pistons. That's whats great about the pistons and bearing kits, no rebalance required. I'm not entirely sure I trust anyone local to me to do it either lol.
03-09-2018, 05:14 PM
Z28/LS6 build thread...with help from WS6 Store 
