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tvrolet
Original Poster
2,407 posts
152 months
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Despite more than enough traumas in the early days, I stuck with the small block chevy with ultimately everything bar the block itself being new and uprated – dart heads, roller cam, shaft mount rockers, forged crank and I-beam rods etc. And for the last year or so it’s put in loads of track miles. But on the cooling down lap at Oulton it let go again  Logs in the lead-up showed good oil pressure and steady oil and water temperatures – and modest revs so not sure what the catalyst was.  In any case, the video of the blow-up is here. I had David? [sorry, I’m rotten with names] from Surface & Design as a passenger at the time. I think my initial assessment of ‘we’ve done something bad’ was pretty accurate, and the comment ‘bugger’ was surprisingly reserved in the circumstances. http://youtu.be/lpHAUTiMmhMSo, I took the lid off the motor tonight to see some absolute carnage. There’s a hole in the block on number 8 cylinder that you can put your first in, and a decided lack of liner, piston, rod etc. It’s pretty much blown the liner and a chunk of block out into the ‘V’. Oops. I’ve absolutely no idea what the cause would be, especially as the motor had been running fairly hard earlier in the day, but was driving-miss-daisy ready to pull-off when it lunched itself.   Ah well. Decision made. I’m going ‘LS’. Still not sure if it’ll be an LS7 (expensive) or a worked-on LS3. Just got to track one down now. That’ll be me out of track action for the rest of the summer I guess as I’m sure there will be more to do than just drop in the LS On a brighter note I'll stick some of the in-car footage from earlier in the day on the Oulton thread. It had been running pretty strongly up until then...
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Gazzab
15,164 posts
152 months
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Sorry to hear your woes. You have had a good run of it as well (post Henley H).
LS will be mega. Have you talked to Brummies mate in birmingham...?
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7 TVR
1,956 posts
38 months
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So sorry Will, was great to meet you and if i can help with the LS please pm me! Lovely car 
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Gazzab
15,164 posts
152 months
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Ps Plasticman Dave has a spare engine or it might now be at Raceproved (Brendan) or mallet man may still have it... Think it's some tuned iron block thing....
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Gazzab
15,164 posts
152 months
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tvrolet
Original Poster
2,407 posts
152 months
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7 TVR said: So sorry Will, was great to meet you and if i can help with the LS please pm me! Lovely car PMd
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V8 GRF
5,903 posts
80 months
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Bugger! Your face said it all when we took the breather off saw it covered in 'mayonaise' and all the steam that came out.
Fabulous car that I'm sure will come back even better.
PS Yes it was David from S&D.
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Brummmie
4,259 posts
91 months
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Worked on LS3 is supposed to be stronger than the LS7, thicker liners.
Craig at Dyno Torque is currently converting a wide body Sag with a max effort LS3 on Jenvey throttle bodies, Dry Sump, and all the bells.
I also know where there is possibly a SBC on a workshop floor in Banbury, took out of a 1950's Jag! They have put a 4.2 straight six Jag motor back in.
PM me if you want me to inquire as i am in that area today.
Odd how it let go like it did????
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Boosted LS1
13,458 posts
130 months
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What a shame. Probably a rod bolt slacking off, who knows? Making a diagnosis can be quite interesting. Good luck with it. As for Ls engines, yes they're good but they to can destruct in spectacular fashion.
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Nicholas Blair
4,002 posts
154 months
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scotty_d
5,653 posts
64 months
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Sad time's
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teamHOLDENracing
4,820 posts
137 months
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Crap - sorry to see this Willie - you've had absolutely no luck with these engines.
Give me a shout any time if you want to have a chat about LS engines. I'm firmly in the 'why spend all that money on an LS7 when you can build a very nice LS3 and have a stronger motor for less money' camp - but then I already had an exzpensive dry sump system I could just bolt onto it
If it makes you feel any better, we had the input shaft on our Holinger geabox fail 20 seconds into a 3 hour race on Saturday - also at Oulton Park. Hugely disappointing. Not as costly as yours - although when you also take into account all the costs of being there for the weekend, its probably not far off.
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Don1
9,135 posts
78 months
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Can I chime in and say 'sorry to hear of your woes', and add that the Holden version of the LS3 is half the price...
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tvrolet
Original Poster
2,407 posts
152 months
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teamHOLDENracing said: Give me a shout any time if you want to have a chat about LS engines. I'm firmly in the 'why spend all that money on an LS7 when you can build a very nice LS3 and have a stronger motor for less money' camp - but then I already had an exzpensive dry sump system I could just bolt onto it. Thanks - and commiserations on the gearbox fail. At least mine happened on the coming-in lap of what was probably the last session of the day, and I'm driving for fun not points! Anyway, I'm just trying to suss out the 'most economical' way forward - I avoided saying cheapest! I was reviewing an old post on the subject and noted your comments then re an LS3. I'm thinking therefore unless an LS7 came up at a decent price then it'll be an LS3. If it was 'just' the engine, but there's also all the electronics, flywheel, bellhousing, fuel pump etc. plus make up new exhausts and mounts...and then hope it all fits! Coming from a small block on a carb, coil and distributer there's quite a lot of other stuff I need which in fairness was why I put the swap off until now. The small block made an honest 500hp on the dyno and so that's the minimum I'd be shooting for again. But I wouldn't want go over 550 as - touch-wood - the clutch, gearbox, diff and drive shafts all seemed to hang together at 500 and I don't want to have to start replacing anything else in the drive train. So any pointers for an 'economical' and robust LS much appreciated, and of course advice on what not to do and where not to go also appreciated. Unless I can get something reaonably priced in the UK I might see what the options are to get something in from the US. I'm wondering what the VAT and duty implications are if I buy a used motor 'face-to-face' and then personally ship it home? Hmmm... I get a 3 x 32Kg bag allowance  Heads in one bag, crank and rods in another, and a further bag of parts. I wonder if an engine block is hand-luggage as the personal item? 
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Alexdaredevilz
4,316 posts
49 months
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Id stick with what you know and works
Saves messing about with clutch/bell housings/exhausts/mounts etc
How many parts are usable from the engine?
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Brummmie
4,259 posts
91 months
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V8 GRF
5,903 posts
80 months
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Simon says
9,407 posts
91 months
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Nothing wrong with a seasoned SB Chevy without having to resort to the later LS series engines you have just been unlucky it happens sometimes.
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Colin L
1,162 posts
137 months
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Willie sorry to hear off your blow up and you never got it over to kirkistown, still an ls block will be good job. May be a bit big on the hand luggage though but would love to look on the flight crews faces as you squezze it in the overhead locker
Colin l .
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Omerta
1,984 posts
121 months
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"Be careful when opening the overhead locker as items may have shifted during travel..."
I'd make sure yours is the window seat.
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