Crapiest engine in the Chevy line-up?

[45thCamaro]

Originally Posted by Sikoriko

Weren't these engines inside the CTS Cadillac before GM putting inside the Camaro?

I believe so

[PieNsky]

When I did my timing chains, I did notice a leak that was extremely small. However, the water pump is a piece of cake to replace.

[simt3k]

LLT engine seems brittle and cheaply made IMO

[SimpleGreen]

My LFX started leaking oil out of the timing cover at around 16,000 miles. Other than that it seemed to be a wonderful little motor. I have an LS3 now so let's see how long the oil pump lasts :p

[911medic]

Just crossed 40,000 miles on my LFX. So far, running like a Swiss watch.

AND it was a rental for the first 26,000 miles of its life.

[SnowyCamaro]

Originally Posted by simt3k

LLT engine seems brittle and cheaply made IMO

I invite you to try out dodge and ford then haha. I worked in a shop a while ago where we serviced a lot of pickups and all we got was ram and ford problems. All trucks were around same ages. Gm consistently had the least repairs.

I can't speak for all engines, and definetly not saying gm is the best. But they are far from worst if you ask me. Their product overall are generally quite good. I've never had many major problems in any of their vehicles.

My llt is going strong with no issues.

[KMPrenger]

Originally Posted by simt3k

LLT engine seems brittle and cheaply made IMO

I disagree with your opinion.

You've been here long enough to know the guys that have ran dozens of big nitrous shots through these engines with barely any (if any) failures. The engine has some forged and sintered materials, so its far from "brittle". If that were the case, we'd have found out long ago that running any sort of FI in these engines is a bad idea, but it isn't.

Cheaply made? Hardly. The engine landed on Wards auto top 10 list when it emerged and was one of the more powerful and efficient V6s that could be had in a car affordable by the masses.

The problem with the LLT is a couple of what I'll call design flaws in the design that sometimes rear their ugly head. But "brittle" and "cheap". Far from it.

[shrinkdoc]

Just had my 33k oil change yesterday at the dealer. No leaks. After making my minor bolt mods I am still amazed at how this engine performs. 13.8 second 1/4mile times and not even running headers or a tune. I bought mine with the extended warranty and oil change package. If something goes wrong there is a complete history of service. If the car starts to have issues as I approach my 75k mile end of B to B warranty, I guess I will go with a Mustang next depending on how the next Gen mustang looks. Keep in mind that Caddy will be using these engines in next years setup with twin turbos pumping 420hp and 400 something lbs of torque in the CTS. If these engines cause them problems in there flagship car it will be bad....real bad.

[AKA-22]

Originally Posted by RubyCamaro

This a copy of a post made on Facebook by a friend of mine who is a mechanic for a Chevy dealership & in mechanical school to further her skills:

Our new transmission tech discovered the 'joy' that is the 3.6 lt V6 today. The look on his face was pretty priceless. He came and got me and was like O.O every single one of these are leaking in the same place!!!!!!!!! Needless to say the LLT/LFX/3.6 V6 is the crappiest engine we've seen in any Of the current GM line up, unfortunately it's used across the board so there are lots of them wandering around. In fact it's the only engine that is continuously coming in for the same problems and I had to tell the poor guy about it however he seemed a bit relieved to find out the issue is common and not just something that has been spawning itself on everything he gets handed. XD Kinda can't wait to see his reaction when I tell him these front covers leak around every 30k miles even after they are resealed as well as the timing tensioners are garbage and on a TSB. and well since he will be going through all the work of pulling the engine to fix the front cover he might as well do the tensioners at the same time. Save himself another engine pull. XD Ill save telling him about the water pumps going bad on them till later. Don't want to scare him too much we all like having him around.

Discuss.

you could say something like this about every car..

[RubyCamaro]

Originally Posted by KMPrenger

I disagree with your opinion.

You've been here long enough to know the guys that have ran dozens of big nitrous shots through these engines with barely any (if any) failures. The engine has some forged and sintered materials, so its far from "brittle". If that were the case, we'd have found out long ago that running any sort of FI in these engines is a bad idea, but it isn't.

Cheaply made? Hardly. The engine landed on Wards auto top 10 list when it emerged and was one of the more powerful and efficient V6s that could be had in a car affordable by the masses.

The problem with the LLT is a couple of what I'll call design flaws in the design that sometimes rear their ugly head. But "brittle" and "cheap". Far from it.

[GretchenGotGrowl]

Originally Posted by simt3k

LLT engine seems brittle and cheaply made IMO

I have to disagree with this, too. You should see one disassembled. The crank is massive and well designed. The rods and pistons look tough (although lowering the ring lands would be nice but less pollution effective). The block is amazing. Most of the valve train is really tough. Yes, the hydraulic tensioners are not the best design and the original timing chains stretched easily, but I'm running lots of boost and high RPMs on mine and have never floated a valve or broke a spring. No expense was spared on the main caps and the journal bearings are top notch. I could go on, but the motor is far from cheap or brittle. The design changes made to the LFX are more evolutionary than revolutionary, so GM must feel pretty good about the original LLT. They don't want us in for repair work anymore than we want to be in for repair work.

[Mark114]

Originally Posted by shrinkdoc

... Keep in mind that Caddy will be using these engines in next years setup with twin turbos pumping 420hp and 400 something lbs of torque in the CTS. If these engines cause them problems in there flagship car it will be bad....real bad.

The Twin-Turbo LF3 V-6 was a significant redesign from the current LFX with a lower compression ratio and stronger internals. I believe the LF3 will only be offered with the 8-speed automatic so not the shock of launching with a clutch and manual tranny. So it isn't a direct "apples to apples" comparison between them, but still a good indicator that GM kept much of hte LFX and didn't feel the need to start from scratch.

[motorhead]

You have to compare how many of those motors are on the road which is a lot. This a line could make a person that works on them think they have a higher failure rate. I will say though that just speaking from this forum, they seem to blow up a good many of them.

[Linker239]

I've got 46,000 miles on mine and zero issues so far. (Knocks on wood)