LSX454 = Garbage. don't buy it.

[Da Mammer]

well peeps, as much as I hate saying it, I'm gonna. I've bought my last chevy product for a very long while. a few years back I had the unfortunate event of hydrolocking my ls3 and decided I wanted an awesome motor. I bought a Gmpp crate LSX454 and it's been a downhill mudslide since. the FIRST 454 I got burned oil. after a year and odd change time I finally got GM to replace it under warranty. to no ones surprise the valve guides were bad, and the wiggle test showed why GM is being sued by the corvette guys(God I hope the vette guys win and I can get a slice of the pie). upon receiving my SECOND 454, I was told my warranty (2year/50k miles) would not renew but instead I would only have the remaining of the original 2 yr/50k from when I bought the first one. I had 1 month left.. ran fine for that month. 1,000 miles on engine number 2 you could hear the valve train straight ***** rattle as it idled. so I tore the heads off and low and behold another set of ls7 woes. for GM stating that only 3% of LS7 heads had this issue it's pretty crappy to receive 4 out of 4 like that. my valves were worn and blued. great. (slice number 2?). so there was a few grand outta my wallet on my second 454 engine. so since then the valve train sounds great no problems but it still burned oil. did I say burn? I meant drank it like an Irishman with whiskey. 7.5 quarts in 1500 miles. so I finally got around to taking it out. the hone job is attrocious, that nice little lsx coat job on the pistons? gone. the rings are shot and my engine builder says the cylinders are out of round?! I called GMPP and of course they've never heard of an unlucky sob like me having any problems with their precious LSX454 but low and behold I've found 2 of these glorious piles of $#! +
is GM willing to help me? of course not. so here I am, trying to figure out how the hell I'm going to afford yet another motor. I'm deeply saddened by chevys lack of QC here. I just bought a really fancy, expensive paperweight. you can read to me all you want about about cnc machined and deck plate honed bla bla bla but the 225lb chunk of iron in my living room instead of my car begs to differ. do yourselves a favor and don't buy one.

[Tajefe Couple]

"drank it like an Irishman with whiskey"
Really Irish here slightly offended and I don't drink thanks!
Does that mean it didn't use any oil?
Karma perhaps!

[rshelar]

Thanks much for the info and the details. Very sorry about your plight. Can you enlighten us on your decision for the LSX vs. the LSA? A twin screw blower on top of a bulletproof 6.2L. Did you always want to go with the big dog?


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[Vegas Bound]

I've had a LSX376 B-8 in my Camaro for over 6 years with the LSA blower on top of it. Only problem has been the rope gasket was installed wrong on the rear plate. Leaked a very small amount of oil. Fixed it when I did the 4L80e swap.

[Slickcas]

That sucks dude. Have seen a few around and all have been really good. I know a few years back they had some with thin and or out of round cylinders. The older ones did not like boost would crack a cylinder wall. But a lot of builders now take the LSX 454 and use a ls7 crank or aftermarket. Makes a killer 427 that can take 30 psi boost.

[J Rod]

Originally Posted by Tajefe Couple

"drank it like an Irishman with whiskey"
Really Irish here slightly offended and I don't drink thanks!
Does that mean it didn't use any oil?
Karma perhaps!

Damn, I thought winter was over and here comes another snowflake!

[Da Mammer]

Originally Posted by rshelar

Thanks much for the info and the details. Very sorry about your plight. Can you enlighten us on your decision for the LSX vs. the LSA? A twin screw blower on top of a bulletproof 6.2L. Did you always want to go with the big dog?


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when this happened the b8 and b15 weren't released yet, and I couldn't afford an ls7 let alone an lsa. I had to take a loan out to buy a new engine. I thought I was getting the best one.. if i had the options then I'd have gone with the b15

[152LTRockin]

Why don't you have the guides replaced and move on? Or another set of heads?

[Mr.Jgunn65]

That's "F-ed Up" Bro. good luck on your en devours.

[Nappers]

Dang that sucks. My wife's Camaro is leaking water, the rear view mirror glass fell off (not the whole thing) and I poked a hole in the speaker putting the panel back on the door. '15 with 18,000 miles on the clock, no help from GM. I wrote an email to kick the bean counters out and the UAW doesn't need crap to build crap. Otherwise, a nice car.

I saw a video where someone had an unsquare bell housing and it killed the motor, after squaring it up, the new motor was fine..... Any chance a physical problem from new motor mating to bell housing/transmission etc?

Either way, that sucks!!

[pyroguy]

Originally Posted by Tajefe Couple

"drank it like an Irishman with whiskey"
Really Irish here slightly offended and I don't drink thanks!
Does that mean it didn't use any oil?
Karma perhaps!

Damn man it was a joke. It's what people used to tell before everyone got offended over EVERYTHING.

OP, that sucks. I don't have any personal experience with LSX blocks, but I have a friend that had tremendous success with a LSX 427. He's actually on the fastest list with it. Bummer about GM doing you wrong. I'm not sure if the Chevrolet customer support person still gets on here or not, but you might try reaching out to them and see if there's anything they'd be willing to do or not. Any direction you go, best of luck.

[13SSCamaro]

That sucks man. Out of curiosity, which heads are on there and are they CNC ported? Only reason I am asking is because after installing my CNC ported heads, i burned through a quart of oil within about 1,000 miles. I learned real quick that on LS3 CNC ported heads you have to put thread sealer on the rocker bolts as the CNC cutting can expose the hole into the runner and allows oil to flood in. After sealing the rocker bolts I have yet to have the issue. Not saying this is your issue, but curious.

[joshnmn]

that sucks!!

I'm sorry youre having so many problems with GM. Seems like they would be willing to work with you :/

[Da Mammer]

Originally Posted by 152LTRockin

Why don't you have the guides replaced and move on? Or another set of heads?

so the first motor was warrantied the second motor was not. I did replace the guides, now I'm dealing poor machining on the block.

and they are the 6 bolt lsx/ls7 heads, they were not cnc machined version. they are machined now after I had to fix the guides I went ahead and had them done while they were off. and I've already been through chevy customer support line with no help. if that support person is still around I'd love to talk to him/her because the people I talked to had no clue what a crate motor was let alone anything about how it works. I'm not asking for a new motor or anything I'd be stoked if I got just enough money for new bolts, gaskets, bearings, and crap to put this thing back together. those parts alone are around 1000 bucks.