HorsePower Builds

Parts Used In This Episode

Certified Auto Recycling
6.0 Liter LQ4 recycled from 2005 GMC Sierra.
E3 Spark Plugs
E3 DiamondFire spark plugs.
Federal-Mogul Corporation
Federal Mogul "A" Series Main and Rod Bearings.
Federal-Mogul Corporation
Fel-Pro Valve cover gaskets to oil pan gaskets. Complete sets and all in between.
Federal-Mogul Corporation
Sealed Power Piston Ring Set.
SLP Performance Parts, Inc.
Oil Pump/Timing Chain Package, 1997-04 LS1/LS6 Heavy-Duty.
WD-40
Multi-Purpose Penetrant and Lubricants.

Video Transcript

Money is tight. So the time is right for an engine building breakthrough on horsepower. First, we find a used LS motor at an eco friendly place that will recycle into a fresh like new V8 for a budget you won't believe.

And later the power block pack goes country kicking in to cosponsor, a music city blowout full of stars, guitars, the sweepstakes run and of course, high performance fun.

Hey, remember our red 98 Camaro. We called the LS Gun. Well, it's been a long time but we used to have a pro charged Ls one engine in it. Now, long gone. Now we want to get it up and running again. But the only problem is we don't want to spend that much money.

So today's goal is to build something for listen to this two grand. Now, Joe's already on the case and it's all happening with a road trip in the name of recycling.

Ok. It's time to scrap your old notions of what a salvage yard should look like here. You won't find a roadside eye sore full of breezy rusted out relics surrounded by weeds.

Well, it's just uh being envi

environmentally responsible

to, uh, to not have the mess that we were all accustomed to in the, in the older salvage operations and stuff. And it's just a lot more efficient way for us to operate. Also,

Bruce Barber owns one of 256 certified auto recycling facilities in the nation.

It's a place where repurposing parts resourcefully, not only helps the environment,

it makes good business sense too.

It comes in here and we inventory the, the good usable parts that have a demand for it.

Uh And we process the entire vehicle at one time.

Every part we want is processed. Every part that we don't want is recycled immediately. The result is an amazing inventory of engines

and we're here. Hopefully to find something in the LS family, something a little cheaper than the LS One or LS seven.

Do you have any idea of how many parts and pieces you have in here if you had to guess?

No,

there's a lot, every part is entered into a database that any bargain minded buyer can browse on the internet. They know who's got it. They know we've got it at the price when they call, they're ready to buy and we ship it out most of the time within 24 hours of their order. People call us on engine swamps, you know, for their old hot rods. Um,

so some GTO

Swamp

60, for Old Cadillacs and

you

know,

one,

a lot more cost efficient and you can custom tailor that application

to what, to, what you want on your project. Wow. Recycling and saving a bunch of bucks on our next engine project. Now, that's a win, win deal. Oh, guess what? That engine just came off the trailer. Let's go see what we got. It's, uh, 05 2500 GMC HD truck. And here's a good sign.

We already know that it runs. It's got the 60 engine

and that's what you're looking for for your project. And, uh,

and we're fixing to do our dismantling process on it the way we do each and every vehicle that we bring into our facility and you're gonna see them dismantle it completely

and it will, its life will end as we know it today. All the good stuff we will keep,

the rest of the stuff will be taken to be recycled to use to save energy for other vehicles or other items we use every day.

Uh, we've run tested that truck so we know the computer's good and they're gonna give you, uh, the motor with a wiring harness on it with a computer attached. So it's, it's ready to go.

I guess that's pretty much the standard deal with these new motors. Right? Yes, sir.

Hey, these guys are good in a couple of hours. The motor's out separated from the tranny, cleaned up

and carried down the hall where they build a special pallet

for it

before you know it, our LQ 4 6 L motor is out the door and onto the truck

and we've taken part in a cool money saving energy saving recycling process.

An automobile has more recyclable parts than any other

consumer good that we use. It's being responsible to, to take these vehicles and to do them correctly.

Wow. What an interesting place and what a bargain on that recycled engine.

I only had to write a check for $1200.

Now, the question is, will it still be a bargain after the work? We have to put into it, tearing it down and building it back up and? Oh, will we stay within our budget of two grand?

Looks like the plot thickens. Better stay with us.

