"it's only another $100"
I have this same issue. But the Vette is a crack habbit anyway so oh well lol.

Whats the New Design of the Rocker Arms? Havent heard of any except for the LS3's I think.

 

Using a bushing instead of needle rollers. Similar to the CHEs but a much more affordable price. I've been running across them recently. Being sold by some of the forum vendors as well. Straub is the manufacturer.

http://www.straubtechnologies.com/ls...trunnion-kits/

 

Visited the local machine shop- I'm probably going to keep shopping, the vibe I got was they are good with all sorts of engines but limited with LS series. They did not have a torque plate for the LS1 Might have to drive a bit but it'll be worth it

 

Give Rick (RKT56) a call. Maybe he can recommend someone. His shop is over in Frederick but he may know someone.

http://www.rktperformance.com/

(301) 257-0930

 

ahhh- more confusion- I was researching about the torque plate thing and there's opinions all over. Someone on a Camaro board mentioned there were 2 LS motors side by side tested, one with plate, one without and they were within 3 HP and it hardly makes a difference and these motors aren't torque plated when first cast... I'll keep searching.

 

Torque plates for block boring or honing is more for ensuring cylinder roundness than horsepower gains, although that doesn't hurt. With the plate, the block "sees" the same stress as if a head were bolted on so the boring/honing is far more accurate. It ensures a better piston ring seal.
Most any good machine shop can do torque plate honing these days. It only adds a little bit to the labor cost when doing the final cylinder honing.

HTH

 

Yup.. I was also reading that a SB Ford's will work too. I'm the type of guy who will drive a car until the wheels fall off, so I'll find someone with the torque plate. I'll keep shopping... finding a good machine shop is like finding a good body shop

 

when i was building my 6.0 i asked the local tune shop who does a lot of LSx tuning who they use to do there engines he gave me the guys and after researching him i found out he does a ton of work for local shops and was reasonable on price

the expensive shops some times dont mean your getting what you pay for i learned the hard way! i paid a well know race boat engine builder (guy was in magazines articles) $2300 to freshen up my 383 stroker (rings, main & cam bearings with all the machine work needed) got back an assembled long block that lasted about 2000 miles since he didnt mesh the cam & dizzy gear right when i told him what happen he offered me a $200 discount on redoing it he got a bunch of cuss words in return

 

that's insane. I'm trying to avoid that situation. I've had bad experiences with body shops, alignment, tire mounting etc- that's why I try to DIY as much as I can. Engine machining and the aforementioned items I can't do. Good call on asking the local tuner guys. There are a bunch of machine shops around (within 2 hours drive)- as we have the Baltimore, Philly, DC metro areas - picking one is the challenge

 

Like I said earlier, give Rick a shout. If you don't want to go to Frederick, he may have some choices in mind. He's real active on Corvette Forum and one of our best vendors as well.

 

Save your back and get that hood out of your way. Or are you a masochist? Haha


Can't wait to see it back together!

 

Me too I'm not even half way there yet.. haven't dropped the driveline- so the reassembling hasn't even started. Then again, rusty frozen bolts have consumed lots of my time. I think I spent 3 hours alone separating the bell housing from the torque tube

Also you're not the first one to mention removing the hood. I purposely did not take off the hood - the engine came out without even coming near the hood. Not sure what you mean about saving my back.. the picker did all the work Others commented because of damage risk- but to me I'd think there's more damage risk by taking it off, with the potential of it slipping or someone dropping it, not to mention when I take off body parts they never seem to line back up when I put it back on no matter how careful I scribe the bolt holes

 

This was a great, great suggestion. I usually am not into reading books (I'm in a master's program right now and have to do that enough ) but I ordered this and couldn't stop reading. Excellent read and gives me more confidence to do this. I think I felt the same way the first time I tore open my T56 to replace the synchros (although I had experience rebuilding my Nissan's 5 speed before...).

I contacted Rick, he did recommend a shop about an hour from me who's experienced and uses the torque plate. I called them up and will be bringing the block to them soon, hopefully later this week to get checked out. As soon as I get off work and get back to wrenching
I'm going to disassemble as much as I can on my own, then bring it to them.

I should have pulled the block earlier - right now with race/boating season starting up the shop has a 6-8 week lead time. Oh well, I'll use the downtime for all the other projects going on and cross my fingers the shop doesn't find anything seriously wrong with the engine

 

That's funny I was doing my capstone class for my master's while doing my engine rebuild. Definitely one of the reasons it took me so long and the fact I lacked funds from paying off school.

