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I've had the A&A kit on the car for about 4k miles. I enjoyed some spirited driving the other day on several wide stretches of turnpike without any issue. Then, the check engine light started flashing. I took it easy the rest of the drive and pulled into the O'Reilly's before heading home. The DIC had a P0300 code and the handheld scanner at O'Reilly's ID'd it as a misfire in #5. I bought a new plug and changed it out when I got home, it looked like it was fouled up a bit and could have been the cause of the misfire. After installing the new plug, the code went away (but has since come back).
I also noticed an oil leak,It is on the passenger side. I did some searches first and am not sure if this is "blow by" or something else. I cleaned the oil spot on the driveway and a new spot appeared the next day, even just leaving it parked. Under the hood, the 'fill oil' cap is connected to the supercharged via a hose without any obvious leaks up top. Looking underneath the car, it looks like a large hose might not be on tight enough, or, it could just have gotten some oil leaked onto it. I did not install the kit (local shop did) but was not happy with the service and would prefer not to go back to them for any troubleshooting. I will be getting new gears and a converter installed along with a new dyno tune at a different shop in a couple of weeks and would like to have these issues fixed by then.
For the misfire, I replaced the #5 plug with the factory plug O'Reilly's had. Do I need to order a different type of plug for a supercharged application?
I assume I need to also replace the wires and fuel filter and check the valve springs. What else should I do to troubleshoot this issue?
For the oil leak, I attached some pictures. Is this just blow-by coming out the BOV? The shop could have overfilled it, I don't know for sure. Do I just drain and fill the thing like normal? I was a bit confused by the hose attached to the oil fill reservoir, do I just remove the hose to fill it or do I fill it at a new location? How many quarts? If not blow by, what else could it be? Thanks for the input
If that amount of oil is coming out of the blow off valve it's probably bad news... I would guess cracked piston, leading to excessive blowby which is pushing a lot of oil thru the PCV system.
Start the engine, remove the oil fill cap... there should be a slight vacuum. If there is positive pressure coming out, that's a sure sign you have the above scenario. Compression check next either way.
If you can easily pull the air intake or a charge pipe off, you can see if there is oil in them as well.
What would you like pictures of? Let me know and I will try and get them. Also, when you say start the engine and remove the oil fill cap, do you mean disconnect the hose from where the oil fill cap used to be?
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
C5 of Year Winner (performance mods) 2019
just take the cap out completely as if you were adding oil and get pics of how the pcv setup is routed... it could be poor crankcase ventilation but that is quite a bit of oil to be pushed out, a compression check is probably in order
Wow, That is a lot of oil.....I have an A&A which I am installing now so I have no experience with them, but I did a ton or research on them and have never see this. I did hear that with any SC that cyl 7 and 5 tend to have the most issues and that it had to do with the ring lands in many cases. Was you car stock prior to the SC? You said you did not like the shop that installed it. Why was that? did they tune it as well? Perhaps a little more info on top of the already requested additional pics can help shed some light. Good luck
If you look at his post history, he had the A&A kit installed and dynoed in the 300s after the install and I think in the 200s baseline. Something has been wrong with his car for a long time I suspect. I can't believe the shop that installed this continued after seeing how bad the car performed.
That would be my guess. 360 whp with an A&A kit and now this. I'd say he should be looking for a nice, used iron 6.0 to drop in there so he can really enjoy that blower setup.
Last edited by Turpid porpoise; 03-13-2019 at 08:45 AM.
That would be my guess. 360 whp with an A&A kit and now this. I'd say he should be looking for a nice, used iron 6.0 to drop in there so he can really enjoy that blower setup.
that's my plan once my stock bottom lets go. (Ti 3.25, cam, e85, 155k mile stock bottom)
Just to update things and try to get some help from you all chasing down new problems:
I took my car to Randy Prevatt locally in the Tulsa, OK area to help me try and figure out what was going on. He opened up the old tune and seemed pretty aghast at what he saw. He started from scratch on the tune and grew concerned when my idling oil pressure stayed at around 28-30 psi. That had been normal for my car as long as I could remember and told him to push the car forward with the rest of the tune. I got a call a bit later and was told that the car makes good power until 5000rpm when it sees a drastic drop in fuel pressure. The car already had 60lb injectors and the A&A Racetronix kit, but I went ahead bought a Kenne Bell BAP and that seemed to fix the problem.
