ZR1 Engine Tear Down: The Hidden Dangers Revealed

[@joshuakazfields4374]

I pop in from time to time and can’t believe you’re pulling another motor. Different car.

[@TR99FRC]

That KZbin life…it’s the KZbin curse

[@RepairGeek]

I'm not sure what your ultimate goal is here Alex, but you can still buy a complete LS9 longblock from GM. Part #: 12624262 $13k, but you may have that much in repairing what you have by the time its all said and done. Just throwing it out there.

[@Ty4.951]

Reach out to turvi. He knows his stuff

[@kicksaholic]

Omg 😂best comment in a long time 😂😂😂

[@Mangobrain82]

FUCKIN LAWL

[@kwmiked]

A Turvi video popped up few days ago, he was polishing a turd from junk yard with some fancy parts that he bought with his rent and insurance money 😂

[@guthrie_1]

Turvi will actually weld you a new cylinder liner.

[@JpL4K3]

Shove an LS3 6.2 in it and trade it in at a dealership. That’s what Potato Lifestyle would do.

[@Sigrafix]

Hell nah, put a Vortec 5.3 in it.. al carajo!

[@jasonw7497]

I would say old 4.8....but fuck it. Put one of the new LT 4.3's and see if the dealer's appraiser can spot 2 missing cylinders.

[@HardHatEugene]

Alex while the engine is out make sure those grounding points are all sanded down. The C6’s are known for major electrical issues and a lot of the time it’s those grounding straps.

[@billyharrison3979]

DAMN Alex ! Helped a friend pull an engine on one of those cars . That's a serious job. Hats off to you on this one.

[@TheLosvette]

Definitely order you a lift plate .It's gonna be super easy to line up bell housing going back in .

[@HRMAKRGT]

"HEY, nice small block ford"😂😂😂😂

[@Rebel635csi]

Have the injectors cleaned and flow tested. Looks like that cylinder was way leaner and hotter than rest. Usually if you were lean across the board you’d see other pistons eaten on the edges as well.

[@Hoodie2103]

16:30. “What’s that smell? Sasso, man, sasso.”

[@DannyBoyShorts]

It sounds like you’re going to have an awesome coffee table

[@CB4basser1]

I been in a fishing mood, trying to play Alex catch up. Giving you that watch time!

[@yolofullsend]

Ran lean and melted the piston.. I just had my ls3 block resleeved.. talk to John at j and j in jupiter.. he did a real nice job with mine. A tsp set of rods and pistons is about 1500 and held 1000 wheel in my car.. throwing them in the next build and aiming for 1300😊

[@305_RS3]

When I sold my working condition LS9 heads a few years ago, I sold them for right around $1k. I went with PRC 260cc ported heads from Texas Speed for like 3k. Had them decked/milled to “.035” mill” to bump up compression a bit. Worked great with a GP3 cam.

[@lineoflads1388]

New shop beef coming soon!

[@jaydubb71]

I've done a cam swap on a C6 and I can verify it's a complete beeeyotch! Especially pulling the rack. Wheeeew lawd!

[@gtmustang0011]

Was there any coolant in the blower intercooler reservoir?! If not, that explains it! High temps.

[@HodgeGarage86]

Block is fine. Just find a reputable shop to replace the sleeve.

[@ZeroFoxGarage]

It CAN be fixed.. but is it cost-effective vs buying another engine.

[@HodgeGarage86]

@@ZeroFoxGarage if you can find a LS9 engine they are usually very expensive. I cant say with 100% certainty that it would be more cost effective to reseleeve it without looking into it more but I'd bet a resleeve is cheaper. The other issue is finding a competent shop that can do it correctly.

[@adamngooddude183]

Definitely some millwright rigging with that strap setup you had to use. 💪🏻

[@337speed]

Get an Aluminum 5.3 Block GM Part#12571048, get it Darton wet sleeved and bored to 4.125" with your choice of 4" crank/rod/piston combo. That 427 will take up to 1300 wheel, and will come out ahead $$$ vs buying an LS9 shortblock.

[@YDBT4LIFE]

No

[@Jb-mp1in]

zr1 should keep a ls9 was this car hurt when you bought it

[@saifhamad1224]

@@YDBT4LIFE🤣🤣🤣

[@minibikemadman]

lsr 9 or nothing.

[@BluMaGiKCj]

U got me interested in the ford coyotes,but actually love this LS content! You are good at this u tube stuff! 💯🔥

[@fbanda20]

Turvi speed shop builds a mean 352! I’m sure they can help you.

