hey guys im new to this site and i was wondering if any of you guys have or have heard of piston slap....im lookin at an o1 ss camaro with veryyyyy slight piston slap and i mean very slight...should i still consider it or not...42/5k miles

Piston slap is common among older high performance motors, running forged slugs.....It's usually the loudest when the motor is cold and quiets down when the slugs expand with some heat....Is this a high performance motor?....Are you sure it's piston slap?....Why do you think it's piston slap?

its an 01 camaro ss with the ls1 motor...the guy at the dealer told me about the piston slap...but it is very quiet right now...i think it is piston slap because it stops once warmed up and when i got done driving it it stopped...i heard that this is a very common problem in the ls1's....should i stay away or still go for it...also he is the one that told me about it i couldnt even notice it until he gave it a lil gas....

I had a 2000 SS Camaro a year or 2 ago and that thing rattled like crazy when it was cold. :( I was told by some it was normal but it really drove me nuts. :mad:

I'm not familiar with the LS1 motor or it's downfalls!.....All I know is that excessive piston to cylinder wall clearances and loose or worn piston pins will cause piston slap in a bad way!.....High performance motors running forged slugs will cause piston slap in a good way!:yes:

Piston slap is pretty common in 98+ GEN-III smallblocks... http://www.pistonslap.com/

It may or may not be piston slap; the LS engines and their iron block truck counterparts also have a "cold start knock" (CSK) issue.


http://www.denalitrucks.com/documents/GM%20TSB's.doc

http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/generation-iii-external-engine/69795-ls1-normal-noise.html

My LR4-equipped 01 Silverado had CSK. Cleaning the combustion chambers with Seafoam or another flow through cleaner would clean things up enough to make it quiet for a while, until the crappy fuel deposits came back. Truck always ran fine and didn't use oil, so I learned to live with it. Some of the Ford engines have much worse CSK issues.

Is the car priced fairly? If it runs well and is priced right, a little CSK or slap wouldn't scare me off, since there are hundreds of thousands of vehicles running around everyday with the same noise.

I have very noticable piston slap in my sig engine. It goes away once brought to operating temp. They are forged. I bought the short block from a buddy of mine. He ran it super hot and I knew that going into it. He asked me if I would give him a $100 bill for it and I thought sure I will roll the dice for that. I just let it build some heat in its belly before I stand on it.

My 04 Silverado SS has had what I think of as "piston slap" from day one. The Truck now has 124,000 miles on it, it will be 5 years old in 2 weeks, when I am scgeduled to mail off the 60th and final $700 payment (whew, all my cars are paid for!!!!)

This particular noise:
Only happens immediately after a cold startup.
Is only heard above 2200 rpm, I think just light loads... but I've never "loaded the engine heavily" until it's warmed up.
It's a very loud rattling noise. It doesn't sound like spark knock (ping) and it doesn't sound like rods / bearing / bottom end stuff. It sounds like piston skirts, all 8 of them.

The sound goes away completely very soon after startup. It's about 3/4 of a mile thru the subdivision from my house to the county 2 lane. By the time I make the turn on the 2 lane, all is silent, and absolutely stays that way until the next morning's cold start.

If this is your noise, IMHO it is not a problem.

Interestingly, the forged slugs (newfangled tight clearance SRP's) in the Camaro's 383 make not a sound.

i know the ls motors have no piston skirts on them and thats what makes the noise, my 2002 ss always has had it

I love my piston slap!

I love my piston slap!


I luv my piston slap as well!:yes::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

My 2001 Silvarado's 5.3 does it as well.Not as noticable in the summer when it's warmer.Lots and lots of miles 210k...runs perfect still. I would not worry about it.