family-man

In all honesty guys, its not that big of a deal. whats $3000-$4000 for extra reliability to go along with the upgrade aspect of a new set of aftermarket, complete heads with best of the best internals. After all, the c6z is a monster of a car that competes with the best cars out there...ferrari, porsche, etc. power to weight ratio is phenominal for a v8 car, and the price...go buy a porsche or ferrari that is comparable to the power and times of a c6z....try $100k+ and you all are complaining about the repairs, how much you think a new set of heads or engine is for a porsche...try $20k+ for a new engine, and lets compare about maintenance, oil change is what like $300?? meanwhile c6z can be done for $80..i really cannot find a north american car for the power and appeal as a c6z..ive looked at the camaro ss, camaro zl1 (i just dont like the look of the bulkiness camaro and heavy as fuxk, interior is ugly), new 5.0 coyote (sick car, but i dont really compare a gt mustang to a c6z, and what would rather get the looks, and pretty much stock 5.0 stang where there are 10 sitting on a ford lot and pretty much every ford fan getting one or a c6z...the decision is evident)...gt500, heavy, bulky, solid rear axle...to me, there is no substitute

morris

thats an interesting perspective not sure what your point is but 3-4K or more in my case is a pretty big deal in my book. I dont care what the car cost, if there is a defect it shouldnt be the customers responsibillity to fix. Money aside its the principal of the thing.

Chalky

Exactly. Guides are not supposed to go out of spec in <20,000 miles. You are kidding yourself if you believe that this is just a maintenance requirement. I am not aware of any American made car with planned maintenance service posted at a dealership or in an owners manual calling for cylinder head removal and guide evaluation.

I am frustrated by the silence but I also believe Mike Short-Throw is providing accurate info and eventually we may hear something. This is no reason to doubt Jason or Mike.

gatti-man

It is a big deal when 80% of owners don't even know about it and are at risk. This isn't a ticky tack repair and it is a silent killer. And the z06 isn't a Ferrari or Porsche, its an upscale corvette.

b4i4getit

The sad thing is that GM KNOWS EXACTLY WHICH VEHICLES ARE AFFECTED. They have the engine numbers and they know the vehicle VINS. I think the problem is quite large and therefore costly else they would have issued a silent recall for the affected vehicles rather than risk the bad publicity.

BearZ06

They also know:
That the LS7 run is almost over.
That the majority are garage queens and won't have problems within the 5 years of warranty.
That the majority are not tracked or driven hard.
That if they say anything at all it could cost them millions.
That soon the C7 will make everyone forget about the LS7.

clogan

Precisely!!

b4i4getit

Regarding the above the ONLY way to get this issue in the forefront and get GM to do something about it would be to engage the auto magazines. If enough people wrote to the magazines about this issue and a story was generated you can bet that GM would have to do some sort of damage control. Once the C7 is released however it would be too late since all the attention by the motoring public and these magazines would be on the new car.

achilds

I would think even if it was after the release of the C7, they would have to address it, as any bad press would adversely impact sales. I don't think the big name magazines will touch this though, because GM spends a lot of money advertising in them. Don't bite the hand that fees you syndrome.

nzk

Jalopnik would do it. Although do you really want the masses knowing about LS7 failures?

Frankie2blue

Yes, I think we do want the masses to know about the problem. It s the only way anything could possibly ever be done about it.

JasonH

I'm not so sure about that. It is possible that GM does not know how many cars or the VINs of those affected. If it truly was a QC problem on the heads, where only some were affected or something was sporadically out of spec, and even the supplier was unaware since it passed their production QC, then GM nor the supplier may know precisely which ones or how many are bad. So GM sees evidence of a problem, looks for a cause, and we hear that their fix is to re-check each head at point of engine assembly to find those out of spec. From what we hear on this thread, GMs solution was not to remedy the problem at some serial number point going forward, but rather to re-check each head for something that could be of out spec at the point of engine assembly. Meaning the out of spec heads are either still being produced or in the supply chain.

