My car is running fine, but ever since i've bought it, the motor has a tapping/ticking sound. Sounds kinda like valves or lifters. I thought it was maybe an exhast leak but everything was tight, but I havn't tightend up the headers yet. I've had the car for a year and it's always sounded this way. Also I burn about a quart of oil every month(ish), what can be done to fix the oil burning problem? and what do you think is the tapping/ ticking sound?
thanks for your time, Nathan

 

Welcome to the LS1.

All of the above issues are common to the cars and can be addressed.

The ticking issue is due to the "louder than most cars" valvetrain. It's nothing to be worried about unless you're hearing piston-slap which goes away when the car is warmed up -- another LS1 issue that you can't really do anything about.

The oil burning issue is prevalent on most cars especially the 2001 cars. You can change to an LS6 PCV system to prevent this from happening and convert to an LS6-style lifter tray. If you have an 01 car and you are getting blue smoke out of the back, it's probably due to the rings.

 

another option for the oil problem is to install a catch can.

but for the noise, with the roller valvetrain, and the aluminum engine...it's naturally more noisy

 

I just found out there was a TSB for the 01-02 Camaros and 01-03 Corvettes for the oil pump O ring replacement due to lifter tick.

What year is it?

http://www.pistonslap.com/tsb/020601038.htm

Piston slap is a normal noise too on these mass produced LS1's.

 

Thanks for all the great info. It's an 2002. I've always been told that the ls1 engine is just a "loud engine". But i was hoping that wasn't true. Thanks for breaking my heart. lol haha. What could the catch pan do to help the problem? Please excuse my ignorance.