2002 CETA new engine

[Marine Wife]

Alrighty, my first post is going to be a long one!
My husband has a 2002 Collectors Edition Trans Am. The background on it is: we bought it used from the 2nd owner. The first owner had done some MAJOR modifications to it ie: Vortech supercharger, new cam, ported and polished heads, new suspension, BAER brake system, New headers and exhaust, ext.
The "check engine" light kept coming on so we hooked up the computer reader and got the codes off of it saying it was running rich in some of the banks. We took it to a local shop and he turned off the codes and was going to get us a Diablo tuner and tune the car for us. A month later and he doesn't remember us! So we took it to another shop that seemed to know a bit more about the LS1. ALL we wanted was to have the car tuned so it wouldn't run so rich and eat fuel! An outrageous amount of money later they say it is fixed! They did not even tune it! They said it was my spark plugs! so we take it home and it starts billowing smoke everywhere! I though at first it was just from the dipstick blowing out when they had it on the DYno, it got oil EVERYWHERE! We changed the oil and cleaned the engine off and the car is still smoking all over! We take it back to them and they tell us that it blew a cylinder! They want over $3000 just to take the engine out! Then they will send it to another shop who will most likely charge $7000 to rebuild it and then another $3000 to put it back in and $750 to tune it! As you may have realized from my name, my husband is a US Marine! Money is not in abundance with us, so that was out of the question. We brought it home and now my husband is deployed. I have taken it to the auto hobby shop here on base. I got in and did a compression test and indeed all compression is lost in #7. I hear cylinder #7 is a common problem in the LS1. I took the supercharger off and there is A LOT of oil in the intake side of it, I have pictures! So I took off the valve covers and checked that indeed all the valves are working and none are stuck! I am going to take the heads off next.
I am prepared to take the engine out because I know that is what needs to be done. My problem is this: what engine should I replace it with? Being a girl guys naturally think I don't know about cars! Partly true! I can wrench on things and fix things fairly well, and I have replaced an engine before in another car. What I do not know much about is performance and things like that. Just tell me what you want done and I will do it! I have been told that the engine needs to be replace because of wear on it. It has about 35,000 miles. So replace the engine because it would be best. so do I replace it with a new LS1 OR go with the supposedably better LS2? I would LOVE to put in the LS7 BUT again money is a big factor! Also if I put in a new engine will the mods that are with the car bolt onto a new engine?
So I have some pennies saved up to fix this thing for my husband and surprise him when he returns from deployment. I would like some suggestions as to what would be best to do. How can I make the car run best?
Thanks

[dougbfresh]

Well, www.corvetteforum.com (http://www.corvetteforum.com) is a GREAT reference for LSX engines. 35K on an LS1 is no big deal. There is a Forced Induction and tuning section on that forum since many Vette owners have turbo/super chargers. There are several good tuners on that forum and 1 may be close to you. The hassle with the F-body cars is that the engine has to come out the BOTTOM, cradle and all. Oil in the intake is NORMAL for the LS1, search for "catch can" on the Vette forum and you'll see, it's a bigger issue for forced induction setups. Get the cylinder head off and try to determine why you have no compression. Might be something simple like the head gasket. If the piston is intact, you might be OK.

By the way www.ls1.com is a good resource too as is www.fbody.com.

[justen]

Where the rod broke in # 7, I would check that and see if it really did any damage to the cylinder wall, I have had broken rods and honed out the cylinder back into shape when it's not bad condition, and put a new piston, rod and ring in, and works out just fine that way. Some lsx engines I've seen have 200,000 miles on them before the first overhaul.

[olddog]

My hat's off to you Marine wife.

Point 1. It is always the least surprises and hassle to replace an engine with the exact same one that was in it.

Try finding your engine here
http://autopartsearch.com/searchframe.cfm
Salvage engines can be risky too. I like to make sure I see and hear it run before they pull it out of the car. Ask about warrantees and get it in writing.

Point 2) Obviously who ever installed it didn't have it set up properly and the people you payed to destroy - I mean tune it - didn't know didly squat either. So you are still stuck with getting it properly tuned when you get the next engine. Look for some expert help with a widely known excellent reputation. There are too many wantabees out there acting like they know something.

