For those of you who have purchased LS1 engines or engine and tranny from other vehicles. How did you know what you were getting. I'm speaking about wear on the engine's internals. Did you start them once you got them before putting them in your vehicles? Or was the purchase made on blind faith that they run properly? How could you tell that they have not been dogged? How did you know if the wiring harness and the pcm operates properly? It almost seems like a drop in and drive project. Has anyone encountered any problems since their installs?

 

My LS1 was sitting on a pallet in a guy's driveway when I looked at it. I verified that the engine wasn't siezed but other than that it was hand over the $ and hope for the best. My engine sat for almost 2 years after I bought it so there would be no chance of getting any $ back. The wiring harness and ECM wasn't a big concern. Unless the harness is hacked up in the removal process it's most likely to be OK and the ECM is a sealed unit so it should be OK also.

I checked all of the wiring connections 3 times before attempting to start the car, and it fired up immediately. We have been driving the car this summer and the engine starts the same every time (within a turn of the crank) and has been running great, even though the front O2 sensors are not hooked up yet and some other things like evap and EGR have not been disabled in the ECM.

There was one guy who had problems with a truck motor. It looked like the thing had water in the cylinders for some time.

I had the opportunity to drive the car with the T56 I bought to make sure it shifted into all of the gears. I have also had no problems with the trans.



Rick B.

 

Bought mine from Contemporary Corvette in Bristol Pa on ebay (Fparts). They have a good reputation and a 6 month warranty.

Absolutely no problems to date, drives like GM installed it, and I have been driving the shinola out of it. Love it.

I wont call it a plug and play, but it has been made much easier by the aftermarket support and collective knowledge gained of the LS swap.

One of the best things you can do for all around performance upgrade.

B.

 

I have bought a lot of used engines from junkyards. You pretty much have to take a look and decide if it has been taken care of. You can look at the oil and see if it looks normal. You can look at the top of the valvetrain through the oil fill or pull a valve cover-does it look normal, run hot, strange colors, etc. What's left of the hoses can also give a visual indication of it it was run hot. Pull a spark plug and see what it looks like. Plug wires-once bought a supposed Japaneese pullout engine shipped to me with Autozone plug wires and a Penzoil filter-NOT! (side advice stay away from D&D Engines in near Huntsville Alabama unless you go there and buy it). As said above, you have to look at the reputation of the seller, make the best decision you can, and pay accordingly. In all the ones I bought I have had a few bad (Toyota Cressida-blown head gasket, known issue with these. Junkyard paid for a valve job and gaskets)(Olds Ciera-broke a rod at startup-known issue with these, pulled from a questionable car for $100, junkyard gave me another pick, it was fine)(Quad-4, got it loaded on the truck and home without looking at the oil-my mistake, pulled the dipstick before I unloaded it-it was nasty in there, again, know issue with these is head gaskets. Junkyard gave me another one, no questions) All in all my strategy is this: good engines come from wrecks, not good cars. That was my mistake with the Ciera engine. Came from a good looking car. The second one was nailed in the side. It was missing the intake which is why I didn't take it the first time. My friend's family had a junkyard in the 80s. His uncle said "the worse it is wrecked the better it was running when it wrecked". That is pretty much true for engines unless it breaks mounts. Also, if you can buy it cheap enough, there is nothing wrong with burned engines. You may melt all the plastic, but you won't hurt the block or heads. This works best if you have a donor for intake and electronics though. Little stuff for a conversion will be expensive enough already. Summary-try to see the car it came out of, look at the overall condition and the oil. Hope for the best.

 

When I bought mine it was completely disassembled. The guy had all the machine work done to it, and lots of brand new part and then bailed on the project before even assembling it. It was great that I knew I was getting all new or freshly machined stuff along with receipts for parts and labor, but I was missing alot of the little things that a salvage motor would of had with it that I didn't realize were missing until assembly began. I was kinda nickeled and dimed there but I ended up with a much nicer motor.