LS1 Powered S14 by SicBastard

8 minute(s) of a 390 minute read

The LS7 heads have forced me to go big bore. I knew this when I bought them, but I naively believed the GMPP catalog that said that they will work with a 4.065 bore which ment I had the option of using a $1400 brand new L92 block. According to my head builder, who I believe over the catalog, 4.100" is closer to the truth. Incase you didn't already know the stock bores are:

LS2 4.000"

LS3/L92 4.065"

LS7 4.125"

Road race engines have been succesfully built utilizing LS7 heads on .035" over L92 blocks (yields a 4.100". But of course you're not left with much cylinder wall left, and if anything goes wrong, you can't overbore, you have to sleeve. Also, this is all presuming that you're starting with a block with almost no core-shift, good luck finding that as the L92s are notorious for having odd sleeve placement/core-shift. 

So I've been looking into the other big bore options out there. Since a C5R or Warhawk block is out of my price range, that leaves me with the 

1)stock LS7 $2400 new (maybe $1800 used)

2)Katech sleeved "budget LS2" something like $4000 (doesn't seem very budget to me). 

3)darton MID sleeve (actually strongest on a LS1 block) but you're looking at $1000 for the machine work, another $1500 for the sleeves themselves, and then of course you need a block. So lets say you get a good deal on a used LS1 for $500, once you're done with shipping, we're talking at lest $3100

4)Iron LSX: can be had for $1800, but it will still require stress relieving and boring (it comes stock at something like 3.900" bore). Oh and did I mention that it's like 120lbs heavier than anything mentioned so far.

5) LS2 block with Darton Dry liners. What I'm leaning towards right now.

Require less machine work than the MID sleeves, and cost a bunch less for the liners themselves. Unlike the MID sleeves they do not require evans coolant and pump (a hidden $600 of the MIDs). You can get the machine work and the liners together for $1500. I can probably get a used LS2 block for south of $750, and you're looking at a total of $2250. Compared to the stock LS7: the darton dry are made of a much more ductile/stronger steel, can be bored out to 4.190 vs 4.155, and can safely support the pistons with longer stroke cranks, because the sleeve is deeper than even the LS7 (which has the deepest sleeves of the stock blocks).

3/3/08

I got a little pm today re the ohlins:...What I'm wondering just how much do they charge as I was looking into buying a used set and how long is the turnaround time? Please let me know...The short answer is 4 months and $300 if its just a simple rebuild.The long answer is...I just got off the phone with Tony Martin at Ohlins. Turns out my front struts are in pretty bad shape, but still rebuildable. So they are probably going to sell me a new set for the front at a good discount (I think this may be because they didn't bother to fully disassemble them before ordering the parts 3 to 4 mo ago, and they don,t want to ask me to wait another 3 mo). The rears required less work and the rebuild for them both should come in around $75 per corner (that includes new seals and adj. knob repair). I shipped them off to NC on Nov 10th. They didn't get the parts they needed till the end of January. Shouldn't be much longer now. There are two guys that I know of who work on these there, and they are quite often traveling, doing trackside support. Hopefully in the future that will make the waitng worth it.

4/23/08

So I finally scored one of these on ebay the other week.

They were originally spec'd out by lingenfelter when they built the spec LS1 motors for the ASA race series.

I think that it's the third one that I've bid on over the last three years. But this one I won! It is a single stage scavenge only pump that was built by razor. Razor is a little unique because their pumps internal gears have fewer teath and therefore (supposedly) flow more oil for a given section length. But another neat feature is that they make crazy deep section lengths. This single stage is a whopping 1.825". Trust me that's big in the world of dry sump pumps. I wrote to razor about a rebuild on the pump and about the possiblilty of adding a few stages to it to increase the crankcase vacuum.

This was their reply:

Dru, 

The price to convert your single stage pump to a two stage scavenge pump is $350. The price for a three stage is $479. 

This is figuring new shafts, studs, fittings, pumps bodies, and gears for the new sections. 

Razor 

At first I thought that I would just go nuts and add two more monster 1.825" scavenge stages. At that point I would probably be pulling close to a full 15 psi of vacuum. With that much sucking going on bad things can start to happen to wrist pins (because there isn't any oil suspended in the crankcase air), so then you have to add piston oil squirters. It just kind of snow balls. Luckily I don't have to worry about engine mounts being in the way. But I do have to worry about the lines hitting the starter If I add too many stages. 

I'm going to convert my gto oil pan to be more shallow and add a pick up or two or three. Then I'm probably going to mount a big fat oil tank in the trunk. So the beautiful, all steel, moroso LS1 dry sump pan that came with my kit is for sale here on ebay. If you're going to modify an LS1 oil pan, this is the one to have. Trust me, you don't want to be welding on cast Aluminum!

http://cm.ebay.com/cm/ck/1065-29

296-2357-0?uid=85924721&site=0&ver=LCA080805&item=130217297 961&lk=URL

In other news I'm getting ready to move for the 4th time in 3 months come June, and I've been futzing with installing such mundane things as working locks and windows, just in case the car has to sit in storage for any length of time this summer.

That's all...

Peace and Tire Smoke.

So I got the Razor pump mounted, just so I could check the clearance that I'd be left with if I converted it to a 3 stage. I'll clean up the motor plate/mount later on a mill. There should be zero issue with the starter clearance as I mistakenly feared before.

you can see the passenger side mid-plate (sandwiched between the block and bellhousing) pretty well in these next two:

I finally got around to trying to space out the 05 GTO driver side ex manifold to see if it would clear the steering knuckle/universal joint. Almost... There is a lot of grinding that could be done on the inside of the manifold though, so it still may be possible for anyone looking for a stock alternative. The passenger side will not work from the GTO because it sticks out too far laterally and hits the "frame".

Just for fun before I give them back to TTP (thanx for the loan)!

Twin Turbo anyone?

9/2/08

I found these pics comparing the stock KA 5-speed to the t56 6-speed that's bolted up to the LS1 over on nico forum, as posted by "574-240sx"

You can also see from the pics why you end up having to bash the hell out of your trans tunnel to slide the t56 back up in there.

The stock one is LONGER!!! I never thought it about, but this is why the Hinson kit comes with a steeda long reach shifter, because with their kit the shifter ends up sitting FORWARD of the stock position.

Not to toot my own horn, but now I feel even more special