You might want to leave off the supercharger and get the computer with the salvage engine and then you would have everything back to factory specs. You can alway install the performance stuff later after you have proven the car is healthy.

PS
Thank your husband for me, for being the man he is. The news media tries to hide it, but some of us out here appreciate our fine millitary men and women. And thanks to you for supporting him.

[danny]

welcome to the forum. i hope everything goes well for your project. i believe you have come to the right site for help. keep asking questions and i'm sure that you will get satisfactory results, and thank your husband for me too-semper fi.

[Marine Wife]

Well I have to wait a couple more weeks before I can get back to the car. Kids need to get back in school cause I can't take them to the shop. My next question is..... Should I just figure on pulling the engine out or should I actually take off the heads to check for something else? A blown gasket seems to be to good to be true! So should I just expect the worst and take it out or is it simple to take the heads off in the car?
If I have to change piston rings and seals I have to pull the engine anyway to get it done is that right?
Pretty much what would be the easiest thing to do? Pull the engine and work on it out of the car, or take the heads off and see if I can tell what is wrong?
Thanks for your help. I will check the sites posted above!



PS I will pass on the word and I am sure he will know that you appreciate his service just by the fact you are helping me fix his car! That will be the thing that makes his return happy! He already said that if I couldn't fix it to let him know so he could prepare for that, but with all the help from this board I should be able to do it and do it right! Thanks

[dougbfresh]

Take the head off 1st, if you can get to it. You don't "Pull" the engine in an F-body of that vintage, you drop the entire front out of the car=BIG job. Horsepower TV bid this on an LS1 Camaro a few shows ago, it had a spun rod bearing and they (of course) beefed it up while it was out. They used the lift to lift the body off the front subframe, leaving the subframe, engine and trans on the floor.

[justen]

Pull the head, expect anything. There's many possibilities.

[Raven02TA]

Take the head off 1st, if you can get to it. You don't "Pull" the engine in an F-body of that vintage, you drop the entire front out of the car=BIG job. Horsepower TV bid this on an LS1 Camaro a few shows ago, it had a spun rod bearing and they (of course) beefed it up while it was out. They used the lift to lift the body off the front subframe, leaving the subframe, engine and trans on the floor.


actually you can pull the engine out of the top of an fbody, i do it all the time. and takes less than 2 hours to do with a little help. and you dont have to pull the heads off to pull it out either.

Majorwife, any blown/sprayed LS1 car needs to be tuned with LS1edit or HPTuners program not a diablo handheld programmer. the programmer just doesnt have the ability to go into the Values of the PCM to change the air/fuel mixture properly. i personally would find a local machine shop that can rebuild your bottom end with upgraded parts ie: forged pistons, H-beam rods, stick with a stock crank you wont need to worry about that at all. then again it also matters if you have any kind of goals for the caris there a certain amount of HP you are trying to accomplish with it? keep in mind the more you put out of the engine you have a chance of breaking things IE: the tooth pick of a rear end thats in the car.

as dougbfresh said oil in the intake is normal on any ls1 engine. you can always put in a catch can. i can always give you a lot more advice on the matter if youd like i can shoot you a PM and ill give you my phone number and we can discuss the issues and try to work through them and i can make some recommendations and opinions on how to go about fixing the car.

the next question is where are you located? need to know so i can recommend some shops in your area?

Also for a lot of knowledgeable tech help see the guys on http://www.LS1tech.com

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j233/raven02ta/425662292BbUduX_ph.jpg

[dougbfresh]

How high in the air do you have to get the car for the engine to clear on the way out with the heads on? Seem to recall last time I saw an F-body with an LS-1 1/4 of the engine is back past the firewall.

