Call the coroner she's dead for now.

[slims00ls1z28]

As the title says, "The Bitch" gave up the ghost the other day. Was cruising to the store at around 50 mph when I heard a loud clicking noise knd of like a card in a bike wheel but louder and she shut off. A quick inspection through the smoking throttle body confirmed what deep down I knew what had happened. Dexcool and small chunks line the whole manifold floor and even came out the throttle body.

Pretty sure it was a rod bolt that came loose. About 3 weeks ago after I got my car back from the tune shop I had my brother in-law who builds transmissions check out how the car was shifting and why the stall didn't seem to want to lock up. As he was testing the shifting patterns at different spots, and why when you take off slowly it will shift through all 4 gears before you hit 30. Well the last time he took off quickly and it did fine shifted at the 6500 shift points and all. And at 80 mph he went to downshift into 3rd. Well my linkage needs a lil tightening and instead of hitting 3rd it went into 2nd. This of course was way too low for around 80 MPH and 4.11's and sent the tach bouncing off the limiter and chirping the rear tires. Given the limiter is set at 6800 I'm sure it spun way over 7k. Car ran fine though no bent pushrods (hardened) no wierd noises so I got lucky right?

Well about 2 weeks later I noticed a "ticking sound" on my way to work when the car is idle, or low rpms and no load. Couldn't hear it outside the car, under the car, under the hood, or anywhere else but the driver seat with the windows down and in areas where you hear the exhaust echo off buildings etc. Like an idiot forgetting about the earlier incident I gaffed it off as the hole in my header because it sounded like an exhaust leak to me.

Fast foreward to this week cleaned all the plugs from the time spent driving untuned had deposited quite a bit of soot on them. After everything was back together everything sounded good and idled better. Even better than the day I picked it back up from tuning sounded real god. But check engine flashed again. THis is a constant problem as my car has no ABS anymore and constantly sets off the "brake sensor out of range" code. K time to go to autozone. Not 3 miles from the house bammo. Never even got more than 1/4 pedal. Oil pressure was steady 45psi (I always check it for some reason had just checked it 20 seconds before the disaster) temps 190. All normal.

Still haven't completely torn the engine yet just remove v covers and plugs. #5 plug didnt even have a tip on it anymore. All the valve springs are straight and all the valves are still attached and still seated in their retainers. But every bit of antifreeze is in the cranckcase (checked oil and it read 3 inches over full but was still unmixed) so there is definately something more than just a piston busted in there. All the chunks of metal in the intake are very small and theres alot of it so the piston must have shattered. We'll find out for sure soon as I break it down. Pretty sure the rod bolt gave up the ghost though.

Bright side of the story I convinced the wife that it will cost the same to drop a L92 headed texas speed 402 as it would a complete crate LS1 . Too bad I have to wait till incometax. Kids Bday's wife's bday and christmas all comming up in next few months . Hopefully the cam and most of the valvetrain will make it out alive.

[Mr. Hyde]

Just don't forget about that lil ol $2999.99 405HP (Z06) LS6 @ crateenginedepot.com Real easy to get it up to 500HP too Sorry to hear about your car, I lost a rod in my LS1 and it launched a piston on a one way trip through the side of the block!

[slims00ls1z28]

Shhhh I don't want her to know I can get the LS6 at that price then the 402 would seem a little excessive.

I was surprised nothing came out the side. No loud boom bang clunk clunk etc. Then again its real hard to hear anything with my exhaust.