My LY6 build

[57taskforce]

I got this LY6 from a wrecked 2008 Silverado 2500 at work, got the engine and 6L90 for 100.00. It was involved in a nasty rollover. The front axle actually cracked the oil pan. During the wreck the truck was actually running on its side for a little bit as the driver was unconscious. I’ve had it sitting on the stand for a few years planning to run it in my K20. Now that the K20 is back on the road, it’s time to start getting ready for the next phase of the build which is the LS swap. I built the standalone harness for it back in 2017. I began tearing it down this week. Unfortunately, it spent a little too much time running on its side. The bores look really good, no ridge at all and clean cross hatches. There was a small amount of metal in the oil however. I pulled the heads and oil pan today to find that rod bearings are trashed. I didn’t get time to pull the mains so I’m not sure what I’m up against there. The rod bearings have left material deposited on the surface of the crank. I scraped the deposited material off in a few places and the crank isn’t gouged, so I’m hopeful my machinist can polish the crank up can call it good. The engine was not seized but was definitely tight. I’ll have some more pictures of tear down to come as I pull the block all the way apart and start to run things thru my vat. (I’m lucky enough to assemble industrial engines for a living so I’ve got a lot of the good tools to do the job)

My plan for this build is: Texas speed VVT cam/lifters/push rods/springs/trunnions, cleaned up and or replaced crank and rods as needed, Forged pistons, and rebuilt 823 heads with LS3 valves, for the hard parts. Everything else internal will be new from the ground up, ls2 chain, melling oil pump, clevite bearings, etc. I’m building this one with the potential to run a supercharger later down the line, It’s gonna be a slower build but I’m hoping for 500-550 n/a at the flywheel which I think is doable. I’m gonna beef up the fuel injectors as well so I won’t have to worry about running out of fuel.
Here’s a few pictures, there will be more to come.

[LS short box]

Just FYI a car buddy of mine bought a super low mileage 6.0 iron block that had a broken oil pan. He put it in his 71 Nova. Ran great but it had a oil leak that he assumed it must be the rear seal. So we yanked the trans and put in a new rear seal. Still leaked. We pulled the trans and fly wheel and just cranked the engine over. Quickly saw the block was cracked near the two long small diameter oil pan bolts that go into the block. There is a oil passage that must not have a lot "meat" near the threaded bolt hole. Not saying you will have a problem but I would closely inspect that area. The salvage yard he bought it from really stood and bought a new chev block for him and he swapped all the parts over.

[57taskforce]

Thanks for the heads up, that’s actually something I’ve been thinking about in the back of my head. I’m gonna have my machinist look it over real good when he preps the block for reassembly. Mine is cracked right in front of the sump. I’ll scoop up a 6.2 block and rotating assembly if I run into that problem. It’s only money right?

[jjzepplin]

That's a good deal. Subbed.

[57taskforce]

Welcome aboard! I’ll try and get some more pictures tomorrow when I get back to the shop. I pulled it the rest of the way down last night. It galled the 2,5 and 7 rod bearings and spun 6. The crank doesn’t really Look bad, I’ve seen way worse. I honestly think there’s a good chance it will polish up. The mains all look great, the bores are excellent, not even a hint of a ridge. I was told from our safety guy the truck had about 60,000 on it at the time of the wreck.

I’m gonna try and get the block in the vat this week and then off to my machinist to get it checked and honed here pretty soon. I’m working on a parts list as we speak and when I get it together I’ll post it up here for review. This is my first full fledged LS build and I look forward to it. If any one has any suggestions on parts or things too look out for please post them up! I want to get this one done so the engine mods in my Camaro will be a walk in the park when the time comes. I plan to build this one right so it will run for a long long time, I’ll be spending a little here and there on it so like I said before it’s gonna be a longer term build. I’m hoping to maybe do the swap in a year or so but we will see how that goes.

[AussieinNC]

When you pull it right down, remember to remove the "barbell" oil passage plug lower drivers side at rear of block....its under the rear seal case in a oil gallery....

Absolutely make sure you put it back in when building the engine. There are aftermarket billet units available to replace the nylon one from GM.

Seeing this has had oil issues and spun some bearings, I would also be align honing the main bores and all the rod ends to make sure they are all within tolerance.

Good luck...

[57taskforce]

Thanks for the heads up Aussie. I pulled the barbell today and will replace it with a billet unit when I reassemble.
If I get a few minutes I’m gonna take the crank to the machine shop tomorrow and see what I’m gonna have to work with there. My machinist came by the shop to check everything out today. He’s in the same boat as me, not to worried about the crank or the block at all. As soon as I find out what I’m gonna have to do to fix the crank, I’m gonna jump on it. I want to start moving on this build as fast as I can afford. Here’s a few pictures of the tear down.

[jjzepplin]

Any updates?

