So a few weeks ago, I suffered from catastrophic failure of the bottom end of my motor. Long story short, there are some oiling issues with the bottom end of the LS2’s in these Trailblazers…I just happened to suffer from it myself. One of my connecting rods decided to show its face, through the side of my block.
Soooo…I’ve been without my horns for 2+ weeks now, probably have about the same to go. I just picked up a new (used) block and internals, and I am going to start prepping for assembly Wed. Man I miss my horns.
Good luck mate:D I hate it when this sorta thing happens, sounds like the same sorta thing that happens with Subaru Impreza’s, oil & oil pump failure is common on this engine, I’ve done 3 engines todate!:eek:
Damn! At least those motors are fairly easy to take out. I’ve helped rip a few of those out before.
True story…72mph on the highway, cruise control on.
A little back story: the week before it happened, I had a sudden oil pressure dip during a quick WOT acceleration. I got a chime and “check oil pressure” light, so I quickly let off the gas. I cruised to the store, then proceeded on to work. I decided to wind up 2nd gear…and heard what sounded like some valvetrain noise. I watched the oil pressure, it was fluctuating between 30-40psi. When I got off in the morning, I kept a close eye on the oil pressure…it stayed solid the entire 15mins home. I knew there was a check valve in the oiling system too, that has been blamed for the lower end problems. I decided to change the oil a little early…and drove it around with no issues. Took it to the lake the next day (140 miles round trip), and it let go on the trip home. In fact, it was making noise for a couple of miles…but didn’t actually let go until I put it in neutral and pulled off the roadway. It was inevitable, but at the constant speed/load I probably could have drove the truck all the way to my exit off the highway.
The valvetrain noise was from a low oil level. Once that conn-rod bearing started to eat itself, the oil consumption went up…the cause for the abnormally low oil level. More than likely the culprit was a failing oil pump, but definitely an issue in the oiling system caused my damage.
oh and i never mentioned i haven’t had my horns since May… and since late July its been a battle to find the leaks in my system. one small leak at a time.
Finally got a chance to work on the truck a couple of days ago. Got everything cleaned up and threw the shortblock together. One more good day of working on it and it should be up and running.
Had some delays with just getting time to work on it, but today the TB/SS took to the roads again finally. Rest assured once the truck was running good, I flicked the compressor switch on and got the truck ready for its first road test.
All systems are a go, truck is 100%. Just have to get some more miles on it so it’ll pass OBD2 inspection…but otherwise I’m driving the crap out of it. Matter of fact, I got the chance to trainhorn a moron in a hybrid today that decided 30mph was a good speed to be at before getting off the highway.
