Motor: Year 5, and Unknown Miles... let's rebuild it.

                 When we got the LS1 out of a 1997 corvette we had no idea how many miles it had. Hell we didn't know it even ran. We told the guy selling it on craigslist “when you show up with the motor we’ll test is and then we’ll decide to buy it”. This was a bluff. We assumed just by showing up he knew the motor was good. We slapped it in the Miata and ran hard for the last 5 years. Needless to say it’s time to rebuild it..  

The guy we decided to let build the motor was John Bouchard. You know… The guy from Horsepower TV. John is a former marine Veteran. Johnny C is an Army veteran. I know John will go the extra mile and handle any issues that might turn its head. Also we picked john because his work on the Television show. Past episodes show John always focused on oil passages. Allowing the oil to return to the pan. This is critical in racing engines, And is a factor that is overlooked by most motor builders

We took some time to figure out a simple issue. How do we keep engine oil out of the back seat of the jeep? We bought a harbor freight trailer and built an engine stand that will work with the trailer. 

Finished up and the motor delivered to john’s shop in TN. 

build updates:

John was filtering in photos from the build.

PROBLEMS!! 

The skirts are scraped up. 

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A little nick from the valves on the piston. These pistons are not going to work. The vales should be replaced too… 

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No chain tensioner…. Woops.

UPDATES 1/19/2015

John removed the old beat up pistons. The early ls1 cast pistons are huge and weight in at 578.7 grams. 

Our new pistons are a lightweight when compared to the old ones. These Probe pistons come in at just 498.0 grams.  A savings of 80 Grams 

Johns going to have some fun pulling 640 grams out of the crank.  

UP-Date 8/25/2015

Updates, JB Racing engine has been working like a top. Power is fantastic, he dialed back some mid-range TQ to give me more top end and a higher top speed. We are now hitting 150mph @ road Atlanta. Same top speed as a corvette ZR1.  

We did have some minor blow by and crank case issues during the first race, john said it was normal and he was right. By the 2^nd race the blow by issues where gone. 

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