So here I am, neck deep in my car.

My LPE 346 arrived today, and I must say it looks beautiful.

Found out what was wrong with my motor. One of the roller lifters decided it wanted to be a flat tappet, and ground on side of the roller down flat. Also had a leaky rear main seal which killed my LS7 clutch and flywheel. Cha-ching! Ordered the SDPC kit today.

Sandblasting sucks without a booth. Today is the first time I've ever done it. But it preps the parts for paint nicely.

Decided to do a flat black scheme under the hood... valve covers, motor mounts, k-member, headers (when I get them), coil rails, and whatever else I find that looks like it needs some flat black paint.

Thing is... I ordered all my parts at the same time. LPE motor & cam, and Patriot heads and gaskets from the WS6store.

Don't get me wrong, I love the WS6store and I've got no problem with Gunnar... but you'd think the heads could be done by the time I got the motor. I ordered them 14 days ago, and asked if it would be a problem to have them done in two weeks. Mike checked with Gunnar and said it wouldn't be a problem. Today, I called Mike to check on them and they now say they won't be shipped until Wednesday.

This means that the 3 days I took off of work this week to do this project will be useless except for my newly appointed painting project.

Also, I've never built a motor with aftermarket heads or cam, so I'm gonna have a hell of a time putting this together.

If anyone in the East Texas area wants to come help out, the beer's on me, but I'm a little strapped for cash at the moment.

Also, shouldn't I clean my injectors while they're out? The motor was pulled at 201,1xx miles. How do I clean the injectors correctly?

Can I sandblast the factory intake to clean it up? Or is that too abrasive for the plastic?

Ok, long, I know, but I'm done now.

 

I'd look into some new injectors for a H/C motor. They'll be clean, and you won't max 'em out. Mine were hitting 115% duty cam only, my friends MS4 car is doing the same now.

LPE probably had your 346 on the shelf, heads may have needed some work. Putting the heads/cam on/in with the motor out of the car is a snap. Make sure you read the writeups (LS1howto.com) and have a good torque wrench. Don't cut corners. Make SURE the cam is lined up/degreed correctly, and be careful with the oil pump O-ring.

There's nothing you have coming up that is too tough. Worst thing I can see is this cold *** weather if you're not in a garage.

 

Luckily, I am in a garage. However, it is filled to the brim with parts and motors and tools and Mountain Dew at the moment. I can barely work in there now.

The cam was installed and degreed by LPE so I'm not to concerned about that.

I would love to replace to injectors, but it's going to have to wait for some more money to arrive in my wallet. A friend of mine is running a '00 TA with CNCed 5.3 heads and like a 238 or 240 cam on his stock injectors, and he's been running fine for 2+ years. Not saying it'll stay that way forever, but it won't be seeing full throttle for awhile anyways.

 

skimping on fuel system components isn't a good idea. I'd find some lower mileage stock injectors if you are on a budget, 200K miles is a ton.

 

I know it's not a good idea, but I only have so much money. I already have had to buy a new clutch, flywheel, and steering rack that was outside of the original $5k budget. I'm broke, there's $2 left in my wallet.

Fuel injectors will be my top priority after the car is completed. Following that, in order, will be a tune, FAST 90/90 combo, headers, fuel pump, Moser 9", and some new coil packs (probably MSD).

I'll get some pics of the finish product here in a few days.

 

Looks like the heads will be even longer than expected.

My question now is... how to break it in.

I've been searching, and searching.

Read the motomod thing about beating the crap outta it in the first 20 minutes.

LPE says prime it with sythetic, run easy for about 150-20 miles, then change the oil and beat it to death. Said they used conventional for break-in on their LT1s but not the LS1s? I have no idea why.

So... synthetic or conventional?

Idle for 20 minutes or no?

Beat on it within the first ??? miles or no?

Full throttle runs followed by engine braking or no?

Does anyone have any real world evidence or the value of certain break in procedures on LSx motors?

With my old SBC, they had me let it idle for 10 minutes, the rev varying between 2500-3500 for 10 minutes, the hold a rev at 2800-3000 for ten minutes. Then easy driving for 250 miles.

There are just too many different opinions to make any sense of this.