[Raven02TA]

remove the radiator and condensor (if you have ac), and once you bring the engine high enough off the kmember to clear the pan bring it forward. it takes a little finaggling on your way up but it comes out fairly easily. just make sure the intake manifold is off the engine, take out the Cam sensor and the oil pressure sensor in the back (or break it and replace it later) and keep the arm of the engine hoist pretty close to the motor itself. other than that is a matter of keeping your eye on what you are doing and going slow.

the engine is not actually past the firewall, the winshield cowl is over it but not by much. to clear everything just make sure the valve covers and rockers/rods are out of the engine, and it should clear just fine. if you have the time and a 3 jaw gear puller you will also want to pull the crank pulley of the motor first. this will give you a couple more inches of clearence

the most trouble you will have is getting the power steering pump off the passenger head. just takes some patience. you'll want to pull the only visible bolts off of the assemble. and on the back of the resevior there is a bolt you have to turn out slowely while moving the pump forward. (if you look behind the pump you will see what i mean) and there is another bolt on the passenger side of the pump. you have to work the two bolts out a couple of threads at a time until the pump comes off. OR you can get a PS pulley puller and remove the pulley and pull the pump off via the two bolts behind the pulley itself and it comes right off.

[Saltmine]

I'm going to have to agree with Doug on this one.

The "F" body was DESIGNED to have the powerplant removed and installed out the bottom.

Yes, it's entirely possible to remove the engine from the top, but, the reason it was designed to come out the bottom was to keep the tech from bending pipes, and lines, tearing ground wires off and punching holes in the HVAC box.

The engine can be removed out the bottom without opening up the A/C system, too. Which is a consideration if you don't have proper refrigerant recovery equipment.

We used to see about one Camaro a month dragged into the dealer, with the engine half-torn out the top. It usually cost the owner of the car plenty to set it right.

My younger brother, who is a service manager of a West Coast Chevrolet dealer, has actually fired at least two techs who he caught attempting to pull an "F" body engine "the old way". Of course, he also fired a tech for trying to pull the engine out of a 2000 Chevy Impala out the top (the old way)

Either do it right, or don't do it at all...

[dougbfresh]

Looked like he had to dismantle most of the car and the engine to get it out the top and open the air conditioning system-doesn't seem like a shortcut to me.

[Saltmine]

Yeah, Doug. When you drop one out the bottom, you take four bolts out of the A/C compressor and swing it to one side.

My brother's kid (who works at a Corvette Specialty Shop) can pull the engine out of a Corvette (the same way) replace all of the rings, and reinstall it. Then fire it up and take it for a road test, all in one day.

[justen]

easiest way for me is to drop the tranny and engine all at once. but thats using a lift too.
my neighbor dropped his engine without a lift, it was pretty interesting listening to him swear and yell the car has to go higher lol. Eventually he had someone with a bobcat come over and lift the front end high enough the back bumper was almost touching the pavement.

[dougbfresh]

Yeah, Doug. When you drop one out the bottom, you take four bolts out of the A/C compressor and swing it to one side.

My brother's kid (who works at a Corvette Specialty Shop) can pull the engine out of a Corvette (the same way) replace all of the rings, and reinstall it. Then fire it up and take it for a road test, all in one day.

That's pretty good, he must have done a few to ne that fast. Where is his shop at?

[Saltmine]

Well, the kid works at "A&A Corvettes" in Oxnard. My brother's dealership is in Thousand Oaks.

[Raven02TA]

dont get me wrong. if i had a lift it would been dropped out of the bottom but what are you going to tell the people who dont have lifts? let the front end of their car dangle by the engine hoist and risk deforming some parts of the unibody? taking it out of the bottom without a lift is not smart IMO and i wouldnt do it. (probably since i have had a lot of practice taking it out of the top.) all ground wires, connections, a/c compressor, alternator and such are easy to get to and take off in car. as far as re-charging the ac system they have refergerant kits at autozone, advance, napa.

[Saltmine]

I'm sure Doug and a lot of the guys will agree with me. Either do it right...or don't do it at all...

I understand your point. Without a lift, pulling an engine out of a car like this can be a challenge. Each to his own. You gotta do what you gotta do.

As far as Autozone's, NAPA's, and Advance's recharge kits.... Unless you have a vacuum pump to evacuate the system, forget it. The air trapped in the A/C system will condense into moisture, which will turn into acid...well, you know the drill...

But, I'm not one to question...it's your car. On the other hand, if I were doing it for a customer, and the car wasn't mine....I'd probably end up in jail, or getting dragged into small claims court.

