In Murica we love raw muscles not metro-sexual interior design.

 

you know what's funny that I thought of.

Debating over which interior is "better" - between Ford and GM, is like 2 kids arguing over who has a better overall car. One kid has a Hyundai and the other a Kia.

................

LOL.

 

That's somebody's personal picture taken with a flash. Of course the interior is going to look worse in that picture.

 

This is actually a good point. When the Z28 was being developed, they were having major issues with the 7.0L engine. During a development tuning ride at Nurburgring GM went through 3 of those engines for 3 days and 2 cars tested. I'd like to think they got it figured out now, but it may depend on what model year you get.

 

The 3lz has the leather padded dash and looked very nice. I like the regular looking double din radio as it is very easy and cheap to swap out unlike the mustang.

I really like my mustang interior, no complaints with that at all.

The grand sport with the 6.2, seems to be more expensive than a z06 as they only madenthem from 2010 onwards. I feel a grand sport is not special enough to swap the mustang. Is there any way to stop the valve dropping?

I was driving my wife's car the other day and she was behind me in the mustang. I habe to say, it looked really mean. I really need to lower it. Every time I look at it I see the massive wheel gap.

 

I have seen members quote ~ $2K as a budgetary figure to address the heads/valve issue as a preventative measure. Others have simply invested in a GMPP warranty for peace of mind.


I do not have the 7.0, but I was able to pay $100 to transfer an existing GMPP warranty into my name when I purchased my used Corvette. I'm not normally a warranty guy, but it was there so I took it. You could look for a car that has a transferrable warranty, or is still eligible to be purchased. Also, it's not hard to find used examples where the owner has already had this work done.


There are some other big ticket issues, notably fuel tank/sender problems to look out for, that also make a warranty an OK choice.


No doubt, the Corvette tax is real. I mod my Mustang for fun and have left the Corvette pretty much stock.

 

On the dropped valve point - couldn't he also just find/buy a used Vette that already had the dropped valve issue addressed?

Btw, can someone explain to a dumb guy like me what a "dropped valve" is?

 

Pretty much a generic slang term Burton. It refers to any manner of valve failure that would send the valve, or parts of it, down into the combustion chamber. For instance if a valve head was to fracture from its stem and beat around in the combustion chamber, or the keepers or spring fail and the valve falls. It’s not agood experience no matter how you look at it. In a lot of cases the engine ends up being a write off since it takes out the head, piston and often the block.
John

 

You can, but you would have to IMO dig through maintenance records in order to see if the service was replaced. IIRC GM would replace the valve guides on affected vehicles. As I had said earlier, I would just do it myself with a H,C, I swap and not have to worry about it plus make 700HP N/A in a stupid lightweight car compared to the Mustangs. I love the C6 Z06's and wouldn't hesitate getting one, its just the interior and the price to do things that kept me from saying no thanks.

A dropped valve is when the valve will kiss the piston and bye bye motor. From stock, there is a specific room between the valve and the piston known as piston to valve clearance or PTV cleareance . So when something in the valve train isn't manufactured properly it will have some play in it as was the case with the LS7 heads. Due to the play in the guides the valve would make contact with the piston and what happens when you have a piston that smashes into a valve? Well ... there goes your valve and it will just get chewed up and smashed into the bowl of your heads and destroy the heads since the piston is acting as a jack hammer. This can also cause the piston to fracture and crack as well which will send little bits of your piston down into your motor and with any luck not crack your block. The carnage that results can be pretty devastating.

You can still see the valve stems in 3 of the 4 valves and one of the actual valves is still stuck in there:





This is what happens when your valve and piston have a love affair

 

^ oh wow... that IS carnage. Dang.

So that was an issue on all the GM Vettes of that vintage? Good lord. I know the Mustang has it's issues too, but nothing as severe as that I don't think.

hmmm makes me rethink my potential foray into the GM vehicles. LOL.

 

Corvettes & Z06's seem to be the choice of the " older " crowd, based on the cruise nights & shows I attend.
.

 

I've noticed that too and attributed it to the fact that most younger people cannot afford a Corvette. Of course these days, a loaded Mustang isn't the affordable car the original sought to be.

 

Agreed...I tihnk price has a lot to do with that. It doesn't mean a younger person can't own one and have a he11 of a good time with it!

 

Na...this is carnage! After the heads/banks and crank were removed, the crankcase fell in two!

 

Just the LS7 and it seems to span across all years of the C6 Z06. GM keeps saying that it was a manufacturing issue and they got a bad batch of valve guides, but I would at least think that if it was a bad batch, it would only be limited to a certain run of heads like the Livernois & Ford Racing heads for the 3V.

Ditto! I hear that GM gives a 6 month subscription to Viagra along a velour suit and gold chair complete with fake chest hair until yours grows in.

That is pretty freaking bad! I remember seeing a picture of a tractor pulling motor I believe it was that nothing but the rotating assembly there. I have no idea what happened to the block hahaha.

I found it haha

 

It's actually a relatively rare problem, and it's only on the 7.0L. But GM dropped the ball as far as doing any recall.

 

One could also say the Mustang seems to be the choice of the younger crowd that likes to crash into crowds. It became a nationwide meme. I still get **** every once in a while at shows, like "watch out! It's a Mustang!" and I never take off from a show at more than 25% throttle. I don't see any Corvette memes dominating social media like the Mustang ones.

 

I also do not leave a show doing a burnout. I'll put the i-1 in sport mode when attending a cruise-in, just to increase that ProCharger whine at idle, but that is the extent of me "showing off".

 

I would never talk you out of trading. I've owned Corvettes (the Mustang is the wife's) for nearly 30 years, and the things are addicting. I haven't owned a Z06, but I will say if the LS7 in the one you're looking at has over 10K miles the engine should be fine. The dropped valves in these engines reared their ugly heads early on if the engine was bad. But, this wasn't a wide spread problem with those engines. I owned two C6 verts, and while the interior seems cheap it's actually not bad. I never had any problem areas in, or outside either car.

As far as the "Corvette Tax" mentioned they do have a higher repair cost, but if the one you're considering has been taken care of you won't need to worry. The C6's in any version were very reliable cars. Now as far as tires go, of course that's a different story. But as it's been said, if you want to play you gotta pay. The insurance is age dependent as you may know, but mine isn't that much more than the wife's Mustang.

Warning: Do not drive a C7. If you do this will happen I assure you. Good luck on your decision.

 

Yea, I got nothing for ya!! Hard to talk you out of that move. If I were able to, I'd own one in a heartbeat!