Well my baby died the other weekend! It was a sad day! I was on my way home (only drove 1 mile across town) and about 3 blocks from home and she started to sputter and gag. Then started in the really loud 'pinging' sounded like a Model T sputtering around or something. I managed to make it into my garage but it was obvious things were bad. I check the oil and found bits of metal on the dipstick, I think thats when my heart nearly stopped! Anyway to make a saga shorter, I managed to get ahold of the dealer and arranged for her to be picked up on a roll-back wrecker. Dealer decleared the obvious, the engine was blown!! Luckily at 77k miles it is still under the powertrain warranty and they are dropping in a new engine today! I'm told they ran some diagnostics to check for performance mods (I haven't done any yet) but luckily they decided to cover it in full, even the towing!!!!!! So in the end, after 77k miles I'm getting a brand new engine, so thank you Chevy for standing behind the car and not trying to find a loophole out of what was surely an expensive repair!! The dealer even helped me out and gave me a decent deal on a replacement clutch as they said mine was warn enough that I really should replace it while it was torn down.
If you can't tell from the pix below, a valve spring failed and released the valve retainer clips, dropping it into the cylinder! The valve head finally snapped off and then eventually snapped off the other valve head before both bashed around on the piston long enough to punch through it and the cylinder walls. In the end, both valve heads on the #4 cylinder where snapped off, the piston shredded, piston rod twisted and holes punched in the cylinder walls, leaving the oil pan to look like it was a chunky metal soup!
