Ok, car is an 08, has a custom cam, kook headers, corsa exhaust, A&A kit with a V2 T-Trim.

Over the winter I did a 3.33 pulley, ID850s (was still 93 only, probably go E85 since they announced 3 new locations ill finally have some local pumps) and last week I did twin 465 fuel pumps from Fore.

Tuning was done, car was running STRONG, was 700whp last year, i suspect obviously a little more than that now. Anyway, something happened and the engine popped. The log looked great right up until the second something let go. Havent pulled it apart yet, in the process of moving to my "forever home" so I dont know exactly what let go. Tuner said a millisecond before it popped a lot of unburnt air went past the driver side 02 sensor, but yet we have oil all over the starter on the passenger side, cant see any visible damage yet, besides oil covering everything.

So I know this is kinda vague, but depending on whats wrong, what route would you take? Leave it LS3 and build it? buy a truck 6.0?

If the block is reusable, Ill stay LS3, but if I build it, should I go lower compression, or leave it stock compression but stronger? Not sure how much more I can get out of my current V2 T-Trim

If the LS3 block is messed up, I dont even know where to start. Budget is a big concern, with buying a new house, this wont be my main priority, so the cheaper I can do this the better, but id like to go with something that can handle around 1000whp to give me a little head room.

Sorry to ramble on, but if the block is toast, im not sure which route to take at all.

Thanks guys.

 

If you're sticking with E85 you don't need to run low compression. One guy on here is running like 13:1 with twin turbos, lol

Sounds like you need to figure out the condition of the block first.

 

Yea, im getting way ahead of myself. Just sitting here getting ready for bed, and have a million things going through my head.

I was originally sticking with 93 due to E85 was nowhere even close to me, now im going to have 3, all about 15 minutes away each.

 

I just bought an lq9 (iron block 6.0) because my ls9 with a twin turbo kit decided it had enough of my BS. I went with the iron block so I could do a super charger kit. I feel your pain man!

There was a missive cost saving by going with the lq9 as well. I just dynod my car with a cam that came out of the ls9, tune and an Air raid COI and got 400 to the wheels. For what ever reason, I thought my car was going to sound like a suburban going down the road but I was pleasantly surprised that it still sounds like a vette. The lq9 is almost 100% drop in minus a few things like intake, oil pan and reluctar wheel. You should just beable to recycle most of those parts off your ls3 though.


~Shawn

 

Pretty common when you explode a piston or a rod let go that there is no visible damage until you remove the starter. Must be a weak point around there. You'll probably find a hole by your starter lol

 

Go with an lq9. Then bc you live in Illinois, drive up by me (elk Grove village) and drop it off at aes and get their forged 370. You should be able to use your ls3 heads after machine it I believe

 

Maybe look into a Ly6 or L96. Gen4 6.0L with 58x.
I have a stock L96 in my Vette making 812whp on 12lbs. Great motors

 

How much does a used one run?

 

Thanks everybody. Wish I had time to pull it apart immediately. But with moving I don't see that happening.

 

Just an FYI. LQ4 and LQ9 are basically the same motor sans pistons. LQ9 having flat tops vs dished pistons on the LQ4. You're not going to reuse the pistons anyway. GM probably made 10 LQ4's for every LQ9. 4's are much cheaper and more plentiful in the boneyards.

 

Hm, too bad.

Not relevant anymore, but did your tuner just follow the (realtime) data from laptop and check again afterwards from the (recorded) log what happened?

 

I payed $2000can for mine with 16k on it. The L96 comes the ls3 topend, larger gen4 rods and its already a 58x motor. So No switching gears.

But if your just going to build the motor get the LQ-9 or lq4.

Good luck with the tear down. Post up some pictures

 

I made 800 on stock bottom end ls3 until I stretched a rod bolt. Stayed stock block changed everything else. And that was 800 with clutch slip after 6k. Oh well lol. The new block looked like art work.

 

Not sure exactly what you are asking. He was in the passenger seat with a lap top, he was watching everything as it happened, and then later that night he contacted me, and said, just a blip before everything went bad, the first thing to happen was unburnt air past the driver side 02.

Today I did pull the plugs, managed to have 1/2 hour of free time during day light (car is outside under a cover since im using garage space to put all my boxes ive filled up so far).

#7 Spark plug is destroyed. #8 is almost still on piece, but its been hit by something hard.