Well it seems that the worst has happened to me; my luck is fuxx0red.

CAM cut the filter in half and it is indeed full of bearing material. At 250 miles and the second oil change, the filter looked good. This is 200 miles later... The engine never made any noise at all, so I doubt a bearing was spun. It must have been very loose clearanced to begin with, as it never had more than 26-28 psi of oil pressure once warm (210-215F at the time)... Of course pressure rose with RPM but... anyway.

So now I'm waiting to see what Andy @ A&A Corvette tells me. Of course they want it sent back, but the car is at CAM like I said in NC. I will have to pay to have it pulled, torn down to shortblock, shipped, and when it's fixed, put back together, and then finally re-installed, all while dealing with turbo piping. I am asking Andy to help out with the cost of all of this, since I went the route of professional installation. What do you guys think?

More scorn from the God of Turbo Delay...

 

Sorry to hear about that. While A&A has a great rep, this is not the first time I've heard of this happening. Andy's engines are not built in house, but since he sells them he'll stand behind them.

I do know he will go out of his way to make things right for you. Good luck.

 

Thanks.... yeah it kinda makes me feel sick ya know. I hope they are gonna help out with the rest of the cost...

 

Sorry to hear that man it is just part of the hobby **** happens.

 

Oh, man, I feel your pain. And I'm just breaking in my own A&A LS6 forged setup... can you post up with the symptoms you were seeing and the diagnosis that followed? Crankcase pressure?

I'd expect Andy to step up to the plate here, and at least split the costs associated with replacing the motor. Also to check into the builder if he's not in-house.

Wet1, can you point me to the other problems you've mentioned?

 

That stinks! Think its a bearing clearance problem someone didnt check?

 

symptoms were just low oil pressure all the time, and then it got lower lower lower


i typically see over 70# from the stock gauge out of my wheel built pump and engine

 

This is my first LSx project, but not my first all together. I put together my share of SBCs in the past...

With that said, there really weren't any symptoms, or at least none that I took as such. The oil pressure had been about 26-28psi at idle when the engine was up to temp like I mentioned. The pressure would rise with RPM as you would expect. I left to go down the road to get a log from a 4th gear pull with a friend holding the laptop. I made a log from about 3K-5K with very little timing, and was on the way back and the oil pressure fell to about 2-3psi. I cut the car off and coasted back to the driveway. The car had plenty of very clean looking oil, the engine made no ticking, knocking, or any other noise, nor did it smoke. After 1/2 hr or so, I started it back up and it had about 20psi at idle. I was close to home so I limped home keeping it under 1500 RPMS and minimizing load. It maintained about 10-12psi per 1000 RPMs. After I got it home and double checked oil level and let it cool for awhile, I started it up. 40psi at cold start. As it came up to temp the pressure fell dramatically. This is in the span of a few minutes. The car idles at 800 RPMs, and when it got to about 9-10 psi I cut it back off. I trailered it from the drive back to CAM, where it wasn't started again. They cut the filter and found the bearing material.

 

A bit more detail, mightymouse?

My A&A motor also runs around 29psi when good and hot, was Frosts at 27-28 to start with and then just go lower from there?


Edit: Frost just cleared it all up.

Sorry to hear it, man. I agree in that this is not the first motor Ive heard off going south, but Andy is very well known on the Corvette boards and I have seen many instances of him standing behind his work. As long as you had it installed professionally (and I know CAM is a good shop), you should be okay.

 

Yep, it happened just down the street from Mr. Mouse's pad.... I do apprec. the help (laying on cold concrete) the night before Dave.

 

Steve, that sucks!! Keep us updated and let me know if you need help. Maybe we should find a chicken or something to sacrifice to the turbo gods.

 

I choked one earlier so we should be good

 

tmi

 

Sorry to here that bud. I have been wanting to come see your setup in Richmond and get up with you RPM guys. (its whistler) I am installing that *** kit like yours. I know we are not allowed to say *** here. I wanted to see MMs BS3 setup and how he is tuning. Good luck bud with the build.

 

why do so many people buy from A&A when they live across the country? I live right next to A&A and they are a great shop however there are lots others around here that are just as good no need to order from across the country? They mainly specialize in corvettes only and supercharging and H/C's.

 

I don't want to throw around dirty laundry here. Do a little searching on the CF. This is the 3rd one that I've heard of with low oil pressure. Granted, I can only guess how many he's sold (I'm sure it's a lot).

 

MTI.

 

Because Andy has a GREAT rep and stands behind his stuff... that's why.

 

Well the shop that did my install reccommended them (CAM does more vettes than Fbods judging by what I see in their shop), the vette guys all <3 Andy, he was good to talk to on the phone, and he had a decent price on the setup.

...but I haven't heard back from Andy yet, so I'm not sure what the deal is going to be.

 

How many total miles on the motor?

Oh, and for this desperate call from humanity, a mere chicken would not suffice.