[@ThatTurboZoh]

Commendable work; pulling a motor from a Vette on your back is far from fun. Our mother dealership is the #1 GM dealer on the planet and they still have LS9 long blocks on the shelf from back in the day. Still $20,000 :(

[@lifeonmars03]

What state? Michigan?

[@YourAverageZR1]

My ls9 block was bored .070 over. Also YES ls9 heads are worth money.

[@minibikemadman]

ya they worth some cheddah

[@Blade_RunnerZR1]

That can be sleeved and repaired, I’d consider doing the whole set of pistons Mahle makes some really nice pistons that’ll work with the stock LS9 rods that can bump up compression, and yes those heads are worth money I’d send them to FED or AHP to be gone through and cleaned up most aftermarket casting heads are junk until you get into expensive 6 bolt stuff. You’ll want too have them heads gone through for sure if you plan on camming it, LS9 heads do have the same issues as LS7 heads. I hate that happened I’ve never seen a bolt on LS9 have a piston failure without nitrous being a factor. Did this engine ingest any coolant in the past from a brick failure? Or did it have a lot of timing in it? Just seems so crazy to me it did that at that power level. Also if you are going to be reinstalling the engine there in your garage do not drop the torque tube on the ground unless you really really want to hate your life lol, just pull the radiator and condenser and rack all the way out it’ll drop right in with a load leveler on your hoist and a helping hand. You will come out wayyyy cheaper repairing that block than buying another. You can get into the 30k range quick doing an engine in a ZR1 the right way I’m sure you’ve already seen that.

[@yolofullsend]

Load leveler bolted to the valley cover is the way to go.

[@robhunter2435]

Great job pulling the motor. You now need to do some research to see which is a more cost effective solution. Looking forward to see which way you go.

[@YDBT4LIFE]

@@robhunter2435 yep. Been doing tons of research and we'll see where I land.

[@jamesberry6106]

Did another shop return it ? Seen some shop saying it was yours and said it had 690 hp and they got it up to 740. I remember him saying one of the cylinders were down 50% So why try to make more power. Yea it was late model performance. It definitely l lean the cylinder out to burn the piston

[@silviodante5829]

Sleeve the block. (maybe) replace pistons/rods with forged replacements. Throw a good blower cam in and freshen the valvetrain up. then work a little magic on a nice tune for 93 or e85 then call it a day.

[@Midnightseppuku]

Maybe wonderbread racing can rebuild it ?

[@joeld2607]

In the peasant chat it sounded like you really want to keep it an ls9. I would just go for a new ls9 long block. Maybe it would be a wash, but consider that most anything else LS isn’t going to come with dry sump equipment so then you have to pay for that to be added. Another point to consider is that the ls9 has a unique crank flange with 9 bolts so if you don’t have an ls9 crank now you’re making changes to that nice new RPS clutch you just got.

[@YDBT4LIFE]

Ugh

[@johnnyls1t56]

As an ls guys, the oil in the combustion chambers is normal with oem gm ocv systems. They feed oil into the intake or supercharger in your case. The other thing time it could happen is on decel when there is high cylinder vacuum, it will pull oil through the valve stems or seals if worn. I don't think the oil is what caused this though. Looks like heat or tune did. I don't like that no coolant came out when you removed the lid?

[@gavingibson5746]

Hey Alex just had a question on coyote fuel system upgrades. I just watched your video on recommending return style fuel systems and why they are crucial for boosted e85 applications on the coyote. You ran your car which was a whipple car running e85 and 10psi, and showed how much the fuel pressure dropped running 1000cc injectors and a boost a pump only with stock fuel pump. I wanted to know if I could just replace my stock fuel pump with a dw400, and then doing the said boost a pump and 1000cc injector combo? This is for a car that will likely run 800-900whp on e85. thanks.

[@antz19coyote73]

Fuck that, pay somebody

[@1of1RTR]

Wow! That's a hell of a lot of work. Yep 👀😎

[@masterj7048]

I would check your injectors make sure u got an even spray pattern for all of them one might be particularly clogged may have created a hot spot on that cyl. May have showed its self with the added timing

[@jbp1981]

Who’s tuning the new setup?

[@Markstarscoobs]

Aluminum ls engines technically have iron liners. So, as long as the bore behind the sleeve is good. I'd say shortblock because you have to have the ls9 rebuilt. This car was at the limit of the ring gap. Stock bottom ends could still be within spec over 100k miles. A healthy ls usually last shorter time pushed. 5.3 with 300k have excess ring gap and usually only have cam bearing issues. Your motor was hot and killed a good hole since the one that failed leakdown was probably sealing fine under heat. Doesn't make sense, but usually, the tired iron out live any aluminum ls. The tune up was spicy for sure.

