My 00 LS1 sounds pretty clattery when I start it up in the morning. Once it warms up, all I here is a little wet cam rotational sound, which I think is normal for a roller cam in an aluminum block. But in the morning it sounds pretty loose for the first 10 min. It even has a slight tick sound to it. Now, the GM Service Advisor says this is normal for an aluminum motor, and I tend to agree to a certain point, but I think mine is excessive. Since I don't have another LS1 to compare it to, can anybody describe to me how there LS1 sounds on a 40 degree morning? Thanks

 

My 02 TA sounds like a friggin diesel when I first start it
I've bitched to the local dealership till I'm blue in the face, they say it's "normal" I did talk to the GM area rep, quite a few times, and they extended my warrenty (engine only) to 75k, he must have gotten tired of hearing my voice I guess it's ok cause it runs like a scalded dog, and put down 324 rwhp (bone stock down to the paper filter) ,so I guess I'll run it till it dies. I usually drive it very easy in the mornings till it warms up, then all the noises stop. This is in 30-40* weather BTW

 

I've seen this topic come up a couple of times in the short time I've been a member of this board. Best I can gather is that the LS1 (mine is no exception) has an issue with piston slap, particularly in the number 1 cylinder. If it's deemed "excessive" some folks have gotten relief from GM. Most folks live with it, and it doesn't seem to hamper performance nor shorten engine life. As for mine, it minimizes after warm up, but it never completely goes away.

Find another LS1 in your area (or on your dealer's lot) and compare. If you are way on the wrong end of the audiometer, squall all the way to Detroit and see if you can score a new motor! The squeaky wheel gets the grease

 

The car starts pretty hard first thing if it's cold. And yes, I do hear a little tapping noise but it's no louder than any other car that I've started while it's cold out. Once the car's warmed up it behaves like normal.

My car has consistently started very quickly from temperatures anywhere from 10 to 100 degrees. I've never had a problem with sluggish starts in cold weather.

 

..........mine's bad all the time too..............even once it's completely warmed up?! The joke of it is, my dad is a mechanic, and even he thinks all the noise is too much for a brand new engine / car!? However, he knows that dealerships usually consider stuff like that "normal", and that my chances of having them do anything about all the noise is slim to NIL.

Like I said, it doesn't matter whether it's cold or not, when my car first starts, you hear both lifter noise and piston slap ("knocking" IMO ), and then once it warms up, all you hear is that constant clicking/clattering of "lifter noise" (I think??). Since the car has made these noises since day one, I've accepted it as "normal", but it doesn't mean I like it!!

Through a friend of my dad's, I have a potential line on a bare aluminum block and heads, but no internals (!crank/!pistons/!cam, etc.). I'm probably going to buy the block and heads if I can, so that over the next couple years, I can put (some?? a lot of?!) money into building it into a ~382 or bigger stroker. I'd like to have the motor bored, buy new pistons (over-size obviously) and have my dad assemble it so that I know it's all put together right. I don't care how much it costs either....................I'd like to have ~500HP at the rear wheels, N/A. That's my long-term goal anyway!

For now though?? Clatter, clatter, clatter, clatter...................

 

Yes, diesel describes it pretty good. I'm not going to worry about it too much though, maybe I'll worry about it when I get an 01'-02'

 

Perfectly normal dont worry. Its 15 degrees here in Chicago, I just started my car after not-driving it for 2 days thanx to the snow here and the engine was making a chattering noise. Let it warm up a bit, shut the engine off and turned it back on, no noise its gotta be the cold.

 

Very common in LS1s. Combo of valvetrain and piston slap (of sorts). I got it.

I can also note that my two Venture vans have it (2002's) and Avalanche (2002 also) has it on a cold start, though the LS1 is more prominent.

 

...hey Chriss, you plan on having alot of kids or what

....check out the tread on our section, "FLP cats for...". Look towards the end....

Mike

 

My dealer here in Orange COunty California gave me a service bulletin for the LS1. Something to do with the "figure eight" piston configuration. They say it is to be expected...If anyone cares, I can post the verbatim bulletin...

 

I never really noticed it till I had the oil changed last... Now it sounds terrible when it cold starts but its ok once I get 100 feet up the street. Car has 61K miles on it and 60psi Hot pressure at 2000rpm, 40psi warm idle.

I changed the oil last night and this morning (12 degrees) it was still slappin... Oh well...

 

just curious what weight oil u running in it? i have a good buddie of mines that used to work with me, but now he switched over to brickle honda /pontiac / gmc. and he tells me that customers come with brand spanking new ls1's complaining of loud tapping, especially @ cold start that becomes a mild tapping when the car is in the 180-200 range. first thing he looks at is the odo: 3,500 miles clocked on it or more, he asked them what kinda oil u put in usual response synpower 20w50 or mobil 1 15w50.

he tells me many people make that mistake, they go to the parts store see mobile 1 for example 15w50 high performance driving formula and put that into their rides. that's way too thick for our engines with such small oil clearances, u put that thick oil in and it gets real hard to move that oil to the top. especially at cold start, also i once remember an article i read on the ls1 and it talked about how gm built some clearance into the cylinders but they had very minimal problems with turn on smack and/or knock, they did however do all this testing in a warm climate, i beleive it was dallas i can't remember it was a long time ago.

 

Over the past year I've been frustrated with the "diesel" sound myself. It was almost embarassingly loud some mornings (especially on colder mornings).

I've gotten the same company line from the dealership also.

From the beginning, I've tried various brands of premium oil including Mobil 1 SuperSyn 5W30.
My last oil change (18,000 miles) I tried Valvoline Synthetic 5W30. The "diesel" or chattering/clicking sound is gone. And the past few weeks here in Chicago we've had overnight lows down in the teens. Let's hope the noise is gone for good!

 

yep I get the same thing here @ work (bill ussery mercedes benz) customers come in complaning that their 60k benz makes more noise than a f-350, and almost always the problem is too thick of oil, i had one guy tell me he put valvoline racing 60 in his c class!!!! he said it was to slow down the engine speed, because it redlined to quickly When u work @ any place that deals with other people's cars u realize how much ignorance and miss information is out there. another good example is ever gone to pep boys or napa or discount and asked hey my car has over 100k miles what grade should i use??? typical answer: 20w50. that is too thick for many cars, and a problem, most auto parts store like to classify their employee's as "pros"when truely they don't know the first thing about cars. yet many home mechanics walk in seeking and following the advice they give.and engines wear, but not soo much that you would have to switch to a different grade of oil to compensate. usually if u take apart an engine with lets say 110k miles and u plastigage the bearings, they are still well within the tolerable limits, ofcourse this is an engine thats had oil changes within the specified range, not overheated, good driving habits, ect...

 

Don't know about you guys but I like the sound of my camaro in the morning, makes it sound more like a muscle car.