New TBSS owner, catastrophic engine failure on road trip home from purchase!

Kcar_SS said:

Hey everyone, I just joined the TBSS club on Friday! I flew from Denver to Orlando and picked up a 1 owner 65k mile Blue 3SS! Was on day 3/3 of my 28 hour drive home to Denver, when out of nowhere I suffered catastrophic engine failure. The kind that only happens when you thrash your vehicle too hard all day at the drag strip (which of course I hadnt done, just highway cruising with a couple downshifts to get around a semi, nothing crazy, nothing over 90 mph or even close to redline).

So I was cruising at 80 MPH on the interstate and my engine suddenly lost power and the gauges all flashed. Out the rear view, I couldn't see anything (the glass was covered in oil) side mirrors revealed that I was blowing a white smoke cloud and spraying an oil slick as far as the eye could see, and then the motor cut off. I was hoping it was just a blown head gasket. But the leak was coming from the bottom of the block.

The shop here in town confirmed my suspicions this morning that its the motor.. It threw a rod through the block, and punched a hole all the way through. My SS is dead. RIP! So now I'm 2/3 of the way home broken down in Manhattan KS and trying to get the dealer I bought it from in Orlando to buy me a new crate LS2, AND pay for the labor, of course.

Thoughts on what I should do? I am not interested in accepting a rebuilt motor, it only had 65k original miles on the odometer! Should I try to source an LSX block? I see a lot of guys do an LSX swap as a mod... is that more reliable/more readily available in 2023?

I will say, until the motor blew, it was the most fun 1000 miles road trip I have ever driven. And I can't wait to get my baby back...

Nice to meet everyone!

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Mitch808 said:

There is a guy Tony Swan in CO that is VERY familiar with the tbss platform. He is a remote sales employee for Driven Speed Performance. I recommend you go to their website, I think there is a chat function and see about getting his contact info.

Alternatively you can find him on Facebook on the various tbss groups. You might not find a better person near the Rockies that knows as much about the platform and has done it.

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BlkGS said:

Sorry to.hear about your luck. Were you going up hill by chance? These vehicles have the oil pickup in the front, so if you punch it, you send the oil to the back away from the oil pickup, and if you're going uphill you exacerbate it by that much more. It's probably pretty easy to blow the motor up on the rear air springs (soft) punching it uphill.

I guess the question is what's your budget? You bought a roughly 15 year old used car, so I wouldn't expect to get anything at all from the selling dealer, especially given how far you drove it. If it had blown up in front of the dealership, maybe. But 1000 miles away, they're probably going to say "sorry about your luck", I know if it was a private party deal that I sold, that's what I would do.

Anyways, options. You can source another ls2, and swap over parts. You can replace the block and swap over parts. You could drop in an ls3 or l92. Hell you could go bananas and do a whole 6l80/L92 swap. It really all depends on budget. An lq4 iron block is likely the cheapest option, short of swapping a whole 5.3 in. I think I'd lean towards the L92 route, it's basically an ls3 with a different cam and a truck intake, so it's a bit more power than an ls2 and it's widely available. It does have issues with lifters, so I'd address that in the swap.

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Mitch808 said:

$1400 will at least cover a decent used long block.

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sahls01gmc said:

I had a similar story. Wasn’t low miles, but clean 1 owner with EVERY SINGLE SERVICE done at the dealer. Flew in, drove 9 hours home. 6 months later, spun a rod bearing (the common TBSS killer). No wild driving, just cruising.

Found a “Hot Cam LS3” long block from a dealer. Installed the PCMofNC oil pickup relocation and a square port Escalade intake manifold, and everything else worked just fine! Spent $5,500 on parts, and sold the LS2 for $800 to someone who used it to rebuild. The warranty on the new engine gave me the piece of mind versus anything used or even built at a shop.

Good luck!

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GarryTBZ said:

That sucks! That SS must had a secret history.

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timg said:

It's pretty important to keep an extra quart or so in the sump. Relocated oil pickups or an alternate sump (if RWD) are also a must.

Relocated Oil Pump Pickup Tube Kit TBSS + SSR PCM of NC

PCM of NC - LSx/LTx Specialists - Quality Tuning & Installs - We do it all with 20+ years of experience

www.pcmofnc.com

Hot cam LS3 is an easy way to go. Sometimes, you can also find relatively cheap LSA crate engines.

LSA and LS3 can take a factory LS2 oil pan if you're AWD.

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Kcar_SS said:

I'm AWD. Does that mean I don't have the oil pickup problem then, that requires the relocation? I checked the VIN locations in the driver door sill, windshield, glovebox, emissions module in front of the firewall on the left side, and the stamped vin on the left rear of the engine block, they all match... so the investigation continues as to what went wrong, when, and who knew about it before it was sold to me. I hired a lawyer to investigate vehicle fraud.

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