We present the results of a cross-correlation search for gravitational waves from SNR 1987A using the second year of LIGO Science Run 5 data .
The frequency band 75–450 Hz is searched .
No evidence of gravitational waves is found .
A 90 % confidence upper limit of h _ { 0 } \leq 3.8 \times 10 ^ { -25 } is placed on the gravitational wave strain at the most sensitive frequency near 150 Hz .
This corresponds to an ellipticity of \epsilon \leq 8.2 \times 10 ^ { -4 } and improves on previously published strain upper limits by a factor \approx 4 .
We perform a comprehensive suite of validations of the search algorithm and identify several computational savings which marginally sacrifice sensitivity in order to streamline the parameter space being searched .
We estimate detection thresholds and sensitivities through Monte-Carlo simulations .