ended up getting it out the other night. Just had to get it at the right angle and it slide right out. Started pulling the engine apart and its pretty rough inside. The piston skirts were gone for pistons 7 and 8, one rod is bent, another rod is in pieces, and the bearings are all in pieces. Cylinder walls aren't too scared up, a bore should take care of the scratched. Heads are fine, the top of the pistons were still intact, looks like the skirts broke.

Not sure what my plans are, may just scrap the engine, or may bore it to a 5.7 (friend has a machine shop). If I were to bore it to a 5.7, would SBC pistons from a 350/5.7 work or no ? I haven't done much research on boring it yet....

 

You could have the block sonic tested and figure out how big you want to go on the over bore. A stock 5.7 LS1 measures out at ~3.898", with common over-bore diameters at 3.903" and 3.905". 350 SBC pistons are NOT going to be the answer here. Since you're getting rods anyhow, at a minimum get a set of the floating pin rods from a LQ9 or any GEN III / IV (except for the 4.8 unless you get custom pin height pistons to match) engine from 2005 or later, and throw a set of ARP bolts in them.

 

Hmmm so if I get the block tested and they say its good for the 3.898" like the stock LS1 5.7, what pistons and rods should I go with ? Looks like the rods should be from the LQ9/6.0 from 05 or later ?