Hi,

I've got a 2001 A4, ~130,000 miles. ECS Novi Paxton SC kit. Rodney level 5 trans. Custom built forged motor.

The motor is toast. The SC needs a rebuild.
The car itself is in good to very good condition.

I'm weighing the options of fix or sell the carcass. Fix is looking at something like 10k. I'm told then carcass maybe worth 4k.

You guys are the only reason I've had this car this long.

What's the next move? Surely somebody has been in my shoes.

Thanks in advance,

-Will

 

Only you can answer your question.

 

$10,000 to replace the motor and rebuild the SC? Seems pretty high to me...

the only thing in the car worth much would be the trans I guess, and even still probably not worth it to go through the work.

 

It seems only in the corvette world that people consider junking a perfectly good car because the engine is shot.

 

Like dbgoodwin said, $10K seems high.
If it was my 2002 C5, yes, I'd fix it. If it was my 1999 C5, it would be on it's way to Vettenuts.

 

What exactly is wrong with the motor?

 

Lesson learned (AGAIN). A vehicle designed to go 200-300k failed early because someone bolted aftermarket parts on it to "improve performance". Put a stock recycled motor in from a wreck and run a long time or do the SC route again, it's only money. What could go wrong (you already know the answer)

 

Rebuilding the blower isn't organ transplant surgery, it's very simple.

Unless you had a catastrophic engine failure I'd rering it and call it a day. I bet less than 2k to fix it yourself.

 

You guys really surprise me with your replies, I don't know if you people are aware that workshops in cities charge around $100-$145 per hour for work on corvettes ? Even buying another used engine will cost him $2,000 to $2,500 to do the swap just in labor.

Seems high how ? He wants a custome forged, that is $4000 just for the bottom end another $2500 or $3000 in labor swap and the rest on the heads, supercharger and miscellaneous parts.


Is obvious that he can't do it himself otherwise he will not ask

 

If my (avatar) engine was toast I'd build a naturally aspirated very high rpm 7500+ redline screamer. It would be great on my 01z but not so good on an auto. I'd never own auto so I'd get out of the car and buy something else regardless.

This 388 revs to 9000rpm but I'd be happy with just 7500

 

Nothing is obvious, he asked a simple question, he got simple answers. If he wants a more detailed response, he needs a more detailed inquiry.

Even then, rebuilding the blower if the gears aren't worn is cake.


So since we've all done a fair amount of assuming, i'll ask the questions that need to be asked. OP...

How do you know the engine and blower are toast?

Do you have a budget in mind?

Goal for improvements?

Do you have the capacity to do your own work, how much and to what extent?

Could you build you own engine?

If not, could you follow forum guides to buy a crate engine to install yourself?

If not, do you need a shop recommendation?

 

Will,

I've been in your shoes when my daughter's otherwise clean Mazda 3 threw a rod with around the same mileage as your car. It's a very sad thing to have to deal with.

I'd take that $4,000 add it to the $10,000 I'd have spent to get the car right; and hunt down another C5, one with less miles. But that's what I would do. This is a good time of year to be in the C5 market.

If you can spend a little more money and are a good negotiator- Google search for 2002 Z06 VIN: 1G1YY12S425113786 and you'll find a sweet silver car at a dealership with around 60,000 miles on it, very close to you (I live in Carol Stream). I almost drove it-- but knew if I did, I would have spent more money than I wanted to spend! I found and bought more than enough car for me in a C5 convertible, but the Z06 was very, very tempting. It might be gone, as it was being test driven around the time I was shopping.

Hagerty predicts a great future for the Z06, by the way. https://www.hagerty.com/articles-vid...5s-collectible

If they are right, you would be making lemonade from lemons.

 

My situation is similar. Got a garage queen '08 Z next to it in the garage with 15k on the odometer.

 

This is literally round two of exactly what you would expect. Had a Novi Paxton set up installed by a vendor. The motor blew the #7 ringland back in ’08.
The forum here said, “Duh, you need a forged motor to run boost”. Had vendor build forged motor.
Trans blew on dyno. Bought trans from Rodney. Motor was loud as hell, indicating a problem. Vendor claimed it was ok, and he would rebuild for free if I had a problem. So here we are some 9 years later.

