What shop did you go with? Being in the Chicagoland-area, Speed Inc. would have been my #1 choice.

 

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...post1607435308

 

Wanted to provide an update as I learned a lot and hopefully my mistakes will help someone in the future. It might be long winded so bear with me.

So per my earlier posts, the harmonic balancer failed and in turn took out the timing cover and oil pan gasket. As a result I paid the shop an additional $1600 out of pocket thinking GM would pay me back.....Well it is not that straight forward.....

When the balancer failed the shop offered to put an aftermarket SFI one on it. They said this was better that OEM and wouldn't fail. I thought to myself "Well I want better" so I said yes put it on and fully thought GM would pay me back for it since their failed. After that oil was leaking and found the balancer got into the timing cover and wiped out the oil pan gasket so the shop replaced those. Since then no issues but this is where things get interesting.

First off I paid $700 out of pocket to the shop for the new SFI balancer, new seal, bolt and labor. I only recently got credited for $450 leaving a $250 discrepancy. I FINALLY was able to get a hold of someone at GM who wanted to work with me and explained a lot. The $450 was for labor only. They do not pay for aftermarket parts, which I understand, nor do they put money towards replacements parts, which I do not understand and nor did the rep. Meaning GM should have credited me whatever a OE balancer would cost but they refused. So I am seeing if they will send me an OE balancer so I can sell and recoup some money.

The next issue is the timing cover, oil pan gasket and front seal which I paid the shop $900 for...After reading the invoice it looks like the shop put a used timing cover on which I was never made aware of nor approved. What the GM rep said to me is that since they did this I should get credit for but this is no longer covered under warranty. If the shop would have called them first, then they would have sent a brand new cover and the warranty would still be in effect. Also GM needs invoices from the shop to prove that the oil pan gasket and front seal are OEM. If so, they will credit me back for the parts no issue. If not, they will not which I understand but will still credit labor.

So long story short, what does all this mean and what are the lessons learned? Do not approve the shop to install aftermarket parts unless you want to pay 100% for them. Also the shop HAS to call GM warranty first before performing any work This will greatly streamline the entire process. GM requires a dealer to be involved. Make sure the dealer is the one that sold you the engine and not one that the dealer has a "good relationship" with as this makes a big difference. Also double check that the shop is putting on BRAND NEW parts and not used parts. It was a question I didn't think I needed to ask but i guess I did. If anyone has any questions then PM me as I have learned way more about this process than I ever should have.

Now onto the fun part....How is the 525hp LS3 on track?? HOLY S**T it is amazing. Completely different car. Now there were 2 issues that are very perplexing. A bit of background is the car gets double duty on HPDE days meaning me & and dad or me & my brother run the car so it gets run hard and does 10 sessions vs 5. The 1st issues is the first 8 of 10 sessions the belt jumped a few ribs on the tensioner pully only. It never threw the belt off but the last 2 sessions it stayed in place. I thought maybe this was due to the alignment of the aftermarket balancer but the shop said 100% no way. Not sure what to do with this. The other odd thing is the engine ran amazing for 7 sessions, then stalled out of no where in the 8th session. My dad was able to coast into the pits. It would not fire for about 1 min but then did and then ran amazing for the last 2 sessions and all the way home and ever since. No codes popped up so hard so say what caused that. With it working as it should and no codes, no shop will look at it. I pray it was a fluke.

 

It SUCKS you have went through what you have especially when most would think a LS3 swap would be pretty trouble free. I, like you would expect better from GM and the shop.

Man with all the money I have spent ($25k) since I bought my car for mods I really haven't had any issues and that's with 2 different shops. I AM GREATFUL for that but should I be? We pay people to do work we want done and from what I read OVER and OVER people like yourself get F'ed! This modding game is a gamble. You pay someone you may get screwed. You wrench it yourself you may end up so frustrated you punch yourself in the face. AND then tow it to a shop.

"The fun part" was GREAT to read!!!!! Man your running this car with your dad and brother. THAT'S F'ING AWESOME!!!!!!!! I don't have any siblings and my dad hates anything that costs money lol

I hope you all have a bunch more fun with that machine and get those few gremlins figured out.

