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LTX and LSXPutting LT1s, LS1s, and their variants into Third Gens is becoming more popular. This board is for those who are doing and have done the swaps so they can discuss all of their technical aspects including repairs, swap info, and performance upgrades.
I know Im hard on parts but I swear every May as the season starts..I get some major engine failure. I got just about finished ironing out my dana s60 install and doing breakin miles..which was super hard to keep a tame foot for 500miles. The day before i was about to go to an event and test out the rear I was washing the car.felt good that now everything seems to be solid for the power Im at and I can give it the beans. Forged bottomend,meth kit,fuel pump hot wire kit,battery relocation,monster twin disc looked mint,trans stage 2 works mint. No reason to hold back now in fear of something spitting out..or so i thought.
I started the car up about to leave the car wash and there it was just slapped me in the face..tick tick ticking. MOTHER F!!!! Long story short..after having a few other people listen to it we all agreed..lifter somewhere is shot but the car was running good. No loss in oil pressure,no missing or smoke out the pipes,oil was clean and no metal shavings nor anything in the oil fliter as I always cut them open every oil change now. I literally parked the car for 2 weeks just to gather the energy and research what to do to avoid this again. I had ls7 lifters bite me before so I knew that this was the end of using them,I opted for Johnsons. Also since will be my 4th or 5th time using the headgaskets and head bolts..i got new gaskets and headstuds. I got new pushrods also in 2 other lengths just because I want to test out how much better I can get the valvetrain control optimized and a pushrod tool.
I started the teardown yesterday..seemed pretty easy going and no sign of the culrpit untill i went to remove the driverside lifters. Ill let the video explain itself from there
"I hear ya! Had more trouble with machining BS trying to use aftermarket parts than I care to admit. Wish I would have stuck to factory short blocks as well. Tired of pulling apart "built" motors when guys are making twice the power on factory original stuff and racing the whole season." https://ls1tech.com/forums/forced-in...l#post19525070
Cliffs:
If ur goal is less than 1krwhp (or up to about 1k rwhp)
I would go for an All Original L33 5.3L with 120,000-250,000 miles
they weigh less than a 4-cylinder from the 90's (Sr20 I am lookin at you)
Spend less on the engine please this time. The less you spend the longer it will last.
Which Johnson lifter did you buy? Those lifters have a really tight preload spec so the pushrods need to be measured to the gnats ***. Then you call Manton with your numbers and they'll ask you more questions and calculate the final length you need and group them. It's not something you do all by yourself. Odds are slim that you'll be able to use the pushrods you bought.
I went with 2110 johnsons, I got 7.350 rods and my current 7.4 are still good.i do have a pushrod tool to measure lentgh also. not overly worried about pushrod length for now as i need to see just how much damage has occured..cam lobe and the non presence of metal shavings for how flat the lifter is.
As for engine speed,rpm limiter is 6700. Which I plan to tone down some after this as i rarely take it that high anyway.
that is a stock bottom end $200 4.8L engine with a cam/springs ONLY inside, and its touching 700rwhp.
And soon it will be 850RWHP
that is around 1kBHP or 1000 horsepower at the engine, the stock engine.
I've got to agree with Kingtal0n.
Both here, and on LS1tech, I've seen guys have all kinds of problems with aftermarket parts; problems that they probably wouldn't have had if they'd just stuck with factory stuff.
Then you see guys with junkyard shortblocks tearin' it up without problems.
I know that everyone wants to be the baddest **** on the street/ track with all the coolest high-dollar parts in their engine, but in reality, a lot of it isn't even necessary.
To the O/P: with your redline speed, factory lifters would have been just fine.
I agree aswell that you see 50/50 of guys with factory or jy builds that make tons and power and live a long time....or constantly break. Same for guys with aftermarket parts and don't make good power and totally disappointed in what they spent vs the performance.
I can say that I slowly went from the jy diy build type and made decent power..but then started breaking everything behind the motor. As that got buttoned up..Id push the motor hard because I could..and then the motor would fail. turned into a game of cat n mouse. After last yr when I had to pull the motor out twice in 2 months..I said screw it..lets make this thing solid bottomend. Went forged..which is still good now. The ls7 lifters from my redline would be safe but talking to a few vendors and local shops asking for real world experience the common thin they asked me is am I running dual valve springs,how aggressive is the cam ramp rate,and is there a 2 step on the car. I have all of them and sometimes they see ls7 lifters randomly fail in those conditions.
