[Steve91T]

Man I'm excited. Dailydriver posted his car for sale and I could tell from that add that it was much loved and well taken care of. Unfortunately a nasty knock on the engine forced him to sell it. I thought this could be the perfect car for my dad.

This car looks amazing for having 172k miles. It is pretty rare to find a 1 owner car these days.

So, first things first. I had the car for all of 30 seconds before I broke it. I dragged the exhaust pulling into my driveway and separated the car back from the y pipe. So today I fixed that so the exhaust wasn't dragging on the ground anymore. Next, I need to make room for all the parts Dave packed into the car. It's completely full of parts. Thanks Dave! And finally, I need to figure out what's up with the engine. It has a nasty knock. It has great oil pressure, runs smooth, no smoke, but knocks really bad. I think it's a lifter, but I don't know. I think I'm going to pull the valve covers and see what I find. As well as this car has been taken care of, I'm hoping the engine is healty. I'd love to just replace some lifters and let my dad enjoy this car for a while.

Anyway, let me know what you guys would do to diagnose this knock.


https://youtu.be/AJUsOvgpnmg

https://youtu.be/otobYePJLyo

[Steve91T]

Got an email today. I'm really considering it. I'd have to change that huge cam for the one Texas Speed recommended, but it's cheap enough. After the cam change, I'd have about $2k into it. Then I'd sell my bottom end for whatever I can get. I think it would end up being about the same price but then I'd have a 100k bottom end instead of a 172k mile bottom end.

Thoughts?


Here are the emails:

Hey man I've got the stock bottom end out of my z06 for sale. Comes with a vengeance vindicator cam, ls7 lifters, melling high volume/high pressure oil pump. Motor has about 100k on it, cam and lifters and oil pump have about 10k. Im in sc(Anderson to be exact) and was asking 1400 obo.

Hey Steve,

The cam specs are 240/244 .605/.596 112 lsa, honestly I still got mid 20s mpg on the highway. The only oil burning issue it ever had was from a loose valve stem seal the shop left loose. Other than a valve stem issue it never really used any noticeable amount. Bottom end held high compression numbers and leak down values a cross the board. Oil pressure held pretty rock steady idling in the 50 lbs area even when hot.

The motor in its current form is a completely assembled shortblock. I took the oil pan off to use on my new motor setup but other that I sealed it up and wheeled the stand off to the side of the garage. It was pulled about a month back for two reasons really. I had a buddy who was "buying it for sure" and I believed him since he had bought my intake manifold and heads, so why not this.... well he no longer has the money and I don't want to endlessly wait so it's got to go, and the other reason is I was doing a turbo build and wanted a motor I could really beat on and make lots of power and not worry about since I'll be tuning on this one so I shoved a 5.3 iron block in the car.

The motor never did me wrong. Always a stout performer, but I dailydrove it for 2 years with absolutely zero issues. The front timing cover and all is still on the motor, lifters haven't came unmatted from the cam, heck the lifter trays are still bolted in the block.