AND thanks for keeping us all updated!

 

You might want to replace your belt tensioner with one of these nice units made by Katech. No spring. Torque per instructions. I got mine from the good folks at Tick Performance.

 

Yeah it's pretty cool and that's why I wanted to do this. As is happens life just gets busy and you don't hangout as much as you'd like. We're all car guys and like to go fast so this gives us a good reason to spend time together and make some great memories in the process.

This is what the shop recommended as well. How do you like it? Any issues?

 

For me I was just following some of the improvements my fellow racers had done. From the Tick website:

 

Easy install. Works as advertised. You MAY need to go up or down one size of Serpentine belt.

 

The theory runs parallel to that of SC guys running rigid belts which don't expand. As you rev the engine up and shift in a manual car the belt which is flying around those pulleys gets slapped from one rpm to another.

If you had a camera which could see the entire belt on the front of the engine you would see the belt and tensioner expand outward as rpm climbs high and then slap down again with an upshift. Or go from normal to expanded momentarily when downshifting. We think those tensioners hold solid like they are when we see them but they are designed to move. As are the belts to a small degree. On that score I greatly miss the now defunct Gates RPM brand of belts which were designed NOT to stretch. Some suggest they were also produced 1/2" shorter overall length. I never had to replace mine!

The bane of SC engines is belt slippage so they incorporate manual tensioners into the brackets from A&A and I presume also from ECS. And I can tell you it is doubly no fun when you lose a belt on those early cars where you have to unbolt the entire SC head unit to change a belt. On your typical 900hp SC setup, those blowers consume ballpark 250hp before you ever get to measure what the engine puts out at the opposite end. Keeping the belt aligned and correctly tensioned when load is applied is mandatory for success and survival of the combination. More than 250hp are being applied just to drive a belt on a big engine, but for a short burst of time typically.

So a car on a road course or track is doing similar work to the belt, but with less power and less drag or drive applied to the belt. It can move more freely with fewer pulleys and obstacles. But instead of a brief burst it is seeing 20 to 30 minutes of repetitive rpm changes and force applied from the crank. Without a manual tensioner that belt is expanding and contracting with regularity and the whole of the serpentine system had better be in clean alignment with itself from side to side. (A thought provoking idea, that. I hadn't realized the application for NA needs and will be sure to do so on my TT setup now). So this manual tensioner allows you to cinch the belt in to the point where it will not be expanding or contracting to any great degree and will remain correctly wrapped to the pulleys instead of riding high in the grooves anywhere.

Truth be told I came back to see progress on this thread because, having read it the other day, I decided to re-order my Katech pulley which I had given away when I decided to go SC initially on the Z06 which is now back to TT instead and will be utilizing a normal serpentine system. Tick Performance for the win on pricing and delivery - as usual.

 

Thanks for the explanation @Tusc . I bought the Katech tensioner. It should arrive today. Now just got to get it installed before the next track day in mid July and then can report back on if the belt still tried to jump or not.

A bit of an update on all the warranty stuff and it is not good. I am super pissed at both GM and the shop (Speed Inc.). GM is denying my 2nd claim of $900 for the timing cover, oil pan gasket, front seal and labor just because the shop did not follow GM process. I get that the shop should have followed their procedure's and all but at the end of the day it is a GM part that failed that caused all of these issues so in my mind they need to step and do the right thing and reimburse me as I should not be the one out money as their part failed.

Also I feel like the shop took advantage of me from the start. Per my earlier post (#61) they charged me over $860 without ever discussing it with me. Now all of this. Also I fell like they knew the procedure that they needed to do but didn't do it to get more money out of me. The reason I say this is because this is the email I got from the shop "Ryan, GM called me this afternoon. Long story short there is nothing they can reimburse on this last repair because we didn't get parts through the dealership or have them perform the work. If anything happens pertaining to that engine it 100% needs to go to a GM dealer or it's a nightmare to deal with on both sides." This tells me they knew it needed to go to a dealer to have them perform the work so it would be cover under warranty but didn't communicate that to me. They have been in business for a long time and this cannot be the 1st part that has failed that should have been covered under warranty. Now I am out $1,150 for the failed balancer, timing cover, gasket, etc (And really $2,460 if you include the $860 they never discussed with me) and on top of that the parts that they installed are no longer covered under warranty so that is just great. Needless to say I will not be doing business with Speed Inc anymore and will find another shop for any future needs.

