PEETYZ

Well as luck would have it the very first day of winter a month or so back it was nice enough for a drive in Ohio. A little cruise later on a country road 3rd gear about 5,000 rpm the motor made a small back fire and just felt like the key was turned off. Went to start it back and the motor had no compression but all the accessories etc were turning... yep crank was no longer connected to the cam. Of all the ways for it to go out I wouldnt have thought it would be this. I changed to the LS3 larger timing chain when I did build first time.

Pulled the heads and heres what my valves looked like on both sides of the motor:






All was not lost



Glad the 01 Z did not have sodium valves or it could have been worse.
They made marks on the pistons but did not crack or break them.

It was now or never to build the motor

Time to tear it down:






Few hours later





I used an ATV jack to support the cradle. The Engine hoist was large enough to straddle ATV jack to pull the motor and the TQ tub was supported by floor jack and jack stands. Not the easiest in the world but not the worst either.

Heres the problem



Found the pieces to the broken link in the oil pan. Luckily it didnt go through the motor.

I recently got a deal on an 04 GTO short block off a friend with a spun rod bearing and decided to build it and refresh my stock short block for with the good parts between the 2.

Planned build.

04 LS6 Block
Wiseco Pistons -3cc
Stock Crank
Lunati rods with arp 2000 bolts
C5R timing chain, C5R timing chain, C5R timing chain
D1Sc or Novi 2000 Blower
Larger fuel system
Meth
RXT clutch
Ported 243 heads
ARP head studs
ls9 gaskets
larger Blower Cam
More








I will post more details as they come. Currently at engine shop.

Not going to be a cheap winter for me but Big thanks for the the help and support thus far

BLOWNBLUEZ06

I remember that day as if it were yesterday.

PEETYZ

You and Ricky were the first ones called lol

Chicago1

That sucks but interested to see this build coming up!!

Patches

Sorry to hear but interested in the "fix"!

blown81bu

wow c5r chain??..i thought thet did NOT break?...sorry

now u got me thinking about mine...whats a better chain?

PEETYZ

I broke the LS2/3/7 part number chain.

The C5R is stronger and what I am using this time. The C5R team never broke one. I'm not sure if anyone else has but the reputation is really good. Very uncommon to break a timing chain in general but things happen. Part of the game.

slow ride

Did you run any chain damper/guide on it? What harmonic damper?

PEETYZ

I didnt. I likely will this next time. It was like this for around 15k miles before it broke. Freak think I guess.

I was on stock balancer. Dayco SFI 8.10 8 Rib OD balancer coming this time

SBCGENII

Drive it like you stole it. What did your valvetrain consist off?

PEETYZ

Stock rockers, Lunati dual springs, and lunati pushrods. Those were all fine.

a/c man

sorry for your loss, but looks like good will come from it!! more power

ajrothm

Damn that sux man.. Must be something in the air.. Motors dropping like flies around here.

Looks like you made quick work of getting it out. Good luck on the rebuild.

The Highlander

What damper? and how many miles?

Be sure to leave the chain in oil overnight before installing it.

PEETYZ

Stock damper. I ran this way for 12,000-15,000 miles before this happened. It was not what I thought would fail at all.

Thinking about it it was 600+ rwhp stock bottom end no meth for a few years with countless mexico runs holding its own with some stout cars I can't be that upset. The fail had nothing to do with the tune and honestly the stock bottom end is OK. Yes the valves hit the pistons but the pistons did not break. Would I re use them? no

Gotta pay to play and this time it will just be bigger and better now


Pistons came in =) Off to the machine shop today

BLOWNBLUEZ06

Timing chain damper is what he was talking about, I believe.

breecher_7

Iwis......

This sucks man. Looks like you have a solid game plan though.

PEETYZ

Oh yea I didnt have one of them

Can you use it on 5.7 blocks?



You can tell it broke "nicely" and didnt tear up the crank, oil pump, etc

a/c man

You would have to drill and tap the holes to mount a damper on a 5.7

slow ride

Some ls1/6 had the holes but they are spread out more than ls2 style. GM sold these older guides as a aftermarket part, but since has discontinued them. I think some have remade them and you can fit the tighter hole pattern of the ls2 but it is super close to not hitting the pad when drilling and taping. Trick flow also has a piece that mounts on the cam retaining plate.

I have drilled and tapped two blocks for the ls2 style but as I said above its tight. My car has the factory GM ls1/6 part that I found back in the day. I think Katech might have remade the old one or check out the trick flow deal.