LS1 died

[Vinco]

Last week my 98 Z28 had a bad day. Bottom line, my LS1 is dead.

I'm not sure what to do.

Is anyone interested in the car? T-top, black? Good tires. 125,000 miles.
Orange County California.

Does anyone have a spare LS1?

Lord have mercy
Vinc

[pajeff02]

What was the cause of death?

[Vinco]

Looks like a connecting rod came loose. No autopsy yet

[SMWS6TA]

It's most likely from the oil pump. The 97/98 LS1's had issues with their oil pumps at high revs or high miles. So much so that GM made the LS6 pump the standard after in 99.

It's what killed my LS1. Mine grenade pretty good. Spun Main bearings 3-5, Rods 4-8, piston 7&8 broke along the skirt. Even had a chunk of the block blew out along the oil journal at piston #4.

With all that carnage a new block was needed. Glad I had my LQ4 sitting waiting on hand for what was going to be a future build that turned into right now build.

You can get a 5.3 for cheap, it's a very common thing in these cases. You'll have a little loss of pwr/tq compared to the LS1 but you'll be on the road again. For a little bit more A LQ4 or 9 from 99-04 would be best with a couple of other items you will get a little bump over LS1. If you get either one of those 05 and above you'll have to do some work on them to get them to work with your ecm and harness. The couple of things I can remember of the top of my head is if it has a 58x reluctor wheel, our cars work on 24x. There are 2 ways to go about it, expensive is to get a 58x to 24x converter box ($550 and up), cheaper way, have a shop press of the 58x reluctor wheel and press on the 24x. Those engines with DOD or active fuel management, IIRC you'll have to remove the valley cover plate and a couple of other items to get rid of it.


Selling a car with a blown motor you're going to take a huge loss. More then if you replaced the motor going with a relatively stock replacement. OR...........you can look at it this way. Time to build a better, stronger, faster engine.

[rallyredss]

It's most likely from the oil pump. The 97/98 LS1's had issues with their oil pumps at high revs or high miles. So much so that GM made the LS6 pump the standard after in 99.

It's what killed my LS1. Mine grenade pretty good. Spun Main bearings 3-5, Rods 4-8, piston 7&8 broke along the skirt. Even had a chunk of the block blew out along the oil journal at piston #4.

With all that carnage a new block was needed. Glad I had my LQ4 sitting waiting on hand for what was going to be a future build that turned into right now build.

You can get a 5.3 for cheap, it's a very common thing in these cases. You'll have a little loss of pwr/tq compared to the LS1 but you'll be on the road again. For a little bit more A LQ4 or 9 from 99-04 would be best with a couple of other items you will get a little bump over LS1. If you get either one of those 05 and above you'll have to do some work on them to get them to work with your ecm and harness. The couple of things I can remember of the top of my head is if it has a 58x reluctor wheel, our cars work on 24x. There are 2 ways to go about it, expensive is to get a 58x to 24x converter box ($550 and up), cheaper way, have a shop press of the 58x reluctor wheel and press on the 24x. Those engines with DOD or active fuel management, IIRC you'll have to remove the valley cover plate and a couple of other items to get rid of it.


Selling a car with a blown motor you're going to take a huge loss. More then if you replaced the motor going with a relatively stock replacement. OR...........you can look at it this way. Time to build a better, stronger, faster engine.

I just had the same issue with my LS1 grenade at 120k miles most likely because of the fuel pump. Sorry for reviving the thread, but I have an auto 01 SS would the LQ4 or 9 be able to fit onto the 4L60E? Also would my headers fit? I'm looking to just get it back on the road without completely emptying my bank account, I miss driving my baby

[SMWS6TA]

I just had the same issue with my LS1 grenade at 120k miles most likely because of the fuel pump. Sorry for reviving the thread, but I have an auto 01 SS would the LQ4 or 9 be able to fit onto the 4L60E? Also would my headers fit? I'm looking to just get it back on the road without completely emptying my bank account, I miss driving my baby

Yes they will as long as you get a 99-04 years.

Only one semi PITA is the truck blocks do not have the 3rd hole for the alternator, you can have it drilled and tap or do like me and relocate the alternator from it's horrible asinine location form under the power steering pump to the passenger head.

With any GEN III LS block all your ls accessories and heads, exhaust etc all will hook up. On late GEN IV's (05<) it's the internals that start coming into play. They use the 59x reluctor wheel and the crank sensor is different too. You have options, some expensive, some not so much but add labor which = $$ if you're having a shop do the work.

There are 58x conversion boxes but for what they cost you're better just getting a new harness, ecm and tune. Or you can take the crank out, get a 24x reluctor wheel from Summit, go to a machine shop and have them press on the 24x and then throw in new bearings for the rods and crank while you are there for good measure.

Getting a LQ4 or 9 and throwing it in will need some tuning. It is different then the LS1, has different cam, pistons and CR. All of this factors in.

You might see ppl complain about the weight penalty of having an Iron block vs an Aluminum. My opinion - I've not suffer one damn bit. No changes in handling, breaking or acceleration.