Just starting on my first ls engine build today. I've had the engine for two years now and am just starting. Got given a set of 241 heads from a guy at my shop. Had the short block at my father in laws house since I bought it. Got it from the same guy that gave me the heads, and picked it up for 150 bucks. Started disassembling the heads today at work as one of the intake valves were bent. Going to port the heads(since I have access to a flow bench) while I have them apart and swap in some ferrea valves. Not sure what springs I'm going to swap to thinking about going with something from either Comp or lunati. Going to get my block tomorrow night and bring it back to my work so that I can spec out the block to see what all the clearances are. The block will need to be honed as one of the piston rings broke and scored the cylinder wall, but I'm 95% sure that it will clean up. Nice when you have have a engine shop and fab shop. Will take some photos as I go through the build.

 

Here's one of the heads after cleaning it up a bit.

 

GL with the build. Some tips, never reuse head bolts or the crank bolt. You must use new ones when removing the balancer and heads. I would go with some MLS Cometic steel head gaskets, or some ls9 head gaskets if you will be running boost down the line.


As for springs, I would recommend some BTR (Brian Tooley Racing) springs, they are just as good as lunati, comp, or most other springs, and are bit less expensive. Nothing but good reviews on his products.

 

Yeah all major fasteners will be switched to ARP and Cometic head gaskets for sure. We use Cometic for all our engine builds here. And for the other parts I'm getting through my work so that's why I am using said manufacturers. I'm excited to get started. Built a few other small blocks, but this is my first LS interested to see what kind of power and performance I can get out of it. With the help from the guys here at work of course.

 

Thats awesome man! I hope some day to do a LS build! Yes, having a shop to do the work at and to help with sourcing parts is very nice. I have a feeling that you are going to have a really nice engine when done. Dyno in shop? Very cool dude. Will be following your build! Is it going in a 3rd Gen?

Do you guys line hone before boring/resurfacing?

-Dan

 

Yeah, we have two dynos as a matter of fact. We don't line hone in house we send them up to North Carolina to have that done. But everything else is done in house. And its going into my 91 RS that I haven't drove since my senior year of high school (2008). And my lovely wife is letting me bring it to our house to get it restored.

Should be ordering valves for the heads on Monday or Tuesday to get ready for porting and flow testing.

 

Picking up my short block tonight. Should start checking it over on Monday.

 

Nice!

 

Went and picked up my car today and man was it a pain, but it made it here. Now the real fun begins!!

 

Got the engine into the shop today the cylinder bores were worse than I remembered. You can see the deep gouges. Not to sure if they will clean up. May give the worse one a hone and see how it does. If it doesn't clean up my have to adjust my plan.



The mains on the crank don't look to bad just need to be polished and who ever assembled the engine last didn't do a good job at making sure everything was clean. You can see the small pitts in the bearing surface where there was dust left on it.







The cam bearings and going to need replacing.

 

Stayed after work to check to od of the rod and main journals. From the spec sheet I have they look good.

 

Talked to one of our engine builders and he said that he is pretty sure that the cylinders will clean up. And said that we could hone the block maybe sometime this week. Which is freaking awesome! Also going to polish the journals while we're at it too. So I'm getting a lot of the machining done and saving a boat load of money. Will post some pics of it during the process.

 

Polished the crank during lunch it cleaned up really nice. Didn't get a chance to measure it yet. I will before I go home today.

 

Good start to a nice build, good luck with it.

 

What are your power goals for your build?

If those bores won't clean up with a hone, (likely not, with the rust that is also present) it may be time to review where you plan to be at the end of your short block build. With having the access to the machine shop and wholesale parts, you may want to focus your budget on building a solid short block first, which can easily be upgraded later when more budget is available. (cam, heads, etc.)

Before you spent good money on ARP bolts for a stock build, you may want to consider spending that money on other short block foundation upgrades. You can upgrade to forged 3.905" pistons for the LS1 which should be enough to clean up those bores, throw in some ARP rod bolts and that would satisfy a 500 horsepower desire. If you go that route though, balancing would be highly recommended, which to save on future costs, a rod upgrade before doing so may be warranted. With those upgrades, you now have a solid 650 horsepower LS1 short block foundation, which is about the max for the LS1 block itself.

Much cheaper to build the short block for future horsepower expectations the first time.

 

Correct I will be uprading to forged pistons and rods and a rebalance since they are being changed.Never had any intention of using the factory rods. I will be taking the block to 3.905 from what the engine guys said I should be fine. Going to use 243 heads and have them ported we've had them flow 290-305 at .650 in. I will have a custom cam ground for it based on what the heads flow and a few other parameters. From what one of the engine builders said I could get it to 600 no problem thats at the fly anyways. He's built 20-30 of them over the years. So I'll take his word as the gospel.

 

I think that block will clean up. It depends on how big you want to go i guess really. Not sure on what the max those can be bored, but .010 will 4 sure clean em up imo. Thats kinda a lot to hone too... Depends on what machine you guys got. Still can easily be done. I was going to ask why forged pistons but I see you want 600hp or more. Ive heard nothing bad about those 243 heads. Sounds like you have a good shop there and are in good hands. Very interested in final #s!

So If you have to bore/hone, Do you guys line hone/check before boring/honing or even resurfacing? Just curious.

Great build!! Keep up the good work!!

-Dan

(edit) That crank cleaned up great! Do you chamfer out the oil gals?

 

We don't have a line hone machine in the shop, but we have a shop down the road that does a lot of work for the race teams around town. He'll mill the caps and line hone the mains for us and we'll finish the rest. But most of the engines we rebuild only have about twenty hours or so on them when they need to be rebuilt. Ones we build for twenty four hour races end up making more power when they come back. But are in great shape after even sixteen hours at full throttle. Very rare we need it done we'll just buy a new block most times.

 

On the rod bolts I have seen people say you should have the rods re-sized when you replace them and some say no what do you say?

 

ARP says you should so I guess that answers my question.

 

Yeah we do where it distorts the bores so we will hone them out. On the larger rods especially.

 

Here is the crank after polishing.

 

Looks great.

 

Trading the transmission out of the car I picked up last weekend for a DBW truck harness. Soon the fun of wiring begins!

 

Started on the wiring today I hope everything is right from the best I can tell it is. I only have one connection that I'm not to sure about. But I will find out when I start connecting to the thirdgen harness.

 

Staying at work late Thursday to hone out the block. I will post pics of it during the process.

 

Got the v6 pulled out of the car last night with the help of a buddy, and few cans of Yuengling. We had it out in about an hour. Granted we pulled the trans two weeks before. Now on to the fun part of moding the harness for the swap.