[dougbfresh]

Well, there are "creative" ways of doing things like this. They built the Pyramids without lifts. I would think with a couple of decent floor jacks, a trans jack adapter for one to cradle the "goodies" in and a couple of stong backs, you could do this is a home garage the correct way. A Corvette forum I frequent has some pics of guys pulling their trans for clutch jobs and the rear end is 4 feet (you have to get it that high to remove the exhaust) in the air on all kinds of different contraptions.

Check this out:
http://www.c5frc.com/DIY/ClutchInstall/index.htm

[FieroSpeeder]

I'm sure Doug and a lot of the guys will agree with me. Either do it right...or don't do it at all...


But you cant actually expect that with this forum. How many people actually diagnose cars the "right" way on here. No one. Because they are practicing diagnostics without the proper equipment, that either you or I have available to us.


Most people can afford scan tools now. But I get a laugh when people say, "check the codes" Or "well, if theres no codes, eventually :rolleyes: one will pop up, then you can diagnose it. Not even diagnose it, but assume the error code is accurate enough to replace a sensor.


Your only going to see intelligent answers from real technicians that do this for a living and not from some weekend wrencher, like 99% of the people that are on this forum. There isn't no right way approach on this forum.

[carsandcycles]

We be from the old school here (at least some of us), the Shadetree Mechanic people. There are sometimes more than one way to skin a cat, as they say, but in any event, you have to do it safely. A couple of other expressions come to mind, get'r done, use a little creative engineering and any port in a storm; but stay safe out there first. I figure, it's already broke, so I'm going to take a crack at it first. I may get burned and end up spending more for a professional to fix my screwup but occassionaly I impress myself and fix it all by my lonely.

[olddog]

But you cant actually expect that with this forum. How many people actually diagnose cars the "right" way on here. No one. Because they are practicing diagnostics without the proper equipment, that either you or I have available to us.
Well I for on fit that discription, and I have taken Saltmines advice and took it to someone who has the equipment to do it right. However I have seen the shops and dealers guess and swap parts at the customers expense, far too often. I have yet to meet the mechanic that does the level of troubleshooting that you talk about, but I haven't taken anything to your shop yet. ;)

Actually the last five autos I have owned were Fords and they had very few break downs. Most of the stuff I have seen were friends and relatives trying to get their GMs fixed. :eek: My present Grand Marqui is the first Ford to have anything fail before 100K miles. :(

[Trader Ray]

But you cant actually expect that with this forum. How many people actually diagnose cars the "right" way on here. No one. Because they are practicing diagnostics without the proper equipment, that either you or I have available to us.


Most people can afford scan tools now. But I get a laugh when people say, "check the codes" Or "well, if theres no codes, eventually :rolleyes: one will pop up, then you can diagnose it. Not even diagnose it, but assume the error code is accurate enough to replace a sensor.


Your only going to see intelligent answers from real technicians that do this for a living and not from some weekend wrencher, like 99% of the people that are on this forum. There isn't no right way approach on this forum.

Fiero, I really dont see why you post here if you are so convinced that the 99% of the people here are just weekend wrenchers. There are pro's on this forum and even retired pro's that post. Dave Bowman himself post every now and then.

It is not right that you say you will not get a intellenget answer from the members here. The advice they offer is free other than the price of your internet service. I myself have taken advice from the weekend wrenchers and solved problems. How many times have you taken a car to a PRO only to have to take it back or how many times have you serviced a car only to have it come back?

You used to post offering advice and it was good advice, but you have switched to not offering advise, you seem to now only shoot down the advice given by others and then dont offer a different aproach or as you would say, the right way to do it.

You need to decide if you want to be part of this forum and partisipate with the others, not everyone is right all the time nor are they wrong all the time. You seem to have one person that offers advice to just about everyone who ask for it and shoot that person down. THAT HAS TO STOP.

I am sorry if this sounds harsh, but either start being a little more thoughtfull when you post or dont post. There is a joke section if that is what you want to do, but "Your Own Projects" is not the place to constantly ride other members about the possible answer to the question asked. THIS HAS TO STOP. If you need to discuss this further hit my PM button. You seem to have knowledge that some of us dont have, yes a lot of us offer hands on salutions, but it is always up to the person that asked for the advise to make the final desision.