[@matthewmuniz2442]

I was in the same situation on my old ls motor still don’t know what caused it but 3 spark plugs were melted, I was thinking too much timing.

[@TonyTheTruckGuy]

That sweaty forehead 😂 I feel that shit. Sorry to see the block damage. Hopefully it can be sleeved.

[@gaspoweredgarage]

I would say the best deal would be buy either a long or short block from gm performance. then if you want to install a custom cam do that before installing the engine back into the zr1.

[@YDBT4LIFE]

@@gaspoweredgarage that's the plan. I have a guy that has a sb And a long block both ls9 new. Which is rare but damn pricey

[@ALilly55261]

Shortblock replacement is def the easiest option but supposedly the ls9 pistons are the weak link in the bottom end plus it’s only like 9.1:1 compression. An LSA block with zr1 guts might be an option since LS9s got badass rods, billet main caps, and 9bolt crank plus bigger head studs vs like an ls3 which is similar too but honestly A fresh sleeve and some upgraded std bore or .005 over pistons maybe small bump to 10:1 would be nice plus the ring gap can be opened up a bit if needed.

[@ryanfreeman5987]

Hang in there. Completely understand the lack of trust. Saved some money by doing it yourself.

[@6speedracing6]

Looks like it’s time for a coyote swapped zr1

[@mikeh9719]

1 more blown up motor and your caught up to stangmode

[@erikmohr164]

I’m bummed out for you Alex. Thank you for sharing the video. Coyote swap still on the table? How about something else crazy like a small block Ford? Good much sir.

[@YDBT4LIFE]

@@erikmohr164 I'm still gathering a whole bunch of information but it looks like to bring it back to how it was it's over 15,000. And that means a stock ls9 with IAT issues. Lol

[@V8dadmartin]

The cost effective approach would probably be selling the core and getting a new block unless you want a sleeved block

[@DesmondBerry316]

Alex, I hear you, a coyote swap would shake the internet. lol but to say it’d be cheaper than fixing your ls9…idk about that with all the work you’ll have to do to make it work.

[@stewart-D]

Wow that was a mission .

[@cobra7969]

Alex catching up to Cletus with the number of motors he’s blown up 😆

[@kwmiked]

And didn't even make a good video doing it 🤭

[@agaad22]

😂

[@antz19coyote73]

@@cobra7969 I was about to say he has bad luck w/ Motors

[@Alfonso-mh1np]

Use Johnson link bar hydraulic lifters for more high rpm stability

[@ShaunOconnell]

Looked like a pain to pull, hopefully you can get away with sleeving that block but still gonna be expensive

[@Gs93GrandAm35]

You can do just one sleeve @alex as long ad all others are with in spec you can also do upgraded sleeves I have done a handful of LSA engines with similar failures as long as you trust the machine shop

[@Grabber_GT]

This reminds me of the GT500 a little. Top tier performance model (GT500/ZR1) motor is broken (Trinity/LS9), I get wanting to put an LS9 back in it.. but there are better, stronger, and cheaper GM blocks that work (like the coyote). Whatever way you go... best of luck!

[@terrykaz5095]

Great work.

[@eddiereichel9354]

16:31 As a mechanic and shop owner its easy to judge someone else when they dont stop and have car towed. I myself fried my trailblazer engine. I put a lift and 32 inch tires and got shitty fuel mileage. The internet told me to delete the mechanical fan and put electric fan on. I did that and forgot to turn fan on one day.

[@sprint2648]

People like to bitch about Fords but I swear every GM I’ve worked on is more of a Pain!

[@mach183]

Owned 2 Shelby’s now have a c7z ,, the Shelby wa simple

[@ZONES89RS]

Corvettes deff make everything harder. GM trucks, Camaros, G8, caprice, all easy as fk for me.

[@cocacola3269]

Nice video, good work!

[@ZeroFoxGarage]

You for sure had a lean condition in that cylinder with how it torched though the top of the piston. Potentially clogged fuel injector, low fuel pressure, ect something along those lines. I'd be curious what the commanded EQ was in the tune and if it was using the IAT adder or not. The engine is savable for sure.. but is it cost-effective vs buying another engine. I definitely would keep it LS9 based as if you plan to sell the car that would greatly impact the value.

[@montefiveforty1]

Was the reservoir for the blower coolant empty also?