Welcome back to Horsepower's budget engine bill. Well, buddy gets that recycled LQ four unwrapped and on an engine stand. Let me point out the basic difference between it and this ever popular LS one

and it's right here. Of course, the block, it's aluminum on the LS one. It's cast iron on our LQ four. Now, while both motors go for well, over five grand new, these LS ones are pretty hot, even used and would have cost a lot more than what we got. So I think we came out pretty well.

First we get the wiring harness out of the way,

then remove the starter

and the drive belt

ac compressor.

Then we pull our water pump

then disconnect the plug wires.

Next we pull the exhaust manifold,

then the coil packs.

After pulling these two hoses, we can remove the intake manifold

along with the oil cooler line.

Now we disconnect our nox sensors

and remove the valve covers.

One of the unique things about the LS engine is a valve covers are o rink and so is the intake gasket.

You need to check them for stuff like this. The ceiling area is damaged and hardened by the heat. If yours are ok, they're reusable

using a chisel mark. One of the heads for reference,

pull the rocker arms

followed by the push rods.

Now, our heads are ready to come off

as well as the balances,

remove the oil pan,

the front cover

and removed the pump pickup.

Then the winners tray comes off.

Don't forget to mark your rods using a stamp

before we go any further. We want to check our rod and our main caps. If there's any discoloration or any blueing that looks like this, you've spun a bearing and it's gonna cost you a lot more time and money.

Now we remove our pistons and rods

timing chain

and camp plate

when removing the cam. Be careful not to hit the cam bearings if you're going to reuse them

next on bolt and remove the main caps

and don't forget the market caps for reference.

Now, pull the crank out

and the lifter retainer. Hopefully your lifters stay in the retainer.

That's it for our tear down. Now, for the fun part, clean all these parts up that I just removed. Now, after the break, we'll show you how to freshen up the block and check the valves for leaks. Then we can start building our $2000 motor.

Welcome back to our budget motor build up where it's still clean up time before we get down to serious business.

Now, thanks to buddy and the blast cabinet.

The components that were reusing look a lot better than they did when they came off the engine,

check these out, almost good as new.

Well, now he's applying some elbow grease to the cylinder heads, man. This guy's earning his keep, hey, before you attack that one, why don't you show him how you test for valve leaks? Ok. Well, we knew that,

ok. This procedure will basically check our valves to see if they're leaking,

take your solvent and just put it in a runner.

If it doesn't leak, you're good. If it leaks a little bit, you're still ok. If it runs out a lot, you need to go to the machine shop

like this one here is just weeping just a little bit.

So with just the one leaking, we'll just leave this head the way it is

using a scraper, remove all the gasket material and carbon build up

with an abrasive disk and a dye grinder. We clean the head surface,

then we do the same thing to the block.

Now, the ceiling services are all clean. It's time to hone the block and all you're gonna need is a drill, a ball hone and some WD 40.

Now, as you can see the soars

are shiny and polished, the hone is gonna deglaze them

to keep the hone lubricated.

Use plenty of WD 40 before and during the honing process

for cross hatching,

slow the drill down and move it in and out of the cylinders rapidly.

As you can see the glazing cleans the cylinders up and cross hatching gives us the proper finish. So our new rings can see in on it.

Then the motors rolled outside where two gun Hendrix shoots it with the greaser.

Then we fire up the pressure washer and give it a good once over

snack, some compressed air for a quick dry

and a good coat of WD 40 to keep the rust away.

And this part of the job is done

with that. We can start our build, recycling our block and main components to build an almost good as new LS motor.

In fact, this is all the new stuff we're gonna replace.

Bearings are a must. So we got these from federal mogul along with some seal power rings. Now we're gonna swap out all the gaskets spell pros in our case. Oh, and you can't forget about spark plugs. These

eres will even help in the power department.

I guess we spent the most money about 360 bucks on these two parts and oil pumps, always good insurance.

And since the timing set was stretched on the original, we're going to replace it too. These came from S LP

start by putting in the main bearings along with some loop,

then drop in your crane shaft and make sure you know how many teeth are on your reluctant wheel. Ours has 24

with lube on the main caps, install them over the studs and tap them down lightly.

A unique feature with the LS engine are six bolt mains.

After torquing down, the main bolts,

don't forget the side bolts with a little bit of silicone.

