LE5 Rebuild/Upgrade
 

Hey, long story short, Im planning on building my LE5 after getting some rust restoration done. I figure they will wanna drop both subframes while doing it so thatd be the perfect time to do work on it. I already have to do the Timing and Balance Chain anyway and she's getting close to 200k Miles. Looking for alittle insight on what other stuff I should/could replace while I have it open. So far what Ive got planned;

Port'n'Polish n New Head Gasket
Chains, Tensioners, Guides and Water Pump
New Rockers n HLAs n Springs w/ Titanium Retainers
ZZP LE5 Cams + New Cam Caps[?] (Grinds: LSJ Stage 2 Intake and LE5 Exhaust)
New VVT Cam Sprockets n Water Pump
New Engine n Trans Mounts all Around
Pistons, Rods, n Rod Bearings
ZZP High Voltage Coils
Titanium Exhaust Studs (would work for Intake?)
New Fuel Lines & New OE Pump
Crankshaft Seal & Rear Main Seal
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My main post is over on G5Club, Im just tryna get a list together for right now.

You can’t use lsj cams and the zzp coil packs are trash. Don’t waste your money.

I would have the LSJ Stage 2 Intake Grind on an LE5 Intake cam. What's wrong with the coil packs?

Because those coil packs are known to cause problems. There’s no need for any other coil pack besides stock. There’s no benefit. 600whp+ people use stock coil packs. Aftermarket cams for the le5 aren’t worth it either. Just get a supercharger kit and call it good

What kinda issues do they cause? And I already have a blower sitting on the shelf, thats why Im going for the LSJ Stage 2 grind on the Intake Cam.

What other things should I be looking at for rebuilding it at 200k? If I have it open anyway, I'll wanna replace anything that should be done around 200k whether it looks good or not. I dont wanna have to pop it open for another 100k unless I have to.
And what about the Automatic, anything I should look at there to keep it from popping?

She already told you can't use lsj cams on the le5 motor. They won't work and you should just supercharge the car or turbo with a stock ko4 turbo. You'll get about 250whp which is more than enuff for these cars on the street. Also if you want to use lsj cams then the smartest thing to do is sell your 2.4 cobalt and either find a decent shape lsj cobalt or if you are really lucky find a lnf cobalt. Then you can get some serious power. But if you are sticking to keeping your 2.4 cobalt then you should really listen to ChevyGirl2006 because she built her 2.4 cobalt from basically the ground up and she knows what she is talking about trust me.

LSJ Stage 2 Intake Grind on an LE5 Cam wont work? Really? Im not putting in a physical LSJ cam
Also not a Turbo or Direct Injection guy so I wont go for an LNF

It won't be worth it on a stock le5 engine man trust me. And also depending what year your car was produced you may or may not have the stronger internals which were in the early 06 engines and a few early 07 engines. If you are 2008 you'll have the weaker rods and you can't safely go past 250whp or so without potentially bending rods. My car was made in early 06 but even still I'm only doing a 3.1 pulley and exhaust mods.

Pretty sure mine is a late 06 sold as an 07, and either way I have rods, pistons and bearings in that list in my 1st post. Like I said, I have a blower on the shelf, this is stuff I want to do first. I wont put the blower on till after I have the rust restoration done and if the engine is gonna come out then anyway, I might as well. Im not looking to make a bunch of power out of all this, I'm preparing the engine for when I do

Stock cams on the le5. If you’re not planning to go passed an m62 then just rebuild the engine with stock stuff unless you want to spend money on upgraded internals for no reason. And lsj grind on an le5 cam doesn’t make sense.

I do plan to go beyond the M62, just not immediately. Not tryna go from a sub-200 to a 400+ in a short span, I wanna get used to the power in stages. As for the LSJ Stage 2 grind on the Intake, I wanna push the powerband up and theyre supposed to move it up. Im opting for the LE5 exhaust cam for the longer duration for more overlap for scavenging. I dont know exactly what I'm looking for, so its easier for me than to figure out what'd I'd want as for a custom cam

Lsj cam grinds won’t work the same on the le5. They need specific specs

I didnt expect it to work exactly the same, but a cam grind meant to push the powerband up in a boosted car should still have similar enough effects on a similar engine, even if Im not going to be getting the most out of it initially.

Im not trying to build the fastest or prettiest car out there, Im just a dude tryna build their first 'street-legal racecar' and have fun with it. I want something that could take 1000HP/650HP (dunno if I wanna do a girdled block) at 8k RPM all day long even if it really only sees 2 or 3-something at 5k most days. I'm willing to throw a couple grand at it to make it a like-new street machine because I like the car and getting it where I want it is significantly cheaper than buying something actually new and then having to hope there's enough aftermarket support to even get it where I want it

They aren’t similar motors though. There’s custom le5 cams you can buy. Comp can grind them. To support that much power it’s going to take a lot more than a couple grand.

Couple as in 10-15k, not like 3k lol. With decent new cars being 30-40k and even more for something I'd actually want, even 20k seems reasonable enough. I plan to do the mechanical stuff myself so no labor. The engines are similar enough. Same timing chain, Same firing order, valves work across heads. The only issue should be if the LSJ Stage 2 grind has too much lift in which case Id opt for slightly less lift.

Keep us updated on your project. Looking forward to see how it turns out.

Are there any other seals or things I should be looking at replacing/upgrading at 200k miles while Ive got it pulled apart that far? Should I do the oil pan gaskets and a baffle?

Oil pan doesn’t have a gasket. Its rtv.

An engine rebuild requires. all new gaskets already. Crank shaft seal, rear main seal, timing cover gasket, valve cover gasket. Don’t re use any gasket that came from a 200k mile engine. All new bearings too

Gotcha, should I do anything with the Auto trans? I have an additional cooler and Royal Purple already. I saw somewhere that they can take ~300trq before things break, I know I won't be near that with just the M62 but I'm tryna figure out my options. Weak link is the input shaft?

I had a tvs with the auto. They hold more than that considering the hhr ss has the same transmission.

The HHR SS only made 260 torque stock with the manual with a turbo? How much were you pushing through the stock auto and for how long?
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Yeah they made that stock. They hold a lot more. Big turbo guys have no issues with it. We have an auto hhr ss with a larger turbo. No issues. There’s no aftermarket stronger parts you can put in

Ok but Dyno numbers and timeframe? I'm not planning to do much w/ the transmission till after I've run the M62 for a minute but I will probably need to do something for what I'm doing after the M62.

the hhr ss also came in auto