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Chevy LS1 Engines anyone?

L

lehtola

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Just curious on the engine subject again. Looking over some of the goodies out there...anyone thought or anyone that has put an LS1 engine in your truck? Thought it could be pretty cheap to get one compared to the crate engines. You can get a new crate engine for about $6K...wonder what the salavage yards are asking. Probably that...maybe a little less. I think you'd need a L460E though...Thoughts on the matter?

1990 GMC Jimmy 350/TH700R4/NP241/10 bolts, 4" skyjacker lift, 35x12.50R15 BFG All Terrains on 15x10 AR Baja's, Flowmasters.
 
I think this motor isnt really suited for heavy blazers. Unless you want a motor with topend power. The motor in my z-28 has very little power under 3000 rpm's but it just flat out screams up to 6000 rpms. I wish it had more bottom end grunt so i would get so much attention when i stand on it. It sure would look cool though when you pop the hood.
Craig

"Why is there a <font color=red>watermelon</font color=red> here?"
 
The LS1s I have had I sold for around $400-500. Complete motors with throttle bodies,coil packs,water pumps,etc.They need rebuilding usually.All less than 75k miles,factory replaced motors with bent pushrods or cylinder scuffing is all.

Neil H.. Alabama.. '78 K5 400ci 4x4 AT,AC,PW Cheyenne. '74 C10 3spd/floor 250ci 4x2
 
Hmmmmm. The LT1 in the Vette is a stump puller torque monster and weak on the upper end.... Probably low gears but I WANT THAT POWER in the Blazer.

On anothe note - I found a connection for the recent Northstar v8 surplus write-offs from Caddy. 320 horse but I don't know which end of the curve. Any ideas on that?

Dave

If You Drink Don't Park, Accidents Cause People.

91 K5 - in the process of 4" lift with D60/14FF plus LOTS of extras. ETF August 1.
 
i've never seen an ls-1 in a truck but that i've put a 96 vette lt-1 in and i love it, but back to the ls-1. there is a guy around down here that put one of the new 5.3's in from a wrecked 2000 chevy truck and he didn't have very many problems. the reason i bring that up is because the 5.3's are based on the ls-1 and are basicly a cast iron block version of it. so it is can be done
ohh and do i think that only the 4l60 or 80e trannys(auto) work on the ls-1 don't hold me to that but i think,
 
6k for a crate motor???
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Goood God man where are you shopping at?

That 350 HP crate motor from pace parts is only like 2500, ball-park!!!

6k? You must have been looking throught the Summit catalog a little too late at night and started gazing at those drag motors that are pre-built.
Im just bugging you though!!
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Did you say I have monkeys flying outta my butt?
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<a target="_blank" href=http://www.nashvillek5.freeservers.com>www.nashvillek5.freeservers.com</a>
 
That was $6K for a new LS1.

1990 GMC Jimmy 350/TH700R4/NP241/10 bolts, 4" skyjacker lift, 35x12.50R15 BFG All Terrains on 15x10 AR Baja's, Flowmasters.
 
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My bad! My readying skill aren't what they used to be.
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Did you say I have monkeys flying outta my butt?
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<a target="_blank" href=http://www.nashvillek5.freeservers.com>www.nashvillek5.freeservers.com</a>
 
the only problem with those crate ls-1 is that they are the camaro based ones so the asscesories will hit frame on a truck. and yes 6' G's is a lot of money but consider that used camaro ls-1 with everything and about 75000 miles still cost about $3000 from a junkyard. or like in a previous post about the 400 for the warranty relapsed. I looked at one down at the local dealer it was complete(LOL)(minus accessories wiring harness, exhaust manifolds, and comp. and crankshaft) so after machine work cause they where replaced for some reason, crankshaft, headers of some sort, harness, and computer your still looking at a small fortune. but once you go fuel injected you don't go back unless you go broke. but before you start in on your 350 horse 350 for $2500 think about this. Street and performance has put both lt-1'a and ls-1 and the l-98(older tuned port) in their shop trucks and both the lt-1 and ls-1 get 18-25 mpg in a truck! now i had a 350 horse 350 and it got around 6 mpg on a good day and it was a 2 wheel drive
so lets assume 18mpg for the fuelie and 8 for the carb. and $7000 for fuelie and $2500 and $2.00 for 91 octane gas...crunch some numbers and we find that the fuel injection will equal the differance of $4500 in exactly 32,374.1miles plus of minus 2% rounding error.
so 32,000 miles isn't a whol'hellav lot if it is your daily driver...
just my mathmatically supported $.02
 