The car has 70k miles and had the following done at the time of the dyno: A&A w/ 3.8, ECS small blower cam, dual springs, LS2 chain, Melling oil pump, LS7 lifters, 60lb injectors w/ Kenne Bell BAP, LT headers, no cats, Performabuilt Level 2 4L60e w. 3400 stall and a 3.42 rear end. It put down 525 rwhp and was about 40-50 off of what my tuner thought I should get to with my current setup. We talked a bit and although blow-by was not nearly as bad as the first picture in this post, he did mention oil coming out the BOV and suggested a catch can then a thorough intake/tubing/intercooler cleaning. He also pointed out a faint noise that we both thought was an idler on the way out and suggested I get it swapped out soon.
The car drove great for 2 weeks but one evening while on the highway I notice my temps are getting higher than usual. I was going to pull off at the exit in a half mile but before I got there the temps hit 260 and threw the car into limp mode. As I pulled over on the shoulder I realized I didn't have any power steering either. It sounds like a shredded belt, right? The belt was fine, but the power steering pump and LS2 pulley were obviously no longer connected to the PS/Alternator bracket. I had one of the older factory PS/Alternator brackets; however, it broke in a way I had not seen before (1st picture has area circled):
From the way it broke, it seems like the power steering pump was not torqued down properly and gradually worked itself loose. I know each bolt was properly torqued, but the picture speaks for itself. I replaced the bracket and after carefully inspecting the pump and pulley for damage I reinstalled the pump and pulley. I put a new belt on the car and was looking forward to a cruise despite it being 35 degrees outside. I managed to make it out of my neighborhood before engine temps got hot enough to kick the fans on. I stopped, popped the hood and watched/listened for the fans and sure enough they turned on. I got back in the car and made it no more than 100ft down the road before temps shot to 250. I pulled over and popped the hood to cool. Belt and all pulleys appeared fine. I could see faint steam coming from what appears to be an area below the back of the intake manifold (by the firewall) as well as hear liquid dripping onto the hot headers. After about 15 minutes, temps were back down below 200 and I started it back up and heard an intermittent knocking noise. With the hood open, it is clearly NOT coming from the engine but more like a pulley or a belt hitting something. It seemed to go away on its own, so I made the 4 minute drive home. Temps hit 250 as I pulled in the driveway and the sound didn't come back
In my garage, I could see the steam coming from the same location as before towards the back of the manifold. However, when looking for potential causes of the knocking noise, I discovered some moderate harmonic balancer wobble. I turned the car off and can see that the the belt is riding up over the rib on the harmonic balancer on the side furthest away from the motor.
So, I am currently thinking I have two separate problems . First, the balancer sucks and needs replaced. The wobble is probably what caused the power steering pump to break off the mounting rack. It is also probably what was causing that knocking noise I heard. I can't see what it was hitting from up top and will need to get under it to try find the source. Second, I believe I have a coolant leak somewhere behind the intake manifold. This is based only on me seeing steam. I think the overheating issues are partly due to the balancer not allowing the water pump to operate efficiently on top of there being a coolant leak somewhere.
I pulled the intake and found evidence of heavy blow-by (I expected this) and a lot of condensation (I did not expect this). I have a Mighty Mouse catch can to install to try and address the blow-by, but am concerned about the level of condensation that was present under the manifold. Is this much moisture ever okay or is it a bad omen? I am planning to check oil for any evidence of water later today. The car has not driven in the rain in over 5-6 months.
I am planning on replacing the harmonic balancer but would like some opinions on where the coolant leak behind the intake might be coming from or if its possible the steam was just the water underneath the intake manifold escaping out from under it? I am also planning on upgrading the radiator. The water pump is new but I might pull it off to weld up to prevent future headaches. Anything else I should check?
Last edited by DrRaySomeDay; 10-12-2019 at 10:28 AM.
03-10-2019, 03:28 PM
A&A kit 4k miles, Oil leak and #5 misfire
