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Heard very faint, intermittent ticking for a couple weeks. Thought maybe it was a rock in the tire or something since it was quiet, and didn't seem very consistent. Then 0 oil pressure. Pulled the heads/cam/lifters and found pretty much the same issue. Pitting on a few lifters, and a weird groove worn into the cam...
4-5 lifters had pitting like this, and the corresponding cam lobes were grooved.
You can see the grooves on a couple lobes here... My gloves were also dirty so a lot of the grit on the cam was from me...
At this point - I think I may just pull the engine, and rebuild it myself. I was considering tearing it down, and going w/ a 404 stroker kit for the rebuild...
I literally *just* bought a house - so I'm looking to do all of the work myself, and I think I have a budget around ~$4k. (Is this is realistic?)
Also, what kind of machine work will I need if I'm going with a stroker? And I assume I can reuse the heads?
For reference - here's some details about my car - and the engine (before I tore it apart).
2005 C6 Z51 6spd - 448 whp 396 wqt
Engine has ~85k Miles, and the following Engine work was performed at ~20k Miles
Vararam cold air intake
Corsa sport quad tip exhaust
Kooks coated low restictive cats and cross pipe
Kooks 1.75 headers
160 degree thermostat
Cartek stage 4x heads including full porting of heads, intake, exhaust, and combustion chamber (243)
Custom stainless valves
Comp 921 springs
Titanium retainers, milled .030 and fully cleaned with assembly
Custom ground Cartek 2x cam (230/234 .591/.598 116 LSA)
Cromoly hardened push rods
Ported FAST 90mm intake to stage 2x
ECU reprogram
Notching of pistons for clearance
ASP under drive pulley with belts
Last edited by LF97C5Vette; Jun 13, 2016 at 05:06 PM.
Heard very faint, intermittent ticking for a couple weeks. Thought maybe it was a rock in the tire or something since it was quiet, and didn't seem very consistent. Then 0 oil pressure. Pulled the heads/cam/lifters and found pretty much the same issue. Pitting on a few lifters, and a weird groove worn into the cam...
4-5 lifters had pitting like this, and the corresponding cam lobes were grooved.
You can see the grooves on a couple lobes here... My gloves were also dirty so a lot of the grit on the cam was from me...
At this point - I think I may just pull the engine, and rebuild it myself. I was considering tearing it down, and going w/ a 404 stroker kit for the rebuild...
I literally *just* bought a house - so I'm looking to do all of the work myself, and I think I have a budget around ~$4k. (Is this is realistic?)
Also, what kind of machine work will I need if I'm going with a stroker? And I assume I can reuse the heads?
For reference - here's some details about my car - and the engine (before I tore it apart).
2005 C6 Z51 MN6 - 448 whp 396 wqt
Engine has ~85k Miles, and the following Engine work was performed at ~20k Miles
Vararam cold air intake
Corsa sport quad tip exhaust
Kooks coated low restictive cats and cross pipe
Kooks 1.75 headers
160 degree thermostat
Cartek stage 4x heads including full porting of heads, intake, exhaust, and combustion chamber (243)
Custom stainless valves
Comp 921 springs
Titanium retainers, milled .030 and fully cleaned with assembly
Custom ground Cartek 2x cam (230/234 .591/.598 116 LSA)
Cromoly hardened push rods
Ported FAST 90mm intake to stage 2x
ECU reprogram
Notching of pistons for clearance
ASP under drive pulley with belts
how often had you replaced your valve springs with 65,000 miles on them and floated the valves with that combination?your stroker wont do any better if you don't maintain the valvetrain
how often had you replaced your valve springs with 65,000 miles on them and floated the valves with that combination?your stroker wont do any better if you don't maintain the valvetrain
I hadn't actually replaced them yet. I don't track the car (strip, or road course) and I don't even really drive all that aggressively these days. Just the occasional romp down the on ramp. Tom Wong from Wong's Performance Engineering said my springs should've been fine for this long. Though - I'm still not quite sure how a "weak spring" causes the lifter to dig into the lobe - that seems a tad counter intuitive to me. (Though I saw the explanations - it still just seems unlikely... )
Even so - I bought the car with those engine modifications - and I don't recall the previous owner mentioning mandatory spring changes every 30-50k miles. And Tom didn't mention it either. So perhaps it was just an oversight on my part. Either way - I'll probably see if there's a way to test these springs to see if that was an issue... and then keep tabs on it for the rebuild. Nothing I can do about it now...
