nhpln

I hope I'm not jinxing myself, but I thought it may be nice to hear something good about an LS7 once in a while. I've been participating in the So Cal Corvette Challenge (see the So Cal forum for details) and have been to 23 track days over the past 2.5 years. The tracks are Willow Springs, Streets of Willow, Auto Club Speedway, Buttonwillow, Spring Mountain, Infineon, Laguna Seca, Chuckwalla Valley. The car has 37,000 miles total. I drive pretty sedately on the street but definitely have fun (6500+ RPMs regularly) at the track. I've had oil analyses performed regularly and they say my LS7 is healthy but will an oil analysis always catch impending doom? I'm hesitant to keep tracking the car without putting some more durable valvetrain components in. It doesn't help my psyche that I've seen an LS7 blow in each of the last 3 events.

Anyways, I love this car. Does anyone else have oil analyses they can share?

Car: 2007 Corvette Z06
Mods: Pfadt Sport Shocks (now DRM Bilsteins w/Hardbar Delrin mounts), Pfadt Light Rate Sway Bars, LPE Oil tank
Tires: Nitto NT-05 or Michelin PS2 ZP
Powertrain is completely stock
Mobil 1 5W-30 its whole life (as evidenced by the relatively low Zinc & Phosphorous levels)

'06 Quicksilver Z06

Threads like this are a breath of fresh air over these fall and winter months, as opposed to some of the others we see talking hard about LS7 problems and saying absolutely nothing new about how to solve them.

Thank you for posting your results, especially your oil analysis results.

My first one with Mobil 1 is below. I have since switched to Renewable Lubricants.



Iron is twice what it ought to be.

rpoz06

So are you braggin' or complaining? (jk )

I agree - very cool to see one of these machines deliver the goods! Here's hoping for many more miles for your LS7!

Dirty Howie

Joe

Never had a problem with mine until I started posting about 30 track days and 80K+ miles.

Now I will be worried driving behind you. Don't want to be in your oil slick if your engine lets go like mine. Oh, wait .... I'm faster than you, so I will be in front

I'm keeping a log of my track miles now and will refresh heads at some point before 30 track days. I also switched to Mobil 0w40 for better protection on the track.

For those that never saw mine letting go. Doing about 120+mph. And thats Joe behind me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXteOSd-Z5k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dArCTMwEjrA


DH

Tsar

Oil analysis is a great tool to establish trends for a given component. Just remember to set new baselines when you change your oil (tell the lab it's a baseline), and keep the intervals consistent. Military aircraft have used it for decades and it works well. They also use a chip detector, it's a magnet in the oil sump with a + and - post they will complete a circuit when metal fragments bridge the gap. It will then illuminate a caution light on the dash. The is normally a land asap indication of an impending brng, or gear failure. Would be nice on a car to know you’re about to have a serious issue before it happens, but then again you can just pull over in a car.

erichg1000

Hey good for you. Seeing this post makes me feel like ****. My ls7 with 25k on the clock and 1 track day has 3x high iron and 2x high lead. No warranty. So glad I spent 38k I worked two jobs for this.

Tsar

Unless you're running a trend it's only a snapshot of what's in there now. He may have fewer miles since last oil change (if he posted a pic I can't see it at work due to security). Unless you pulled one after oil change (baseline) and continue to pull in equal increments you can't establish a trend. Do you pull yours from the sump or the res? The lab checks PPM (parts per million) suspended in the oil. We pull from the res mins after shut down when possible. The oil should be hot, as time goes on all the suspended particles will settle and if you pull from the sump on a cold motor, you going to get high readings from all the crap that settled in your pan..

redZ06bri

"I've seen an LS7 blow in each of the last 3 events"


Not very reassuring by any means !

Any more info on these cases ? Were the engines that blew modified or stock ?

erichg1000

Sorry didn't mean to sound so jaded. I pulled a sample from the pan when I was draining it. I pulled from the stream while draining after probably 80% had drained already. I was trying to get a sample from halfway drained but my timing was off. I am tempering any action until my next oil analysis is complete.

nhpln

The oil sample was taken from the reservoir drain plug (the one closer to the front of the car) during an oil change. This was 10 minutes after shutting the car off, so oil was hot.

nhpln

One of them was Howie's (see above post), bone stock, street tires. The second one had a CAI only but no tune I believe and also running street tires. I'm not sure how many track events were on that engine but I'm guessing 10 or less. The third one had Hoosier R6s, Pfadt shocks & swaybars, Stoptech BBK. That LS7 was stock, no tune but had more than 10,000 track miles according to the owner. Stock 8 qt oil tank.

Curz

that I've seen an LS7 blow in each of the last 3 events.

AzDave47

DH, was there ever a final determination on what caused your failure or was the damage so much that they couldn't determine what happened first?

From the 2nd video, it looked like you were putting out some oil 200-300 yards before it blew big time. PM me if you have extensive details.

Dave, 09 JSB Z

AirBusPilot

Here's my sample. Compare your 4/18/10 to my 07/06/11 (similar miles on the engine and oil). Considering you track your car, your wear metals are pretty good. (Ignore my high copper reading, it's an additive in the RLI oil. For whatever reason, Blackstone didn't know this).

Mr. Gizmo

[
When they stop ticking is the time to begin worrying.

Mopar Jimmy

I agree 100 percent that the above quote found in the ops initial post here, absouletely kills this from being a LS7 confidence builder especially for those who track their Z06.

Assuming the OP is not making up crap, which I really doubt he is, then how can it be reassuring that in the last 3 track events he has been to, an LS7 engine grenaded at each one of those events? Would have been a positive post but for that info.

FrankTank

amen to that. Just like those who say "we don't know how many blown LS7's are out there that are not reported on this forum"... this thread is another example that nobody can say just how many there are like this guys car who have been tracked and still running strong"

This thread just furthers my confidence in the LS7 and Z06. Not denying there are some problems out there to those who have had them, but my belief is that it is still nowhere near as widespread as some would want to believe.

erichg1000

I guess if my motor wasn't about to blow up with no warranty I would be confident as well.

nhpln

Here is AzDave47's oil report

AzDave47

Thanks for posting it, Joel. The 09 Z had about 18K miles on the Odo at the change.

I also just checked my dry sump tank with an extension magnet with no residue or magnetic particles picked up.