[Marine Wife]

Well tomorrow is the day! I will go ahead and pull the heads off first. Though I understand that may take a bit of finness! I have the car at the auto hobby shop here on base. They have lifts and all the tools I could possibly hope for! PLUS there are some people there who can help a little if I get stuck. I have a manual and they have the online stuff. So I hope to know more in the morning what I am up against.
Please be a blown head gasket!, Please be a blown head gasket!
I am going to have to go check out the LS1 board and figure out what I am going to do to improve the engine if I have to.
I will let you all know what the outcome is tomorrow!
Thanks

[Raven02TA]

MARINE WIFE, if i may make any suggestion its to buy this book before you do anything http://www.bordersstores.com/web_images/products/00/54/39/c/54393993_c.gif
How to Build High-Performance Chevy LS1/LS6 Engines. you can buy it at any major book store in the transportation section.

it will help you learn how to do just about everything in an Fbody,vette etc. and give you some performance tips but do not do everything the book tells you to performance wise. also i recommend buying a haynes manual from advance or autozone. just to have the tq specs handy.

[danny]

good advice raven.

[Marine Wife]

yup I already have that book!
I got the head off and it is fine, the piston LOOKS fine BUT when you run your fingers over it on the side where you can't see there is a gouge out of it. I will be trying to drop the pan and get the piston out on Friday when the shop opens again. I guess if the cylinder wall is still good then I will try to find a new piston.
Should I go with ALL new pistons? Maybe something a little better to withstand the pressure and the power of the engine?
OH I also found out that the people who owned the car before me got taken! I have a reciept that shows they paid a substantial amount to have the heads ported and polished and they are not done! and I know the guy did not swap the heads! So I was thinking of polishing them myself. Does it help the car at all?
So now I just need to decide what will be best for the car.
Thanks for the advice.

[justen]

if you have the money and up to the challenge get new pistons and rods. Do it right the first time, so you don't have to do this job again.

[Raven02TA]

yup I already have that book!
I got the head off and it is fine, the piston LOOKS fine BUT when you run your fingers over it on the side where you can't see there is a gouge out of it. I will be trying to drop the pan and get the piston out on Friday when the shop opens again. I guess if the cylinder wall is still good then I will try to find a new piston.
Should I go with ALL new pistons? Maybe something a little better to withstand the pressure and the power of the engine?
OH I also found out that the people who owned the car before me got taken! I have a reciept that shows they paid a substantial amount to have the heads ported and polished and they are not done! and I know the guy did not swap the heads! So I was thinking of polishing them myself. Does it help the car at all?
So now I just need to decide what will be best for the car.
Thanks for the advice.


just polishing the heads really will not do much. depending on your budget i would recommend buying a set of heads from one of LS1tech's sponsors. either Thunderracing.com, LS1speed.com, patriot performance, AFR, or even Texas speeds PRC stage 1.5 heads (which is what i have). Dart has also now come out with a set of heads for the LS1 engine but right now they dont have valve springs incorporated in them good enough to handle a cam (they are working on that last i heard).

i dont know what cam is in your car but i recommend buying one that would be good for a blower. (i have heard and also used in one of my customers turbo 408 LS1 that the Zo6 cam is good, and never had an issue with the one we installed)

as far as your bottom end....
i agree with justen
if you are going to be in there and if you have the money i think you should do a set of H-beam connecting rods and a set of Mahle forged pistons w/valve reliefs.

danny: thanks brother! http://easternfbody.com/forum/images/smilies/thumbsup.gif

[dougbfresh]

Just get a crate LS7!! :D
http://www.corvettemuseum.com/specs/2006/LS7.shtml

[Raven02TA]

Just get a crate LS7!! :D
http://www.corvettemuseum.com/specs/2006/LS7.shtml

Im inclined to agree if you had the cash :D

[danny]

have you established the cause for the dead cylinder?