[@amirzahir6995]

Keep going Unc AMRY

[@7000U9ZHIFT]

Can always throw in a gen 4 iron block 6.0 LS and and boost it on a budget.. while taking your time building the ls9

[@ZONES89RS]

He probably like me and not gonna wanna do it twice. lol

[@paulp90]

Jeez. They really crammed a bunch of shit in a tiny space. Us Coyote dudes really do have it easy! That looks fucking horrible. Great work, Tio!

[@rotaryray]

Had an LS7 short block with the same type of failure. If the block is cracked behind the sleeve, then the block is probably trashed because LS7 & LS9 blocks are made out of 319-T7 aluminum that is brittle and very hard to fix with a weld long-term.

[@nickb289]

I’m sure you know but the LS9 block isn’t just an LS block. GM stepped the LS9 up with steel caps and piston squirters plus 12mm head bolts.

[@YDBT4LIFE]

@@nickb289 yes I know that's why I laugh at some of the offers that I'm getting in my inbox LOL people are saying that this is only worth a thousand bucks. So that means it's probably worth triple that. But.. I do have a luxury of time I am Zero Rush to get this thing fixed.

[@jamesnj3454]

If you trust Jake's opinion, I would use the machine shop he suggested for the short block rebuild.

[@Jkerb720]

How do you like the RPS clutch?

[@YDBT4LIFE]

@@Jkerb720 drove very well

[@Ashton.munozz]

It’s probably repairable slightly over size piston and bam done

[@GusP-rv8yn]

Cut the sleeve out and check the aluminum under it.and yes you can sleeve one out.I have a guy in socal

[@KyleJ04]

RIP LS9 - you flew too close to the sun ☀️

[@PhilthyHorseRacing]

Im the diesel world, sleaving just one cylinder to standard is very common.

[@greaservictor491]

A good machine shop should be able to sleeve that cylinder (#6).

[@9SecondStreetMustang]

I thought it was cylinder 7?

[@Noah-me8dg]

@@9SecondStreetMustangpassenger side is even bank

[@9SecondStreetMustang]

Yep cylinder 6, checked Google images. 😃

[@Alfonso-mh1np]

Do the brass floating truniun rocker bushing upgrade from brian tooley I personally have seen the needle bearing trunion upgrade fall apart on heavy abuse the needle bearings start to break. They have a floating bushing style now that work just as good and less moving parts that can fail

[@YDBT4LIFE]

@@Alfonso-mh1np no

[@Joebauers2505]

That block should be salvageable depending on what you'd want to do. Bore it/sleeve it proper sized pistons to keep the oem compression height would assume some manufacture should make them. But from previous video from you i dont think you want to go that direction and seems like you would rather start fresh with a new short block. Price wise it may be cheaper to source a new SB rather than machining and sleeving then getting pistons plus shipping and labor.

[@kenbozarth2146]

Sleeve it .. yes the heads are valuable.. I'll take the stock LS9 cam for my NA 6.0 😁.. That engine is repairable if you don't want a new short block

[@pdmustgtd1013]

You would be shocked to know how easy fine spline input will go back together. Like what I work on they don't give us any room to reach in the turn input by hand or by a tool. Wiggle it some or turn it slightly by damper. From what I've heard and seen taking torq tube out the whole rear has to come out. Pick your poison fight getting engine or take more of car apart

[@thewannabestig]

I believe the cheaper option would be to repair the sleeve and replace the piston and piston rings. Or buy another ls9, but with all your builds you have going pistons would be cheaper.

[@ThaMadhater]

LMP has some explaining to do

[@DTunedMotorsport]

Had a blown up C7 at the shop that left there. So much timing for a stock bottom end car…they didn’t even tune the VE table either… just ran it in MAF only and hacked a huge chunk of the MAF curve out for where the meth kit came on. Kinda seemed like hack sh!t

[@oliverbryan6883]

I've been thinking the same thing. Why still tune it and push it on E50 when they knew it was hurt before tuning.

[@joshchauvin5585]

​@DTunedMotorsport alot of tuners do that. MAF only I was pleasantly surprised

[@Jonny_trans]

Damage doesn't look awful. That may be able to be repaired. I am aware of your not wanting to bastardize your ZR1 a resleeved 5.3 is a good option. They start with a 5.3 because it has stronger siamese cylinders and larger supports around the mains, and no breather holes. Nobody has to know the block has a 5.3 part number on it. The 427, 408, or 416 will bolt directly in place of your 6.2 every single ZR1 accesory, and the oil pump will bolt right up It's likely more of a pain in the ass than you're willing to put up with, but a 400+ Ci motor will need less cam and drive better I have a local friend with a Zr1. He just went through what you did, now its a 416 and makes 1030 blower only

[@YDBT4LIFE]

@@Jonny_trans clutch won't bolt up.

