brand new engine

hadnt posted in a while... reason being i blew my engine... anyway, a month n half and 5k later i have a brand new jasper engine in it... new pumps belts, you name it... problem is, the car is home and im stuck at school for 2 more weeks... cant wait to get home and drive my baby haha.

Anyways, wanted to post a warning to you guys... all the stuff thats said bout the front pistons poping, believe it. I lost two pistons, threw a rod, valves... it was ugly... so if you're going to be in ur top end a lot, invest in better flowing headers cuz 800 bux now is a hell of a lot better than 5,000 later...

Bummer! Sorry to hear that. How many miles were on the old engine? How do you monitor knock retard (KR)? KR is the silent killer.

hadnt posted in a while... reason being i blew my engine... anyway, a month n half and 5k later i have a brand new jasper engine in it... new pumps belts, you name it... problem is, the car is home and im stuck at school for 2 more weeks... cant wait to get home and drive my baby haha.

Anyways, wanted to post a warning to you guys... all the stuff thats said bout the front pistons poping, believe it. I lost two pistons, threw a rod, valves... it was ugly... so if you're going to be in ur top end a lot, invest in better flowing headers cuz 800 bux now is a hell of a lot better than 5,000 later...

Yep, same thing happened to me about 8 months ago....do you know you could have got a brand new L67 from GM performance cheaper than what you probably paid for that jasper engine??? I payed 3,100 for the whole engine including all the pulleys and new manifolds.:grinyes:

What is a jasper engine?

What is a jasper engine?

Its a rebuilt engine from Jasper motors Inc. Their factory is actually about 30 miles from where i live in Jasper, IN. But what they do is take a good used block and just rebuilt it from the ground up, new pistons, valves, rockers, ect...They also do transmissions..

Sounds pretty pricey to me...

yea, it wasn't cheap... but that 5k included all additional parts and labor... i had new water, fuel pumps put on, basicly, everything was was replaced, not just the block so you have to figure that into the price... although 3k does sound much nicer haha.

I didnt havr a way of measuring KR but if you check my mod list, i really hadn't done enough to cause a serious issue, that i know of. the colder plugs and PCM were supposed to combat the KR to a certain extent.

I didnt havr a way of measuring KR but if you check my mod list, i really hadn't done enough to cause a serious issue, that i know of. the colder plugs and PCM were supposed to combat the KR to a certain extent.

I don't know about you guys. :shakehead

You should never make an assumption without being sure there is no KR whether significant or even insignificant. I would not assume a re-programmed PCM module or colder spark plugs will keep KR in check. KR is what destroys pistons in a L67. I Autotapped out early when I first modded my GTP well over 5 years ago and the same year got a scan gauge which reads out KR. While you guys are blowing your engines I still have my original....10 years. :eek:

The most significant reduction in KR when I modded were the SLP headers and the 72mm ZZP throttle body. No need for an intercooler yet for what I use my GTP for.


"Due to the retardation of the ignition timing, KR causes the vehicle to lose substantial power. More importantly, though, the flame front collisions are EXTREMELY harmful to the pistons. These highly volatile areas in the cylinder can cause stress cracks in your piston, which will eventually give way causing an entire CHUNK of your piston to lift right off and begin banging around inside the cylinder. This is why when the spark plug is removed after such an event, the plug end is bent all the way over. The broken piston can be VERY expensive to fix if you are not capable of doing the work yourself. DON'T EVER DISABLE YOUR KNOCK SENSORS. It takes less than 3ms to damage your engine due to knock."

yea, it wasn't cheap... but that 5k included all additional parts and labor... i had new water, fuel pumps put on, basicly, everything was was replaced, not just the block so you have to figure that into the price... although 3k does sound much nicer haha.

I didnt havr a way of measuring KR but if you check my mod list, i really hadn't done enough to cause a serious issue, that i know of. the colder plugs and PCM were supposed to combat the KR to a certain extent.

the fact that you are running a 3.4 w/ only a u-bend delete for your exhaust mods is a big problem too....i would run PEM's and/or at least a 3" DP..plus the shift points on the reprogrammed pcm's such as zzp and dhp ar extremely high...which can cause some major problems..i had mine put down to 5,900 rpms..it was shifting at 6,400 rpm at WOT outta first and second gears w/ the reprogrammed zzp pcm, my friend has a DHP pcm and his shifts at 6,200 which i think is still a little to high..:shakehead I would recommend to find someone w/ a powertunner close to where you live get it scanned and get the shift points put down a couple hundred rpms just to be safe.:wink:

yea all very good points... headers on my list... although i do have more than u bend delete... it's a straight pipe all the way back to the muffler (no cat, res. or u-bend)

While we are on the subject of headers what is the word on those beer budget Pacesetter headers? Specs look good with the 1 3/4" primaries but the collector seems small at 2 1/2" versus the TOG and SLP 3". TOG and SLP primaries are 1 5/8". But $349 is hard to beat cost wise and add about $100 for the coated ones. If they have any quality at all and live up to expections that would make the PEMs to include the newer Power Logs a possible waste of money. And you won't need the downpipe since when the woven flex joint supplied is attached it comes to within a few inches of the CAT convertor, if you desire to or have to keep the CAT intact.

While we are on the subject of headers what is the word on those beer budget Pacesetter headers? Specs look good with the 1 3/4" primaries but the collector seems small at 2 1/2" versus the TOG and SLP 3". TOG and SLP primaries are 1 5/8". But $349 is hard to beat cost wise and add about $100 for the coated ones. If they have any quality at all and live up to expections that would make the PEMs to include the newer Power Logs a possible waste of money. And you won't need the downpipe since when the woven flex joint supplied is attached it comes to within a few inches of the CAT convertor, if you desire to or have to keep the CAT intact.

From what ive heard from other people running pacesetter's they have problems w/ exhaust leaks and the coating chips and falls off real easy and they rust...

From what ive heard from other people running pacesetter's they have problems w/ exhaust leaks and the coating chips and falls off real easy and they rust...

We have a member in our local club that has them and his biggest complaint was excess header noise (ping) but that could be normal with any brand headers and rattling which could be due to a bad install or not using the woven flex joint to isolate the headers from the rest of the exhaust system. We don't get any rust per se in West Texas so that doesn't seem to be a concern. Still hard to beat the overall quality of SLP and TOG. I guess you get what you pay for.