Comment by tmh88j
5 years ago
>I had cracked a cylinder/piston on the original LSA. I did not trust anyone to do the work so I did a lot of research and did it all myself
I love working on cars so I totally get wanting to do that, but why didn't you trust someone else to do the work? There are probably more reputable LS builders across the US than any other engine family.
It sounds like he wanted some very precise work done. Quality in the blue collar trades has gone to nil in the last decade. And if you do find someone that is very detailed and "by the book" level of quality, you are going to pay 3X the normal labor rate. For instance, this is a performance transmission shop [0] that regularly takes apart "precision" rebuilt transmissions only to find they were not done right at all.
[0] https://youtu.be/aI5iO2YSHMs
LS engines are among the most common engines in custom built cars, and there are countless shops out there who specialize in them. No offense to him or you, but it's quite ridiculous to believe you can do a better job building an engine on your first try than shops like Texas Speed who have been doing it for decades with full blown R&D labs and regularly build 2000+ horsepower motors, all with highly skilled machinists and engineers using professional equipment that the average person would never be able to afford.
Edit - For reference here's a video of the shop I'm referring to. They're far from a podunk operation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HgwF5dISmU
I could do a better job than them in all due respect. I care about my job more than anyone on earth. I know they do good work but if we could both measure to the same specs and know we did it right, how could I do it worse than them. we have the same measuring tools. Not that I think they do bad work. But if you ever built an engine you know its all about attention to detail. there is nothing they have to verify the integrity of the build that I don't to a similar level of precision.
Edit: I dont have the machines they do, but when my bare block comes back from the machine shop, my tools are just as good as theirs to verify the dimensions are correct. That isn't possible to verify with a built short or long block. They could possibly have 100 employees that care as much about my job as me who knows. This is a job about verification of specs and assembling correctly not of insane tech. They don't have anything I dont when assembling an engine. Machine work yes
Texas Speed or TKM are two places I’d use if I were doing an LS build.
It helps that they are abundant (in the hundreds of millions units produced), have been in use for decades (since the mid-50s), and are simple to work on (as evidence by the OP randomly learning to machine one).
As cool as 2-atom thick plasma transfer wire arc cylinder liners are, that's not something which will ever be available to a layman.
I really doubt the OP did the machine work himself, those tools are not affordable for just using once or twice. Buying bore gages and mics however is totally doable.
And no, the LS motors have been in use since '97. Including the gen1/2 small blocks doesn't count, there are no shared parts between them.