Add a 08 to the list.
 

Buddy owns a head repair shop and the chevy dealer had him see what went wrong. Guide was in spec and spring and retainers are fine. Miles are unknown at this point.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...6/IMG_5465.jpg

:ack: Ugly, Here we go again...

I am curious if this engine had a different cam or was modded in some other way.

+1

That sucks. Hopefully more info can be had to determine if it was the valve specifically or some combination of things; I wonder how close to the service limit the guides were ( and were all guides measured or just the one)?

The fact is it's real.... :cheers: He said there was no taper and no gauling on the valve.

Uh, yes it does.

Did I tell you just two days ago that this would happen again?

Have you seen enough now to finally take this a bit more seriously, or do other cars need to fail in order for this to sink in?

Ugh...this is getting old. I'm happy that I don't have access to my Z....temptation is a killer! New heads are #1....

So this was a car out of warranty that someone brought into a dealer? And then the dealer is out sourcing the heads to your buddy ??

:cheers:
DH

Yes car is under warranty. Dealer wanted to know what failed and sent in to my buddies cylinder head shop. I will post more when I hear more. But the guides are within specs.

I think I have read every failed motor, dropped valve and head thread in the last few years. This is the first time I have ever read about a dealer sending heads out on a car under warranty. Wanting to hear more about how and why this would happen. BTW, you didn't make it clear ... is this a blown motor or not ??

:cheers:
DH

Thats all the info I have at this point. Not sure if it threw a rod ETC.......... He is going to ask about the car when the dealer picks up the head. They droped it off and asked them what went wrong. I have nothing more for you right now.



http://www.aluminumheads.com/

The car may have already had authorization to be fixed, been in the process of being fixed, or may have even been fixed, before the dealer took that cylinder head to that machine shop to get an opinion on why it failed.

If the dealer still had the failed part, and either he himself, or the customer whose car was being fixed under warranty, wanted to find out exactly what had happened to it, having one of the local reputable cylinder head shops look at it and give an opinion, would be an alternative.

Hoefi, among others, have gotten their failed parts back and had them inspected by people apart from GM.

Sounds reasonable to get an opinion as to what happened to that head from a business like that, if the dealer and/or the customer is aware of, or even if not aware of, this issue, and wanted to know exactly what happened.

But the head of an exhaust valve is missing, so it looks like another snapped off exhaust valve from the picture.

What dealership? I'm in Vancouver to and they just replaced my heads.

Bill

I've come to expect at least one of these threads per month. I'm thouroughly convinced now that GM dropped the ball on these heads. Does anyone know who supplies them with these heads?

I don't.

But if someone were to tell me that they came from out of China, I'd have no reason not to believe them.

IIRC, I have heard the LS7 heads come from a supplier in Canada.

:iagree: yes if you can please provide more information if you get it... was the car modded, tracked? Miles? What exactly happened... While the assumption is to blame the valves (and in this case the guides were in spec) , it is not smart to just lump this in with the other failures without more information... Other things can and do happen.


That is no knock on the OP,as it appears he is trying to get more info :thumbs:

Nobody said Vancouver.:cheers:

Like I said time and time again... I will let you know when I hear more. This is not the only head that this shop does.:lol:

The car could have been covered by GMPP (a lot of people call it a warranty but it is really a service plan) and they were deciding whether to repair Vs replace. Since dealer shops don't have machine tools and machinists just sitting around waiting for a job to drop in it makes sense the heads would have been sent to a shop for an estimate on what it would take to fix them if possible.

I had a valve spring break in my old 69 Big Block which caused the valve to drop while traveling 800 miles from home. The local dealer pulled the head and found the valve jammed into the valve guide and twisted to one side so they sent the head to a local machine shop which was able to repair the head and return it in one day. The day after that I was back on the road.

Bill