News: LS7 Valve Guide Wear Issue

[Iroc2Vette]

I just sent off the oil sample yesterday. The instructions said I could just put it in the envelope and just drop it into any mail receptacle. Hopefully, I'll get a report in the next couple of weeks. I put on a special note that TI and FMPM was of greatest interest due to the valve drop issues of the earlier engines. Don't know if that'll mean anything or not. This should be very telling. It's like doing a blood test on the engine. I had about 8200 miles on the oil. No oil use during this last run.

 

[Iroc2Vette]

Apex oil analysis arrived

Here are the particulars of the report. Levels of metals and TI elements were extremely low. I received the following:

Sandy,
Please see the attached report for the oil sample that we received. Wear metals and titanium in particular look excellent.
Have a great day
Jason Rainey
Apex Oil Lab
3876 East Paris Ave., SE
Suite 11
Grand Rapids, MI 49512
Toll Free: (844) APEX OIL
www.apexoillab.com



Looks like all is well after nearly 38K miles. No worries here. I probably do a lot of shortish trips, so that's why my water dilution is a bit on the high side. Other than that, looks like the heads are holding together nicely

I emailed Jason to find out why the TBN durability number was exactly Zero...Seemed odd to me. He wrote back stating it was probably a anomaly in the testing. The only way to tell is to do another sample. Which I won't do for a while. The main thing is the stems and guides aren't grinding themselves to pieces.

 

[Iroc2Vette]

Latest oil analysis report-blackstone

Sorry it's been a while. This is my latest oil report at about 45K miles. The oil has about 8K miles of use including 5 hours of track time at NJ Motorsports Park. I now have 50K miles on the car. So far, so good. Also attached is a letter from Blackstone concerning the unusually low wear inside the engine.

 

[Hib Halverson]

From a wear metals standpoint, I'd say your engine is running well. There is no evidence of guid wear and, IMO little, chance of problems going forward..

 

[Iroc2Vette]

From a wear metals standpoint, I'd say your engine is running well. There is no evidence of guid wear and, IMO little, chance of problems going forward..

I really hope this is truly the case. My PT warranty ends this coming September, then I'm on my own. I feel fairly comfortable with reasonable care and use of a top quality synthetic lubricant that I can get this engine to run at least a 1/4 million miles...Might have to replace a crank damper or pulley tensioner along the way...but, I really don't expect anything major to happen at this point. If it does, may it happen before this September...