Basically I have a stock 87 5.7 TPI motor. It has about 100k miles on it and ran when pulled. It had a severe knock and I finally tore it down today. #1 connecting rod bearing had spun and no longer exists. Well it exists but in the bottom of the oil pan. The specs say a journal diameter of 2.0986 is minimal. I'm at 2.035 with .015 taper. LOL! Rest of the motor is in good used condition.

I have a t56 ls1 that will be swapped into the car in the future but I still want to drive my bird until I have rebuilt the ls1. What should I do for a fix? I don't want to spend too much money on it but since I have to replace the crank im almost thinking of just going with a stroker kit.

Any and all opinions welcome. Thanks.

 

No one has an opinion. That's a first! Maybe it's just the weekend.

 

If your just going to replace the whole engine sometime soon, I would do a cheap bottom end. Don't beat it too hard, till you get the good stuff.

Reground crank and bearings. $200 or so.

Stroker = heads + intake + cam + + + $$$$

 

Yea that's about dead on. $200 or so for the crank kit and a connecting rod. I was pricing decent stroker kits for around $2000. Then they just go up from there. It just seems like if i'm going to tear the engine apart I might as well rebuild it better.

 

It is all about time/$. Time/$ to invest in the job vs Time/$ repair will last.

The thing I would look at is, How long does it need to last?

Picture this would you make a big investment in a plastic beer glass? Depends, are you looking for just one beer, then no, any cheap old thing will do. Got a whole box and they are free. drink and pitch it.

But... what if you could only get just one and needed to have it last for years, Then what would you spend/invest.

Out in the middle land (100,000 miles) is where it gets interesting. Are you a gambler, feel lucky.

My Grandpa took a piece of a leather strap, and replaced the spun bearing, on a old slow rpm Minneapolis Moline tractor. He kept the load down and it ran for years. (low $, lot of work) WDYTAT Would you gamble on that bet? My uncle put in a reground crank and still has the tractor. (Higher $, same work)

 

Yea that is a good way to look at it. Thanks for the leather strap idea! I know what I need to do now. J/k I think i'm going the cheap route and putting the money into the ls motor. The TPI needs to last about a year. I'm guessing that is how long it will take me to do the swap and rebuild. We will see what happens though.

 

Remember, with the leather bearing fix, to keep the rpm's at about 500 cause wot (red line) is 1000 rpm LOL

Good Luck

 

You can find decent condition rotating assemblies around here. Find someone selling a stock L98 or just the internals. I've recently seen a post where a guy was selling some stock rotating assembly parts. Its worth a shot to find a set of cheap rods and crank to get that car together. thats your cheapest fix

else you buy a new cast crank for 190 bucks, new stock rods for 150 bucks and new bearings to get it together

Then sell it off when you swap in the LS1

 

Yea thats not a bad idea either. I was also thinking of going to the u pull junkyard and finding a 5.0 and pulling the assembly out of that. I'm pretty sure the 5.0 cranks are the same for the 5.7. The only difference may be in the rear main. As long as I get a one piece crank I think i will be fine.