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Hey guys.
Does anyone has a possibility to check the service history for my Vette and check what has been done to the valve springs?
I`m in Europe so here its a bit difficult.
Remove the oil filler cap and look in with a strong light, you will be able to see one spring color. No guarantee all springs are the same, but if the one you can see is yellow, that should answer your question. Good luck.
Remove the oil filler cap and look in with a strong light, you will be able to see one spring color. No guarantee all springs are the same, but if the one you can see is yellow, that should answer your question. Good luck.
Anyways its not a big deal to get the cam cover off to see whats there
Thanks guys !!!
Lost the #7 exhaust spring last week. Ran a bore scope and it looks like I may have made contact with the piston. Sorry for the glare, my son was snapping pics from the video monitor I has the scope hooked up to.
2003 Z06 w/ 110K
Lost the #7 exhaust spring last week. Ran a bore scope and it looks like I may have made contact with the piston. Sorry for the glare, my son was snapping pics from the video monitor I has the scope hooked up to.
One of these is not like the other
Top of the piston
Break (taken with the bore scope)
Cylinder wall, mystery gouge
Replace the entire set of springs with a new set of PAC and run the crap out of it.
That small dish in the piston will not hurt a thing.
Last edited by z06scentair; 08-07-2016 at 07:32 PM.
Replace the entire set of springs with a new set of PAC and run the cap out of it.
That small dish in the piston will not hurt a thing.
Plan was to replace them all, but now I'm worried about the gouge.
Don't have a picture of it, but the rim of the valve is boogered up also. Kind of hard to tell how bad with my limited scope experience. I'm going to pull the head tomorrow and get it on the bench to get a better look at it. I was going to use the chamber pressure method of I didn't find any damage.
So I recently posted a thread about finally taking my valve cover over to check the springs to see if any of the previous owners replaced them. Originally I was comfortable with them as they were bare metal but had several brown stripes down the sides.
I'm trying to get my build date from the vin but not quite figuring it out. The door jam shows the build date as 06/01, it's a 2002 Z06.
Since it was built before '02 and doesn't have yellow springs, would that still be the same stock springs in the 385hp 2001 LS6? FYI the VIN is 1G1YY12S525100738 Attachment 48361654
The horror stories made me not want to even start the car
After reading countess threads about horror stories of the valve springs breaking and allowing the valve to get shreaded in the combustion chamber I decided to replace my factory yellows for some gmpp blues. I did not have a previous failure, just some updated maintenence. I did my intake and exhaust seals, spark plug and wires while I was at it as well.
I am looking at an 02 c5z built in 02/02 with solid yellow valve springs and VIN 23073. Has 115K miles
the issue i have is that i dont know how to reinstall the rocker arms properly if i do this job myself. i dont know how to get a piston to exactly TDC. i do know that they need to be torqued to 22 ft lb/lb ft.
does anyone have this info from the factory service manual? Thank you!
I am looking at an 02 c5z built in 02/02 with solid yellow valve springs and VIN 23073. Has 115K miles
the issue i have is that i dont know how to reinstall the rocker arms properly if i do this job myself. i dont know how to get a piston to exactly TDC. i do know that they need to be torqued to 22 ft lb/lb ft.
does anyone have this info from the factory service manual? Thank you!
The rocker arms go on like they came off. Thread them down a bit, but don't tighten them up yet, keep them backed off so there is no tension on the pushrod just kind of wiggly loose I suppose. This is because you will be rotating the engine when doing the torque sequence for the rocker arms. Make sure the pushrod and rocker arms seat well together (no misalignment or binding of rocker arm to pushrod) before you do torque them down in that step, that's the most important part really with the rocker arms (not a big deal, you'll see). As far as TDC, I used the method of raising the rear of the car. Put it in 6th gear and have a buddy slowly rotate the rear wheels. On cylinder #1 when your buddy is rotating the tires you'll see your intake valve move up then down, then the exhaust valve moves up and at the very moment the exhaust starts to move down you should be at TDC. It's the IOEC method (Intake Opens Exhaust Closes). For the record, there are ton's of LS dudes that swear up and down that you don't have to do anything other than torque them down to 22 ft. lbs. no TDC or anything, just slap them in and torque away. I didn't, I went with the generic by the book process. Hope that helps, I did mine as shown in the post right above yours. I have zero issues with mine, been driving it regularly. Holler at me if you need more help or if my memory served me wrong with anything as I did this a few months ago to my 02 c5z.
