[Hostile_1LE]

Can anyone recommend a good machine shop in the San Antonio area? I am likely looking at a bottom end rebuild here soon and I'm not sure I am confident doing it myself.

How difficult is it to put a bottom end together with something like a brand new GM crank and GPI's drop-in piston rod combo?

[cthulhucaller]

It's not overly difficult to do yourself, it is difficult to do it really well without the services of a machine shop though. If nothing else, having the block and crank properly cleaned, checked over, and measured by a machine shop is worthwhile. Unless things have changed over the last 10 years or so, automotive machine shops are very reasonable in what they charge.

[Hostile_1LE]

I would be doing all labor myself if I went with GPI combo. The most I'd pay someone to do was make sure the block was good to go.

[GreyGhost702]

Originally Posted by Hostile_1LE

I would be doing all labor myself if I went with GPI combo. The most I'd pay someone to do was make sure the block was good to go.

IMO it comes down to just 3 factors.

1 - Are you going to stud the mains or not. Studs need to be align honed, if you're going that far just let the same guy install the crank, and if they're doing the crank just let 'em do the rods/pistons. It'll save you a ton of time and they'll get it done and back to you in almost the same time frame as they'll likely do all the work in the same day. Cost-wise, I think your time is more valuable in that scenario. If you're not studding the mains, and the block checks out good, then do it yourself. At that point, you'll save nearly $1,200 (right around) by short blocking it yourself, and it's just torque specs a rubber mallet and assembly lube. Wouldn't hurt to have dial indicator handy for crank install.

2 - Do you have the tools/equipment/space to do the job? You need mostly basic hand tools, 2 decent digital torque wrenches, I recommend 5ft/lb-100ft/lb this will cover the majority of inch/lb and foot/lb specs for the whole build, and the heavy hitter a 250ft/lb torque wrench for the heads/crank and all the shitty torque angle specs the factory seems to be in love with. Engine Hoist, engine stand, tranny lift (if manual, if Auto the tranny can stay in place and you have E-Z mode.) Just some of the big stuff I can think of.

3 - A subscription to the Camaro shop manual. While you can google plenty, and the forum has great info as well, the shop manual can give nitty gritty insight and a quick search through it will yield torque specs and sequences readily, where sifting through forum posts can be time consuming and distracting. Beyond that, part organization and pictures/videos as you go so you can reference connectors/sensors/bolts/studs/nuts and order of operation.

I just rebuilt my LT1 with GPI labeled goodies and other shiney's. Turned the key on it friday evening and it fired like it was never disassembled... except it has a nice chop and whistle now. Got through setting my rings, now it's just getting the break-in miles knocked out. Already put about 120 miles and 1 oil change on it. First oil change produced surprisingly very little metal, have definitely seen more in other builds. Even when I peeled the filter open it was pretty clean. Will be taking an oil sample from my 500 mile change, it should also see the Dyno for final tuning in this time frame. Then it'll be regular oil and I'll bump the interval to 1500, 3000, and do another oil sample and proceed from there.

I think you'll be just fine if you're good with the above assessments. Save on labor where you can and you can invest that cost into critical part upgrades.

[Hostile_1LE]

1 - I hate spending extra money when it is something I CAN do myself. I hate waiting for turnaround time.

2 - I have a 5-100 ft-lb/in-lb digital, and a 50-250 ft-lb analog wrench. I have a hoist and stand, no tranny lift, but I have friends. I also have a place I can use a two post if I need.

My brother also works at an engine building shop, so he knows how to put a bottom end together to an extent.

[GreyGhost702]

Originally Posted by Hostile_1LE

1 - I hate spending extra money when it is something I CAN do myself. I hate waiting for turnaround time.

2 - I have a 5-100 ft-lb/in-lb digital, and a 50-250 ft-lb analog wrench. I have a hoist and stand, no tranny lift, but I have friends. I also have a place I can use a two post if I need.

My brother also works at an engine building shop, so he knows how to put a bottom end together to an extent.

Sounds to me like you'll be just fine doing it yourself. I feel the same about spending money on work I can do on my own, but my time has a price and for the money and work I was having done, it wasn't much more to let them throw the shortblock together and it added 0 days to my turn around time. For my machine shop, once they had a window open for me to do the inspection, cylinder hone, align hone, cleaning, the bottom end went in right after in just a few hours. When I got the block back, I went straight into long blocking the engine, instead of spending a day or more file fitting rings and assembling the shortblock.

