well after searching an searching why my car was smoking finally figured it out did a compression check and leak check today, the rings are gone, on a 2000 camaro ss with only 50,000 miles on it just added heads and cam on it last week and i reackon it making more power made it worse, now i'm stuck on rebuilding a motor, i really dont dont resleeve it, if there is damage on the cylnder walls is there anyway i can bore it out a little and if i can, whats the best way to do this as in size and piston size to get. what is a good piston to put in. well now i believe it piston slap does damage these motors

 

Pardon my ignorance, but what is piston slap anyways? I've read other peoples posts about it but don't know what it is. Can you enlighten me on the subject.

 

On many LS1 engines, the cylinder diameter is slightly oversize with respect to the diameter of the piston on one or more cylinders. This coupled with the short skirt on the piston (designed short to reduce friction and also reduce reciprocating mass) will cause the piston to rock slightly in the cylinder bore, especially during the time the engine is running before it gets up to full operating temperature. This produces a sound that almost sounds like a bad rod bearing but, unlike a bad rod bearing, the sound usually disappears when the engine is fully warm and the clearance between the piston and cyliner bore are reduced due to the thermal expansion of the aluminum. In some engines the noise is virtually non-existant, in many engines the noise is only present upon cold starts and certian RPM ranges, and other engines it is present to some extent all of the time.

 

Makes sense. Is this a serious problem? When you say many LS1's. I've neever noticed it with my engine but I haven't really been listening for it either? Is this common for it destroy the entire motor?

 

Many of these engines will go 100,000 to 200,000 miles with no adverse effects. GM will only repair the most severe cases under warranty. The minor cases usually end up with an extended GM engine warranty if you have a good relationship with the dealership or you end up with a "this noise is not uncharacteristic for this engine" statement from the dealership stating that it is "normal". There are websites dealing with this issue not only on the LS1's but also the GM truck and SUV engines of similar design. I believe one of the websites is www.pistonslap.com. Personnally, my 2000 SS has a very minor case of piston slap only exhibiting the noise from 2100 to 2400 RPM only when the engine is not fully warmed up, and GM gave me an 8 year 100,000 mile extended engine warranty instead of tearing the engine apart which was fine with me. It has not become progressively worse.

 

I thought this was just a noise issue. I could have sworn it was never proved damaging? How did the slap cause the above problems?

 

Good question.....I am anxious to hear the reply as well.....

 

Will getting an LS1 blueprinted and balanced get rid of that? Or could it even possibley make it worse? Does anyone offer a wider diameter piston?

 

A 2000 block can be overbored .010 and I hear that Diamond pistons are good. There are many companies that make LS1 pistons now.