[Marine Wife]

I am just going to go and drop the engine out today when the shop opens back up. I have been researching on the LS1 Tech for the past few days and also thebook has a good write up of and engine build. When I get it down I will let you know what I find. I need to see the piston head to know if it was and impact break or a burn through. I do have an aftermarket cam installed, it is a bullet cam. I have all the specs on it. I am going to see what happened to the piston and inspect the cylinder wall and see if my block is saveable and gofrom there, maybe put teh mods on that are in the book! Maybe I should call W2W! They are the ones that did the build!
I will keep you posted.
Thanks

[Marine Wife]

well ran into a few snags. The shop who put this car back together after some mods to it, put it back together WRONG! They routed the wire harness incorrectly and now I have more hours of work just to get it so I can get the engine out, I have to get teh engine off the mounts to the cradle and undo the wire harness then put the engine back on the mounting points so I can drop the engine out the bottom! So today is hopefully the day it will come out!

[justen]

Sounds to me the place that did the build didn't know what they were doing if they can't get a simple wire harness correctly routed or connected.

[Marine Wife]

Yeah my thoughts!
I have hte engine out, the wire harness needs some TLC! They spliced into it here and there and just did a shody job of it so I need to clean it up! THey had bolts in the wrong place and some put in backwards! CRAZY! I have the engine now with the transmission off and the heads off. I am going to look for a good shop in the morning and try to get it over to someone. THe cylinder wall is a LITTLE scratched but not much, I hope I can just get the walls honed and then some better pistons.
I was thinking JE pistons and Carrillo rods, maybe a lunati crank and some ? springs I have custom cams lifter rods. I don't know what else should be done?
Thanks for all the help.
Amber
I will keep you posted

Oh ALSO it looks like my #2 valve HIT the piston, what is that due to? THe cam or the springs or the valse or what? I was also going to put in new valves, any suggestions?

[Saltmine]

Sounds like you ran into a shop that talked a good story, but didn't know what they were doing...It's common these days....

Recommendations? Sure....At this point I'd take the engine to a machine shop (a good one) and have them clean up the block and measure everything before you start planning modifications. JE pistons and Carrillo rods are nice, but for everyday street use, and occasional weekend racing, the GM stuff is pretty hard to beat.
Usually a valve bouncing off of a piston indicates a loss of valve control...ie, bad valve springs. I'm always amazed by people who install high performance camshafts and still keep the original valve springs...It's almost criminal.

If you want some good information on real world LS-1's take a few minutes and visit this web-site: <http://www.aandacorvette.com/>

My nephew Jesse works there, and they're the "last word" in LS-1 performance...Unfortunately they only work on Corvettes, but they might be able to guide you in the right direction to get the LS-1 you want....

[justen]

JE pistons and Carrillo rods would be fine. I figure them rods should handle the punishment. You can get a crank but thats one part not necessary. The stock crank is pretty darn strong.

[dougbfresh]

The stock LS1 components (especially the bottom end) are solid to 450-500hp, other things will break long before the bottom end. Spend your money on aftermarket cylinder heads and find a GOOD tuner that has a chassis dyno. Many of the Corvette guys that do forced induction get 400+HP rear wheels on a stock bottom end without braking a sweat.

[olddog]

With the supercharger she could easily push 600 hp or more. There are all types of people out there claiming (not always true mind you) to have stock bottom ends pushing big HP. Most are not make the HP they think (watch em cry after a dyno run). Others will tell you everything is stock when it is not.

Here is the thing with a boosted engine. Say you have a 10:1 compression ratio (cr). You push 7.5 lb boost and you have the equivilant of 15:1 cr. With an after cooler you can back that down to maybe 12:1 or 13:1 equivilant. But you cannot get around the gain in cr.

Boost makes an engine much more prone to detonation. A slight amount of detonation during tuning is not tollerated well by a stock bottom end. Forged pistons buys more forgiveness.

Boosted engines have much hotter combustion temps and pressures. Depending on how much boost, you have to start planning for more piston expansion from the heat (need more piston to cylinder clearance).

Factory pistons usually have the top ring located very close to the top of the piston, for emissions. The increased combustion heat can cook the ring badly. For boosted engines it is recomended to use a piston with the top ring located lower. It is also recomended the you use forged pistons. However forged pistons have more thermal expansion, and you have to provide even more clearance, which will result in cold engine piston slap.

Me, if I was putting all that money in a supercharger to make power, I would want a bottom end that could hold up to it, and not have the nawing feeling in my gut every time I stuck my foot into it. Top engine builders recomend it, too.