I read something similar to this regarding swapping an LS1 into a 94-96 Impala SS, and the concensus is that the LS1 is a HP, not a TORQUE motor and that it would not be a worth while swap. The same car with the LT1 hauls a$$, I know, I've got the police version of one, as were the LS1 would be overworked in the same car. The reason you need torque is due to the weight of these cars which weigh 4200-4400 pounds. The LS1 does really well in the F-body and C5 because they're lighter and sports cars will usually rev higher than a truck crawling on rocks or going through a trail. If you were mud bogging, that might be different, but a full size K5 is WAY too heavy to benefit from a LS1. You'd be better off with a big block or a built small block, the bigger the better. As a rule of thumb, you're going to get torque from displacement and that's what you need to get a full size truck moving.
As for the newer 5.3 being an "iron" version of the LS1, I would have to argue on that one as truck engines and car engines are always configured differently, even when they are based on the same block. For example a 454 that came out of a Chevelle would have different specs than a 454 out of a truck.

It's not what you buy, it's what you build!
 
Who's Street and performance? I'd like to see the trucks you're talking about.....

It's not what you buy, it's what you build!
 
now let me throw something else out. using the same numbers from above lets say you by the 4L80e to go with the new fuelie and as in a preveous post it costs $2300, we find that the fuelie pays for the transmission also at 50,000. so lets recap in fuel savings alone assuming the motor only goes a pittiful 150,000 miles, after you pay off the motor and tranny you will save around $0.14 a mile which adds up fast.(10miles=$1.40,1000miles=$140.00, and 100,000miles=$14000) of course i am not including routine maintnance which does cost just a little more for a fuelie but with $14000 saved you can afford it.....
 
You have pics of your engine? How much did you have to drop? What all accessories did you have to buy for it, ie computer etc?

Good lord. The rod up that man's butt must have a rod up it's butt.
 
Jason,
I checked out their site and they have some killer projects going on. I never said the swap couldn't be done, but I still feel there are alternatives that would yield better results
for our particular applications than the LS1. Finding a newer EFI 454/4L80e or Vortec 8100/Allison six speed would be the best of both worlds, performance and economy.
As for the LS1 swaps they show, the MPG numbers don't surprise me, but I'd be interested in performace numbers. Decent MPG's just mean you're cruising, the one performer of the three would be the S10. My concern would be if the truoble would be worth any gains involved from swapping the LS1 into the crew cab or Suburban. The Sub was 4WD!!! I wonder how it performs and how long that engine is going to last in there, and I really doubt they do any serious towing with it.
BTW As I die-hard fan of the LT1, I'd also get a kick out of seeing some pics of your K5!

It's not what you buy, it's what you build!
 
Wherever the junkyard is that has LS1s for $3000 is a rip off. I can get used LS1s for $300. all day long. yep. 3 hundred..not thousand. I have had several LS1 and LT1 vehicles. I am really a LT1 fan too. You can do so much with them. I have one I am rebuilding right now matter of fact. As time and $$ allows. The LT1 is not as hard a swap as the LS1 is to an older vehicle. GMm makes an intake to carburate LT1s too. It is about$150.00 from GM performance parts catalog. Arizona speed and marine are specialists in putting LT1 and LS1s into older vehicles of all kinds.www.azspeed-marine.com

Neil H.. Alabama.. '78 K5 400ci 4x4 AT,AC,PW Cheyenne. '74 C10 3spd/floor 250ci 4x2
 
I have been doing allot of research on the LT1,s and LS1,s. Myself, I am going with the LS1 in my Blazer due to the accessability of them. Look on eBay for LS1's. They have them every week. The thing about getting one of these motors is that you can program them for torque and horsepower. Usually they are pulls from wrecks with very few miles on them. As far as mileage you can expect out of them is in excess of 200,000 according to all of my sources. The torque in stock form out does the LT1. I haven't got my LS1 project finished yet so I can't really attest to the fact that they will out do the LT1, but all of the documentation says that they are really a better engine. LT1's have a cast iron block with aluminum heads. When you get the cast iron wit aluminum, you have allot more chances for gasket failure. The LS1's are all aluminum, thus they have the same expansion-contraction rate making the gasket problem go away. As far as putting either in a truck frame, you have to get some aftermarket brackets to bolt the A/C compressor in. On the LT1 it is mounted on the extreme bottom on the driver's side. On the LS! it is bolted to the extreme bottom of the passenger side. There is an exception however, the Corvette with LS1 has the A/C compressor bolted to a bracket at the top driver's side which makes the engine fall in just like a regular gen 1 small block. I am not for sure, but the old LT1 Corvette also had a high mount for the A/C compressor, so it would go in easilly also. One thing you don't need is a Corvette oil pan. It fits almost if not completely across the frame. In the corvette it is a structural integrety part of the car, as it bolts to the frame I believe. In the Corvette with an LS1 you must realize that the motor, drive shaft tunnel, and rear end are all part of the structural integrety of the 'vette. The motor is in the front and the transmission is bolted to the differential to even out the weight. There is just a shaft casing inside a tunnel that runs from the motor to the tranny. As far as I can tell, the engines in the 'vettes ta's and z28's are the same engines--just programmed a litle different. Been doing a little homework, came up with this so far. Could be right--could be wrong--But my '78 blazer will have an LS1 in it before winter! Where do you get the LS1's for $300.00. Let me be one to buy a couple from you at that price!

