Thread: ls1 oil consumption

i recall the first gen3 VTs had excessive piston to wall clearances with some requiring to be rebuilt.....what year was these problems fixed?...im looking at a 2000mdl to buy..thanks

hi mate, going through a similar predicament at the moment myself!
posted a thread n the chev section this arvo, i then remembered a guy i know worked for holden for 13yrs as a mechanic, he is also on darren morgans top fueller pit crew, this is what he wrote to me on facebook... "If you ain't going to keep it standard I wouldn't be scared by a vt, the only fix into vx was ring design, gudgeon pin clearance and Teflon coating on the skirts, all of which you would ditch anyway to modify, if it was one of the reworked motors there wil be an x stamped wif the engine number"
hope this helps!

jeez thats a whole lot of lemons ya scored there!

Bit of a history on my 2001 series 1 VX SS...

Bought it new in July 2001, never used any oil but had a bit of piston slap noise when cold, Holden came out with the revised coated pistons mentioned above around March/April 2002, I had these fitted under warranty, Holden sent the engine to Orger Engines to be measured etc and it measured up ok and Orger fitted the new pistons, along with things like a revised oil pick and revised dipstick and tube, oil capacity was increased by 500ml, at this stage it got the X stamped on the block. To be honest it was a bit better but still had the noise when cold. The X on the block was more to do with the revised oil pick up than the rebuild as some of the early cars were suffering from oil surge.

In June 2003 the gudgeon pins were revised I got on pretty well with the service manger at my local dealer and as I was still not happy he had the second set of revised pistons fitted, these were definetly better than the first revision, I still have the car it has only done 78,000km very slight noise when cold but absolutely silent when up to temp and uses next to no oil at all, and runs faultlessly.

It was the luck of the draw back then some had no trouble at, others had lots of problems, all would have been fixed under warranty.

i had a vt2 clubsport not an issue ever

My mate had 3 engines through his Vy ss.

Hit and miss through the whole range until VZ i believe when they changed to the 6 litre

From What I can understand if you are seeking a standard LS1 I would be looking at a VY - sonetimes available in some VX 11 also
Holden seem to describe it as an upgrade but what they did was use an LS6 Block and intake manifold - so not a full LS6 just those bits
ever noticed that the incidence of complaints about VY and VZ - not that they are non existant just far greater reduced
the Block revisions seem to be of greater strength better ventilation , probably why holden used them

I have a VX sereis 1 and its oil consumption was high , I have replaced the motor-300k with a VY SS motor confirmed the block is LS6 and seems so far to consume less oil

Jeez...thanks for the replys all....it sounds like buying second hand is hit or miss....the bloke told me he tops up his oil 500ml per month....its done 250Ks...got some thinking to do

even the ve doesnt escape the faults mine has always leaked from the rear main since new but the rogue western australian dealerships are effing useless stating that its just a loose sump and the gearbox jumps out of first occaisionally so when it runs out of warranty in a couple of months the box is coming out and i will fix it propperly myself

My understanding is that the VX 11 had alot of the mixed up LS6 Ls1 parts , My VX series 1 had the earlier manifold not Ls6
and from what I am aware there was a running change with the injectors also
all bit confusing really

Originally Posted by hq2door

even the ve doesnt escape the faults mine has always leaked from the rear main since new but the rogue western australian dealerships are effing useless stating that its just a loose sump and the gearbox jumps out of first occaisionally so when it runs out of warranty in a couple of months the box is coming out and i will fix it propperly myself

Yep my 've drinks it and always has. Remember Holden V8s are made in Mexico mostly and been around a while before Holden use them. The Holden fix for the leaky sump gasket was to torque the bolts again

Originally Posted by pumba

As well as manifolds, the heads are also different.

are you referring to the LS6 head -243
as on the LS1 VX -VZ they still used the LS1 head 241, just on an LS6 block