nick14003

I'm going to buy an 06 z06 soon. If it's less than 5-15k miles and they say they have done nothing to it, not addressed any valve issues.

Whats my chances of valve failing and exploding my engine? I will be driving it HARD EVERY DAY.

How do you fix this issue? New Valves? New Heads? New valve guides?
If its the valve guide that's the issue than I can't fix that myself and it's going to cost a pretty penny.

If its something that MUST be addressed right away I'd like to know how much I'd be paying If i remove the heads myself.

And i've heard people say keep an eye on them? How can you possible keep an eye on your valves? Do they expect me to take out the heads every few months?

MTPZ06

Contact Kohle at AHP...they can get you handled. Typically have core sets of reworked heads in stock ready to ship out to minimize downtime. They even sell a DIY install kit that includes all the hardware and gaskets you need.

http://www.americanheritageperforman.../services.html

Unreal

$900-$3k to fix it.

Should at least be inspected ASAP. I would just fix it and not worry. Replacing the heads is the same cost as replacing the tires, so if $1500 makes you cringe, I suggest a different car.

Mike44665

Exactly

American Heritage

OP if you need to speak with anyone before purchasing we are always glad to help answer any question you might have.

Unreal offered some seriously solid advice.

http://www.americanheritageperformance.com/
310-326-2399

littlefranks

Considering a new ls7 crate engine cost you 14k.its a small price to pay to do the heads .definately use American heritage for the head work .trust me you won't be disappointed

Must_Have_Z

The failure "rate" doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is if and when it happens to your car. If you're a gambler, roll the dice and drive it as is. There are guys in my local club with C6Z's that have 80,000+ miles and their engine is fine (knock on wood). But there are plenty of examples in the forum where valve guides were out of spec with as little as 5,000 miles on the car. Me - I did the heads as my first "mod" to my Z when I bought it. Mill them a little, up the compression, maybe throw in a baby cam if you don't mind spending a few extra Jacksons.

Karb0n

I just bought a 2013 Z06 with 14k miles - I knew going into it about the valve issue and after thinking about it.. It made more sense to do Heads/cam now and fix the issue and have all the bolts on installed for free since they are tearing it apart anyways. It would have cost me $3000 to fix the heads and remain stock. Or spend $5000(Plus bolt on's)and have 600+ whp

Upgrade/fix the head problem and make it faster in the process. Plus save tons on labor

Its a win win to me

cv67

Budget & plan on it every car has thier defects;some show up soon in life, others later there is no way to predict it. If it were me sell the stock ones and get a good set of AFRs or a high quality aftermarket.

nuke61

AFR makes LS7 heads?

jayyyw

If you're planning to drive it HARD EVERYDAY, the chances of valve failure is extremely high. Expect to dump money into head work ASAP. Just for reference... I'm over $8,000 into my "head fix".

nick14003

I'm not dumping 8000 dollars for head work... how do you end up paying 8000 dollars? How many times? Did you put 500k miles on the car?

nick14003

what "bolt ons" have to do with removing the cylinder heads? and how did it get you 600whp...

MTPZ06

If you're pulling the heads...many replace OE exhaust manifolds with LT's, and the intake manifold with Fast or MSD intakes. Many also take advantage of this downtime to do a cam swap as well.

Don't get hung up on Dyno numbers if driveability is your primary objective though. I would say, most importantly, it depends on your goals and how you intend to use the car.

Karb0n

Exactly what MTP said,But I'm having all this installed when I do the heads / cam package which includes installation and a tune

Long tube headers
X pipe
MSD intake manifold
102mm TB
Intake
Injectors

Plus the ported heads and Cam package of course

jayyyw

Neither would I. I've done the head swap once but I had to pull them back off because of a failed lifter. The rest of the +/-$6000 is added up by headers, cam, intake manifold, tune, wheels/tires, intake, etc... It's a slippery slope once you start adding power to these cars. MY wife hates it and loves it at the same time.

STANG KILLA SS

x2 on sending them to AHP. thats what i did.

Bill Dearborn

Here is what I did. I am one of the people who actually had an engine drop a valve. It occurred on the track and GM gave me a new engine.

Four years later I decided to have the new engine checked. The first thing I did was find a shop that could do all of the work if required. That is everything from removing the heads through the machine work to reinstallation.

The first thing I did was get a fixed price for removing the heads, taking them apart and checking the valve guide clearances by measuring the valves and the valve guide bores along with reinstallation of the heads if nothing was wrong. That came to $1400.

If the check found an issue then any additional work or parts would be added to the bill. When the check was done they found two intake valve guide clearances on one head that were slightly out of spec. All other clearances were well within spec.

At that point I decided to go with Ti/Mo intake and exhaust valves along with the appropriate bronze guides to work with those valves. The cost for the parts was $2800. This is an expensive fix because the valves are $160 each. I chose them because I tracked the vehicle and didn't want to take a chance with a sub optimal solution. Once the valves were received there was an additional $1000 labor cost for doing the machining and associated work.

Total cost to me would have been $5200 but I did have some help from GMPP who provided a new set of heads to work with and the shop buying my old heads for the cost of the labor. I ended up at $2800 total cost for a top of the line solution that left me with a mostly stock car other than the valve guide material and the valves.

Bill

jayyyw

That's a hell of deal right there. I would have gladly paid that bill.