ECC August Meet in Thomasville

[68/2010]

It's going to be beautiful next weekend. pray for sunshine !!!!!!!!

[Tusk]

Unfortunately we will not be able to make it to the meet. I thought I was chasing an exhaust leak, figured out Friday night it was the lifters. After tearing down the engine, three lifters were bad, one of them scored as you can see. I will be ordering new lifters, a cam, oil pump and other parts tomorrow and hope to have it put back together next weekend. Luckily we found it before it became terminal.

Not sure if we will make any more meets until after high school football season is over, it will all depend on scheduling and open weeks.

[acatlover13]

Originally Posted by Tusk

Unfortunately we will not be able to make it to the meet. I thought I was chasing an exhaust leak, figured out Friday night it was the lifters. After tearing down the engine, three lifters were bad, one of them scored as you can see. I will be ordering new lifters, a cam, oil pump and other parts tomorrow and hope to have it put back together next weekend. Luckily we found it before it became terminal.

Not sure if we will make any more meets until after high school football season is over, it will all depend on scheduling and open weeks.

BOOOOO!

(Hope you get her all sorted out and back on the road soon. I know how hard it is to see it in the "hospital.")

[Lil' Nasty]

Sorry to hear that tusk, my dad had a bad lifter on his zo6 and had to replace the cam so glad to hear you caught it before anything bad happened

[Scott@Bjorn3D]

Wow, you did not have it tuned did you? That would all be warranty items.

[Tam's Cam]

Originally Posted by Tusk

Unfortunately we will not be able to make it to the meet. I thought I was chasing an exhaust leak, figured out Friday night it was the lifters. After tearing down the engine, three lifters were bad, one of them scored as you can see. I will be ordering new lifters, a cam, oil pump and other parts tomorrow and hope to have it put back together next weekend. Luckily we found it before it became terminal.

Not sure if we will make any more meets until after high school football season is over, it will all depend on scheduling and open weeks.

I'm sorry about your baby!! Hopefully it'll be up & running soon. We'll miss y'all!!
Good Luck in the football games!!

[68/2010]

So sorry Eddie & Missy, that's just awful . How did you know it was the lifters ? How does that happen? Hope you get her fixed soon.

[Tusk]

Originally Posted by Scott@Bjorn3D

Wow, you did not have it tuned did you? That would all be warranty items.

Yes, it was tuned last year, no warranty. Tuned it at about 70k miles. Had 25k miles on the tune. So, no warranty.

Originally Posted by 68/2010

So sorry Eddie & Missy, that's just awful . How did you know it was the lifters ? How does that happen? Hope you get her fixed soon.

I have been noticing for a while what I thought was a louder tick than normal in the valve train. Took it to several shops and other people, all of them agreed it was just typical LS3 valve noise (sewing machine). After finally getting long tube headers the noise was louder. I kept thinking it was an exhaust leak, and actually found a couple very small leaks at the clamps.

Last week I kept hearing it and thought another clamp was leaking. Took it Friday to have the exhaust welded, could not find a leak in the exhaust. Using a stethoscope we listened to the exhaust and intake of the heads and determined it was coming from the valve train. Took it to the garage and listened to it some more. Pulled the valve covers and the 1,3,5,7 initially looked ok, so we pulled 2,4,6,8 side and found a loose rocker arm. The #4 valve stem showed signs of being beaten on (which is the one that had the loose rocker arm)

Started going deeper, pulled the heads and found the scored lifter on #3 intake, other issues with #7 intake and #4 intake lifters. Not sure, but it probably would not have made another 100 - 200 miles before completely going up. Glad I parked it and started investigating when we did. It was also a good thing I put the headers on so I could definitely tell it was a lifter as the sound of the valve train was amplified through the exhaust system. Since we had already tuned it, the warranty was gone even before the LT's and new tune.

The cam has uneven wear patterns, not recent either. Looks like it had been going on for quite a while, perhaps since new just not enough for the service techs to pick up on it. We are cutting the oil filter open tomorrow night to see if there is metal in it. Oh well, live and learn. We have 97k miles now. I know it is a lot, but it is a daily driver not a race car.