[57taskforce]

I do have a few small nuggets. After My buddy polished up the crank, it’s gonna need a minor grind on a couple rod journals at a cost of $150-250. For $400 I can have new GM crank from my local dealer. I’m thinking I may go that route just to keep everything standard size. The block is at my buddies place as well. The fresh hone is complete. The block checked out fine no cracks, or any other issues. The cylinders have virtually no wear. I’m waiting on the final trip to the vat to clean the honing oil out of it and cam bearings to come in before I pick it back up. The pistons look good so I’m thinking I’ll vat the rods and mic the pins and pistons out to make sure they are in spec, if they check out I’ll likely reuse the stock pistons And rods with fresh rings to save a few bucks if I can. If there’s anything close to out of spec I’ll replace it all.

[jjzepplin]

Woohoo! Progress is progress. $400 doesn't seem too bad knowing your initial price. It's easy, though, when it's not my money.

[57taskforce]

Originally Posted by jjzepplin

Woohoo! Progress is progress. $400 doesn't seem too bad knowing your initial price. It's easy, though, when it's not my money.

Yea That’s definitely the truth. I was thinking the exact same thing. Hopefully I’ll have the crank part of the build figured out soon so I can start getting it back together. The cam,lifters,springs and valve cleanup are gonna cost me a bit so I’m trying to budget it all out. The 350 in my truck now is pretty tired and I don’t want to use the aluminum head vortec 350 I’m building for my K10 in my K20, so I’m not gonna be able to drag this out that long.

[jjzepplin]

I think if I had to change out my crank, I would CHANGE OUT MY CRANK! Bigger stronger faster snowballing me into a lopey tire burning monster. UNFORTUNATELY my crank is fine and the darn thing is most likely a recent rebuild. So cleaning it up and running it. My deal was not as good as yours. 2006 6.0 LQ9 345hp long block. I have not checked the bore for oversize yet but the pistons don't look stock. I did the old school "SONIC" check on the block. Just bang a solid spot with a BFH. Thud and it is good, ting and its cracked. I paid $375 and have only found 4 rockers and pushrods are worn weird. I'll be watching yours close as mine is just an ornament in my garage for now. A possible backup for the 5.7. Are you going to mate it back to the 6 spd?

[57taskforce]

Originally Posted by jjzepplin

I think if I had to change out my crank, I would CHANGE OUT MY CRANK! Bigger stronger faster snowballing me into a lopey tire burning monster. UNFORTUNATELY my crank is fine and the darn thing is most likely a recent rebuild. So cleaning it up and running it. My deal was not as good as yours. 2006 6.0 LQ9 345hp long block. I have not checked the bore for oversize yet but the pistons don't look stock. I did the old school "SONIC" check on the block. Just bang a solid spot with a BFH. Thud and it is good, ting and its cracked. I paid $375 and have only found 4 rockers and pushrods are worn weird. I'll be watching yours close as mine is just an ornament in my garage for now. A possible backup for the 5.7. Are you going to mate it back to the 6 spd?

I’ve been back and forth on the 6speed. It’s expensive to get a 205 behind it. What I’ve actually been thinking about doing is putting it behind the 6.2 in my Camaro. The ‘12-‘15 Zl1 With the 6l90 is good to pretty close to 1,000 hp in stock form without sticky tires. When I get my car setup for boost I’m hoping for 6-700 at the wheels the 6l80 that’s in it will live at those levels without traction but for how long? The 6l90 should live and long time like that. I enjoy the the 4speed in the truck, it’s one of the things that sealed the deal for me when I was looking for my truck. I wanted an sm465 for me that’s part of the old truck feel.

[jjzepplin]

Any updates?

[57taskforce]

Actually I do have some updates. Nothing major though. I decided to go ahead and build my vortec 350 for the time being so I can get it in my K20 until I’m more ready for this swap. The main reason for this is, I’ve got a bunch of good small block parts including new aluminum heads that I can use on it and build it dirt cheap. The LS swap is obviously money to do but I’m also going to swap axles add a lift kit and some other things at the same time I do the LS swap so it’s going to be pretty expensive and a little while before I’ve got everything ready to go. The 350 I could have ready in less than a month if I wanted/needed too.

I finally got my block back fromMy machinist friend 2 weeks ago. He got covid back in November and is just now starting to work again (he’s retired after a long career building everything from legit race engines for guys like Dan Gurney and many more in his earlier days to industrial engines for the oil field now) he only does work for a few people now and I’m fortunate to be one. He’s been done with the block since September but I just never got by to get it picked up. I dropped the rods and heads off when I picked up the block and should have them back this week or next. The block got vatted, checked, honed and new cam bearings. There wasn’t even a hint of a ridge in the cylinders so the bores came out really nice. I really need to decide if I want to save for a stroker kit or just put a new GM crank in it. That decision will obviously effect cam choice as well. So yeah I still have some more pieces of the puzzle to round up parts wise but hopefully this year I’ll get at least a lot of it built if not done. Here’s pictures of the block after I got it back. As well as the start of the 350 build. (Orange block on my rotisserie stand) maybe I’ll start a thread for that one too.

[May70]

How's it coming? Turning towards a 6.0 cause the prices on L92/l94/l9h are so stupid high.