Car went in for a misfire.
New vendor says motor has burnt valves. Blow-by is extreme. Sends video were if you push on the side of a piston it rocks in the cylinder. Tells me it’s a total loss other than the block.
Blower is not toast, its hasn’t been rebuilt in about 5 years, and likely needs it. That’s only $500 bucks.
I don’t “know” the engine is toast, but I can try to post the videos. I only know what I’m told and what I see.
I do not have a budget. I have no goal for improvements, I just wanted it to run like it was. If I fix it, I want it to be quiet like it should be.

I have the intelligence to do my own work, but no knowledge or experience and likely insufficient tools. Which means to build the motor myself would be a long inconvenient process. As a chemical engineer I do things that I don’t know how to do successfully every day. I am not interested in taking on this project.

There are good shops in my area. I don’t need a recommendation but thank you for the offer. I also do not know how I would hold a shop accountable 9 years later, or even after you drive away?

The problem to me is simple, as there are three options:
Fix it; Means invest something like 10-12k, in a car that has 130,000 on the clock. If I could guarantee another 10 years out of it, that may not be bad. But boosted cars don’t seem to last. As one guy said “Where you gonna get a car this awesome for 10k?” He’s right. But it’s not 10k. At this point it’s closer to 70K all in and now we are talking another 10k. When do you pull the plug?
Sell the carcass; Right now I can’t get a solid estimate of what it’s worth. It is in good shape. I’m calling yards.
Install a stock motor, revert to stock, sell it. Stock motor installed and changed everything back to stock is probably 5-6k. Maybe I could sell the car for 10-15, so I could make 5k, maybe 10k. If I could sell the carcass for 5k I’m somewhat even.

Some great thoughts from a few of you, and I very much appreciate the comments. I’m still on the fence. Would love to here more thoughts.
-Will

 

How about this:
1. Have the blower rebuilt, if necessary.
2. Sell blower kit. This will help defray the cost of #3.
3. Find a used LS6/LS3 and have it installed.
4. Sort out out any bugs, address all issues.
5. Keep the car or sell it.

 

Ditto. This is a very sensible plan to get the car rolling again. You could then sell it to cut your losses and find another car/project or just keep driving it.

 

That's the idea of putting it back to stock. No idea what the blower kit is worth needing the rebuild, or what to include, but I might get a few dollars for it if someone wanted it.

If its stock, I would just sell it, but I'm not interested in going through the hassle of selling it.

Thanks for the added idea of selling the blower kit. I look and see what I would need to pull off the car and what it might be worth.

-Will

 

Best answer so far... Lot's of good options, but in the end you will need to decide how much money you want to continue to spend and for how long. Weigh that against what else you can get and soup up and the failure rate...

It sounds like you like big and badass fast. That's cool. That also comes with a cost no matter what make/model...

Sorry not so great advice, but good luck!

 

Well the budget and what to do is up to you, however...
Piston rock is not uncommon if the assembler opened the piston to wall too far. I bet that it was like that since day one and the piston rock is what you heard. Aluminum on aluminum doesn't need the wall clearance like a cast iron block does. 9 years or not, if they're still a vendor I'd hit them up. These engines don't wear like old sbf/sbc, boost or not.

Also for the record forged internals aren't "needed" plenty of factory stuff is boosted with hypertoocrackits andthey last the life of the warranty and beyond. They do however allow for a larger margin of error, detonate even once with a hyper or cast piston and that could be it. Forged allows it to happen a little more frequently. Still, if the tune is on point, it makes little difference.

If you're a chemical engineer, I would imagine you operate very precisely all day and wouldbe able to follow even moderately complex technical walk throughs, it might take a while, but it will probably cut the repair costs in half or more, with that said here's what I would do.

Remove blower kit, sell complete.

Track down a L92/LS3 pull out, reuse what crosses over from your old motor, exhaust, etc.

Choose a decent streetable N/A cam, with proper valve train and it should easily make ~500rwhp

Remove current engine and disassemble, sell off the pieces, I can assure you at least the rods/crank are still good. The pistons probably are too with some good skirt coating, someone will buy them looking to go forged for cheap.

Do all the work yourself and you'll likely end up with some cash back in your pocket, if you have the shop do it, you will probably break even. Either way you have a running car again, and plenty of fun to be had with a longer stroke and bigger bore engine. It will feel like a different car, even withou the blower.

 

This sounds like excellent advice. Just got off the phone with Borowski Race engines, who stated nearly the same thing, only he said to put the blower on the LS3 motor too. It's a small additional cost. Most of the equipment is already there. And I wouldn't recognize the car.