LawrenceFromTorrance

About a week ago my son and I were driving to school, me in my Mini Cooper and him in his 2008 Z06. I started earlier and was ahead of him and I get a call from him "Dad, my engine just blew up!" So I did a U and go back to where he's on the side of the road. Sure enough oil/water is draining from the engine block and there are pieces of piston on the road. He said he was passing in the passing lane, 3000-4000 RPM, when his engine went boom and smoke started pouring out the back end. I called a flat bed towing truck and we took it to the nearest dealer. After a few days we get a call from the dealer and they say the engine is done and they are not qualified to fix it. Well, actually that was good news because it was under warrantee and I was aware that Abel Chevrolet in Rio Vista had a lot of experience with this kind of problem. So I had it towed to Abel (175 miles). The next day Abel calls (Richie Rich) and says we need a new engine (#5 exhaust valve was the cause)but not to worry because it's covered under the warrantee. So I also have a Z06 (2009) and decided that I had better have the wiggle test done on my valves so today we went to pick up my son's Z06 and have the test done on my valves . It turns out that my valves are also shot and I need new heads, my car's still under the 5 year 100,000 mile warrantee so it's also covered. We were lucky because our cars were still under warrantee, but jeez two out two Z06s with bad heads? The moral? Get your heads checked, if they're bad then you save a big headache and even GM comes out ahead because they just fix your heads instead of giving you a new engine. We drove back today in my son's Z06 and it runs great. Smooth and quiet (even though we were easy on it). Oh, by the way 34K on my son's Z06 and 20K on my Z06. I really didn't expect my heads to be bad because the engine was quiet, no ticking or other noises.
Sorry to be so long winded but I though the form members would be happy with our end results. Hat's off to Abel Chevrolet!

2MFFZo6

Interesting........I guess I better get my wiggle on....btw Oakhurst is beautiful.....peace

FrankTank

I sold my Z a few months ago to free up some cash (not because of the valve issue/head issue whatever) and have not really been on here much, its a shame this will continue and continue. I figured when I logged back on finally after a while there would still be threads like this.

Glad you both were lucky and covered. If I ever get another Z, it will have warranty or I won't get one.

Rupert pupkin

How many miles on both cars?

MTPZ06

Bummer...

Gary '09 C6

wow...bad.

Glad both cars had warranty, and that an experienced/reputable dealer was accessible to both of you.

LawrenceFromTorrance

34K on the 2008 and 20K on the 2009

wjnjr

Any post mortem on the blown motor?

AzDave47

Post #1 = #5 exhaust valve dropped.

Rupert pupkin

OUCH!!!

RegnaR

this just gets worse and worse!!

Hirohawa

Wow that is brutal.

Definitely taking a trip up to Abel's before amy warranty is up.

TFS

TT32VGT

geez... at least they are under warranty like ya said..

i havent a clue why people ignore the valve prob anymore.. and im still shocked by the first place i brought my car to, that said oh thats caused my over revving.. lol, u know nothign about these cars if u dont know about the valve issue..

glad to hear they are getting fixed.

Mdm23

One question: When they replace LS7 engines or heads under warranty, isn't there still the same potential for failure down the road. Has it ever been proven that the replacement engines and heads are without issue? It sucks to keep hearing about these blown motors and bad heads. It seems a dark cloud will kinda forever hang over the C6Z. It's a shame GM didn't man up and do something about this. They had plenty of time throughout the C6 run to make this right. There's no way the percentage of affected cars is as small as we all once thought. My Z never let me down while I had it but I sure don't regret selling it when I see these threads. I'm also glad for the buyer that it still had GMPP.

Turbooo2u

The LS7 engine...it's engine rep ruined forever. Now the whole world knows as well. I'll be looking at a C7 in the spring.

'06 Quicksilver Z06

Glad to hear that you are both having this matter addressed.

Best of luck with the repairs.

Silver05GTO

Sorry for the bad luck but your very fortunate this happened now rather then later without warranty.

Wonder if the people claiming its a very minor issue and less then 1 percent of LS7's fail will chime in here..........

Silver05GTO

The real unfortunate thing is there are a lot of buyers second hand picking up their dream Z06 cause its finally affordable to them....they have just enough money to purchase this toy.....out of warranty of course.....then boom, engine failure and they are putting the car away until they have an extra 15k for another LS7. Unless people read these forums they won't know the potential mess that awaits.
My advice to anyone buying used, factor in a few grand extra and get the heads replaced, it's a needed course of action.

Vetteman Jack

Too bad about your son's blown engine and the fact yours needed work too. But good that you both had a warranty - can only imagine what both of those cost to repair.

tim414

SAD thing is, your son's new engine likely needs repaired too.