Why buy it at all? Fixed or not??? Plenty of other cars around with a lot lower miles.

 

Wow! Whodda thunk??

Maybe I need to play the lottery tonight............

 

I'd like to see a two hour top end tear down on a C5. You know you have to drain and remove the radiator, and then remove the steering rack, among many other things? I've done it 3 times on my Z, so I really doubt it. On another note; the need for a timing cover alignment tool puzzles me. It's not a particularly difficult part of the job.

 

I have seen broken camshafts on race engines, once the cam itself broke for no good reason, another broke when a few connecting rods let go and took everything else out along with them. That being said, never saw a cam break on a street car. Never saw a timing chain break on a street car either. I have seen the nylon teeth on the cam gear go (brilliant design) and then all hell breaks loose....... How did GM screw-up keeping a balancer in one piece and on the crank is another mystery...........

 

^^^^^
This

Unless your buds at the dealership want to sweetin the deal with some kind of long term warranty

 

Hmmmm......so here's where this is at now. Turns out the tech working on it was a GM tech for several years and seems to know quite a bit about the LS engine family. While the intake is off, I had them order a new oil pressure sensor as well as knock sensors. We'll see how it runs after this.

 

Although it was the chain, I too have seen a few cams break over the years but never in a Vette....mostly Mopar in the mid 80's. I'm just happy they are good friends of yours....most dealerships would be pushing a guy in these parts to at least help pay for damages knowing you were rolling into the 5 grand section of the tach... keep us posted as to what kind of deal they offer you

 

Chance they take with test drives, and 5K on the tach shouldn't be an issue.

 

LLLLLLOOOOOOONNNNNNNGGGGGGGG wait for an update........I wasn't in a huge hurry to get the car, so waiting this long wasn't really that big of a deal. Besides that, I recently bought another street bike and have been riding the **** out of that.
So, here's what's been going on. Due to the fact that these engines are interference fit engines, some valves and pushrods got bent, five of each to be exact. The dealership sidelined the car to to make room for MB service work and now that they are caught up, the heads have been pulled to inspect the pistons. They are almost completely fine. You can just see where two have been touched. Since valves will bend long before rods will, I'm fairly confident that there aren't going to be any surprises once the engine is back together.
With regards to the heads, they ordered in new bare GM heads and they're being built by one of the local machine shops. I know the guys at the shop and they've done work for me in the past.....machine work, valve jobs, balancing, etc., on a couple of 450-500 hp Pontiac engines.
The car should be done within a week or so, depending on the turn around on the heads.
I'm going to test drive the **** out of the car once it's done just to make sure I'm not going to be having any issues!!!

With regards to buying another car, I have yet to find another CA car in this price range that's even close to the condition of this one. Checking ebay, where these cars sell at real world prices (vs. the wishful thinking of some of the sellers on CF), I've seen comparable cars in the 13 to 15K range with similar mileage.

All that being said, I plan to build a supercharged engine for this car after I upgrade the rest of the drivetrain. I'm not planning on making a track car or beating the snot out of it, so I really want a clean car to start with.....which is why I've been so patient with this one.