I hadn't actually replaced them yet. I don't track the car (strip, or road course) and I don't even really drive all that aggressively these days. Just the occasional romp down the on ramp. Tom Wong from Wong's Performance Engineering said my springs should've been fine for this long. Though - I'm still not quite sure how a "weak spring" causes the lifter to dig into the lobe - that seems a tad counter intuitive to me. (Though I saw the explanations - it still just seems unlikely... )
Even so - I bought the car with those engine modifications - and I don't recall the previous owner mentioning mandatory spring changes every 30-50k miles. And Tom didn't mention it either. So perhaps it was just an oversight on my part. Either way - I'll probably see if there's a way to test these springs to see if that was an issue... and then keep tabs on it for the rebuild. Nothing I can do about it now...
It would allow the lifter to "bounce" and once you get a single chip in the lifter it will lead to more bouncing and more chips. This is the best explanation for this I can think of.
There's also the possibility that the cam surface wasn't perfectly smooth/polished and that some chatter marks were left from machining and just finally wore to failure.
I hadn't actually replaced them yet. I don't track the car (strip, or road course) and I don't even really drive all that aggressively these days. Just the occasional romp down the on ramp. Tom Wong from Wong's Performance Engineering said my springs should've been fine for this long. Though - I'm still not quite sure how a "weak spring" causes the lifter to dig into the lobe - that seems a tad counter intuitive to me. (Though I saw the explanations - it still just seems unlikely... )
Even so - I bought the car with those engine modifications - and I don't recall the previous owner mentioning mandatory spring changes every 30-50k miles. And Tom didn't mention it either. So perhaps it was just an oversight on my part. Either way - I'll probably see if there's a way to test these springs to see if that was an issue... and then keep tabs on it for the rebuild. Nothing I can do about it now...
it wouldn't matter how you drove the car.the spring your using is a severe duty valve spring that is hard on the valvetrain.you were likely floating the valve train and that caused the lifters to lose contact with the camshaft which in turn caused all the damage. that heavy of a spring would need to be checked on a regular basis.report back on spring pressure's when you get them checked.even if you hadn't floated the valves thats a lot of spring pressure on a 65,000 mile street driven car regardless.I wouldn't expect the valvetrain to survive for that many miles.just my opinion
it wouldn't matter how you drove the car.the spring your using is a severe duty valve spring that is hard on the valvetrain.you were likely floating the valve train and that caused the lifters to lose contact with the camshaft which in turn caused all the damage. that heavy of a spring would need to be checked on a regular basis.report back on spring pressure's when you get them checked.even if you hadn't floated the valves thats a lot of spring pressure on a 65,000 mile street driven car regardless.I wouldn't expect the valvetrain to survive for that many miles.just my opion
Yeah - I think, after the rebuild, I'll most likely go with more regular checkup on the valve springs...
I'm reading as many posts as I can find, here and LS1tech. But I'm curious if anybody has any experience doing their own Stroker. My friend (who's helping me do all the work) is a professional mechanic, and high performance car guy - who I'll probably depend on for all the real important engine work. But can anyone comment on doing their own stroker? And/or their thoughts/experiences with the process?
So far, I've put together this list of parts - but it's a lot of stuff, so I'm trying to work with a couple professionals to validate the list before ordering anything.
TSP 402 C.I.D. LQ9/LS2/L98/LY6 Rotating Assembly $2,480.00
SKU:25-TSP402RA
Vehicle: Chevrolet - Corvette - 2005
- TSP Forged Crankshaft
- Eagle 6.125" H-Beam with ARP 8740 Rod Bolts
- Wiseco 4.005" +5cc Dome (10-K448X05)
- Clevite Main & Rod Bearing Sets
- Balanced Rotating Assy.
- 24x Reluctor
Texas Speed Dual Spring Cam Package for Cathedral Port Heads (LS1/LS2/LS6) $849.93
SKU:25-CamPkg2
Vehicle: Chevrolet - Corvette - 2005
- Torquer V2, 232/234, 600"/.600", 113 LSA
- TSP .660" Dual Spring Kit w/ PAC Valve Springs & Titanium Retainers
- 7.400" TSP Chromoly Hardened Pushrods
- Basic Camshaft Bolt & Gasket Kit w/ GM Crank Bolt
- Do Not Include Timing Chain Set
- Melling High Pressure Oil Pump (122-MEL10295)
- Do Not Include Pushrod Length Checker
Cam & Lifter Issue -> Fix with Stroker?