I'm not excusing GM from an answer or solution, just saying we might think they know more than they actually do.

propain

So I was at my dealer today and spoke to the shop foreman. Hes been there for 20 years fixing Vettes.

His words:

Yes I have done head work due to play in the guides. You will hear a ticking noise if you are having the problem. NO there is no milling problem from the factory in the 2009-10-11 Z06. NO GM isn't getting ready to make some kind of statement about it. The issue seems to be isolated to 2006-07-08 cars. Its a very rare thing that it will lead to failure unless the car is driven VERY hard.


Take it for what its worth. I'm not saying he is high enough to be in the know but if there was something it hasn't filtered to the dealerships yet.

nzk

Thanks propain, but even more confused now. This is the exact opposite of Short's info. Wish GM would just sit up and clarify so we can put this to rest once and for all.

propain

Welcome to this forum. I have been confused, worried, scared ******** and angry since I joined with all this BS.

I have decided not to care. I am under warranty so I worry less than those who are not. Do the head work if your out of warranty. Its a cheap insurance policy. Stick with the same valves though, just do the bronze guides and springs. Don't bother if your covered under warranty as you will probably never have a problem.

GM wont say anything because there is very little to say. It is an extremely low percentage.

'06 Quicksilver Z06

Well, while it is pretty obvious that 2006-07-08 cars are involved, it is not so obvious that the matter is isolated to that group, since we have had '09s in here fail just recently.

I have to think though that if GM were going to say something, then they would have said it already instead of waiting now for going into 6 weeks.


When so many of those valves have broken, snapped off, it's going to take a lot of convincing, for people going to the trouble and expense of doing their heads, to stick with the same valves after so many valve failures.

tim414

I lay odds that someone in the meeting over this issue brought this up. It's VERY likey they playing actuary odds. Better to pay it out in warranty than every engine which they might think is affected. And they know wheich parts go to which engine....ask the builders if they do not scan parts to each of their builds at Wixom.....


that and complain to NTSB that it's a hazzard to driver/occupant and other drivers bheind them when this happens to blow oil out of windowed block.

Great place to start

You and me both. It's very frustrating because these cars whose owners who are/were thinking long term ownership will NOT own a car 'in warranty' for the length of time they plan to keep it. I had planned to kepp mine for the duration of "my life". Which hopefully will be longer than the cars serviceable life....knowing it will need rebuilt some day. But, that was my thought and reasoning for wanting to keep it factory mechanically.

When the car is 20 years old and 100k + miles, o.k. no problemo, I have always planned to keep it 'fresh'. It is/was planned to be my retirement hobby in 20 more years since I always wanted a 427 Vette.

Yes, This REALLY pisses me off. And in a less than two years, I plan to replace my Yukon. I "USED" to ONLY buy GM (except when I was in the service-overseas-had a old VW (half rag top and a older bimmer 5 series)....other than that, ALWAYS has been GM.

Guess what.......GM can fill in the rest:

















signed
unhappy going to be former GM customer

jimman

And if it’s a geometry problem as suggested do you think that replacing the valves, guides and springs is going to fix it. You don’t honestly believe that bronze is immune to wear???

'06 Quicksilver Z06

"Suggested" by whom????

What if it's not a "geometry" problem?

Of course bronze is not immune to wear.

It doesn't matter whether it is a "geometry" problem, a "calculus" problem, a "trigonometry" problem, these stock valves have failed, and valve guide wear has been observed in low mileage cars, and cars have failed.


And when they fail out of warranty, it costs the owner out of warranty, money........and that's not a "geometry" problem,...... that's a "subtraction" problem.

Many in here, don't know "geometry". But all of us know how to "subtract". And that's exactly what happens to your bank account should you suffer one of these failures while out of warranty. Not "geometry".......SUBTRACTION.

Now is GM going to make their announcement or what??? :

jimman

So then your saying that since I use the same valves and guilds mine must be wear proof, and somehow survived 160 thousand plus miles.