Quoting: Andy
I'm baffled by this thread,
I spent weeks being baffled by the ruddy car
OK so lets have a round up of the causes, although I can't guarantee exactly in what order broke first
1/ First and foremost VATS ( Vehicle Anti Theft System ), it's not a question of if your VATS will fail, it's when ! Cheap but difficult to install the VATS by pass unit.
Symptom : Cranks, Sparks and has fuel pressure but the injectors won't fire.
2/ Clifford Alarm - This caused me to strip the complete inside of the car out, to find the hidden wireless fuel pump cut out. When fitted in 2002 the genius fitter decided to fit it in the middle of drivers side footwell carpet, just in front of the drivers seat.
Symptom : Cranks, Sparks but no fuel pressure.
Clifford helpfully acknowledge that this may be there most unreliable part and should be removed from any system, I ripped the bugger out !
3/ Engine did then start but with a bad mechanical noise, so was shut down, hence the reason for the mechanical strip down and endoscope
Cause looked either to be a sticking piston ring ( lots of cranking with little oil pressure ) of another common failure in the LS1 engine, the rocker arm bearings.
After detailed examination both of these seemed unlikely, so the bores were oiled, oil was poured over the rocker arms and down the pushrod tubes. The engine was spun over a few times to remove the excess from the cylinders and everything reassembled.
Then the moment of truth, she spluttered into life smoking like a steam train and after about 2 minutes settled into a steady idle.
She had no major mechanical noises, so I took her for a spin around the block ( without most of the interior trim ).
She ran fine and then the front lights went out and further electrical investigation revealed that now the aircon wasn't working
Dropped the oil and filter again as a precautionary measure, even though they had only done 6 - yes 6 miles
Now having spending hours pouring over the official 1736 page GM Service Manual wiring diagrams and just about knowing where every one of the 112 wires from the ECU go, the front lights were any easy fix replacing fuse F26.
The aircon fault was traced to relay No.8567, a mere £36.30 for 2 from USless Automotive, well at least they were in stock
In the last week I've covered just over 200 miles of very mixed driving and the old Gal seems OK
So what have I learnt
A/ A good working knowledge of my cars electrical system.
B/ Never give up, I did talk to several Garages about having it recovered, but they seemed to have less idea than me and I'm well chuffed about fixing it myself.
C/ The only way to remove a 4th Gen head is to remove the engine first, this requires the complete front subframe, suspension and steering to be dropped using a 2 post hoist.
Even at cheap £65 per hour labour rates, this is going to cost you £1k+ just to get the engine out.
D/ Factor in another days labour to strip the engine and then you'll find out that most engine borers won't rebore an LS1 because they say the iron liners aren't thick enough.
E/ GM has stopped making the trusty LS1, the entry engine is now the LS3 which has an excellent solid 430bhp
F/ To have a replacement LS3 crate engine fitted is gonna cost you about £7k minimum, market value of a good Z28 is about £6k, if I'm lucky mines worth £8k.
So if your LS1 engine goes to lunch it's basically uneconomic to repair ( unless you happen to have a two post hoist that you can leave a Z28 on for a few weeks and do all the disassembly and reassembly work yourself ).
G/ In which case I'd make more money breaking the car for spares
Finally lifes a bitch, then you marry one, pay tax and die
