reactor2

So years ago I was big time into the muscle car seen, I had a '71 SS 454 which I ran a variety of motors in. I didn't beat the big block too hard, but I did run a "junkyard" 350 (high mileage cast everything) very hard. Among all the bolt ons (heads,cam, intake, exhaust, etc.) I ran a 250 shot of NOS. I was never overly concerned with AFR or anything crazy like that. I would hit the juice right out of the hole (I had a 4000 converter) and I often forgot to let up on the juice when I let up on the throttle...POP. That "junk" motor got me though several seasons and even after selling the car I find out that the abuse continued for years later. I wasn't alone, all of my "poor" friends ran similar setups with the same "luck". What I'm trying to get at, is I did everything wrong with that motor, too rich, too lean, too much timing, not enough timing, junk gas, etc....and it never gave up. I never threw it on the dyno but I figure I was pushing > 600 rwhp (with the juice of course). I couldn't have cared less if the motor blew as I would just cruise down to the junkyard and drop another $500 on a 350....it just never blew. And that junk yard 350 in that 3500lb chevelle would wear out 98% of the C5s on the forum in the quarter mile....and it would do it all day long, year after year....heck its probably still doing it.

Flash forward to the LS. People are blowing these things with less than 500hp!!??!! I just read a thread where a forged LS just let loose with only 600? This is crazy!! It seem like if you ever get to the point of hearing a little spark knock at WOT, the motor is already junk. Running a little too lean....you have holes in your pistons! Supercharged and running > 11 AFR....dead man walking. Cam with greater than .500 lift...valve may I introduce you to piston. Are people just unlucky or are these princess motors really that fragile? Seems to me, if they are, and we want to race these things without killing our pocket books, we need to drop in an old junkyard 350, 850 holley, and a 250 shot of juice and have some fun!!!

Mattie Num Nums

LS motors are some of the best motors on the planet. Plenty of FI people with 10's of thousands of miles on stock motors. Its all about the tuning and not cheaping out on parts. Part of the issue is people mod and have a budget in mind and make that a hard budget. You need to pay to play to get it done right, and most importantly find a good tuner. Luckily A&A is a little under 2 hours from me but honestly, I'd drive 6-8 hours to get a car worked on right.

JMBLOWNWS6

Its all in the way the motor mods are done and its a big difference when someone knows what there doing. We have 100k motors with heads and cam rocking it out with no problems. How the engine was modded,maintained and the tuning goes a long way!

Mattie Num Nums

This. I always see people asking for base maps to drive on or asking how they can get a map to "get by'. You wouldn't play a guitar out of tune in front of an audience, why do the same to your car. Tuning is ESSENTIAL and should NEVER be over looked. Whenever I see someone talking or giving someone advice on using a base map it makes me shutter almost as much as their pistons flying through their engine.

thealien

And back then there was no facebook/internet to hear everyone complaining. I bet there is an awfull lot of LS engines out there too.

reactor2

Don't get me wrong, I love my LS1, I've just been reading a lot lately on the forum about all these issues on what I would consider relatively mild builds. My motor seems pretty bullet proof as I've pretty much done all of the above on mine and it's still running strong...I was just starting to think I was getting really lucky.

Mattie Num Nums

I haven't been seeing a lot of failure though and most of them were people that skimped on tuning or really push the car. The LS1 is pretty dang bullet proof in moderation even with some FI. I know a few RX7 powered LS1's as well that are chugging along.

xdmikey

This reminds me of why members on gun forums don't provide load data. It's all about learning how to do it yourself or going to a professional.

user_name

People are just getting greedy trying to make too much power with pump gas. They try to squeeze every ounce of it out. JUST like your buddies you knew back in the day who kept upping the shot and eventually melted a piston.

The fact of the matter is that these motors stock are making more power than any stock sbc ever did, boosted, nitrous or NA.

The same guy tuning the 600hp car that melts a piston could burn down those SBC's on the spray like nobody's business! He's probably a sponsor on here too and could have every bit of bad feedback deleted. Isn't that great?

What happens on this forum isn't representative of what goes on everywhere else IMO.

Gordy M

Truck motors (LS1-9) are often run 250-300,000 miles with no problems because most of them are run in the normal range. If you take a LS1 engine that was made to redline at 6200 rpm, change the cam and redline it at 6800 rpm, the rest of the engine needs a similar upgrade. It is not unusual for some to create a "dyno queen" and try to maximize the hp by tweeking the tune. When you run on the edge, it is very easy to go past the dependability of the engine.

A friend ran his 2002 Z06 over 230,000 as a daily driver, autocross, and HPDE car and the engine was fine., no issues. The car, however, encountered a few guard rails in its lifetime. He did change his oil/filter every 5000 miles or less and constantly monitored his oil temps.

joshtownsend

Glad nobody told me this then.. i shifted at 7200 for 2 years...made 740 with a blower and pushrods and cam.. all stock..all the time..haha

Took the motor apart and it was cleaner then when GM made it.. not s issue one..

sierra1

My opinion is that a lot of the longevity that we hear about from the earlier cars was a direct result of oil that contained a ton of zinc/phosphorus (ZDDP). The EPA has all but mandated those two substances out of "street legal" motor oil, thus why so many flat tappet cam motors have issues with wiping out lobes. Yes synthetic oil is good, and yes it does a fine job of lubrication, but it lacks in the "shear protection" department. In 1970if you were tell a person you bought a 4 cylinder 2.5 liter powered car that made 315 HP and got ~27 mpg, they would have laughed in your face. The only motors that ever came close to making 100+hp/liter were the Indy car/F1 programs...now 100hp/liter is almost an industry "must have" standard for any production motor. IMO the LS series of motors are about as good as it gets for a push rod/ fuel efficient motor. Even into the late 1990's, a 405hp motor that got 28-30 mpg was almost unheard of. Believe me, I'm not some GM loyalist...in fact I own a 2003 Cobra, an Ecoboost F150, a flex fuel 5.3 liter Tahoe, and a Subaru 2.5 liter flat four (which has over a quarter million miles on it and still going strong). You have good and bad motors from all of the auto makers...I don't think any one brand is really that much better than the other....it's a matter of luck and maintenance IMO.
One last point, at work we had a new Tahoe with the 5.3 liter that was used on patrol for ~4 years until retired. This motor ran 24/7, ran at WOT everywhere it went, idled in the median for hours on end, would go to WOT right after a cold start running to a hot call, operated on dusty gravel roads for a good portion of it's life, and was generally abused about as bad as you can expect that a police vehicle gets. The truck was retired with almost 200k on the original motor, and all it ever had done to it was replacing wear items...no major maintenance. What it did have replaced every 3000 miles was it's oil and filters...this was done without fail. If there is any one "test" you can give a vehicle to see what kind of metal it made of, put it on patrol with any law enforcement agency....we will QUICKLY find any of its weak parts.

Turbooo2u

I think the OP is thinking about the LS7 427.