You already have to pull the motor do do a cam on a LT1. Yes I know some do it in car, but they drop the cradle and the oil pan and it's a huge PITA. All the major shops yank the engine. It sure isn't like the LS1/6.

 

Over the years, the idea of mid engine cars are more and more common. But most (which are primarily Italian and German) need to have enlarged cooling because the engine is at the back, improved heat protection, more complicated controls, reinforced front ends for crash protection, complicated packaging of the intake and exhaust, and exotic suspensions to fit in the space. Something like replacing the alternator or starter motor can be a huge pain in the rump.

In many cases Mid engine cars need the entire engine removed for servicing. Some are easy, others are really difficult. All take more time and labor to do as well as replace parts that need to be replaced while you are there. Do a clutch in a Ferrari 308 and you might as well replace the timing belts, bearings, oil seals, and water pump at the same time.

Many times, in an effort to make the engine and gearbox in a tighter package than what is available space up front, they use exotic engineering that is more costly to make and assemble, as well as repair if needed. Engines are often transverse mounted to make the length of the engine and gearbox shorter.

As to training, I also offer the Ferrari 328. There are two drain plugs on the bottom. One is engine oil and one is gearbox oil. They look pretty much identical. One is easy to find, the other takes a bit of searching. I can't tell you how many backyard mechanics have drained the gearbox oil and then overfilled the engine oil by removing the wrong plug.

Working on Mid engine cars is just more complicated and difficult, which is why the preferred method today is drop the entire subframe and work on everything separated from the car. That's rare on front engine cars.

 

A cam swap? If the C8 dosen't come with a removable panel between the passenger and engine compartment, just about any local hardware store has hole-saws.

 

Yup. Every time I buy a new car, the first thing I do when I get it home is a cam swap...warranty-smarranty...then I drink a six-pack of beer.

Ya don't even have to go to the hardware store neither... why I just went right down the street to Walmart... there were hole-saws all over the place.

 

If I remember right , drilling a hole in the inner fender / wheel-well was the first thing you did to change the plugs on a 69 - 70 Cougar,,

Then put in a rubber plug...

 

Since I won’t be buying for at least one year, probably two, I’ll wait to hear what Paul Koerner and Brittany George have to say.

 

Ignore absolutely everyone saying you need a lift to work on a mid engine car. Just isnt true. Get 6-ton jack stands and you can do whatever you want. Also pulling an engine isnt hard.

 

After doing the clutch and torque tube bushings & bearings in a C5 (be about the same in a 6 or 7) dropping an engine don't seem like that big a deal.

 

But what do you need to service often in newer cars? My Tahoe has a GM engine and it has 199k miles and only things ever changed on the engine are oil, spark plugs, oil/air filters and once the coolant. It still has the original serpentine belt on it.

One of the spark plugs on the Tahoe is kind of a pain to get to. I can actually change the plugs on my mid-engine Gallardo easier, 62k miles on it and nothing but the same thing replaced on the engine as the Tahoe.

 

You need a lift just to remove the exhaust from a C5!

 

not true. I swapped the 2000 FRC I had exhaust twice and I do not own a lift.

Also I took the transmission out of my Tahoe last year to rebuild it without a lift.

 

Tech told me C8 is “lubed for life”, requires no oil changes!

 

Yeah and how high did you end up jacking it up or did you have a trench underneath?

You have to get a C5 almost four feet off the ground to snake the exhaust out from the rear bend.

 

I remember service manuals telling me to pull the steering column to get to a spark plug on my S10 Blazer, and to cut a hole in the fender liner to get to another.

 

What? No you dont. I'm not sure what else to say, but you just dont. You just have to tilt it to the right/left and you can remove it with very little lift.

 

This is the way I know works.

https://tech.corvettecentral.com/201...-installation/

 

Changing oil probably will not be any harder. Same goes for brake jobs. And if they went with a clamshell design for the rear lid maybe changing sparkplugs will not be that hard either. Basically look at a modern ferrari or an audi r8 and that's about how complex service will be. The Ferrari 360 for instance doesn't require an engine out service as belts are accessed through the firewall, as opposed to its predecessors. But yes, it is likely that some things will be harder to get to. It is also likely that GM will consider the corvette a bit more upmarket and raise servicing prices accordingly (after all, they will be compared directly to the Audi R8 on this, not to the camaro).

 

I'd expect that dropping the power train on a C8 might be easier than on a C5-7, since it's all one unit, and nothing needs to be done at the other end of the car.

Depending on the design of the exhaust manifolds, spark plugs might be pretty accessible from underneath the car.

 

All things being equal, of course it is more expensive to service a mid engine car. The drivetrain is more highly integrated into the car’s structure. Whether it somewhat more expensive or much more expensive is a separate discussion depending upon a specific car’s design. Access alone can easily be more *** cumbersome.

 

It is a good question, while, at the moment an unanswerable one. We can pretty much guess that the real issue will be accessibility. Between the placement of the engine, and the laying of components in the engine bay, simple maintenance items may take longer. A good illustration, while not going in the Corvette, is the Cadillac Hot V engine. By appearance, it looks like the intercoolers would need to be removed to do anything like a spark plug and coil pack change. That would require draining coolant and dismantling the assembly and of course replacing all the associated gaskets etc. What similar challenges the C8 technician will face are yet unknown, but they will be there.

On the flip side, understand, that while the technicians may argue the point at times, manufacturers have a vested interest in minimalizing the overall cost of warranty work. If, for example, removing the engine is going to almost always be required, then, they will most likely make dropping the cradle as simple as possible.

As far as parts, the good news is that this is a mass produced car, and contracts and par levels for parts have already been decided. So it won't be like they are one off, hand built individual pieces of art. If the transmission goes out, it won't be like you'll have to wait 6 months for GM to hand build you a new one.

But things like oil changes, which will be about all most people will face at least for the first few years, will be addressed in design. I would almost bet that the C8 will be exclusively dry sump system.