LS1 piston slap

[jvert]

Anyone know any fix for the LS1 piston slap?
I have an Ls1 with 75k miles and it's very annoying.
Does it's lessen the life of the car?
Does it hurt performance?
My ls1 t56 is stock with headers and full exhaust.
Any tips or ticks would be great thanks.

Click to read more...

 

[daturbosix]

Little thicker oil may help a bit. I assume it goes away when warm?
But the "fix" is a bore and new Pistons.
Learn to live with it, let it warm up before you drive it.

 

[Tight Lines]

Had it in my LS2 TBSS and agree it was very annoying! Had to live with it. I put a louder exhaust and turned the radio up until it was warmed up.

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

block heater

 

[willizm]

Little thicker oil may help a bit. I assume it goes away when warm?
But the "fix" is a bore and new Pistons.
Learn to live with it, let it warm up before you drive it.

I think that addresses the lifter tick issues more so than the piston slap. No real easy solution for it, but then again it's an issue that you can live with.

 

[Yaj Yak]

turbo it duh

 

[Pewter-Camaro]

Live with it.. I have 150K on my car its had piston slap when its cold since I bought it with 14K on it. It never hurt performance on my car or heard of any performance issues because of it.

 

[Shibby50]

So what weight oil are you guys putting in it? I do have bad lifter tick with te cam. Sounds like a damn typewriter. I'm using 10w30 now

 

[willizm]

20w-50 but my application may be a little different

 

[School Boy]

20w50 in my Camaro and 10w30 in my Mustang.

 

[Shibby50]

Is that a boosted thing or fine to do in most ls applications?

 

[jvert]

I've been using 10w30 mobile 1.

 

[Oh Noez]

Is that a boosted thing or fine to do in most ls applications?

Oil weight is determined by bearing clearances used, though region climate also plays a smaller part. For FACTORY LS bearing clearance a 5w30 or 10w30 is fine.


Engines built with looser clearance, ie: boost nitrous applications would use a thicker oil like 20w50.


Putting 20w50 into a standard bearing clearance LS motor is a quick way to tear shit up.

 

[School Boy]

What slim said.

 

[Gav'sPurpleZ]

i use 5w-30

my buddy used to use the german castrol 0w-30 in his Cam / bolt on SS

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

My TBSS was pretty bad, my denali with the 6.2 is ridiculously loud. It sounds like the belt tensioner is totally shot and just slapping around until its warm. Deal with it unless you want an excuse to tear a motor down and spend a pile of cash.

 

[IZZy]

both my silverado and the wife's yukon have it, no fucks given

 

[Oh Noez]

i use 5w-30

my buddy used to use the german castrol 0w-30 in his Cam / bolt on SS

I use the german castrol 0-30w in my Vette. Seems to hold up a lot better than Mobil1.

 

[Spivitz]

Dam LS2 sounds like a diesel when cold.
I run Brad Penn 10w30

 

[SHARKBITEATTACK]

I think starting with the LS2 and newer engines GM started using full floating wrist pins which were supposed to minimize piston slap and reduce friction.

 

[The Bluegrass Nomad]

My Silverado is annoying in cold weather but I deal with it. 10W30 Mobil 1

 

[Ti28]

I think starting with the LS2 and newer engines GM started using full floating wrist pins which were supposed to minimize piston slap and reduce friction.

The piston slap in the LS's is because of the shorter piston skirt, and slightly large piston to wall gap. The Pistons are aluminum and when cold they shrink. GM allowed room for the pistons to expand in the cylinder bores when up to temperature. When the pistons are cold and shrunken they cock back and forth withing the cylinder. When warm, they expand and close this gap up, leading to a quite motor.