ZL 1 LSA Supercharger brick
 

Recently I was conversing with a fellow at a local shop and he cautioned me about a problem with the "brick" portion of the supercharger. He mentioned this problem occurs around 40K miles and involves some sort of leak. He said you can remove and reinforce/weld to prevent a potential disaster. How big of a problem is this and what is the proper way to address it?

It isn't hard if you can weld or know a welder who can TIG. It involves removing the lid, taking out the bricks and welding a 1/8" piece of aluminum along the side that faces into the blower.

It is very common on C6 ZR1s to have the bricks reinforced. I dont know how prevalent it is on ZL1s but if you run your car hard or have upped the horsepower, I would do it. Reinforcing is cheaper than a fixing/replacing a hydro-locked engine because coolant got into a cylinder.

Here is a pic of the LS9 bricks I just sold that are reinforced. The 2nd pic of is non-reinforced and what can happen because of heat.

https://i.imgur.com/fz5l1Ph.jpg

https://www.ctsvowners.com/attachments/brick-jpg.10889/

I never heard of the brick failing at 40 k w/o mods. Failure can occur with mods increasing the pressure. It is not expensive to do: $100-$150.

You answered your own question :)
Some builders have noted it happen with as low as stock boost. The higher the boost the more likely to bend the end.
They weld on a plate to the end so it doesn't push in. The brick is like a mini-radiator so the end is the part that gets pushed in. If it doesn't leak you have lost flow and charge cooling efficiency. If it does leak it could be bad depending on how big the leak.

It is on a checklist of things to do for any saavy LSA upgrader. Only about $100 mod. I haven't done mine yet but it is at the top of the list.
I would consider that less of a problem than newer SC engines completely blowing the fins off their intercoolers, yikes.


They posted before me so sounds like I was derrr repeating what they said, oh well.

Had mine reinforced when I changed the pulleys. I figured 16-17 lbs would be too much for a stock brick. Shop near Austin, TX does it for about $100.

Very common problem on the LSA. As previously mentioned it has been know to happen on stock boost. I just had mine reinforced this past fall. $32 for the aluminum plates and $60 for a local shop to weld them on ("local" it was Steeda lol). The biggest pain in removing the s/c lid due to the 6 rear bolts under the cowl. Other than that it's a super easy and cheap mod.

And yes, the CTS-V brick is slightly different than ours due to lid design. So in your searching make sure you get the ZL1 specific plates and/or brick.

Here is some good info about it: https://fiinterchillers.com/lsa-inte...reinforcement/

I drilled holes in the upper valance to have easy access to the rear bolts in the future. It is covered by the plastic panel so you can't see the holes.