Supercharged LS3 life expectancy?

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Apr 13, 2011 | 02:01 PM

BranC85

Thread Starter

Intermediate

Joined: Feb 2011

Posts: 37

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Supercharged LS3 life expectancy?

After reading through this forum for a while, I was a bit surprised to see how many people experienced engine failures, particularly with damaged pistons, by pushing the engine a bit too hard. Is this mostly because of driving habits? Maybe too many trips to the drag strip? Or dies juicing up the LS3 significantly reduce it's life expectancy? One of the options I have wanted to keep on the table for my own LS3 is a procharger, but after doing some reading, I would be quite concerned about the integrity of the non-forged pistons under boost. Has anybody been able to supercharge this engine and avoid any trouble after a lot of miles? For anybody who has had the engine blow, what caused it?

Apr 13, 2011 | 02:09 PM

LS1LT1

Team Owner

Joined: Feb 2001

Posts: 27,217

Likes: 108

From: Short Hills, NJ

Great tuning (and fuel delivery/fuel quality) is key when supercharging/turbocharging a stock high compression LSx motor. Resisting the temptation to run unrealistically high boost levels will also help increase engine life as well.

Apr 13, 2011 | 02:24 PM

old motorhead

Le Mans Master

Joined: Dec 2005

Posts: 6,995

Likes: 1,680

From: Southeast TX

It's kind of a crapp shoot. The odds of bad things happening go up as the power goes up. You have to pay to play. Helps to have a good tune and plenty of fuel, but that doesn't guarantee you anything other than better odds. You just need to decide if it's worth the risk. I've been at 650 wheel on my LS3 for about two years and 15K miles. Even survived a BAP failure. Wouldn't do anything different. To me, the thrill is worth the risk

. It's your decision.

Apr 13, 2011 | 02:42 PM

gunterwalker

Melting Slicks

Joined: Oct 2010

Posts: 2,314

Likes: 4

From: Cape May, NJ; Guntersville, AL; Orange Beach, AL

Not to sound mean but there is 3 threads on this a week. Unless you are a troll seach and you will find hours of reading.

Apr 13, 2011 | 02:59 PM

LS1LT1

Team Owner

Joined: Feb 2001

Posts: 27,217

Likes: 108

From: Short Hills, NJ

Quote:

Originally Posted by gunterwalker

seach and you will find hours of reading.

Good point, there is LOTS of good info in the C6 (and C5) Forced Induction section.

Apr 13, 2011 | 05:03 PM

KB9GKC

Burning Brakes

Joined: Jul 2008

Posts: 923

Likes: 37

From: Green Bay Wisconsin

Hello,

Stock engine with 20,000 miles blew when headgasket failed, took out #1 cylinder and connecting rod broke and jammed against #2 cylinder connecting rod and #2 broken connecting rod jammed through the aluminum block.

That's without a supercharger!

Out of Warranty, paid out of pocket 100%.

Douglas in Green Bay

Apr 14, 2011 | 01:46 AM

HOXXOH

Race Director

Joined: Sep 2007

Posts: 16,557

Likes: 2,104

From: Peoria/Phoenix AZ

C6 of Year Finalist (performance mods) 2019

Welcome to CF.

Seeing that you're new here, (8 posts-2 months) I suggest the search also. Click on the search button on the upper right of each forum page and enter the terms of your question. Lots more info there than you'll find on any one post. After reading for a while you may still have unanswered questions, but you'll be able to express yourself better.

Apr 14, 2011 | 02:53 AM

winters97gt

Le Mans Master

Joined: Dec 2007

Posts: 8,371

Likes: 96

From: Somewhere in the Mid 9's TX

Tune, Boost, Power level, how you drive the car. You can go 200,000 miles with a vortech(which I have seen, on a mustang), or 2k. Really a hard question that gets brought up almost weekly.