kentz06

Since our HPDE and racing season is at an end in Seattle I decided to close out the year in style. I lined up three straight days at Thunderhill and then would trailer the car down to Spring Mountain for the NCM two day HPDE in November. Five days of warm and dry track events seemed like a good idea! So I loaded everything into the trailer and left Seattle Wednesday night

Friday was the first time ever at Thunderhill but I worked hard to learn the track and completed a check ride to move into the fastest group in the afternoon. Everything on the car had been working perfectly and I checked all fluids and gave the whole car a complete check. Went out in the fast group but after around ten minutes when accelerating out of T6 with full throttle something let go in the motor.

The sound was almost like what you get when driving through a patch of loose gravel and it showers the bottom of the car. Immediate and complete loss of power. Pressed the clutch in and looked into the rear view to see a huge white cloud of steam obscuring everything behind me. Immediately drove off the inside of the track so I wouldn't dump anything on the race surface. The huge cloud continued to billow out of the back of the car as I sat there wondering when to decide the car was on fire and should I get out. After around 30 seconds the cloud quit appearing and the car was obviously not on fire so I sat inside until the session was over.

Back at the trailer it was obvious a tremendous amount of coolant went through the motor. Exhaust pipe has coolant in it and the back of the car is completely covered as well. A little bit of oil appeared on the gound but esentially no liquid was (or is) leaking out of the car. Oil level remains fine but coolant is low, though unsure how low. No sign of water in the oil in the dry sump tank but don't know if there is any inside the motor... Any early guesses???

Allanlaw's brother-in-law George is gratiously allowing me to share his perfectly set-up C5 (Allanlaw's old car) so I drove today and will again tomorrow! Despite the obvious set-back, I am having a great time.

At this moment I need to go meet several people and have a drink or two, but I will post more later tonight. I will be very interested in learning what happened.

Stay tuned for news!

Dean

muzzman

Ouch! That soooooo sucks!! I hope everything works out well for you. Let us all know what it turns out to be.

Z Fast

That really sucks. But I admire your attitude Can't change what happened, so you might as well enjoy life.

Let us know more when you find out what went wrong inside the engine.

Tom

Z Fast

Dean,

When is this event? I never got any notification from NCM. When I first heard about this in the spring, I was planning on attending, but I have not heard much since.

Tom

427Z

i dont know if its just ribbing or the truth but word on the viper forums is that the LS7 is not the bullet proof mill that comes in the viper.

one of the viper guys who tracks his cars said that after a year of tracking his Z, the car was basically spent. conversly, you can beat the **** out of a viper year after year on the track and it still purrs.

i dont track my C6Z or the viper so i dont know first hand but some think that though the C6Z is a very fast car, its not very durable for track use, especially with regards to its powertrain

to the OP, i hope you get this resolved to your liking

tjwong

Well that sure sucks big time. If you are taking it to a dealer for warranty work. Make sure that you clean the car up so that there is no signs of rubber on the rear wheel wells. They see blobs of tire rubber on the fender wells and they can use it as evidence and call it abuse and deny your warranty.

AZ FASTEST

Dean - Ouch! Hope its minor and doesn't keep you from Spring Mountain! I look forward to seeing you there!

Tom: http://www.corvettemuseum.com/regist...PDE/info.shtml

Exterminator

My condolences, sorry to hear this.

Short-Throw

Dean,

Hope you're up and running again soon.

Are you still planning to make the NCM trip?

Mike

MaxLean

Isn't the 100k warranty supposed to cover HPDE use too?
Scott

JJMURFS

Dean

Sorry to hear about your engine!!! I was just leaving when I saw your car being towed in and was wondering what happened.
It was nice meeting you at the drivers meeting

Jeff

allanlaw

Good thought but . . . you can't just wash Dean's car to obscure its intended use . . .

Dean - disregard my PM response to your PM - I hadn't read this thread. Give George (and my old C5) my best regards.

kentz06

When I went through SCCA race school this spring the Service Manager and also the owner of a Chevy dealership two miles from my business were also enrolled. I have gotten to know them well and they know what I am doing with the car. I have attended ten HPDE this year and I drive the car hard. I do not abuse it and have never over-reved the engine. The powertrain is stock except for a safe Jim Hall email tune and Killer Bee intake/filter. I had the car dynoed and everything looked safe (not lean). Before leaving Seattle the car received new oil/filter and a full and carefull check-up all over. There have been four filter/oil changes in the ~10,500 miles on the car.

