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C6 Corvette ZR1 & Z06General info about GM’s Corvette Supercar, LS9 Corvette Technical Info, Performance Upgrades, Suspension Setup for Street or Track
That’s nuts to see on only 40k. All these horror stories about the ls7 arent making me feel better. I don’t understand how the ls1 can be rock solid (just hit 102k in my T/A with no issues) but this bad a$$ gem of a 427 seems to have so many problems.
Mine also has pixie dust in oil. I just did a second cam swap hoping it’s just the cam bearings adjusting to new cam or from the assembly lube. I’m at 43k
Best of luck with the oil samples. I was told over and over to run the motor and flush the oil basically by a bunch of people. This just didn't seem right to me. I sold my other C6Z and missed it a lot so I bought another. This is really making me kick myself in the *** since I drove this car once. Now I need to decide what's next. Do I buy new pistons and reuse crank with a set of dimpled third gen Ti rods and have them coated? Do I swap rods crank and pistons? Idk
Definitely a shitty situation to be in. Like I said, I've never noticed anything in my oil but I could have just missed it. Never really looked at it that hard. I'm selling my motor and the guy wanting to buy it asked me to send out an oil sample. The results will decide how the next few months will go. If it comes back bad, I will likely tear down the shortblock and reuse the stock crank/rods if they are in good condition and throw in some forged pistons.
Subbing. Fully support filtermags. Great product. Keeps that fine particulate out of circulation (as long as it's a ferrous metal). It does look like you had some rather large particulate run through the bearings creating the deeper scoring. Good thing you preventively tore it down and found these problems before they got out of hand. You saved all the big parts from destruction so you can re-use all of them. There's a mixed set of feelings about recoating the stock rods and reusing them. My opinion...need to know the budget and the power goals before deciding on parts.
Good news: Your crank journals looks perfectly fine and they will polish out nicely. And the main cam journals looked good as well. The rods also "looked" good to the naked eye, but better to have them thoroughly inspected by a good shop before using. This is the perfect time to throw a bottom end in there that suits your needs.
Last edited by Pb82 Ronin; 12-10-2018 at 01:25 PM.
Subbing. Fully support filtermags. Great product. Keeps that fine particulate out of circulation (as long as it's a ferrous metal). It does look like you had some rather large particulate run through the bearings creating the deeper scoring. Good thing you preventively tore it down and found these problems before they got out of hand. You saved all the big parts from destruction so you can re-use all of them. There's a mixed set of feelings about recoating the stock rods and reusing them. My opinion...need to know the budget and the power goals before deciding on parts.
Good news: Your crank journals looks perfectly fine and they will polish out nicely. And the main cam journals looked good as well. The rods also "looked" good to the naked eye, but better to have them thoroughly inspected by a good shop before using. This is the perfect time to throw a bottom end in there that suits your needs.
Agree with the above statement and also a fan of magnets even though there isn't much ferrous metal in our engines. I have been using these drain plugs with very strong magnets, not the cheaper weaker ones. I pick up quite a bit of magnetic "fuzz" each oil change from both drain plug magnets. I figure every bit helps.
Definitely a shitty situation to be in. Like I said, I've never noticed anything in my oil but I could have just missed it. Never really looked at it that hard. I'm selling my motor and the guy wanting to buy it asked me to send out an oil sample. The results will decide how the next few months will go. If it comes back bad, I will likely tear down the shortblock and reuse the stock crank/rods if they are in good condition and throw in some forged pistons.
If you see no metal dust or flakes in the oil then I wouldn't have any immediate concerns. The main thing is this like fairy dust **** seems to happen to a few LS7's. I even think there's a catchcan thread or something
Originally Posted by hy_bmw_freak
And what was the Problem?? I can't see anything it looks be good or not?? You have no issues with the engine??
you opend it the engine it has metall flakes ??
how do you drive the car ?? Track ? 3 honk races?? Or to the ice cream parlor ?
I bought this car with 40k miles. The car had RPM lvl 3 H/C/I done @ 39k. So I can't comment on how she was driven. However I'm the third owner and it was stock before I got it. Bought it from a nice guy who wanted a ZR1.
Originally Posted by Pb82 Ronin
Subbing. Fully support filtermags. Great product. Keeps that fine particulate out of circulation (as long as it's a ferrous metal). It does look like you had some rather large particulate run through the bearings creating the deeper scoring. Good thing you preventively tore it down and found these problems before they got out of hand. You saved all the big parts from destruction so you can re-use all of them. There's a mixed set of feelings about recoating the stock rods and reusing them. My opinion...need to know the budget and the power goals before deciding on parts.
Good news: Your crank journals looks perfectly fine and they will polish out nicely. And the main cam journals looked good as well. The rods also "looked" good to the naked eye, but better to have them thoroughly inspected by a good shop before using. This is the perfect time to throw a bottom end in there that suits your needs.
Firm believer in preventative maintenance because it usually comes out cheaper and a little more inconvenient if you're not prepared. I believe two or three of my rods have a light black mark on the cheeks which is my only concern (looks like heat and not rubbing down into the Ti). Hopefully using HPR on this once I get my ducks in a row. My budget is a cost effective OEM rebuild because I don't plan on doing anything else plus I just bought the car for 33k. I can spend up to $3.5k on a rebuild comfortably if I HAVE to and it makes sense go to $5-6k Ideally I'd like to have a 600/500 on paper that traps 138-142 NA. The car made 630/540 prior to this. Trap speed and how the car drives is most important to me. For my budget or close to it if I can forge it and go boost I would consider that as well. My car has a lvl 6 T56 and I have a BC2 clutch to support the power
Originally Posted by MickVette
Agree with the above statement and also a fan of magnets even though there isn't much ferrous metal in our engines. I have been using these drain plugs with very strong magnets, not the cheaper weaker ones. I pick up quite a bit of magnetic "fuzz" each oil change from both drain plug magnets. I figure every bit helps. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Thanks for the recommendation. I am a huge fan of this idea and always run magnetic drain plugs at a minimum!
If you see no metal dust or flakes in the oil then I wouldn't have any immediate concerns. The main thing is this like fairy dust **** seems to happen to a few LS7's. I even think there's a catchcan thread or something
Yes, I started a fairy dust in catch can thread a couple of years back. I still get a little. But you have to look closely at the bottom of the can after emptying it and in the sunlight. BTW: my oil samples have been very good.
The scoring on the outside of the oil pump MAAAYYY have been caused by over torqueing the balancer causing the timing chain to rub??? Just throwing guesses out there. Especially, it being a reputable shop that did the work. Hard to say without having the whole engine to look through. Does the valvetrain have the same scoring?
12-10-2018, 12:17 AM
40k mile LS7 tear down