[olddog]

When inspecting the engine, look at the top ring, the piston land from the top ring up, and look at the top of the piston. You are looking for signs of excessive heat or scoring form seizing. See next line.

Also you want to look at the broken piston and the cylinder. It is possible that the piston had expanded from heat to the point it started to seize in the cylinder and that is what broke it.

The valve spring tension can be measured by a good shop. You want to have them measured and compare that to what the cam calls for. Especially measure the spring on the valve that hit and compare it to other springs. The springs may have been correct. There may be nothing wrong with them.

The engine may have been revved too high. There may not be enough valve to piston clearance with the new after-market cam. High lift, long duration cams often require cutting notches deeper into the piston. Valve piston clearance is checked by putting clay on top of the piston and rotating the engine. Then measure the thickness of the clay.

Look at rod bearings for signs of overloading. Detonation can beat bearings badly.

Inspect all pistons and rods for any signs of cracks.

A good shop will know everything I have said and much more.

I hate to say it, but if you want to play with high performance toys, you either pay for it up front or you pay later over and over from failure after failure.

Your engine absolutely failed for a reason. It was either modifications that were to much for the factory parts still in it, or the operator over revved it, or it was improperly tuned, or parts did not match for clearances. You get my point. If you do not figure out why it failed, you may well be doomed to another failure. Or you can through better more expensive parts at it and hope that solves it, which it may. But if you are unlucky, the next failure will have destroyed even more expensive parts than the last one.

Hopefully you can find a good engine doctor to help you do an autopsy and diagnose what killed your engine.

[dougbfresh]

LS1 has alot of good parts from the General already-600HP street car is probably going to break other stock driveline components. The LS1 is 350hp'ish from the factory-500hp is doable on the bottom end-150 extra hp from a street centrifical SC is quite easily taken by the stock bottom end. It's the tune that make the big difference, if she leans out at high boost, it will melt something. She need to find a tuner that tunes Forced Induction engines since the fuel map will be VERY IMPORTANT, especially if other mods have happened too. If she does not have access to a resource like this locally, returing it as close to stock will make the job easier and it should be very reliable or it will be not quite right for quite awhile.

The guy I work for has a turbo T/A (3800) with TONS of mods and a very custom ECU. He's spent a ton of $$$ on it and it's never EXACTLY right for the street.

[justen]

I'm wondering to, that Vortech supercharger she has. I wonder how many pounds it's running. That could play a big part on the build up or making it reliable.

[FieroSpeeder]

Fiero, I really dont see why you post here if you are so convinced that the 99% of the people here are just weekend wrenchers. There are pro's on this forum and even retired pro's that post. Dave Bowman himself post every now and then.

Dave Bowman would be included in the 1%. I dont see too many professionals on this forum. So my guess of 1% seems realistic.

It is not right that you say you will not get a intellenget answer from the members here. The advice they offer is free other than the price of your internet service. I myself have taken advice from the weekend wrenchers and solved problems. How many times have you taken a car to a PRO only to have to take it back or how many times have you serviced a car only to have it come back?

It is possible to get an intelligent answer; never said it wasn't possible. But you are not going to get every weekend warrior to be diagnosing cars with 10,000 dollar equipment. Therefore, a majority of them will not be diagnosing cars the corrrect way.

You used to post offering advice and it was good advice, but you have switched to not offering advise, you seem to now only shoot down the advice given by others and then dont offer a different aproach or as you would say, the right way to do it.

The right way to do it in a majority of these emission failures is using a labscope. But how many first time posters that come on here wondering why their check engine light is on even own a scan tool to retreive codes? Can you really give advice if someone hasn't worked on a car before or doesn't have any equipment?

You seem to have one person that offers advice to just about everyone who ask for it and shoot that person down. THAT HAS TO STOP.

And everyone that takes advice from that person has to take it with a grain of salt. Just because someone replies back to a poster, doesn't mean they are doing any good. Giving the wrong advice is very dangerous to the owner of the vehicle. Having an automobile fail in traffic isn't the safest thing. The person asking the question doesn't have any knowledge if the advice being given is valid. Since, they dont know anything about cars in the first place.

I am sorry if this sounds harsh, but either start being a little more thoughtfull when you post or dont post. .
doesn't sound harsh at all, i dont get easily offended.