I have no idea why it failed. GM should replace the motor unless they can convince me of something specific I did to cause the failure. If it was my fault I pay, otherwise they cover it.

This is a bummer but I still love my Z! I would prefer this had not happened but it did. I suppose the best outcome would be a new motor delivered to Katec and I ship the car to them as well for a little more HP and a bullet proof update. I know Short Throw Mike would agree with this! Heck they need a motor in the great Pacific Northwest for advertising! There would be no GM warranty after that but I am willing to take that chance! Obviously I would have to kick in some $$$ but it would be worth it!

There is no way this will be resolved before Spring Mountain so unless I can rent one of their cars I will stay home (hopefully not).

It is almost 800 miles from here to home so the car won't be at the dealer until Tuesday. I will be honest with them and will expect GM to be fair with me. As I find out more what went wrong I will post up-dates.

On a positive note I need to relay the power of this Corvette Forum. Many of us have gotten to know Allanlaw here. He has supplied valuable knowledge and wit to all of us (even if he is a lawyer). I had the pleasure of meeting him and his brother-in-law George at Portland International Raceway this summer at a HPDE.

George owns Allan's old C5 which is very well sorted out. Even though I have only meet him in person for one day he has shared his car with me today and will again tomorrow. Along with his woman friend and daughter (who are both incredibly accomplished drivers), we have been having a wonderful time. Not sure I am suggesting loaning your car to someone you have only known for one day, only that there are some amazing people here on CF!

Dean
Keep faith, the Z is worth it!

tjwong

Well, you would think so but.....there has been issues with GM denying warranties on our Zs. One I know of where the owner was cruising down the freeway at normal speeds, he hears a ticking noise, slows down, ticking turns to knocking, he immediately pulls over and stops the engine. The issue was that a valve spring broke, and the engine ingests a intake valve.

He takes it to a local dealer, where it was disassembled and inspected, they accuse him of abuse, calls in the zone chevrolet warranty rep, between the dealer and the rep they decide that its abuse, and denies the guy his warranty. They based this on two things, tire rubber stuck in the fender well area, and a rear diff leak that they also attributed to excessive speed, most likely track events is what they said. Jeez define excessive speed when GM designs this car to run 200 mph! And yes, the owner did fry the tires several time, I mean what else do you do with a car like a Z! They built the thing with 500+hp, advertises in national magazines that you can drive the car to a HPDE event, race it and drive it home.

The pictures of the piston that got damaged coinsides with the owners story. You can count the number of dents on the piston head where it hit the valve, had this been a "high rpm" failure as GM claims, the piston most likely had been destroyed, or had been pock-marked considerably more than it it was. It still pisses me off thinking about how the dealer treated this customer and how GM denies his warranty when it was damn obvious what really happened. What is really ironic is that the owner buys a NEW GM Crate engine, and has another dealer install it, that new engine now has another 3 year 100k mile warranty.

tjwong

That is a bummer, on another note. A customer of mine that lives in the Seattle area had a problem with his rear end in a new C6. It was at a shop all weak for a differential repair. He asked them if they would deny his warranty if he had headers installed, their answer was YES! I hope Dean has good luck with them. I would hate to see them deny his warranty.

allanlaw

Glad you're enjoying my old car - sometimes I wonder what I was thinking when I sold it . . . BTW Charlotte will show us all up sooner or later.

My standing joke around here is that if 3 or more C6Z's show up for a track event, at least one of them is going home on a flatbed. Unfortunately, that seems to be coming true (mine being one of them early on).

Lead Foot 66

Dean,

Sorry to hear of the Z's problems. Hopefully things will be sorted out well for you.

Since I am considering a Z (if we ever get to test drive one!!), I am very interested in what happens with the warranty coverage, and of course, whether the LS7 engine is durable enough to to reach 100K+ miles without major problems.

Sorry you may have to miss the NCM events.

And, I look forward to meeting you in person one of these days.

scottsdalevette

Hey Dean, remember if you are going to plead your case with the dealer for warranty repair of the engine, he can find out what happened with the recording of engine data in the black box computer data recorder that GM seems to be happy putting in everybody's Corvette.
You might want to find a local dealer that will have some experience in other Z06 problems, i.e. valve springs breaking, needle bearings failure, etc. that will provide warranty coverage without any b.s. or having you pay about $13,000 for a new LS7 crate engine.
Good luck and don't take any crap from those dealers!!!

outnumbered

Ditto!

kentz06

The car had been running perfectly so I am very interested in seeing what the computer tells us. I hope to know a lot more by the end of the week.

Dean