(UPDATE) 4000 miles and three broken drivers side intake rockers

[CrazyRED]

Originally Posted by Royal Tiger

I'm right next to Bethlehem and in Law Enforcement, so pm me if you need help OP.

Thank you, I appreciate the offer

[BMR Sales]

Originally Posted by maddoggyusa

yea I think you're right... tends to bend push rods, valves


from reading the original listing... previous owner had it only a short time... so he may have no clue anything was wrong.

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=478767

Is the Seller a Car Dealer? Seems as if he's had a few 5th Gens F/S and was looking for others

[CrazyRED]

Originally Posted by DonziCamaro13

Have you contacted the seller? I would even go as far as to talk to the person who owned it previously to him. Weird he only had it for a month but people charge their minds all the time for legit reasons!

No, I haven't talked to anybody beside the people that have their hands on it now. I really want to find out exactly what's going on before I raise any red flags.

This post was made to show another rocker failure, not to be a witch hunt.

The whole thing is fishy to me right now, but I don't know anything 100% yet.

[CamaroFred]

Originally Posted by Royal Tiger

I'm right next to Bethlehem and in Law Enforcement, so pm me if you need help OP.

Originally Posted by CrazyRED

No, I haven't talked to anybody beside the people that have their hands on it now. I really want to find out exactly what's going on before I raise any red flags.

This post was made to show another rocker failure, not to be a witch hunt.

The whole thing is fishy to me right now, but I don't know anything 100% yet.

The previous owner dropped into 2nd at too high a speed.
The rev limiter won't help when you do that.

[Soybeanrice]

Originally Posted by CrazyRED

In my opinion, the person that sold to me didn't know, we spent many nights talking on the phone and have even talked about the car since I've owned it and about what he bought after selling the car to me.

I don't know that there's been any funny business, that's why I didn't mention anybody specifically. I really want to get the engine out and run numbers and take a look at the rest of the internals. This may be nothing more than terrible stock parts on a very low mileage car.

However, if there is any foul play I will certainly look into what options I have available to recoup some of my money I'm losing on this..

This sounds similar to the motorcycle I just recently bought. Previous owner didn't really do anything, it was the owner before him that did everything. Luckily nothing bad in my case, just neglect.

[CrazyRED]

Originally Posted by BMR Sales

Is the Seller a Car Dealer? Seems as if he's had a few 5th Gens F/S and was looking for others

No, from what I gather he's a collector. He has quite a few personal cars, some very cool personal cars. He has a specific taste and this one 1LE didn't really go along with his trends in buying. Basically from what I gather he didn't want to let a super low mileage perfect condition Camaro walk away, basically the same as me. He bought it in the middle of the Penn winter and didn't have any opportunities to take it out and drive it.

I didn't find anything odd about any of the transaction, he was not super motivated to sell it. If I came up with the cash he was asking he would sell it, if I didn't he would hold onto it.

[CrazyRED]

Originally Posted by CamaroFred

The previous owner dropped into 2nd at too high a speed.
The rev limiter won't help when you do that.

The damage in these rockers was not from one single instance, these failures happened over time. The pushrods are in perfect condition. We have seen these rockers fail time and time again, this is nothing new beside the low mileage. Somebody has to be the lowest mileage rocker failure, and I might just win the award.

[Gstick]

Originally Posted by kev618

Being a member of this site and having a bone stock Camaro (unless brand new) is like going to the grocery store just to look around. Pretty rare imo.

I happen to be 1 of those members !

[myold88]

Originally Posted by Gstick

I happen to be 1 of those members !

Mine is also after 8 years. Aftermarket axle backs and that's it.
Few and far between for sure.

[CrazyRED]

Well, I wasn't able to get the engine pulled today, but I was able to go over the car with a fine tooth comb while it was on the lift. Everything looks to be in perfect condition, very little to no signs of wear or damage. Everything looks extremely legit to back up the 4000 easy miles claim.

That is, until you get to the engine and trans. As far as outside wear goes, it looks to be in good condition. However, the clean exterior gives way to some telling signs. Normally with stock engine and trans assembled in a plant there are inspection markings usually found on critical toque bolts and fasteners. This was something that was easily verified by looking at several other Camaros and Corvettes that were up on lifts.

My Camaro had inspection markings on every other critical torque point such as the diff and suspension components, but the engine and trans are completely void of any such marking.

