ZIE06Bernie

Fair comment Mark but with the car 8 years old hoping for warranty is like winning the lottery - three fifth of five eights of f all chance.

Maybe manufacturers there are different. He can only wish I guess.

Dropped valve no doubt by that damage.

'06 Quicksilver Z06

I'd almost have to concur with Mark200X here on the attempt at a good faith warranty.

While dealing with GM can be a long shot in any situation you find yourself in whereby they are holding all of the cards, so to speak, as he can probably tell anyone in here based on what they did for him on his heads, it might still, in some situations, be worth a try.

Worst they'd be able to tell you is to get lost.

But in this case, that would entail letting a dealership take over from here, and thus letting them examine the car and pull the heads.

However; there is one potential sticking point, which "could" be a big problem I see with him taking a shot on a good faith warranty.

If this is his Z06 he is referring to, and he takes this car in, as soon as they look at that ECM, they're liable to balk at giving him any kind of relief.

As such, it's looking a lot right now like he is going to have to pay out of pocket to have that cylinder head pulled, or do it himself.

JwT

Seems like a lot of good advice here. One thing that is real is the fact that the rest of the spark plug is somewhere in the cylinder or the pan. If the motor had stopped at that very moment, one could hope that Op may have a good block. The fact that the car was rolling and began pouring smoke is at least proof that the piston is toast.

Usually when the impact is enough to smash a hole in the slug other damage occurs. We all hope for the best but deep down anyone here who thinks the block is ok knows deep down that's it's not. I guess there have been instances where all the cards fell the right way......but not this time.

I agree, Op needs to start the dis assembly or have it done. After that it will be time to look for a new motor. Sad really....people on the forum are starting to get tired of the valve threads. I guess because the problem is known it's no longer a worthy subject, until it happens again.

Vettelover2

Well everyone after further review of the spark plug I can say only the ground electrode (L piece) and a small piece of the insulator(white part) of the spark plug is in the engine. The plug in not split in half. It just looks that way. All the threads are there just a smudge / bend on the last thread.

All I can say is that I am still in shock. I have never had a problem with non of my performance or luxury cars. Still can't believe I may be out of 10 to 15k. I can afford my cars but we all know I can buy another car at 10-15k. I love my Vette but this makes me question GM's 427 build and car. My 03 SVT Cobra gave me no problems,C6, 99 LS1 Ram Air TA, and 91 Z28. Don't want to go back to the heavy beast but 15k for a engine. No one have these issues on a car but the Z06. All of them should go 100k easy and for the price we pay for the Z. I still have my 91z28 with a 350 / LT4 cam, 1.6 rockers, NOS, SLP headers and never any engine problems till this day with 170k miles.

I am still furious because my car look brand new inside and out. Plus all service records from the dealer from day 1. Pissed!

'06 Quicksilver Z06

Sorry for your misfortune man.

Did you pull the head yet?

HOXXOH

Easier check for serious damage is pulling the air cleaner, and looking in the intake manifold for debris. All the pics I've seen have also broken the intake valve and pieces end up there.

The part that says broken block to me, is when the attempted restart failed. If the engine won't even crank, you know it's toast.

Mark2009

Well, at this stage nothing is certain until you get a look inside that cylinder, one way or another.

Speculation is always abundant when facts are in short supply.

lilredvette05

Sorry OP, I cant believe that these motors are blowing like no tomorrow. All that money for a top end car and cant even make it from point a to b without worrying about it.

I think GM should be responsible for everyone thats had a valve drop. Not just because of good business practice but how about morals!! If i was a GM rep on this matter I COULDN'T SLEEP AT NIGHT!! Knowing that good hard working people are going through enough stress with economy and stuff now one of the things we love and just enjoy to get away in is toast!!

If the block is toast, id just scrap what i could from it and buy a forged one from an aftermarket shop, still expensive but more bullet proof. Also good excuse to make big hp if your funds allow it

vvlf

This is insane. We have to get a class action lawsuit going.

KLLRVET

+100

kenw

To the poster, very sorry for whatever has happened to your Z.

Many of us on this forum are very concerned about the "valve" issue with our cars.

I see you live in Ga., if you are anywhere near Vengence Racing they are very well thought of on this Forum and have been helping some of us with this problem. You may want to call them, maybe they can help.

Good luck.

Mar48

I don't have a Z yet, but why haven't people banded together for a class action if it's really a large issue? I guess I've never been in one so I don't know what all goes into it. I assume someone has to take the lead who is very knowledgable with the legal system and has a lot of time?

'06 Quicksilver Z06

Any updates?

tt350z

WOW!!! After reading this thread, I think I'm officially done with looking for a Z06 LS7... I cant imagine what I would do. I would be so upset with my self. I have read about this problem but put it behind me and thought to my self it really doesn't happen but for some reason your story just hit home with me and I feel your pain. I think I will be just saving and getting a CTS-V coupe... Hope you get this issue figured out. No Way in Hell am I spending 38-45k on a car that possibly has this problem and GM wont back there work or take any responsibility for a known problem. Good luck with everything....

LT5 John

If you are that concerned about the heads. Try looking for one with the heads already done, maybe that will work for you?...The CTS-V is a nice ride, I would rather have the Z...

Kneel 8250

Well I am going to disagree with everyone else and tell you that spark plug is a classic pre-ignition case. You have a tune on your car and a fresh tank of gas. It seems to me that you burnt a hole in the piston so things probably wont be as dire as some are predicting.
Unfortunately if I am correct it does mean work.

Hope I am wrong and you can salvage without too much expense.

Kneel.

z51vett

If you are stock no tune contact GM and see if they will do a one time courtesy replacement. 1-800-222-1020 contact local dealer to see who their GM rep is and see if he can help first. Are you near Atlanta Ga, David at Jim Ellis is the best tech around he worked for vengenance Racing for a while.
z51vett
Doug

Mark2009

Could be an excellent call. I was thinking that the damage to that plug looked more heat related than mechanical. Hmmm . . . . .


Stock plugs? Any little specks on the electrode insulators of the other plugs?

Bill Dearborn

Try GM and see what they say. If all of your service has been at one dealership from day one then go to them and see what they say. The GM Rep has the ability to authorize a Goodwill Warranty Replacement. Process starts with GM getting a dump of the ECM programming.

As I have posted before this has happened to 9 engines that I personally know about. One of the engines dropped the intake valve Vs the exhaust valve. The owner was able to save the engine and the car is back doing track events. When the valve dropped it marked the top of the piston but didn't damage the cylinder walls so he was able to replace the heads with a set of WCCH heads.

When my exhaust valve dropped the head of the valve went out the intake port (after breaking off the intake valve head) and into the intake manifold. Piston was heavily damaged but not broken but the cylinder wall was cracked in two places. When dealer did should cost to determine whether to repair or replace they figured they would need a new block, crank, piston and rod assemblies for both cylinders on that crank throw and at least one new head and maybe an intake manifold. I suspect if I had been doing the work myself I would have torn the engine down and determined if both piston/rod assemblies and crank had to be replaced. Then I would have checked to see if it was cheaper to resleeve the block or just replace it.

I would have also looked for a used engine to see if I could save some money there. There are a number of used engines out of wrecks floating around (including one from just two weekends ago). The advantage of getting a used engine is you can pull the heads while it is out of the car and have them done.

Don't despair yet. There may be plenty of economical solutions available that don't involve buying a new replacement engine.

Bill

Kneel 8250

Everything Bill says above is true and certainly what I would try first. The cost to you is little initially and the worst GM can say is no.

Kneel.