AzDave47

Usually the oiling problem is in the 06-08 MY ( 8 or 8 1/2 quart system). In 09 they went with a 10 1/2 quart oil system that supposedly fixed the oil starvation problem of the earlier cars in very long left-hand corners.

redZ06bri

This has been my point all along in this discussion: if you want a extremely reliable track car that is fast and that you can beat the crap out of without worrying about your kids college education fund, get a C5 ! With some driving skills, R-compound tires, and a few suspension upgrades, you can go very fast with a LS1 coupe and will have little worry. Mine is at 95K with 40+ hours of being driven at the limit, much of it with oil temps at about 300 (before I got a cooler). I've never seen nor heard of a LS1 failure and LS6 is very close in reliability.

If you want the latest and greatest and feel embarrassed to have less than 400 hp , get the LS7. Just be prepared for some big bucks if it fails and you don't have warranty coverage, which seems less and less likely via recent posts. You may get lucky and maybe you won't, and if you can feel comfortable with that, track your Z.

I'm afraid to bring mine out on the track, plain and simple. Plus, I was worried enough about the blown engines being reported on bone stock street driven Zs that I got the extended warranty. It'll be a street car for a long time and I won't have to worry.

For those who think an engine with over 20 track hours is a ticking time bomb, go back to the C5 forum and search for LS1 and LS6 posts. Sure, there were some failures, but nothing like the frequency and level of concern being reported here for the LS7. I've talked with SCCA guys who know a lot about this and they have seen a decent amount of dropped valves and oil starvation in the LS3 and LS7, if you go to the roadracing section, check out WhiteKnights posts.

Just my opinion, for what it is worth.

pdisme

Good to know. Right now I'm trying to help him research if there are any known issues and how best to prepare for presenting this to the dealer to hopefully get it covered under warranty. I've read through some of the other threads that mostly have the you tracked it, your problem viewpoint, but the car is low mileage and has only been on the track a few times at a reasonable pace, not competitive or timed or even all 'fast cars', so I don't think there's anything that should void the coverage.

bright1984

Sorry to hear about it, jersey. But at least you caught it in time. Was there any one specific issue, like the guides wearing, exhaust valves, etc? Were there any tell-tale signs that helped you discover the impending failure?

OnPoint

Things aren't looking well in this thread.

achilds

He really has an LS3.

Dirty Howie

Glad to hear its just the top end. Did you ever update your original post and I missed it ??


DH

Bill Dearborn

23K miles with somewhere between 60 to 80 hours for me. Some days I had 3+ hours and some days an hour. Changed all fluids per the manual. Completely stock engine right down to the original air filter element and spark plugs.

My C5Z saw somewhere in the range of 90 to 100 hrs on a completely stock engine except for a Blackwing air cleaner. It had 43K miles on it when I sold it two years ago.


Bill

JeremyGSU

Bill, what year Z06 is this? You haven't had any problems with the valves or the dry sump kit (if smaller)?

JeremyGSU

How so?

'06 Quicksilver Z06

BIll's engine failed a little over two weeks ago.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-z...post1578581129


Go back and look at the beginning of the thread. He may have made that comment because 2 of the first 5 respondents in it reported a problem. One dropped valve, one with multiple faulty lifters.

A third one 95Jersey describes a "near miss",

and then there is Bill.

JeremyGSU

I don't know how many hours one should get or not. But I have a friend who has blown two highly built Honda Civic motors and an S54 M3 motor with similiar track hours to Bill.
I went back and counted the people with no problems vs failures. I got 11 with no problems including Bill (even though now blown) and 2 failures.

'06 Quicksilver Z06

I count 4 with engines problems personally reported in the thread. The one reporting the "friend", I didn't count.

You have 2 flat out KABOOMS and another one that just barely missed by a whisker of going KABOOM.

Plus one with a bad cam and lifters.

Another, redZ06bri, says that he won't take his on the track.

When OnPoint says that this "Things aren't looking well in this thread.", I think I see what he means.

I don't know how much Honda Civic motors cost, or how well they are supposed to be built, but LS7 engines cost around 14k each.

Of course though in a thread like this one, you are liable to have a number of people post up that they have blown motors on the track.

JeremyGSU

It was around $15k built. Not cheap to N/A power out of a Honda.

Agreed. Hopefully more posts will come in showing no failures. Odd to see people with countlesss hours of no problems and then guys that go kaboom with few hours and miles. Makes me think it's more of a parts issue. One thing these threads are making me think when I get my Z is that I might have the heads pulled before tracking it to make sure everything looks OK as best as can be seen before hitting the track.

pdisme

I'd be inclined to think there is a defect that could affect an 09 if for no other reason then that my friend blew his engine with very little use and not pushing it particularly hard (from a track standpoint), however I'll also admit we don't see very many 09+ Corvettes at the track and I go frequently since I race (race car, not street car). There are tons of corvettes out there though, just not that new. I've only seen a ZR1 once for example. Tons of C5's.

AzDave47

Katech strongly recommends installing forged pistons for track use. So much for just dealing with the heads.

95jersey

YES

I actually found the issue in a parade and not on the track or doing any maintenance on the car. I was driving in my local 4th of July Parade, and some kids asked me to rev the motor. Something I would normally NEVER do, but being a parade on 4th of July, I gave it a good spike in neutral, and a HUGE cloud of blue smoke came out of my tail pipes. It smelled and looked like raw oil. It also ruined one of my 02 sensors. The interesting thing was that it could not be replicated with the car under load (via normal or even spirited driving conditions).

Basically after speaking with my shop, the consensus was that under load, the valves/guides were more likely to function properly if there is an underlying issue, but when you don't have a load on the motor, the internal vibration is more violent, and underlying problems (such as stuck valve, worn guides, or bad seals) will more likely surface.

I could replicate the smoke in neutral every time, but never while driving the car. Thank God for those kids or I would have NEVER found the issue.

So, if you think you have a problem (not saying it is a tried and true test), let your car warm up, and rev it all the way to redline and then look for any smoke. If oil is getting through the valves (because of seals, guides, or other valve issues), it seems that it could more likely surface under these conditions (vs. under load).

I think by the time the problem gets so bad that it surfaces under load, it may be too late.

I am still not sure if it is a seal or a guide at this point, but since the car past the bottom end test with flying colors and it only smoked under deceleration (a tell tale sign of oil getting past the valve), I choose to not mess around and just rebuild the heads. The heads are in the machine shop right now and I hope shortly they will find the problem just so we can document it for the forum.

My ETA on getting the car back is mid/late next week, and then I will post the results on my original thread.

whatcop?

I think people need to keep in mind that any engine is eventually going to fail or need a rebuild. We make excessive amounts of hp and expect it to last longer than we will.

'06 Quicksilver Z06

Good point.

With the power these motors make, not all of them are going to die of "old age".

whatcop?

But most of the owners will soon....BAHAHAHHAHAAHHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAH

I couldn't help myself