This new revelation has me quite concerned as to what we are gonna find once we crack that block and pop off the bearing caps. I'm still hoping for a miracle and I'll find out that the engine looks perfect for a 4000 mile clock and that there has been no other damage done to the bottom end.

At this point I'm right on the fence. If there's nothing wrong, great! I'll put it all back together and enjoy my new upgraded badass Camaro. However, if there any more damage the price is going to start getting close to a figure that I would start thinking about a new built engine.

Anybody have some links of where to research some new badass engines

[christianchevell]

SAG performance/ custom engine supply. Thompson motor sport, livernois , lingenfelter etc.... Tick, Mast, many vendors do sell crates also you just have to shop around on the net. There is the possibility that you may have gotten a bad cam that did not break in well, as my tuner has seen that on various GM stock motors over time..and its not that uncommon even with rollers and that's why I use a driven racing break in oil and a 8620 core. If you have one cylinder dirtier than the others it may have been hurt as the bearings could be rom the shrapnel of the cam degrading.

A pic would show what the condition of the cam is if its bad with the appearance of maybe air bubbling pitting the surface of the lobes that went bad from maybe.... bad spot in the furnace....some old claims were around for the comp cams doing this but it was years ago and many do not believe in the break in procedure being a roller which is a lot like a flat tappet, and many change out the oil at 1500 miles on a new engine just to get crap out from the initial build.

Things to think about, if the engine does not match what a bummer...the original papers for the vehicle you have? I think under seats and on gas tanks etc..you can find copies of the build sheet. Good Luck. I read the bulletins on driven racings website about this and that and their articles are great. No decent old motorhead trusts the oil now a days as its all garbage with lower ZDDP due to cats so you have to be careful or breaking in a cam can trash a engine before the cam can even break in ...on a flat tappet...

[CamaroFred]

Originally Posted by CrazyRED

No, from what I gather he's a collector. He has quite a few personal cars, some very cool personal cars. He has a specific taste and this one 1LE didn't really go along with his trends in buying. Basically from what I gather he didn't want to let a super low mileage perfect condition Camaro walk away, basically the same as me. He bought it in the middle of the Penn winter and didn't have any opportunities to take it out and drive it.

I didn't find anything odd about any of the transaction, he was not super motivated to sell it. If I came up with the cash he was asking he would sell it, if I didn't he would hold onto it.

Unfortunately "Collector" has become well used for people that hope to make a few extra dollars buying and selling cars.

They are not "collecting" it or they wouldn't be selling it.

[CrazyRED]

Originally Posted by christianchevell

SAG performance/ custom engine supply. Thompson motor sport, livernois , lingenfelter etc.... Tick, Mast, many vendors do sell crates also you just have to shop around on the net. There is the possibility that you may have gotten a bad cam that did not break in well, as my tuner has seen that on various GM stock motors over time..and its not that uncommon even with rollers and that's why I use a driven racing break in oil and a 8620 core. If you have one cylinder dirtier than the others it may have been hurt as the bearings could be rom the shrapnel of the cam degrading.

A pic would show what the condition of the cam is if its bad with the appearance of maybe air bubbling pitting the surface of the lobes that went bad from maybe.... bad spot in the furnace....some old claims were around for the comp cams doing this but it was years ago and many do not believe in the break in procedure being a roller which is a lot like a flat tappet, and many change out the oil at 1500 miles on a new engine just to get crap out from the initial build.

Things to think about, if the engine does not match what a bummer...the original papers for the vehicle you have? I think under seats and on gas tanks etc..you can find copies of the build sheet. Good Luck. I read the bulletins on driven racings website about this and that and their articles are great. No decent old motorhead trusts the oil now a days as its all garbage with lower ZDDP due to cats so you have to be careful or breaking in a cam can trash a engine before the cam can even break in ...on a flat tappet...

The cam didn't look good when it came out, but I guess it's kinda hard to tell anything based on that after the fact of the rockers breaking because of all the metal that's flying around.

Everything going in everywhere is going to be new, the bottom end is gonna be cleaned out completely, gonna throw in some break in lube and then do three oil changes in the next 1000 miles. The first oil change will have around 20 or less miles on it.

Hopefully that gets everything out

[Avenging Orange]

Hope you get it sorted out, my friend. Sadly these kind of things happen......just sucks when its you.