Turn around time does suck, but it gives you an opportunity to get other things done while waiting on the machine shop. While my block was in good hands, I had time to re-seal and clean my injectors, paint a bunch of parts, clean my engine bay, install my remote bleeder line for the clutch slave cylinder, change my diff fluid, change my tranny fluid, soak/clean my intercooler and boost piping (my procharger kit was used, and the original abuser was not kind to that system, it was clearly run with an open mesh screen and not an air filter, which normally is what track folks do but this was clearly run on public roads but hey, it was his money to burn. Not surprised he had to have the head unit rebuilt after a couple years.)

Just kind of par for the course when it comes to shop work. An organized shop is going to have a window for work being done, and usually the 1 guy handles your engine the whole time. Not all shops are run like that, I know a few high volume shops and they'll have 1 guy that runs the block cutting and that's all he does, doesn't assemble parts someone else does that. Just depends on the kind of shop and who runs it. I loved the way my shop handled my engine, 1 guy handled my block start to finish. Every question I had, he could answer for, didn't have to look to someone else. I've also had other engines built the other way, more annoying when you have questions because then a couple people have to answer for their part in the process.

I still vote if you're going to stud the mains, the block is going to the shop no matter what, let them save you some time, but if the extra $600~ or so isn't worth spending there, by all means nothing would hold you back from dropping your own bottom end in and that $600 would be a nice billet oil pump + C5R chain.

[Hostile_1LE]

Yeah my only problem is that this is my daily driver. At the risk of sounding extremely spoiled (I am, but very grateful), I do not have a job currently. I am going to school. So it puts me in a tough spot, as I would have to part ways with quite a few belongings to be able to afford a bottom end. I'd have to get a quote for sure, just to know what I'm up against.

For now, I am going to keep changing the oil and have it analyzed to see where the car is at.

[GreyGhost702]

Mostly depends on how blingy you want to take it. With your miles and whatever is going on with stray metals, you’ll want to inspect the block before you order anything. This is also to establish if you need oversized pistons or not. Then you want to decide the future of your engine, if you want to lower the compression, keep it stock, or even raise compression. For all you know, you could be sitting on a damaged block and at that point you may want to go bigger.

For sure though, don’t back yourself into a corner financially over a car hobby. Daily driver or not.

[Hostile_1LE]

Truthfully, I just want this thing to be a moderately fast, bullet proof daily. Surely the block isn't damaged yet?

[GreyGhost702]

Originally Posted by Hostile_1LE

Truthfully, I just want this thing to be a moderately fast, bullet proof daily. Surely the block isn't damaged yet?

It is possible. And don't call me Surely.

The guy I bought the spare LT1 from said his engine had 12k/mi and had no issues. When I tore it down, it had a spun thrust bearing. He swore up and down he never had any metal in the oil or any other signs/symptoms. Given the degree of damage caused to the block main, main cap, what was left of the thrust bearing, and to the crank, I would say he must not have been paying too close attention to it, it was missing about an ounce of metal or so. That's neither here nor there. Long story short, if your engine is showing metal you can see with your eyes, there is likely damage going on or damage happened and debris is still floating around in there. Good chance the oil pick up screen is holding some metal pieces as well. Not dooming/glooming your engine, just saying you've got some signs going on. That damaged block that I have, who knows how long the previous owner could have gone before noticing it himself or how long the engine would have gone before it showed other symptoms or failed had he kept running it. If it was as obvious as a rod knock, it'd be a no-brainer.

You just have to choose to risk it or play it safe. Keep driving and monitoring it, or pull it apart and investigate/upgrade. It's always a whole lot easier to repair/replace a spun rod bearing than it is to fix a hole in the side of a block. I feel for the DD situation. Maybe until the job situation is fixed up, a cheap beater would be money better spent, a little Corolla or Fiesta until you're jobbed up and can swing a budget?

[bessen13]

Originally Posted by Hostile_1LE

Can anyone recommend a good machine shop in the San Antonio area? I am likely looking at a bottom end rebuild here soon and I'm not sure I am confident doing it myself.

How difficult is it to put a bottom end together with something like a brand new GM crank and GPI's drop-in piston rod combo?

I have a 20 1le as well and have a similar build to you. My car ended up blowing up with headers and an e85 tune. I got a new block and did a new crank with drop ins from GPI. I had my mains studded and a machine shop put the crank in and gapped the rings. I did everything else, if you're gonna be in there I'd stud the mains. My car is my daily as well and I wanted to make sure I had everything done to make sure I never had any problems again.