Mark2009

I'm sorry you got called on context manipulation while committing an ad hominem, but textual diarrhea is not the solution. Let's move on and perhaps it will pass.

Les

In fairness to Bill, he seems to be a pretty solid guy. He just stated some basic info- he may not have anything more right now. He doesn't seem to have an agenda or be a sensationalist, unlike a couple of other folks who come to mind. Maybe he'll provide more details if they become available.

LMB-Z

Waiting to hear about the car from OP

TWS Racing

I'm in both acceptance (I'm not doing anything about it, except to refrain from mods that void my warranty) and bargaining (the problem was unofficially fixed 2/11 and my 2012 3LZ was built 11/11, so I convinced myself that my motor is safe )

From the large amount of Corvette enthusiasts I know in local clubs and reading on the boards, but it seems like most LS7 failures are in 2008 and 2009 ZO6's. I have no explanation to give, it's just my casual observation.

Mark2009

True, but the lack of details only prompts people to assume them or make them up. Given that, headlines are best withheld until facts are known. Otherwise you just have a feeding frenzy of speculation.

J.J.D.O.

Bill, do you know if he was wearing a helmet?

Did he change his flugi-gasket at every oil change?

Was the dinkerator replaced at 10k miles?

Gees, tough crowd in here Bill. I for one appreciate hearing about popped motor. It simply provides me with more incentive to upgrade when the factory warranty is close to expiration.

JJ

Random84

So there isn't a difference between a 20,000 mile bone-stock weekend cruiser that pops, and a 90,000 mile car with 15,000+ *****-to-the-wall track miles on it?

There have been a few threads here bashing GM with loads of conspiracy theory, demands for warranty coverage and OMG the sky is falling type posts - but everyone kind of forgets that some of these cars held up for the equivalent of five 24 hours at Le Mans events PLUS 60+ thousand highway miles before having a failure, with NO maintenance?

From the tone of your post(s), I should be more surprised that the car failed than the owner(s) actually expected the car to take that kind of abuse with nothing more than a Mobil1 5w30 oil change (while kind of blaming GM for the free motor too?)? Seriously?

Who knows if THIS situation is similar or not, Bill hasn't clarified yet but you seem to know already? As for me, my post was to illustrate just that: before we all pile on with the "it's the valve!" comments, perhaps further clarification will help us understand if this is another premature warranty issue versus a well-abused car that finally let go. That's the difference between "defect" and "well, **** happens."

rfopt

I had the same thought as well.

MTPZ06

Sure...it's just plain old fact finding. Any information is useful in determining a conclusion.

propain

And you think those questions are irrelevant?


If the car has modified with a big cam and no head work to compensate that would be categorized as a failure from abuse. If the car is not 100% stock with a factory tune that can also be categorized as abuse. If the car spends most of its life on the track that is categorized as abuse.


From this thread as with most on this forum about this subject there are three sides.

1. Blame abuse every time with or without facts or details

2. All LS7's are flawed and abused or not will fail

3. The middle guys who blame a little on design and a little on abuse and are looking for facts before jumping to conclusions and crying out that the sky is continuing to fall.


Like it or not each case is unique. You can't just lump them all together. It failing on the track does point in a direction of abuse however. Maybe it was the guys first time out though. Maybe the car had 60K miles on it. So many questions ZERO information so far in this thread to made any conclusions.

MTPZ06

All we know is a C6Z of undetermined age/mileage was on a road course, and the motor blew. That's FAR less shocking to me than, "I was heading to the grocery store at 45 mph when my motor exploded".

jedblanks

I have moved on, with SS valves and bronze guides. And let me tell you the perspective from this side is wonderfully amusing.

All of those people left behind with stock toy parts, flailing like a fish out of water, defending their lack of motivation to fix it. So, yes, let's move on.

And I have "textual diarrhea".

When it comes to dropping a valve, the defective (admitted by GM) manufacturing that causes it doesn't change based on use or abuse of the car.

No sir.

Everyone is a expert genious mechanical tough guy behind their Internet keyboard.

How many of you have actually had your hands dirty and seen theis thing first hand?? Lol.

'06 Quicksilver Z06

Bill says that he has now seen or knows of 9 LS7 motors failing.

That is not the kind of news that anyone in here wants to hear. Whether it is those who are of the belief that this issue is overblown, or of the belief that the issue is rampant.

