LT1553

Hey guys, havent posted in a while as my car has been out of comission for many years now. 95 formula 5.7 lt1 a4 car with 3.23's. Had the car running from prob. 2000 to 2005 with many problems but prob mostly cause of my led foot. Anyways to make a long story short the oil pump went and I thought the motor was gone so I bought a pickup and set the car down for a while till I could get some funds up. The car ended up sitting for almost 4 years until one day I finally decided to take it to the shop and see what the deal was. Turns out it was the oil pump. We replaced it and walla oil pressure and the motor sounds really good. Runs well too. Drove it about a week with no problems then boom. i was driving on the highway about 70 miles an hour on its first long road trip and of course the oil pressure drops to zero and the car almost immediately begins to knock. There is now a knock and a loud screaching sound (sounds like a bearing to me) so i know its not good. Im not sure what to do though now. I have about 3000 bucks to try and put the car back together but Dont know what route to go. I was thinking of just getting a salvage yard motor and putting it in there for like 700 bucks or so but am worried about the quality and reliability of a motor that I dont know how it was taken care of. At the same time all the new motors are really expensive. Golen starts off at like 4500 or somethin and the crate motor out of summit is 2500 and is factory leaving me with no money for mods. What i want to know is im thinking of pulling the motor and tearing into it to see how much damage was done and if the block isnt scarred up and doesent need to be machined then to go ahead and put a rebuild kit on it clean it and throw a cam kit in and tossing it back in the car with full bolt ons. Dont know if im underestimating the damage i may have done to the motor though. What do you guys think? Crate motor? Save up for Golen? or Salvage yard motor? If salvage yard is your answer How should I go about making sure the motor is not junk and makes decent power?

Sorry for the long rant and thanks


Heath

SS RRR

It depends on how long you want the car out of commission and how much you can save over a matter of time. If it were me and I wanted the car up ASAP then I would either find a used short block or would take the original to the machine shop and have them see if they could restore the original rotating assy including pistons and save up for heads/cam. You can find used short blocks for a pretty good price if you look around enough. Or if I had time on my side I'd keep it out of order until you could save up for a forged stroker along with accommodating components like heads/cam.

95Blackhawk

You may be able to just tear apart the motor and find it is bad bearings and replace them. If looking for cheap, I would go the route of pulling and doing your own work. If not much machine work needs to be done (polishing crank), then it could be done for well under 3K. Hell, you might not even have to pull the pistons...

Most of the money in rebuilds come from this: "well while I am here, I might as well do: XXX". XXX is always money.

LT1553

ya i hear ya I think thats what im going to do. Hopefully the block isnt trashed and it doesent cost much. I work at a shop so I can easily tear the car down and have some guys I work with help me out with the rebuild. I just hope the heads and top end is still good because thats where all the moneys at.

LT1553

388 cid LT1 shortblock:
.30 over SRP -14cc Forged Pistons, CAT CRS-6000 Rods, CAT 4340 3.8in stroke crank. It was rebuild Oct 2006 and has been sitting for most of that until pulled it all out last week. I have a $8300 receipt from when he had it done. Comp Cams cc306 with new timing set, New Melling pump. It has less that 2k miles on it, had 65 psi cold start oil pressure and 35-40 warm. Compression with stock heads is ~10.6:1. $2000+shipping (prefer pickup)


in the for sale section. Thought it was a good deal. is this a good idea? By the way the car is an a4 with a stock stall thats been bumped up to 2500??

Figured I could pop this shortblock in and put my heads/topend on it and roll. Guess I would need a tune too....

Whatya think?

camaro1fastz28

sounds like a good deal jut got to make sure u get a some kind of start up warentie

LT1553

ya thats the only thing im worried about I just sent him a pm to see what kind of condition the motor is in....


Heath

LT1553

http://high-performance-engines.com/...duct_Code=SP34


I could also do this with a cam and some new rockers lifters seals springs etc... Dont know the manf. well though so who knows how their motors hold up.... Anyone know anything about them??

camaro1fastz28

u can get the crank polished and order a kit from summit for under 700 with forged piston and all bearing and oil pump and a gasket set one of these and put it toghter urself that what i did and then u can order a mild cam and some good springs and ur good and a pcmforless tune and ur under 3g u might even be able to throw rods in

http://store.summitracing.com/egnsea...115+4294908216

95Blackhawk

I bought a long block off of someone across the US. It turned out to be a great engine and exactly what he indicated. However, in the case of that motor, he had a build sheet that was very detailed and a flywheel dyno chart showing what the engine did.

I think it is a crapshoot but it can work out.

maverickmk

if you're hearing a knock & screaching noise, the crank is shot and possibly the rod, so you are looking at a new crank and 1 rod right off the get go - FWIW

SS RRR

Not necessarily true. Depending on the severity of the damage a machine shop can mic a crank and use bearings to compensate.

87Aerocoupe

I'd get a set of Scat 6" 4340 forged I beam rods with the 7/16 bolts and a set of Mahle forged power pac pistons then get either a good factory crank or a Scat 9000 series stock stroke, get the block hot tanked, bored .030 decked, align hone the mains then add a 22x 23x .550 cam, new oil pump, Canton or Moroso oilpan and a set of long tubes. then a 2800 stall and 3.73 gears. Then save up for a set of ported heads and at least you'd know your bottom end is stout.

LT1553

yall have been awesome thx so much for the replies now ive got the info i need to make my decision....


Heath

96capricemgr

screeching is usually a spun main which means at best a line hone but frequently it does enough damage that it cost more to repair than just getting another block.
WHEN I was in your situation I went with a junkyard motor and put my existing heads and cam on top of it. I would not run those cheap longblocks, you will see guys making less power than they would have with a stock shortblock and not lasting either.

If you gt a sortblock from a Caprice, Roadmaster, Fleetwood they are identical to the f-body shortblock but are likely less abused. The Caprice sedan was available with a 4.3L V8 that looks just like an LT1 so look behind the driver's side head for 5700 as opposed to 4300.