Like I said earlier, hopefully my experience can help someone out in the future.

 

Yup did the same to my buddy and others. Changed senores and other stuff without even asking, car ran perfect pass admission but all of sudden things go bad he only when in for tune dyno.. And that was expensive to change those parts. But you'll hear on here how awesome they are and would never do that and your lying. People don't understand yes they are a good shop but people geted fuked and its the way they handle it is what burns me up. I guess their starving for money. A used cover what the ***.

 

Damn. This thread is disappointing. I was considering an LS3 crate swap into my C5Z HDPE car - mostly for reliability (replacing the 21-year-old LS6). I may need to rethink that now.

 

There's nothing wrong with the LS3 swap, there's things that you need to be aware of to avoid issue though. The LS3 TB and the balancer shouldn't be used, I had a new stock GM balancer installed when I did my stroker, it was wobbly and throwing belts as well as backed off the crank snout. I replaced it with an ATI, it too backed off because it wasn't keyed. I took it back off and put a key in then reinstalled and never had another issue. The LS2 TB had the TPS go bad and that's not serviceable, went to a LS1 style TPIS TB

 

I and many others have proven that you can use a Gold Blade LS3 throttle body on gen 3 411 PCM. It just takes some tweaks to limit the throttle opening in HP tuners. No wiring changes either other than an adapter harness.

Also if I ever do attempt to do an LS3 in a C5 I will take the crank out and convert it to 24x reluctor. I will not use a conversion box that is just another failure point.

I have been watching for a used C6 LS3 to build for my C5 and remove the iron forged 408 blower motor for another project.

 

Just to add information to this thread:
I have a Blue Print Engines LS3 based crate engine in my C5Z. I had a shop do the swap after they diagnosed my stock LS6 was wiped out. My car was down for almost a year all-in. But that was partly do to parts shortage issues and doing more work than just the swap. Took time for the engine to arrive and I upgraded the oiling and cooling systems. We also fortified the driveline. Plus other things to make the car better overall. I ran into the same belt tensioner issue once I got the car back in my hands. The biggest issue I had was related to the LS2 TB. For whatever reason my car doesnt like it. I am currently running the LS1/6 stock TB on it. It still made 440 rwhp sae on a Mustang dyno with the stock TB. With the LS2 TB it did make slightly more power but the car would intermittently go into "reduced engine power mode". Since switching back to the LS1/6 TB the car runs perfectly. I am planning on going back to the LS2 TB with a different TB cable and tune in time as so many C5s run them with zero issues. But the car is running perfect now. I use the car on the street and for Autocross events. I have been very successful with the cars current set up in CAM-S class.
Overall this swap is pretty easy. But with any motor swap there are bugs to work through. I would recommend it for those looking to add some HP with a warranty if your stock motor is done.

 

Just a bit of an update. Tracked the car a couple of days ago and the great news is the Katech manual belt tensioner worked amazing! The belt never tired to jump so that seemed to be the fix. Thanks @ariZona06 for the tip.

Per my earlier post the car died out of nowhere on my dad on the last track day, then after a few minutes restarted and ran great the rest of then time. Well kinda the same thing happened this time as well. The car died again on my brother and after a few minutes restarted. Now I cannot remember if we refueled the car the first time but we did refuel the car this time and that seems to have fixed it as it did not have an issue again. But here is the wired thing, when it stalled it had over 1/3 of a tank so not super low and the old fuel pumps/engine/setup never had this issue so not sure why now it starves for fuel if it is at 1/3 of a tank. But with that said, that is a super easy fix....Just keep it full. Time for new tires and brakes and then get back out there.

 

Glad things went according to plan . FWIW I always top off my fuel after 2 sessions. I know the fuel gauges can be a bit finicky AND by keeping both tanks full you keep the weight in the rear fairly evenly distributed.