I don't believe that anyone, any owner, no matter which position they take, wants to know of yet another LS7 failure regardless the cause, whether it was a valve or not, because another report, is yet another strike against the overall robustness and durability of the LS7 engine. Another black eye for the LS7. Valve or not.

You know Jed, one of the things I don't miss at all, since I left the belief that this matter was blown out of proportion, is making excuses everytime a report of one of these cars failing, hit the board.

Trying to explain it away and introduce "reasonable doubt" amongst anyone reading the report, by throwing out there that the car was abused, tracked beaten on, the driver missed a shift, etc.

And then shooting the messenger who brought it up in the first place.

I see what's going on here, and it reminds me a lot of what I used to do.

Things are indeed different from this perspective. It's so good to not have to proffer excuses for yet somebody else's car having failed, for yet some other poor sap's car having blown up, and trying to pin the blame on anything else I could think of, while shooting the messenger for being "irresponsible" and bringing bad news in here, and pouring gasoline on the fire and stirring the pot in the first place.

propain

**Genius**

You seem to be very combative without reason.

Congrats on doing an update on your drivetrain. Do you know the long term effects on running the SS exhaust valve which is much heavier than the stock? Did you upgrade your springs as well? For all you know 20K miles from now you might just be another statistic on how running SS exhaust valves caused failure in other areas of the drivetrain. So don't go patting yourself and congratulating yourself too much now.

propain

I'm confused by this. Are you saying details on failure are no longer relevant in your mind?

I think bringing in info on "another failed LS7" without details is irresponsible at best. Yes some fail without reason, or so the owner says, but many fail due to modification and or abuse as well. To ignore those statistics is also irresponsible.

'06 Quicksilver Z06

I think they are indeed relevant.

Especially for the poor soul whose motor just popped.

But as I stand at a distance propain, I'm sort of ashamed to say it, but when I see these failures now, first thing that comes to mind is "better him than me."

I know, that's a $%#*++Y thing to say, but I'm just to a point now to where I've seen enough.

It eventually wears you down.

You become jaded and you get to a point to where you just don't care to argue in here as to what "might" have caused it to fail.

The only thing you can do, as a concerned owner, is take steps to lessen the chances of your being next.

That's it.

At the end of the day, that's all that you can do. Search out and do your best to eliminate potential failure points.

I think that at this point, we have enough information now, with or without Bill's report, with or without the official cause of death for this one motor out of several, being known, to make up our minds here.

I say that, because even IF.....EVEN IF, it turns out to be the "classic" dropped valve........Do you, propain, think that it would change anyone's in here who has responded in this thread, mind?

I don't.

Back in the day, I was doing, what you see a few of these guys in this thread right now doing.

Offering up excuses for why somebody else's car, not my car mind you, but why somebody else's car, "might" have failed.

Believe me, it's not worth the time, and is a flat out dead end. Jed, sort of alludes to it above in post #31. When you simply no longer have to worry about the particular type of failure which many in here in their posts are alluding to, it's like being let out of jail. It's relieving. You get out from under it. You escape it. You're no longer captive to it, susceptible to it. Despite the objections and naysayings of some, you're cured of it. Vaccinated against it. Immune to it. You've got your vest on. So there is no need to argue, dream up reasons, and make excuses about why somebody else's car failed. The fact that their car popped, is not going to cost you a dime. It's not your problem, and you have taken steps so that if it is the type of failure often spoken about on this forum, well then it likely never will be your problem.

And when that happens, you no longer need to argue about it and speculate as to whether or not it hit someone else. The fact is, it didn't, and isn't, going to hit you. And you feel good about that.

Again, though, and I have mixed feelings about this, and reservations about saying it, but I don't really care why that car failed. People in here are hollering valve this, and valve that, I don't really care. Mine is still running.

The only thing I can do, is my best to keep it running.

I hope for you the best in your efforts, propain.

Good luck.

Ricky

Mark2009

So, this was an OEM valve failure, right?

See, we don't need any further info from the OP at all!

Mark2009

I believe that he's saying the car in the OP dropped an OEM exhaust valve.

Given these multiple confirmations, it must be true

Turbooo2u

At this point, who cares WHY it blew, just that a catastrophic failure occurred again is bad enough.

z0sicktanner

I think some are still at number one because they say well it was tracked How many engines will it take....tracked modded stock low miles all the same problem damn ppl wake up