PS - I highly suggest getting a few extra keepers to have on hand, it's not a matter of if, but when they go missing or flying away. (Yep, happened to me and it's kind of scary when you're relying on the air compressor to keep your valves held up going to the parts store).
Looking at this original post I'm seeing that last 2002 builds for 2003 models had a high level of incidents. I'm looking at a low mile 2003 with an 03/03 build date but a VIN above 20,000, so this doesn't fit the OP's scenarios anywhere. Should I be concerned?
Looking at this original post I'm seeing that last 2002 builds for 2003 models had a high level of incidents. I'm looking at a low mile 2003 with an 03/03 build date but a VIN above 20,000, so this doesn't fit the OP's scenarios anywhere. Should I be concerned?
I did mine for piece of mind and you'll only be out a few hundred bucks. Really isn't that big of a deal to do. It has happened to every year of the C5 Z06, just more incidences on the 02 and 03's. Looks like you've researched enough to know that even at cruising speeds you can drop a valve and ruin a block/head/valve/piston. Look up on youtube, Jamals garage. He has a late 03 Z or it might be an 04 Z and it happened to him and the repairs are expensive, but luckily his was salvageable. He explains it in good detail and it was all recent. Either way, welcome and get the car. You'll love it!
I did mine for piece of mind and you'll only be out a few hundred bucks. Really isn't that big of a deal to do. It has happened to every year of the C5 Z06, just more incidences on the 02 and 03's. Looks like you've researched enough to know that even at cruising speeds you can drop a valve and ruin a block/head/valve/piston. Look up on youtube, Jamals garage. He has a late 03 Z or it might be an 04 Z and it happened to him and the repairs are expensive, but luckily his was salvageable. He explains it in good detail and it was all recent. Either way, welcome and get the car. You'll love it!
I had a 2001 yellow C5Z for three years and sold it in March. I sold it because it had 40k miles when I bought it and I was afraid to put miles on it plus I couldn't get over the 385hp vs 405hp. LOL The 2003 I'm considering only has 30k miles.
I had a 2001 yellow C5Z for three years and sold it in March. I sold it because it had 40k miles when I bought it and I was afraid to put miles on it plus I couldn't get over the 385hp vs 405hp. LOL The 2003 I'm considering only has 30k miles.
Oh right on, I hear ya. I bought an 02 Z myself because of the 405hp (cam, exhaust, no oil burning problems like the 01's). I don't mean to scare you away from the 03 you're looking at. Get it! For piece of mind, my car is in the mix of the vin #'s effected with 72k on the clock. After I pulled out my original yellow springs, each and every one looked and felt perfect. I just did it to sleep better and night and it gave me something to do to bond with the car I guess lol. Hope that helps!
Did mine years ago - for the same peace of mind everyone's talking about - but am astounded at all the low mileage cars mentioned here! In the 14 years I've had my '03, I've put 140K miles on it. Guess I didn't buy it for resale, eh?
Did mine years ago - for the same peace of mind everyone's talking about - but am astounded at all the low mileage cars mentioned here! In the 14 years I've had my '03, I've put 140K miles on it. Guess I didn't buy it for resale, eh?
You should be proud you've driven yours that much. You are getting value out of the car instead of letting dust cover it.
Remove the oil filler cap and look in with a strong light, you will be able to see one spring color. No guarantee all springs are the same, but if the one you can see is yellow, that should answer your question. Good luck.
I struggled with this approach a bit, but used a cheap borescope-type camera and monitor from HF. Mine are blue in my late 2003 build. Good luck!
08-01-2016, 04:20 AM
