Photo: image edited by autoevolution
We are now interrupting the series of 2015 Corvette Z06 (street) racing news for a special, unfortunate announcement - an example of the supercharged ‘Vette has recently blown its motor and we’re not referring to some supercharger pulley upgrade here. The car whose engine blew up had just 891 miles (1,386 km) on the odo.
The owner, a member of the Corvette Forum, went through the ordeal last Friday, with the 6.2-liter V8 giving up while the driver was shifting from second to third gear.
“I was out putting some more miles on the car to get ready for my track event at road atlanta Jan 10 and 11. While making a pull from 35 mph I accelerated and shifted short of redline and boom. Car began knocking. I pulled over and popped hood. Could hear a loud knock coming from # 6 cylinder area along with a serious grinding metal on metal sound coming from the supercharger area,” the owner explained.
The Z06 owner waited before posting this online, but now that his dealer called back (yesterday, December 30), he wants to share the story. The dealer confirmed the engine has experience a failure in the # 6 cylinder valvetrain. The dealer did not open the powerplant, which is being sent back to the GM mothership for evaluation.
The owner was asked to choose between having GM disassemble his engine and fix it or receiving a new unit. Since he “tracks his cars a lot”, he went for the fresh engine choice.
“Manual says break in is 500 miles. And not to track the car for the first 1500 miles. That is just to protect the trans and rear end for than anything. 891 miles or 2000 miles wouldn't of made a difference in my case. Engine was indeed broken in right with the 540 mile drive back from Rick Conti's in columbus OH back to north GA,” the owner said.
Looks like the LT4’s maternal ECU can’t take care of everything. After all, mechanical issues are mechanical issues and yet it’s great to see the problem taken care of properly.
“I was out putting some more miles on the car to get ready for my track event at road atlanta Jan 10 and 11. While making a pull from 35 mph I accelerated and shifted short of redline and boom. Car began knocking. I pulled over and popped hood. Could hear a loud knock coming from # 6 cylinder area along with a serious grinding metal on metal sound coming from the supercharger area,” the owner explained.
The Z06 owner waited before posting this online, but now that his dealer called back (yesterday, December 30), he wants to share the story. The dealer confirmed the engine has experience a failure in the # 6 cylinder valvetrain. The dealer did not open the powerplant, which is being sent back to the GM mothership for evaluation.
The owner was asked to choose between having GM disassemble his engine and fix it or receiving a new unit. Since he “tracks his cars a lot”, he went for the fresh engine choice.
How was the car treated?
We’ve all seen stuff like Z06 pulling burnouts straight out of the showroom, so there’s one important question here - how did this owner use his car? Well, guess we can’t know for sure, but the man does explain he’s taken proper care of the Corvette. Since he’s a long-time customer (he also bought a standard C7, for example) and he spends quite a lot of time on the track, we assume he does know that playing fair pays out.“Manual says break in is 500 miles. And not to track the car for the first 1500 miles. That is just to protect the trans and rear end for than anything. 891 miles or 2000 miles wouldn't of made a difference in my case. Engine was indeed broken in right with the 540 mile drive back from Rick Conti's in columbus OH back to north GA,” the owner said.
Looks like the LT4’s maternal ECU can’t take care of everything. After all, mechanical issues are mechanical issues and yet it’s great to see the problem taken care of properly.
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