pflynn

A valve spring broke on my 2003 Z06. Looks like no damage to the piston or the valve, so replacing all springs should be able to be done with the heads still on. I'm thinking that I really don't want to do this, but have no idea what I should expect to pay to have all replaced. The dealer is quoting $1000 labor and $140 for the stock LS springs. I know the $140 is outrageous and am assuming the labor is too (even for a dealership). Does anyone have any input on how much this should cost? Any info would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Patrick

bumble-z

$300. labor plus the cost of parts replaced.
You won't get the above pricing at GM dealership.

Your profile isn't filled out so other members in your immediate area could possibly help you or steer you in the right direction/repair shop to take your car to.

I too have an 03 Z, & didn't want to take a chance of a broken spring & possible engine damage..... so I changed all them out by myself in my garage.

racebum

the valve spring set is $65, new valve seals are $35-40 {all oem gm} and labor should be about 200-300

a decent tech can do the whole job in 2 hours or less

vettenuts

How was it determined there is no damage to the valve?

ZeeOSix

Sounds like another candidate for this thread. Please go to this thread and enter your info for the statistics being tracked. You lucked out by having no engine damage. Some aren't so lucky.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-z...-failures.html

Paul 75 L82

If you don't have a local Corvette shop look for a local Hot Rod shop. The Hot Rodders are using LS motors now.

callie454

You might even consider tackling this job yourself. Might want to look into the Comp Cam trunion upgrade while you're in there.

bwill03z

Replaced mine on my 03' as soon as I bought it. The speings were about $50 or $60... Seals and all that were $40 I think, and labor was abou $250 from a local gm mechanic that does side work at his house. The stock springs taken out were yellow, the ones I ordered were blue. I've read posts where they just changed color at some point.

getkong

I did mine myself, and it wasn't the worst thing in the world, but it was close. I think it took me around 10-11 hours over a few days, 2 of which were spent looking for a single keeper that flew off and i couldn't find in the engine bay. I would say i'm relatively handy, but I had two almost-disasters: with the first valve, i didn't open the fitting on the compressed air and i almost dropped the valve right in before i even got the job started. Second, i snapped a bolt off in the head with the rockers, but was able to back it out. If i could have paid someone $200-500 to do it, I would have knowing what I know now. However, I could do it again in probably 3-4 hours at this point.

printmanjackson

how do you know there is no damage?

bumble-z

That's a very good question.

That was also asked in post #4 (vettenuts)

So far the Original poster hasn't gotten back & responded . AWOL!

pflynn

Not AWOL, just busy at work

Thanks for all the replies. I did some research through the local car forums and from corvette owners and found someone that will be doing the work for closer to the estimates that were listed.

To reply to question on how do I know there's no engine damage, I don't know 100%, but a camera was put down the spark plug hole and there was no indication that the piston had been touched.

Oh, and I'll update my profile information for the future.

hamhead

This recently happened to me as well. Car is all apart now. I was going to replace the springs in October during a cam swap - proscratination always gets you. I did have valve damage - and my car's spring broke at idle in my driveway and was only started once after that to get it on a truck bed. It does happen where you have no damage, but I'd say that would be rare, especially if you drove on it at all.

I would at the very least get a compression test done to make sure the valve is sealing properly.

ehuron

Don't know if you're interested but, I just removed all the springs and the sodium filled valves from '02 Z06 (about 20,000 miles). I just wanted the 243 heads. Will ship the springs and valves for $125.00.

Atok

pflynn, what color are your stock (broken) springs?

printmanjackson

I would pull the heads

pflynn

The springs are yellow. I'm going to replace with the PAC 1218.

waddisme

I repl mine last fall for the first time. Not that hard, but you can mess it up if you drop a valve lol. Because I track mine, this will be a yearly adventure for me. The Proform tool works pretty nice. Check out some of the YT vids to see if you want to attempt. Good luck with it.

ehuron

I think the forum sent your message (what color is your broken spring?)to the wrong member. My springs and valves are not broken. I just don't remember seeing color. I'll go to my storage unit and look at them again. I know the yellow's and blue's are the same. The valves I removed fom the heads are definitely the sodium filled light weight valves.

ZZ06

hmmmm I didn't know they made blue springs for 02-04 ZO6. I know for a FACT that blue was used in 01's