k5woody I Don't Understand The Jeep Thing Either!!!
 
Did you wake up after you paid 300 for an LS-1 motor. thats such a deal. check out this <a target="_blank" href=http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/aw-cgi/ebayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&amp;item=593500805&amp;r=0&amp;t=0>http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/aw-cgi/ebayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&amp;item=593500805&amp;r=0&amp;t=0</a>

i would like to khow how to buy a complete ls-1 motor for 300 bucks id get like 5 of em so i could just swap em out when they blow.
Craig

"Why is there a <font color=red>watermelon</font color=red> here?"
 
I agree i prefer the lt-1's myself, just because i am a little leery of an aluminum block and 3000for a used one is a little out there but i live in the middle of now where and ls-1's are far and few between. and that would be cool, the new fuelie big block with the allison 5-speed...
as for my lt-1 i bought a used corvette one from street &amp; performance. it came out of a '96 vette. it came with all of the accessories alt, compressor and power steering, but then i had to buy the computer which they programed to my application, but i my still by the accel chip and software so i can change it myself, and i had to buy the wiring harness, and electric fans. all and all I’ve spent around $5500 but keep in mind there are a few things i bought that are not necessary but a went ahead and bought them(i.e, 52-mm throttle body, msd ignition headers etc.).
now i know what some of you are thinking "$5500 dollars for a used motor!" no the that was for everything. i was just going to buy a camaro lt-1 from a salvage yard down here but they wanted $2000 and it had 65000 miles on it, so when i was looking around i found s&amp;p and they informed me that the camaro accessories would not fit my frame and it would cost around another $1000 to convert to the vette style or to an aftermarket, they are correct i checked, and the vettes had more horses, a four bolt block the cool carbon fiber valve covers and so on. so they had a '93 vette motor for a little more than the $2000 but they guaranteed the used motor, a 12 month 12000 miles from the time YOU GET IT RUNNING not from the purchase date. so i bought the '93 and right before i put it in 6months later i decided to check the compression and sure enough it was bad. apparently the salvage yard that s&amp;p gets them from set the wrong one. Anyways i called them up and they took care of it. how great is that, they just took my word and that the compression was bad and paid all of the freight and everything, they even apologized so within a week i got a the newer '96. but when i got it the oil pan was a little dinged so i put the one off of my blazer on it and visually checked this one. it still had the cross hatch marks on the cylinder walls because it had so few miles.
it gets better, since i’ve got the 4x4 it was a pain in the butt to find headers that fit the d-port heads and my truck. i tried every body and went through 8 pairs of headers (by the way avoid sanderson headers, they are the most hateful people) so from sanderson to hooker to headman(who makes d-port full length headers for our models but that didn't fit), so while i was getting the motor replaced i happen to mention to him that i was having trouble finding headers and was looking at $1200-$1500 for a custom set, he set me up with his in house guy that makes headers and he thought he had a set that would work. so he set them and the driver side fit perfect, but the passenger side hit the bump stop for the axle so i took a bunch of pics. and set the one side back and he custom built a pass side one for me at the regular price of the set and even custom built some collectors to put the o2 sensors where i wanted them. not only that but on the flange where the tubes go in like on most headers there is a all of the rough stuff from the welding them in, s&amp;p's where welded then smoothed and they are some of the best headers i’ve seen.
no i haven't got pics yet but i will soon and i will post them asap. as soon as i finish my cold air induction and a/c.

ohh on a side note if you do get an lt-1, try to get a newer one. on the older ones the distributer doesn’t have any way to get moister out of it and that can cause problems..
 
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