LS1 engine with around 130.000 miles on it ?? What do u think ?

[ACII]

hy all

currently i do have an attractiv offer for a camaro LS1 engine with around 130.000 miles.

The engine comes from a accident car...the owner is telling that the engine is running fine without any probs.

According to my strict budget i dont want to rebuild the engine....
Later on i want to install a turbo kit...so i guess it would be a good time to rebuild the engine...

What do you think about the high mileage ??
Which tests can i do before buying ? The engine is already out of the car.

Together with the engine it comes also a 4l60e transmission..
What do u think about that ?

I know its a pretty tough question...i just would like to have some feedback of ur long time experiences

Thx a lot
Achim

[BR3W CITY]

Since your aus Deutschland, I assume that your options are very limited. Early LS1's are all aluminum, and tend to suffer from a few problems (like oil usage), that the later engines did not have. With high mileage, these problems are more likely.

Would you have any better luck finding Holden parts in Germany? What about Vauxhall? There are a few vehicles that featured ls-family engines that you might be able to find easier than "regular" american cars.

ich bin ein Berliner ...but I mean the pastry/doughnut...I've never been to Berlin.

[hugger6933]

You will be fine with it. I rebuild wrecks and I have some experience with stuff like this, I've been doing this since I was a teenager in the late 80's. Now think on this when a person is driving down the road things are going fine they are not not normally thinking of getting rid of their car or that it is running bad then all of the sudden BAM! He hits a tree and you have a wrecked Camaro. Now if the car was NOT wrecked and the engine and trans had been pulled out then it is definite cause for concern. Out of the many hundreds of cars I've rebuilt[ yes it is a bunch!]there has only been three or four where there were engine or trans troubles with the trucks/cars that I had bought, [all because they had damage on them]Two of those were repos and they were damaged from meanness, one had been upside down then started at the crash scene and the oil had leaked out the top of the motor, and the other was just a bad motor and the body damage wasn't bad enough for it to be at that sale but my dad would not listen to me because he wanted the truck bad. So I say don't worry about it I've have also seen these motors run way up into the 400K mark without any problems. You also said you would like a little boost, the magazine guys out in California look for motors that have between 125 to 150 k so they will be "loosened "up enough to run better on boost because of the tight tolerances. Good luck Jim

[BR3W CITY]

Originally Posted by hugger6933

You also said you would like a little boost, the magazine guys out in California look for motors that have between 125 to 150 k so they will be "loosened "up enough to run better on boost because of the tight tolerances. Good luck Jim

Jim, I was/am one of "those guys". We EXPECT to blow them up...then are happy if they don't. The only reason for that is because of ring gap, which is the cause of most boost related motor failures, even on well tuned cars. Manually changing the ring gap on a fresh build accomplishes the same thing, otherwise I'd have to put 100k on every motor!

Issues like bearing wear, carbon buildup, piston slap are all still bad. If our German friend has limited access to parts, IMO he's better off not tempting fate. Here in the US, we can get a truck LS-motors for only a few hundred $$ out of a wrecking yard, so if I blow up a motor...I just go get a new one.


Are there emissions restrictions on hot-rods in Germany?

[ACII]

thanks for response..

i have already checked ur idea about ls- vauxhall, unfortunately they are even rare than a camaro or corvette...

According to the fact that the LS swap will be into a weekend driver (1951 chevy pickup) i will get maybe 2000 miles on it each year.

So if the oil usage dont have any other negative effects instead of burning oil , i think i can handle the some extra dollars for a 1 or 2 litre oil each year :-)

Finally i definitily want to go with a small turbo kit..but thats quite far away.

First of all i want to do porting on the original heads..so therefore i have to disassemble the engine and can do some checks about the conditions..

Generally i would get this package engine + transmission for around 2200 dollars..


On the other hand i do have a offer for around 1700 dollar (corvette engine) without pulleys and transmission / no harness..... but only with 30.000 miles on it.

Finally i have to spend some more money for all the pulley + transmission + dbw + iginiton coils and so on...

What would u recommend ??

Thanks
Achim

[littlevictories]

i'd run a cranking compression test to make sure it doesn't have a busted ring land or bent valve. Remember, the car motors are much more likely to have been flogged on than the truck motors. At that many miles I'd also pop a valve cover and check for deposits. A properly maintained motor will not have sludge in the covers, just a tan tint to the aluminum.

I've also taken to running the VIN through carfax to verify miles. This only works for engines that have the PCM with them.

Personally, If it had 180 + psi in every hole and was complete with transmission, accessories, harness and PCM I'd jump on it, especially if it was the manual transmission.