As for the goals for the car...really wasn't more than 700whp,especially since im only pump gas. Whatever it makes is what it makes and then id run it at that safely..all the time lol.I don't care to be the fastest most badass street/car and brag about what I parts I put in etc I also notice a lot of guys make big power but torque is much lower than what I make also.
As it stands right now Im putting the motor back together. Luckily the came lobe wasn't wiped out,pitted a lil so I polished it stuck it back. Cleaned up the heads,top of the pistons,fresh gaskets. Should be running by sunday as I spend an hr or 2 a night to get things done after work.
I can say that I slowly went from the jy diy build type and made decent power..but then started breaking everything behind the motor. As that got buttoned up..Id push the motor hard because I could..and then the motor would fail. turned into a game of cat n mouse.
That's the way it's always been with drag racing and/or building high-horsepower street machines; attrition will always expose the next-weakest link in the chain. But with enough work, $$$, accumulated knowledge and experience---along with a determination to not make the same mistake twice---you'll eventually prevail.
Very true, another thing you never hear is how many times guys with the cheap builds that make big power..how often they break or swap blocks.Too ashamed to say that it doesn't last and easy to switch out another stock block and keep going. It gets tiring though and the money/time invested could've gone to just improve things further to prevent failure. Theres no magic build that cant break or fail regardless how well built it is..or isn't at the end of the day. Every motor comes to a timely end from wear and you either rebuild it or replace it and I think we forget that.
For now,we will see how well the motor runs afterwards and maybe I can make some good passes this season with this being the most prepped setup the car has been lol.
It is truly expensive to build race motors that you can stand-on every weekend and that will last any time.
You start running boost and/or kits on those motors, and you're gonna break that motor in very short order unless you spent a lot - I mean a WHOLE LOT - of money.
Probably not telling you anything here that you don't already know. Just want to say I hope you get it back together soon, and get back on the track. Sometimes the cheapest way to get the high-end parts to build a strong motor that will last is to get them from other peoples' broken motors. People move-on from one interest to another, and sometimes they'll hook up a guy who's in the game and who is hungry and motivated.
Seriously, try to stay tight with all the other guys in the broke-motor club. Always have room in your trailer for the cast-offs from the guys in front of you. Sometimes you can score big if you have the tools, strength, time, and endurance to help the big guy move stuff out of his way. Otherwise, buying truly race-able motors off the shelf is a rich man's game.
Im not overly mad about the situation to be honest...for what the damage is and the process to fix it. i wish i had a better story to tell for pulling the heads off lol.There wasnt a blazing story of racing someone and things came apart.Nope..just went to a car wash and it started ticking.
I can see your point about buying parts from other guys who have been hoarding stuff of moved on.Around here its rare to find exactly what you need locally thats cheaper than just buying it from a vendor directly anyway. I got half of it back together,been lazy this week and the weather sucks so the motivation to finish it right away is lacking. Aside from that ive been driving around my friends ram srt-10 doing some minor repairs on it and having fun with that,my wallet hates the truck because its absolutely raping it for gas.
Well its been a week and got the car back up and running. I got into a groove just wanting to bang things out as it was pretty hot outside. I pulled the cam and polished the pitting that was on it and reassembled the entire motor. I ordered a pushrod tool that arrived literally as I was putting the rockers on. Im glad i bought the 7.350 because it was almost perfect length.If i want more preload I think going to a 7.375 would get me more into the .050-.060 range. which some say is better but Im sticking with what the specs call for. After that it was time to crank it over and build oil pressure before a first start. I put in engine flush to the existing oil just as a precaution to clean whatever else was still in there. Fired it up and carefully listened for any abnormal sounds,check leaks etc and got it upto temp.
With driving it around for a few days I slowly start getting into more boost at short street pulls, also trying to bleed the cooling system a few times to really get all the air out as my engine seemed to really be sensitive with air pockets which then lead to overheating during high boost pulls previously. The car sounds different to me especially idling and i now hear the famous sewing machine noise people mention.Throttle response feels a tad bit more crisp..power feels like it comes in harder..or im just not used to it consistently making over 700whp lol.But so far..its running like it did when it first fired up last yr.
06-10-2019, 07:17 PM
