Why are the Chevy LT4 Engines Failing?
When announced, the LT4 sounded like it was the Chevy motor to end all Chevy motors. It had 650 horsepower, 650 lb-ft of torque, and sounded like an angry thunder god exploding in the night as you pushed harder and harder on the accelerator. However, that’s not exactly what we got when the LT4 powered Z06 was finally released.
Instead of the blistering performance we were promised, the Z06 couldn’t really handle all that much of track use. The car would go into limp mode after only a few laps due to ineffective cooling. Chevy is currently hard at work attempting to figure out a fix for this, but until then, the Z06 just has to be babied until the engine cools off.
However, a more pressing issue is the fact that these LT4 motors keep letting go. The first one to destroy itself was within 841 miles of when the owner purchased it. This time though, the engine decided to commit Hari Cari on the track in the hands of a journalist. According to Gary Gastelu, the Z06 “unceremoniously called it quits” after just a few laps.
While Gastelu pointed out that this car was a press car, and journalists tend to thrash them, both Chevy and Gastelu remained stumped at what caused the LT4 engine to blowup. Chevy says it is still working on the issue, but hasn’t given out anything to postulate what could be happening.
So after this, are any of you new Z06 owners worried about this possibly happening to you? Are you babying your cars? Have you contacted Chevy? Let us know in the comments below.