piston slap?
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Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 51
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piston slap?
I recently bought an '01 with 75k miles and I probably worry too much. Runs great, little noise until a little warmup quiets it down. I read in the magazines that C5s/LS1 engines get "piston slap." That sounds scary and very expensive, I see some say don't worry about it.
Just what is piston slap, when does it start, how bad is it, what do you do to fix it, do you have to do anything?
Thanks.
Just what is piston slap, when does it start, how bad is it, what do you do to fix it, do you have to do anything?
Thanks.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 3,181
Likes: 286
From: Puyallup Washington
I will cover part of your question. You do not need to worry about a little piston slap in a Z06. Virtually all of them have it and it is just from the engine design and materials used. If it goes away after a minute or two there is nothing to worry about, so you have nothing you need to do. Just drive and enjoy.
Team Owner
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 81,241
Likes: 3,062
From: altered state
St. Jude Donor '05
lot of the LSx engines are like that.
5.3 in my 02 truck is no different. Has the nasty noisey lifter defect too. 150k runs strong as the day I took it off the dealers floor.
Burning Brakes
Joined: Dec 2012
Posts: 832
Likes: 14
From: Lake Charles Louisiana
Mine slapped like crazy until warm up (170-180 degrees) when I first bought it with 54K miles. Had quite a bit of valve train noise also until warm. When I did my balancer swap I ported the new high volume oil pump. Valve train noise is GONE and very mild, almost non-existent piston slap lasts about 5-10 seconds after starting it. Probably wouldn't even be considered piston slap. I think the engineers were just a little "off" on their oil pressure calculations for this engine.
