WTR388

Well, she's done... I can't think of anything else I need to do to this thing (aside from a clamp for my steam line and a new battery) so now I'm planning all the drives, trips, shows etc coming up this season.

So just how reliable has your swap been once you've gotten out all the little kinks? it's a 4ish hour drive to see the gf at the moment, 2 hours to go visit my family, most shows are a little bit away. Just want to make sure I'm not making a mistake venturing hours from home!

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

I've had two things come up since I got Berlinetta #1 (see sig) running September 1, 2010:

1) Crank sensor stopped sensing. Problem was the crank sensor harness was cooked by headers in the donor car: I never saw the donor car, or the headers, but I saw the cooked harness when I was putting it in - I was in too much of a hurry at the time trying to get it going because I was out of race cars, and figured I'd give it a try as it was (and I had already come up against a couple of unexpected things during the swap that I had to address that slowed me down). It worked until August 2012, and even then it was only intermittent. I picked up a repair pigtail, wrapped everything in heat tape, made sure it wasn't close to anything hot (which it really wasn't from the time I put it in my 3rd gen), and it hasn't caused any issues since. I actually won a race when it was acting up (5 rounds, dialed soft, when it did run really bad or half-way decent, the other guy red-lit).

2) Alternator failed at the track in July 2013. Can't hardly fault a 13 year old alternator that is being abused at the track.

It's mostly a local car, but also in July 2012, I drove it 200 miles, made nine 1/4 mile passes, drove it 200 miles home, and averaged 22 mpg for the whole outing. (If you're paying attention, you'll note that this was one month before the knock sensor acted up.)

I daily drove the car until about a year ago. I drove it yesterday when it was raining because the top of my current daily tends to leak...

406TPI

iTrader: (1)

I have put over 12K miles on my swap since done without a single issue. Have been on several long trips as well. If you take your time and are thorough with your work, there is no reason you should have any issues.

WTR388

Thanks... I don't foresee any issues, Everything is done "right", trans is going to be rebuilt before I drive it much... Just having thoughts that I built the thing and a bit of disbelief that I made something reliable lol.

86White_T/A305

Ive had a bad alt also but went to a bigger truck alt since then. Had a powering steering pump/pulley break which is supposedly common on fbodies and switched to a metal pulley..and buy another alt since the power steering fluid dumped all over it. And the classic ls7 clutch pedal drop to the floor after hot lapping at the track.I was warned by many not to do alot of hard launches with it or it will let me know when to stop..it sure did! I know feather it out the hole and never had an issue since..other than poor 60ft times

Just keep up your regular maintenance and you should be extremely reliable.

rickyzZ28

iTrader: (4)

I have only had one issue with my car since I got the swap done. On a long trip the alternator started dying randomly with the headlights on. Limped the car home and put a truck alternator on it and not a problem since. I have done 3-4 stops on a couple of Power Tours with it, couple of road race track days and luckily not a problem.

Flip 2

iTrader: (1)

If you have changed cam, and such, make sure your tune is ok.
Change out your fuel filter after sitting out the Winter (to guard against ethanol jelly clog).
Should be pretty rock solid, once you are sure everything's right. Guy on Corvette Forum taped odometer turing 300K while he took it up to 150 mph….original LS1!

V6canvas

iTrader: (1)

Alternator went out, replaced it, died again, possible nearly dead battery likely suspect on those. so far last one is ok.

Crank sensor was bad at high rpm, replaced it, perfect.

Nothing else engine related. Just had to replace the slave, replaced the clutch while I was in there, only 20k miles on the setup so far. I'd like to do more long drives, but haven't really had an opportunity.

WTR388

Motor is all stock for now.
How long did you do little trips with it until you just bit the bullet and took it on a long trip?
I figure a few smaller trips and keep checking for issues, if nothing found do a few drives to a town 30 min away and back, make sure to include traffic and highway driving and if that's good I can assume it's ready.

V6canvas

iTrader: (1)

That sounds like a good strategy, start small until you get to the point where you know everything is up to full temp and stable for a while. The biggest thing is on the first couple start ups making sure you have no leaks, make sure the cooling system holds pressure.

For me, I knew the engine had sat a while, so I put cheap oil/filter on it, ran it a couple times in the garage, drained oil and replaced the filter (looked like it had thousands of miles, not less than 1/2 hour). Ran that oil for less than 500 miles, then switched to Mobile 1 5w-30.

At some point you just have to bite the bullet and go where you need/want to. Any car can/will have problems, just keep alert to what the car is telling you and you'll hopefully notice things before they become serious/ strand you.

WTR388

I have driven it about 10 miles in 2 different road tests and each time it went great with no issues.
Once I get it back from paint (I decided I couldn't live with the bit of dust from my garage paint job) I hope to get it out for some runs before I rebuild the T-56... If winter ever ends up here.

Rich92 RS

iTrader: (16)

I drove mine from Florida to California, 2800 miles in just under a weeks time and the motor never skipped a beat. When taken care off these motors are very reliable.

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

My son is borrowing the Camaro after his LS-swapped 2001 S10 Blazer had the 4L60E break yesterday - third time it's gone out since he's had it. The last build last spring was supposed to "fix" everything. Has a 3 year warranty - guess we'll see what that is worth.

Strick1

Here is my plan when I get done, Make sure my AAA is up to date and that along with a cell phone fully charged should cover the bases.

jbenge

iTrader: (2)

I've put a few thousand miles on mine in the year since its been swapped. No issues yet but I did some things before installation to hopefully maximize my chances of it being reliable. My LS1/4l60e was low mileage(33k) but had sat for a couple of years before I installed it.
new power master alternator
new gm water pump
Fuel injectors serviced by South Bay(glad I did this, several were stuck)
new O2 sensors
These engines are very reliable and pretty easy to diagnose when something isn't right. My only complaint is my engine has piston slap when cold, sounds terrible until warmed up.

punkmaster98

iTrader: (5)

my 6.0 swap has about 9k on it since sept 2014. my 92 firebird is my daily driver. ive had no serious issue other than a coolant leak ruining a knock sensor and last week shattering my oil pan on the road. other than that ive just been doing regular maintainence on it.

LsxMatt

iTrader: (4)

I have about a year and a half, and about 10k on my swap. Only issues i had are it wouldn't start on me once after about 5k, which turned out to be a bent pin on the fuel pump connector connecting to the body harness, so the fuel pump was never fully connected. Fixed that in 10 minutes.

The other time my power steering pump died out of nowhere, but thats what i get for buying reman A1 cardone crap

Beater79TA

6 months after the LS1 went in, we took the car on a 1200 mile roadtrip from Phoenix to San Fran up the coast highway. Never had an issue. Spun a rod bearing later in the year racing it at Holley LSFest but that was just an excuse to go from a LS1 to a stroker LS3. This one is holding up quite well so far through track days and driving it to work once or twice a week.