This dot represents the top of the ring,

make sure they are facing up when installing them on the piston.

Next, we install the rod bearings

with the pistons lubed up. We use our ring compressor and install them in the block,

then install the cap

and torque them down.

Now we can drop on the windage tray

and with a new O ring in place and plenty of lube.

We can install the pump pickup

followed by the rear and front covers.

Now the oil pan goes back on

and with our lifters installed into the retainer and plenty of lube, they slide back into the block.

Next is the bally tray

followed by the knock sensors.

Now we can install our heads,

push rods

and rocker arms.

Next we drop on the intake

and finally mount the coil packs.

That's it for a budget build up of our 6 L LS. It looks like a new engine. But how's it gonna run? We'll know that next week once we get a wiring harness in place, load it up on the dyno and make a test run for leaks.

But don't go anywhere because there's more horsepower after this.

Do you like cars at all? I love cars. Do you want to give me one

just ahead? Horsepower hits the streets at the Capitol Records pub crawl. Getting a lift from the trucks. Guys, they discover how country music and high performance are a cool fun combination.

They were winding up this week's horsepower show on Music Row in Nashville.

It's the second annual Capitol Records Pub Crawl and Power Block TV is one of the sponsors.

So you might be wondering what is country music and horsepower have in common

other than high octane and great guitar playing.

I don't know.

I don't know either. Let's find out. Let's go

first up this meet and greet session where capital artist, Emily West was doing her posing and pinning thing for the fans. What's your favorite car? Um,

anything that is freshly changed oil or a 19 fifties car fifties? You like to go den?

Oh, you're totally retro. I am retro, I'm a retro gal.

Yeah, those guys aren't the only ones here. We're down here to Capitol Records pub crawl too

and we're gonna see what kind of trouble we can get into.

What do you think?

That's what I thought.

Well, it didn't take very long wandering through the huge crowd before trouble actually ended up finding

us.

What's your name? Uh, Pete

Anderson.

So, what do you got? Uh, New Jeep Wrangler.

And my old one was all, like, all jacked up and all pretty. This one haven't done, you know, done anything too yet.

Breaks, just fight

in the shop right now. Hit a reindeer.

You hit a reindeer. Well,

no.

Ok,

not a reindeer

reindeer kind of popped out there.

You hit a deer. There you go. A

reindeer.

Yeah.

Well, it seems like everyone wants us to hot rod their truck. But when we ran into some true American heroes, we just wanted to say thanks. We just wanted to say thanks to you guys for your service. We appreciate you guys so much. What you do keeping us safe over here. You guys are the reason we get to do our TV shows in the first place. So how can we repay you?

Well,

thanks for, thank,

appreciate it. We do what we do for you. But, uh,

what about my truck?

Well, since we couldn't help out Staff Sergeant porter with his truck, Ryan had to pay the price.

He's got 10.

How are y'all doing

today?

Well, welcome to the, uh, second now.

Not,

uh, one more.

Yes,

thanks guys.

Appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot guys.

Uh, uh,

health insurance.

It didn't take us long to see that. A lot of hardcore country lovers are also power block fans

and Galley had them all drooling over the GW Motorsports sweepstakes bike.

And we also had the truck sweepstakes project H RT Hot Rod truck in the booth showing off her awesome paint flames, extra wide rolling stock and the matching Gibson Sggt guitar said I've loved it ever since I saw from the beginning concept. I thought that was gonna be a really cool truck. But to see those tires in real life is phenomenal. The biggest tires

that I've ever seen on a vehicle. Come on here, man.

It's nice to me.

This is beautiful

to see it real live

after seeing it on TV for so long

that it is phenomenal. It really is.

Well, guess who just hit the music stage to fire up the fans.

Courtney helped kick off the stage show headlined by country superstar Trace Atkins

and hot new country crossover artist Darius Reno.

After his show, Darius couldn't resist a closer look at the power block sweepstakes vehicle.

I like the bike but I can't have a bike with this thing. I really want mad.

It's amazing. Right. Yeah, I'm about to go through my midlife crisis. This would be perfect for that.

I'll tell you what he can enter the contest, but I don't think Courtney and I will be winning any record duet deal any time soon.

Um,

yeah,

round

of applause right now.

But

you,

are you having high country music and high performance? Guess what? We're done? And we're going to go have some fun. We'll see you.
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