So, even if we had gotten GM to look at the valve train in depth, my luck is they would have claimed it was within tolerance. It almost made it to 100k, which is all they are supposed to according to GM. Drives me crazy that all manufacturers (not just GM) are concerned about is making it to the end of the warranty period, and that is about all they will last. If they would take 5 more minutes at each station to install parts correctly, these motors would last to 250k miles. But that costs another $10/station.

Sorry for the rant at the end, and for thread jacking. I will go back to my rock now and try and find more blood in that turnip to fix this motor. I am not giving up on this car. It may have bad paint, scratches, worn seats and all, but we love the car and will not give it up.

One last thing, this car has not been beat on and it showed when we tore into the motor. I should have beat on it more, and probably will now. If you are approaching 100K miles (more like 90K), I would start planning on replacing and/or upgrading the valve train. It is not a matter of if, but when.

[Baldman]

Originally Posted by Tusk

Yes, it was tuned last year, no warranty. Tuned it at about 70k miles. Had 25k miles on the tune. So, no warranty.



I have been noticing for a while what I thought was a louder tick than normal in the valve train. Took it to several shops and other people, all of them agreed it was just typical LS3 valve noise (sewing machine). After finally getting long tube headers the noise was louder. I kept thinking it was an exhaust leak, and actually found a couple very small leaks at the clamps.

Last week I kept hearing it and thought another clamp was leaking. Took it Friday to have the exhaust welded, could not find a leak in the exhaust. Using a stethoscope we listened to the exhaust and intake of the heads and determined it was coming from the valve train. Took it to the garage and listened to it some more. Pulled the valve covers and the 1,3,5,7 initially looked ok, so we pulled 2,4,6,8 side and found a loose rocker arm. The #4 valve stem showed signs of being beaten on (which is the one that had the loose rocker arm)

Started going deeper, pulled the heads and found the scored lifter on #3 intake, other issues with #7 intake and #4 intake lifters. Not sure, but it probably would not have made another 100 - 200 miles before completely going up. Glad I parked it and started investigating when we did. It was also a good thing I put the headers on so I could definitely tell it was a lifter as the sound of the valve train was amplified through the exhaust system. Since we had already tuned it, the warranty was gone even before the LT's and new tune.

The cam has uneven wear patterns, not recent either. Looks like it had been going on for quite a while, perhaps since new just not enough for the service techs to pick up on it. We are cutting the oil filter open tomorrow night to see if there is metal in it. Oh well, live and learn. We have 97k miles now. I know it is a lot, but it is a daily driver not a race car.

So, even if we had gotten GM to look at the valve train in depth, my luck is they would have claimed it was within tolerance. It almost made it to 100k, which is all they are supposed to according to GM. Drives me crazy that all manufacturers (not just GM) are concerned about is making it to the end of the warranty period, and that is about all they will last. If they would take 5 more minutes at each station to install parts correctly, these motors would last to 250k miles. But that costs another $10/station.

Sorry for the rant at the end, and for thread jacking. I will go back to my rock now and try and find more blood in that turnip to fix this motor. I am not giving up on this car. It may have bad paint, scratches, worn seats and all, but we love the car and will not give it up.

One last thing, this car has not been beat on and it showed when we tore into the motor. I should have beat on it more, and probably will now. If you are approaching 100K miles (more like 90K), I would start planning on replacing and/or upgrading the valve train. It is not a matter of if, but when.

Sorry about your Camaro. Why don't you bring the Avalanche. We haven't seen you guys in so long and with football coming up it won't be until next year til we see you.

[Tusk]

We haven't discussed taking the Avalanche, but hope to have parts arrive to begin the rebuild this weekend.

I would like to move our engine problem discussion to the main ECC thread. This weekend should be about everyone enjoying the meet & great and cruise.

Thanks to all for your support and well wishes.

[ducatisl]

Now Eddie, you coulda gone a few more miles on those lifters! Here's how mine looked at 36k miles...and yes, the cam (Comp Cam) had to be replaced too:

[Ellehcim]

Ok I'm a maybe on joining you guys on Sat.
Probably won't happen but hey I can try.

[68/2010]

Originally Posted by Ellehcim

Ok I'm a maybe on joining you guys on Sat.
Probably won't happen but hey I can try.

You never know. it just might happen.

[cruisingcamaro]

Ryan & I are in!!! Finally, I get to cruise with the Elite. It's been a while, looking forward to seeing the group. If we are going to Valdosta, then who is booking a room? Thanks, Betsy