These gashes in the aluminum, is it normal or is there something else going on here? And if so what could cause that?!

 

Looks similar to mine that came out at 15k miles, I'm no expert but looks ok

 

No I didn’t mean the cam lobes, I’m referring to the chunks missing from the block….

 

Thst is not normal. Something exploded there requires further serious investigation

 

Ive got the car at the shop now waiting my turn. They are going to pull the motor and replace all bearings as well as the cam, possibly lifters too. I had fine metal shavings in my oil but no chunks of metal. Not sure what’s going on but the motor is bone stock. They are going to send the block off to a machine shop, hopefully they will figure something out

 

I've heard of stuff like this to improve oil drain back and/or more lube for the cam....

either a hack job or broken parts...

 

Most likely broken parts considering the excessive noise and metal shavings…the motor is bone stock. Almost positive nobody has ever got into the motor, but who knows

 

that suckssssss.... i have no machine shop experience, but i wouldn't trust the block... that looks heavily compromised to me.....

reminds me of when the ford 302's would split down the valley...

 

I don’t really understand what could have caused that but the last thing I want to have to do is replace the motor. I’m going to check with the shop that currently has my car and get their thoughts on it but when they sent me that picture they didn’t say anything about that so I don’t know what do you think now. This could certainly explain why I had a good amount of non-magnetic material trapped in my oil filter though

 

yeah how the hell did the cast aluminum get eaten up in that location?

i mean, the only thing around there is the cam and the lifters....

if a lifter was falling apart, you'd see it on the cam lobe (assumption)....

that picture just raises more questions the more i look at it....

can you get them to take any more?

 

That was my thinking also. I had the lifters swapped recently as well as rocker trunnions in an attempt to get rid of a ticking noise ,well I got the car back and it quieted it down some but an isolated tick was still there so I just happened to pull my valve covers one day and noticed metal shavings that’s when I decided to take the car back to the shop and have them look into it more so they pulled The valley cover to get a peek at the cam lobes and sent me this picture so I could see the lobes and that’s when I noticed this chewed up section of the block. The stock lifters they pulled out none of them were chewed up at all but probably half of them had light scoring on them but nothing major so I don’t know how the block got damaged like this. But I guess my main question is does this need to be fixed or is this not really something to worry about? They are going to pull the motor and replace all the bearings as well as the cam and oil pump but does the block need something done in this location also?!

 

yeaaa thats really a machine shop type of question... no clue on the integrity of the block....

hope it can be salvaged!

 

When they pull the oil pan and if nothings there i wouldn't worry about it. Machine shops do a magnaflux to check for cracks.

 

Cool I appreciate the info. Shop said the block is getting sent to a machine shop for the bearings and then I guess they get it back and reassemble the top end and put the motor back in. I’m just gonna trust that everything will be checked and hopefully I’ll be back up and running in time to enjoy some warm weather

 

Those just look like die grinding marks from the foundry. Some castings have more than others.

 

Is there any reason at all why someone would grind on that area?? It looks like somebody did and did a **** job, but why would you need to do that?!

 

I agree with torquetube. When the blocks are cast, there is casting flash in several locations. It will get removed usually very quickly by someone because they have a lot of blocks to process. And it doesn't need to be precise.

So this is normal.

The valley area of the LS6 in my C5 Z06 looked exactly the same.

 

Well this is somewhat relieving to know that this may be from the factory and that the block might not be compromised. I do not know the full history of the car but I highly doubt someone got in there in the past and intentionally did this, and if this happened on its own I would expect to find more chucks of metal in the oil or have quiet a bit more internal damage.

 

Paranoid. I would be to from what ur going through. nothing wrong with scrutinizing every little thing. definitely don't want to go through this again.

 

Yes exactly!! I just want it to be done right and everything that is questionable to be looked at. I love corvettes and I’d love to keep the one I have for a long time but I’ll dump it if I can’t be happy with it… and If it came to that I don’t know when and if I would get another one anytime soon.