Unreal

Silly attitude. Takes <30 minutes to inspect. There is no sane reason not to inspect them and find out if you do not have a warranty.

Bad00SS

Since this motor sounds noisier than my other LS motors I'd say 95% chance the guide wear is out of spec but I'd bet it don't fail this year. If I keep the car into next year I will have American heritage do something with them. I'm gonna dance with the devil till then

MTPZ06

^ There's a city called Las Vegas...they love people with your similar outlook.

Bad00SS

I gamble on everything I can. Track got rained out so we bet $20 a flip flipping a quarter in the pits last year.

Dirty Howie

Only ONE Dave.

OP seems okay with blowing the motor. Seems he wants forged bottom and blower. If so he should sell his stock LS7 and get what he wants. This would make the most sense to me.

Maybe I should post the video of my motor letting go at the track again


DH

AzDave47

I rememger, glad I was not right behind you!

SocalChvy

The cylinder head issue impacts a very small number of LS7 engines.

64drvr

Riiiiight. That should make the blown engine bill more palatable.

Sox-Fan

Right. Every ls7 head was made at the same foundry, and finished by Lanimar Corporation using a highly repeatable process on the same two machines using the same guides.
Yet somehow only a very few are impacted.

If you're correct, how are those very few heads different? Why are those very few heads different?

And.... can you advise the OP how he would know which very few that might be? Are they labeled? "the machine took a day off this one, stay away"?

Unreal

Sort of..

I mean you could argue they only made a small number of LS7s, maybe <40k total, and even if all were effected it is still a small number. Not like millions out there.

I've seen 30+ inspected and 1 was barely in spec at 25k miles, probably out of spec 5-6k miles later. I've met 8+ people who dropped valves, seen it happen in person right in front of me, seen it at the track, and know multiple people it has happened to more than once. So if that is how you define small number, then yes, on a global scale of all cars made, it is a small number.

MTPZ06

Bill Dearborn

My first LS7 dropped an exhaust valve at 24K miles. My second LS7 had two intake valves that were .0002 out of spec after 13K miles. A large percentage of the miles on both engines were on the track. The track usage doesn't seem to increase the odds of a valve dropping but it does have the ability to influence the severity of the drop when it occurs at 120 mph. Much more than a broken engine can happen.

Bill

Bad00SS

So Easter weekend I got some time and got back on the car. Replaced the worn out ride height adjusters on the rear with stock ones from corvette central. Once the rear shocks were off I could compress them by hand. They must have been pretty damn wore out. Put new GM ones in I paid $140 for the pair online at discount GM parts site. The back of the car is so stiff now you cant even push it down barely pressing on deck lid. Before you could press down and the back of the car would move 1-2" down. next I replaced the rear sway bar links which the stud was floppy just swinging around. Installed new MOOG greasable heavy duty sway bar links I got on Rockauto.com dirt cheap. These things look beefier than stock and the stud is very stiff to rotate. it was obvious the popping sound was the bad swaybar links. Next I moved on to the front to replace the ride height adjusters. They were even worse than the rears. This is the only one I have a photo of but the other one fell apart and there was nothing left really.



Looks like the front sway bar links are possibly bad, no noise and they arnt super sloppy but seem way looser than the MOOG's. I gotta order 2 more and the front shocks don't seem horrible but I dont trust it. ordering shocks also since $140 is dirt cheap for GM parts. Screwed the new adjusters up all the way and the car sits nice. Took a day of driving to really see how it looks after it settled.

I don't know what to look at for axle nut play, But you can't push the wheel in and out at all when on jack stands. I assume the axle nut problem had been addressed on this car. What is the correct way to check this? Seems all my noises have stopped on the short drives I did do.

Unreal

Shaking wheel won't mess with axle nut. Just get a torque wrench, set it it the proper setting and torque the nut. Or grab the axle and see if it moves at all.

AzDave47

Original torque was 129 lb-ft, but Chevy updated it to 160 lb-ft