The Rebuild · The LS & LT Swap Community

The Rebuild

When I joined, I didn’t have swap on the horizon. My swap I competed in 2018 and have been refining it since. But I was happy with the results and was focusing on other areas like body work. Everything was running smoothly until it wasn’t.

On Memorial Day 2026 I took the car out for a joy ride, and merging onto the highway shifting 2-3 the engine let all the magic smoke out. 🥺

The autopsy is still on going but it looks like piston #7 broke up on re-entry and spread wreckage throughout the engine before it locked up.

So now I’m facing a rebuild and unraveling 8 years of work and jury rigs and starting over.

I was using a 2009 L76 from a G8. My new donor is a 2004 LQ4 which I’m going to covert to a Gen4 spec engine reusing as much of the L76 parts that I can. First order of parts is coming in today or tomorrow with block off plates and conversion adapters.

The new build is going to be designed with survival in mind. I’m downgrading the cam for less HP and more torque as it’s just a street car and power cruiser. Head and bottom end studs rather than bolts. Gen4 pistons with a bigger gap than I ran last time.

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