 

That's for sure, ontop of grad school, work travel (where zero gets done!), I also had a DIY (I did everything but the countertops) kitchen remodel and adopted a cat. My fault of starting way too many projects at once I'm now sitting at 6 months without the vette. The rate I'm going it'll likely be July before I'm done. Fortunately I "inherited" a Hyundai Santa Fe to use in the mean time, which has been useful moving parts. It's slow as ***** and I can't wait to get back into the vette, but I understand not to rush

Anyway- I pulled most of the motor apart last night- wow, it was really simple! Alot easier then I thought- the T56 was way more complex and even that wasn't _that_ bad. Just took my time and labeled everything and took pictures along the way. Not looking forwards to the pre-assembly (or the wait time!). Goal is to deliver the block tomorrow morning to the machine shop

 

these ls engine really are not hard to tare down or assemble, my 1st one i assembled i dragged my feet about doing it a few weeks after i was done assembling it i was kicking my self about not having the courage to do it lol

 

Good luck with your rebuild - I rebuilt mine last summer. Have put about 6k miles on it since then and she's still running strong. Based upon the increase in airflow into the engine as seen by HPTuners' scanner and the 383 rwhp the engine dyno'd before the rebuild, I'm guessing my engine is close to 550 hp at the crank.

Relative to some of the suggestions made here, I made some stock parts decisions vice the upgrades you've been given, particularly by not using ARP bolts anywhere. In my mind, while they may provide extra assurance as to not being a failure point, at the power and rpm levels I'm running I don't think there's much risk to using GM stock, although I did upgrade to LS2 rod bolts vice LS1. I've got the rev limiter set to 7050 - bounced off of it when set to 7000 with the 1-2 auto shift point set at 6900 - other shift points at 6950. I don't get it up there all that often, maybe once or twice every 100 miles or so. If I was wanting to rev any more than where I'm at then I would definitely go with better rod bolts. Also put in LS7 lifters and replaced the valve springs with duals and titanium retainers.

It took me a while to find a machine shop that was comfortable with working on LS blocks. I finally went to one 3 hours away, but they are a multi Engine Masters Challenge winner - BES Racing Engines near Cincinnati. I had to wait about 3 weeks to get my parts back - besides installing a lifter bore sleeve had them hot tank the block, hone the cylinders, do some mild decking of the heads, polished the crank journals and installed cam bearings. This was my first attempt at rebuilding an engine and so far am happy with the results. Definitely took more time reassembling than tearing down as was checking clearances, doing proper torqueing procedures, etc. I also didn't label my parts that I put back in as I laid them out in a logical sequence on a bench so I knew which pieces went back into which cylinder for instance. Purchased a ring compressor from Summit that didn't break the bank.

 

Great info- I too am confident I found (or rather, someone else in this thread suggested me find) a machine shop about an hour away. When I was dropping mine off, they had an LS2 block in the pipeline that I could see, spoke directly to the owner and the shop's been around since 1974 so that gave me confidence. I probably won't upgrade the rod bolts to the ARPs, but will likely do the "improved" stock version from 2000+. The machine shop (and other threads I've read) was warning me about not changing the clamping force on the rods since these can't be resized but that's a discussion on its own. I don't plan on spinning this motor real high, this is a street car/daily driver and reliability trumps all out power. I'm hoping it will go another several hundred thousand miles, but with the higher lift cam I know I'll have to change the valve springs earlier, possibly the lifters. On the stock cam, it went 200k with minimal signs of wear! Could still see most of the bore crosshatching which tells me it would have probably gone another 100k without the rebuild.

In the mean time, since my block is away and the shop is entering peak race/boating build season, I likely won't get the engine back until June . That's OK though, got plenty of other things to work on in the mean time.

It is damn tempting to upgrade the rods/pistons etc "while I'm in there" though.. just hope I don't regret it later by not doing it in case i ever do want to slap a S/C on there

 

You can hone the rods for larger bearings.
http://ls1tech.com/forums/generation...od-resize.html

http://ls1tech.com/forums/generation...od-resize.html

LS1tech has had some good topics on rod bolts.

Also be sure not to mix up the rod and rod caps as the cracked beam has to go back together as they cam apart

 

I just did this last month. The above posters have provided a wealth of advice. I converted My LS1 to LS6.
Use the 2002-2004 OEM Mahle pistons with rings for a stock build. I used these and they were exact replacements http://www.ebay.com/itm/171165792745?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
I used a LS6 cam from Summit racing ~$280, found LS7 lifters and trays for ~$100, LS6 springs $55, rockers for~$100 and rebuilt 799 heads for $550.