Adam_W

I know that any boost is boost, and is going to make an LS7 less reliable than, say, a mild cam / intake / tune.

My question is how less reliable is it?

Say that I want to daily drive this Z06 around town, 5 days a week, 10 miles a day, for the next 10 years. ( I realize this is all conjecture, as it hasn't been 10 years since the C6 was introduced.)

If I get the A&A kit with very low boost (whatever that is.. 4-5 psi ?), and of course get the heads reworked/valves etc, can we be confident that it will last 10 years? I'm busy with work and don't have time to work on the car or even take it into the shop if a belt snaps or something else happens.

Now compare that to a stock Z06 (with heads reworked/valves etc) that has a "smog cam" to meet california requirements plus cold air intake and tune. Is the NA setup much more likely to last the 10 years than the A&A kit with low boost, or is it pretty similar?


My car will always be a daily driver so reliability comes first. I'm not one of these guys who can afford to sell and buy corvettes every few years. Though I dream of the C7 Z06, realistically I might stick with my C6 Z06 for many years to come. So even though I'm tempted by A&A, who is located 2 hours a way, I want some idea of what degree of reliability I'm sacrificing for SC over NA.

Silver Bullet C6

Either way you go, I think it depends on how you drive it. If you get into the high RPM and high HP, your engine will be more likely to break eventually. Simply adding the supercharger will not make it less reliable. You do see folks breaking engines with FI, because most use the HP they have gained (among a few other factors).

jon6.0

I rail on my car daily and have put 33k miles on it since October 2011. I live 11 miles from work. I like to drive.

If you can truly leave it alone at low boost I think you will be just fine. It's when you start pushing it harder that problems can happen. My C6 is my daily driver, but I also have a motorcycle I can ride if something ever happens.

lilredvette05

It's all in the tune....700+whp tuned right will outlast 590whp tuned like crap. It sounds like your a pretty conservative driver and just do blasts here n there so I wouldn't hesitate putting an A&A kit on especially only 2hrs away. Tell Andy to keep it conservative on tune and call it a day

Unreal

I would say any modded car not needing anything in ~10 years is a stretch. Keep it stock if that is your main concern. That being said, I think it would be able the same. 5-6psi wouldn't be hard on the motor but it is still more stress than the factory designed. Clutchs, bearings, etc are all going to have accelerated wear. The SC will drive nicer, better mileage, but you will be replacing belts more often, replacing plugs more often, air filters, etc.

If I was in your situation, I would do the heads and maybe an intake then focus on stuff like tires, suspension, etc.

ZAKO6

A lot of it has to do with the tune like many said but the bottom line with any FI application is that **** can go wrong for no reason at any time and you have to be willing to accept that. You are setting up the car to so something or working it to a point it wasn't made operate at. Say you even have a forged top of the line motor......**** still happens. Many have asked the question and I get where your coming from cuz I'm always curious and want to be conservative too. However, there really is no answer to a question like this.
But to prove this just take some general examples. You have people pushin say 800+ with no major problems on a stock block then you turn around and see someone broke a piston or dropped a valve in their 650 hp car. There is no rhyme or reason......kinda just fate I guess haha. A good tune and proper build should just give you a little more confidence or peace of mind.
But overall, your concern about a setup like this is not very wild and a rather moderate power level. If your car reacts like many of the others out there with similar setups it should be fine and helluva a lotta fun.

Unreal

Even then, wanting this car to be trouble free for 10 years is a hard job when it is kept stock, let along add 100-200hp. I would keep it near stock if you are daily driving and have those expectations, in fact I wouldn't expect a z06 to do that at all, but that is me.

0East Tx Muscle Cars

No issues for 10 years is going to be very hard with higher HP. BUT just putting the A&A kit on there and a conservative tune you should see many years of fun driving. I dont think at that level you will ever tear up a motor, but a clutch, sure. In the end it all comes down to how hard you drive it. Shift out at 6500 instead of 7000rpm and the motor will last forever at the stock psi levels with a very safe tune!

Tonylmiller

Go to the Z06 forum and read up on the LS7 engine failures.

Adam_W

Thanks, I'm aware - and spend a lot of time reading about - the LS7 failures, knew about this before I got my Z06. I got a CPO car and GMPP for that reason, and plan on reworking the heads at a reputable place.

Unreal

If you got a CPO/GMPP then you can't really do anything until that is over. Don't get me wrong, I have a supercharged z06 that I drive all over, but expecting it to be trouble free, especially for that long is a stretch. In the past year I think it has been on a tow truck twice. One time for throwing a belt, and one time for blowing a fuel pump fuse. Not major failures, took less than an hour to fix each one but still a minor pain.

My car has been pretty dang reliable since putting the blower on, but here is a few things I've had to fix.

Slipping clutch
Broken axle
Blown rear main seal
Lifter broke/cam lobe wiped
Fuel pump fuse
3-4 belts
Drive shaft guibos
2 melted spark plug wires
Not to mention fighting a battle against overheating in the summer.

2019 ZR1

Very good thread!!! I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on a supercharger myself. I think it depends on how you drive your car as to how many problems you have. The thing I'm worried about is the tune they use. I had a 2011 Camaro SS with a Edelbrock supercharger and the guy that tuned it fu*ked it up. I started to have problems with it and when I called to talk to him about he told me he doesn't do tunes anymore. Anyways I will make sure this time that the person that tunes it knows what the hell they are doing. I had a bunch of other mods on my Camaro so they didn't use the tune that came with the Edelbrock.

2019 ZR1

Ok, I think there is more to this. What year is your car? How many miles on your car? Do you track your car? Who did the install? What supercharger do you have?

Unreal

2006, blower went on at 20k, yes I track it, I installed/tuned it. Had an A&A and an ECS kit, currently ECS.

More to what? All but the belts wasn't really related to the blower, and that was just the power steering pulley out of alignment from the 8 rib kit. Lifter get taken out on stock LS motors, trucks, etc, not really related to blower. Early z06s break axles, in fact broke one n/a before blower went on. LS9R clutch wouldn't hold mid 900s, nor did I expect it too but that was something to be fixed. Rear main is common on high boost cars which is why doing a good venting setup for crank case pressure is important. Spark plug wires happened before and after blower, more related to just the heat of the headers/etc. Guibos on driveshaft like to twist apart at high HP too, just something to deal with when you do a blower and make decent power. A stock car could have most of these issues too. I was just pointing out that 10 years without issues, stock, mild n/a, or a blower isn't realistic on one of these cars IMO.

My car has been one of the more reliable supercharged cars I've known of, but I drive it a lot and stuff happens.