19 Aug 05
LS1 Teardown and diagnostics

The teardown of the LS1 continues.
Not too sure what I was trying to show here - perhaps the large vacuum hose that's not connected to anything on one end and to the back of the intake on the other? Anyway, this is what the back of the intake looks like.
Also not quite sure what I was trying to capture here. Possibly that the hard line comes forward over the top? Anyway, the pic may be useful to me or to someone other than me at some point.
The connector I'm holding in my grubby little paw with the single wire is to the alternator. No idea what the cut wires go to, or if they're important.
Same wires, less of my hand. I believe the sensor in the head in this pic to be the coolant temp sensor. It's bundled with the same wires that go to the alternator and to the mysterious cut area.
I am vaguely sure that the end of the fuel rail should have a schrader valve in it. Mine does not. Valve added to list.
Vacuum hose connects the throttle body to the front port on the passenger's valve cover.
Showing the location of the compressor in relation to the engine mount bolts.
The mystery wire from a previous update appears to be a spare - I found another just like it attached to the engine. Might have been there to help repair that destroyed connector?
This little bracket goes on the back fuel rail bolt on the driver's side. Paw gets grubbier as the day goes on.
This is where I forgot to take pics for a while. Here's the parts I'd removed.
My primary goal today was to be able to get a leakdown test on the engine. Here I've taken the valve covers off and I've backed off all the rocker bolts so the valves are closed. Innards of the head appear to be in decent shape - there's no sludge and all looks vaguely clean.
Passenger side is similar.
Unfortunately the results of the leakdown test weren't as positive as I would have hoped.

Broken down by cylinder:
1 - 3% (good start)
3 - 16% (ugh. I can hear/feel it getting past the exhaust valve)
5 - 4%
7 - 6%
2 - 17% (again, escaping past the exhaust)
4 - 5%
6 - Unknown. The spark plug threads are too boogered for me to get the tester in there.
8 - 3%

I reckon that once I get the heads off I'll be able to get a better idea of what's going on with #s 2 and 3. I'll have to do something with the threads in #6's spark plug hole - I'm not a huge fan of helicoils but if I don't end up replacing the heads I don't think I'll have a choice.

Pile of parts is larger now.
The hole on the top edge of the driver's valve cover (almost centered in the pic) - should it be threaded to mount the coil packs? Mine is not.
Here's where I called it a day. This is Texas in August - it's hot out, which really takes away one's desire to keep working. Additionally, I had a very limited selection of metric tools and the 12point 10mm socket was not able to get a grip on the head bolts. Closed up the garage, took a quick swim, then went to Lowes to get better metric tools.

I didn't try a test fit of the engine in the Chevelle. Maybe tomorrow. Should be able to take the heads off tomorrow too, to see what they look like underneath. Go back to yesterday (18 Aug 05)