02 Ws.6 Rehab

**joe9130** · 07-23-2020, 06:30 AM

Bought my 02 TA new when I got out of college and absolutely love the car. Unfortunately, I used it everyday and had put almost 200k miles on it by 2009. I've gotten married and the car has basically been sitting for the past 10 years. 3 kids later, I don't really have a huge budget to get it back in good mechanical shape. I've done a few long term upgrades, but the next item was going to be the engine.

Car no longer started and it stalled out while idling about 9 months ago in my driveway. and I am confident that the gas is now bad, so had it towed to a shop for them to take a look at. initially, they were able to determine that the camshaft position sensor was bad and replaced it. They were able to start it, but it cut off after about 15 seconds and wouldn't restart. "Sounded like a bunch of marble banging around" Tech was able to manually crank the engine as it wasn't bound up, but the starter was bad so they replaced it. Started again and same noise. Tech thinks something is wrong in the bottom of the motor.

I wanted to get a different opinion on next steps. I freely admit that I have zero experience actually repairing an engine, but I do understand the basics. Shop is saying that the engine seizes, but will hand crank when it cools down. My theory is that since it sat for so long, there is no oil on the top end, and can be contributing to the problem. Also, shouldn't it sound terrible anyways on bad gas?

Looking for suggestions, but I think my options as I see them:

1. Risk wasting money and have them drop the tank to remove the bad gas and change the fuel filter. I did a fuel pressure test on my own and at was at 56psi. Also have them take the top off the motor so that they can atleast look inside and maybe lubricate lifters, springs, etc.

2. Replace the motor. Shop looked around and only found one used LS1 with 90k miles and they wanted $4k for it, plus install and I'm probably somewhere around $6k. Seems to me that compatible LS1's are harder to find unless you are looking for a high end race engine. I'd use the car, and not opposed to goosing the hp a little, but not looking for a large boost. Just reliable, and compatible engine that doesn't need all types of alterations to fit, reprogramming, etc.

3. Would I be better off figuring out what is wrong with this one and having it pulled and rebuilt? Any recommendations on who to use?

Sorry for the long post, but I love this car and it has sentimental value. Now married with 3 daughters, I don't have the lattitude to spend money on my car like I used to. Short of having all the kids college funds already set aside, my one shot at having something fun to drive is this car since it's already paid for...

Thank you in advance!

***SMWS6TA*** · 07-23-2020, 10:50 AM

I would suggest several things before committing to pulling the engine.

1st pull the oil filter and cut it open, look for metal, flaking etc. That will let you if you wiped the bearings. Change the oil, fresh oil helps a bunch. If it comes out in sludge there are a couple of things that can thin it out, MMO or one I don't think you should do if you're a novice is a little kerosene. Again don't try if you don't know what you're doing. Too much and it wipes the oil from the galleys and bearings. If you do option 2 after it thins the oil, another oil change is needed. I recommend just getting the cheapest 10w-30 oil you can get because you may need to do a few oil changes if you have sludge.

2nd - Take the fuel filter off, hook up a fuel rated hose to the line from the tank side, and have it go to a can or something that can catch the gas. cycle the key on off till you have it drain. That is the easiest and fastest way. Be careful and have safety gear like fire hydrant etc. Replace the filter before you put fresh gas back end. If this doesn't work you can do the trap door method (highly encourage this, saves you time and effort in accessing the fuel pump.

3rd - pull the valve covers off and inspect the top end. Wouldn't hurt to have someone turn the the crank while you look, see if anything is binding up.

4th - Once you have those above done, pull all the plugs and do a compression check on all cylinders. That will really tell you the health of the engine. You could get one of those bore cameras off of Amazon that hooks up to your cell and lets you look in the cyl thru the spark plug hole to check the piston and the rings.

These are a few steps you can do that can help trouble shoot.

let us know what you find. Good Luck.

**joe9130** · 07-24-2020, 07:29 AM

Not sure of the timeline when I will be able to do all of this (with help!), but I wanted to get back to you and thank you for the advice. Sounds very logical

Joe

***SMWS6TA*** · 07-24-2020, 08:28 AM

Does it sound like a clack, clack sound or a sewing machine?

With the valve covers off you can connect the coils again and run the engine with the covers off to see if it is oil is coming up thru the lifters. Warning it is a little messy, I used cardboard to to make a wall around the edge where the cover would go to try to limit any oil spray. I would check one head at a time. The reason to check it this way is to see if oil is pumping up thru the lifters thru the push rods. If the lifters have gone dry and the oil pump is gum up it could explain the noise, a collapsed lifter will sound like a sewing machine in the beginning till it goes then it gets louder.

Clack, clack sound or very loud ticking could be a sign of a rod bearing failure. The worse it gets the more it takes to fix. My original LS1 (98) had bearing failure due to the shitty oil pump that the 97-98 LS1's had. Took me a while to figure it out, I was so sure it was lifters, but after I did new lifters the noise didn't go away. Finally pulled the motor and found the issue, did a rebuild. Then on break end on the new rebuild it grenade internally due to rod bolt failure. So a total rebuild later, now have a 403ci stroker with a 6Liter block.

**badbar51501** · 07-27-2020, 01:31 PM

Originally Posted by joe9130

Bought my 02 TA new when I got out of college and absolutely love the car. Unfortunately, I used it everyday and had put almost 200k miles on it by 2009. I've gotten married and the car has basically been sitting for the past 10 years. 3 kids later, I don't really have a huge budget to get it back in good mechanical shape. I've done a few long term upgrades, but the next item was going to be the engine.

Car no longer started and it stalled out while idling about 9 months ago in my driveway. and I am confident that the gas is now bad, so had it towed to a shop for them to take a look at. initially, they were able to determine that the camshaft position sensor was bad and replaced it. They were able to start it, but it cut off after about 15 seconds and wouldn't restart. "Sounded like a bunch of marble banging around" Tech was able to manually crank the engine as it wasn't bound up, but the starter was bad so they replaced it. Started again and same noise. Tech thinks something is wrong in the bottom of the motor.

I wanted to get a different opinion on next steps. I freely admit that I have zero experience actually repairing an engine, but I do understand the basics. Shop is saying that the engine seizes, but will hand crank when it cools down. My theory is that since it sat for so long, there is no oil on the top end, and can be contributing to the problem. Also, shouldn't it sound terrible anyways on bad gas?

Looking for suggestions, but I think my options as I see them:

1. Risk wasting money and have them drop the tank to remove the bad gas and change the fuel filter. I did a fuel pressure test on my own and at was at 56psi. Also have them take the top off the motor so that they can atleast look inside and maybe lubricate lifters, springs, etc.

2. Replace the motor. Shop looked around and only found one used LS1 with 90k miles and they wanted $4k for it, plus install and I'm probably somewhere around $6k. Seems to me that compatible LS1's are harder to find unless you are looking for a high end race engine. I'd use the car, and not opposed to goosing the hp a little, but not looking for a large boost. Just reliable, and compatible engine that doesn't need all types of alterations to fit, reprogramming, etc.

3. Would I be better off figuring out what is wrong with this one and having it pulled and rebuilt? Any recommendations on who to use?

Sorry for the long post, but I love this car and it has sentimental value. Now married with 3 daughters, I don't have the lattitude to spend money on my car like I used to. Short of having all the kids college funds already set aside, my one shot at having something fun to drive is this car since it's already paid for...

Thank you in advance!

Sounds like chime to call garage squad

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