[@Jonny_trans]

@YDBT4LIFE it will be a aftermarket crankshaft Callies makes a 9 bolt(ls9 style) 4 inch stroke crankshaft

[@adrb2777]

Wao that’s a lot of work

[@YDBT4LIFE]

It sucked

[@adrb2777]

@@YDBT4LIFE I wish you a lot of luck this time with that Chevy engine. That’s another expensive engine

[@BrysonWitt]

Late night video let’s go!

[@robostyle9773]

Nice job Alex that is a shitload of work

[@inteligentvtec]

Dart ls next aluminum block.

[@mikes1292]

These youtube shops dont seem to be helping you much gald u are takin it apart your self 😜

[@TheJamesG1990]

Put a sleeve in that cylinder if it has a hole. Light gone on cylinders. Get heads rebuilt and be back driving it.

[@mrphiscal]

Alex let’s skip to the coyote swap on this car !!!

[@YDBT4LIFE]

@@mrphiscal nah. Way too involved

[@Oliver-ft2fq]

Or he can just wait until the new Zr1 engine is available as a crate and massage it in there .

[@JetEngineOz]

⁠@@Oliver-ft2fq how is that any less involved? They’re both DOHC motors that aren’t meant to fit in the car. Not to mention the C8ZR1 is twin turbo and the C6ZR1 is blower.

[@TrentSteiger]

Completely defeats the purpose of it being a ZR1 at that point. The ZR1 is so bad ass because of the way it sounds and the way it delivers power

[@sniperpronerfmods9811]

​@@YDBT4LIFE I mean you should still consider given your the cahyote guy tio

[@nickb289]

Yes sir, looks like Ironworker rigging. lol

[@YDBT4LIFE]

@@nickb289 lmao. Glad someone spotted it

[@timothysullivan4495]

Your Lucky for your friends at PBH

[@rolandbeliveau8379]

Dart short block coming 🙌

[@YDBT4LIFE]

@@rolandbeliveau8379 nope.

[@wroman786]

They don’t mind you doing all that mechanic work in the complex ?

[@sn95_mustang_garage]

Ouch! This became expensive.

[@Youngsoldier93]

Nah, I'd donate for a coyote swap for this!

[@scottjames1904]

See if the sleeves can be bored and aftermarket pistons installed. This would be the cheapest route. For as bad ass as the zr1 and z06 are the ls9 and ls7 are too costly of engines for what they are and what they can handle. A grandsport with a zr1 drivetrain, aftermarket piston, good heads/cam blower will make 1k hp all day and be a handful for most basic boosted coyote set ups. And if the motor blows it’s not insanely expensive to replace because ls3’s were plentiful, vs ls9/ls7’s which are far more rare and command a high price tag.

[@Kb_2v]

Damn just watching you pull that made me tired!

[@ngfnjgfnfsdgbdsfhdf7645]

WHAT SHOP IS DOING THE MOTOR

[@YDBT4LIFE]

@@ngfnjgfnfsdgbdsfhdf7645 nobody

[@oldskoolbmw]

You could still sleeve that block with a flanged sleeve from LA sleeve or buy a new block. Honestly I've seen brand new LS9 bare blocks go for 4k so then what's the point of spending $200 a sleeve x 8 then easily double that in machine work.

[@Green_Streets]

I bet it will bore and hone out, but that means pistons unfortunately. Usually the piston material transfers to the cylinder wall. We melted plenty of honda engines back in the day. Putting one different six piston in it also isn’t uncommon for that community.

[@slow99gt]

Judging by what was shown on video, the damage doesn't look like it's through the stock sleeve. You could try to bore it over .020 or .030 but then you'd be building the motor with aftermarket pistons and paying someone to disassemble/reassemble and hope they do a good job and all the machining was done correctly. All in all, I would honestly just try to eliminate all possible headaches and buy a new longblock. The price tag on machine work and parts for the old block would be comparable to a brand new one in my opinion.

[@Smasher-Devourer]

Best choices would be to look up how much a LS9 shortblock costs, then compare how much it would cost to get the old block sleeved and built. But if it were me, I'd stroke out an LQ4 and shove it in there because I'm a cheap ass.

[@brandonjones2565]

Put the Shelby engine in there lol

[@sfranks88]

doesn't look like the damage made it through the factory sleeve. Should just be able to get the shop to change out the sleeve and replace the piston, do whatever else your wanting as for as "building" it and bew good to go

[@rileycates5049]

how much power was he making on this when it went?

[@YDBT4LIFE]

@@rileycates5049 750