Well, I have developed the dreaded piston slap on new 00L at 350 miles ! I can stand 20 feet away when engine is cold, and it sounds like a diesel. Goes away after about 5 minutes or so. This was supposed to be fixed. I went on Ford website and added to my existing open case for other quality issues (wrong belt, steering off center,won't track). i have owned many vehicles in the last 30 years of driving, and this is by far the worst overall vehicle i have ever encountered. I am going to call SVT also, and let them know.

Anyone else went thru this and had engine replaced ? How long does it take ? Should i have it done.

Thanks,
Daves00L
350 miles - been in repair shop 3 times; what a lemon

 

Mine had what I thought was the slap. I have since used Royal Purple motor oil and its quiet... Good luck

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99.5 red Lightning
13.2@103
jcks@home.com

 

Put synthetic 5W30 in it right now. Do not believe that old bromide that if you put synthetic in early the rings won't seat, this is not true. If you don't believe me you can call Mobil 1 and they will tell you the same thing.
Noel
Sorry you are having some bad luck, but once they fix it you'll love it.

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70 Vette LS-6, 99 Red Ligntning, K&N, Syn Oil. Looking at chips.

 

Daves 00L--- I also had Piston slap on my 99L early on. It seemed to diminish as miles added on but had my engine replaced at around 17,000 miles. Took about two weeks to get the motor to the dealer and about 3 days to install. Guess what? The new motor began to sound the same after about three hundred miles !Im going to wait till it has around 30,000 before I take it in. Im not sure if Im going to let them replace this motor or if Im going to consider trying to use the Lemon law to get them to take the whole truck back an slide my lease over to a 00. It actually seems to be getting quieter again just like the first motor so Im going to wait a bit to see what happens.
Believe it or not I still love this truck. There is nothing comparable to it out there.
There is a post for a list of all the L problems . I would like to hear from all the piston slap victoms in this thread so anyone who neeeds to can point it ot to Ford in the future. Good luck with yours. Keep me posted.

 

Dave,

Very sorry to hear the problems you've had with your Lightning. Now I'm really scared, I've got 1000 miles on mine and I hear a very faint sound that sounds like a very quiet diesel. This may not be the piston slap problem, but seeing this post shakes me up. I thought that Ford resolved the problem.

Noelvm,
I have read many articles that say never to use synthetic oil for breakin and I always thought that didn't make sense. If rings wouldn't seat with synthetic, then I do not believe that GM would be equipping the Corvettes with synthetic oil when they are built. I'm not sure where this theory of the rings not seating originated from.

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00 Red L, adopted 2/29/00. 14.356 w/250 miles on odometer.
98 Red Dodge V10 4X4 quad cab.
96 Yellow Corvette LT1.
99 Arctic Cat ZR440 sno pro.
98 Polaris Super Sport 488.
97 Seadoo HX.
96 Polaris SLX w/PSI triple pipes.
97 Banshee completely tricked.
96 Polaris Scrambler.
87 Polaris Indy 600 SKS w/SLP 707 full mod.
RC CARS: Associated; RC10B3's, RC10T3, TC3. Lossi; XXCR Kinwald, XX4. Yokomo; MR4TC

peteb3@home.com




[This message has been edited by Peter B (edited 03-24-2000).]

 

Ring technology, just like the rest of the engine building /efficiency technology has improved _dramatically_ over the years. I'm not degreed in metalurgy, but I can tell you that you do NOT need to worry _that_ much about rings seating anymore.

Guess it depends on the brand/type of ring used, though. I started using Mobil 1 in my L at 1500 miles.

I had a 4-bolt SVO race block assembled for me about 1 year ago. My engine builder/machinist said the rings would seat during the initial start-up. It would take no more than 2-3 mins. He said give it 50-60 miles and then give it h*ll. So, that's what I did. I went to the chassis dyno and tuned my brand new motor with 75 miles on it. I have no problems with blowby or anything else.

Again, it probably depends on how the engine is set up...but I'm not into the old "3000 miles before you can go full throttle"...like everyone used to tell you when you were a kid.

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Wes Tarbox
90 LX 5.0 (10.69 @ 134.7)--586rwhp/587rwtq
96 Cobra (12.63 @ 114.5)--390rwhp/441rwtq
97 SHO
99 Lightning (13.20 @ 103.3)--362rwhp/444rwtq
http://members.aol.com/Wa2fsT/index.html

 

If you've got that many problems I'd bring it back to the dealer

Andy

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Red '00 L On Order
(ETA: 4/17/00)

 

I'm 56 and I know that we use to "break in" engines. Drive'm up and down at differnt speeds and not maintain any one speed and generally take it easy for a couple of thousand miles. I took my new L (it had 8 miles on it) out and headed down the freeway. When I got out of the Houston traffic I noticed I was going 105. The sensation and noise was about the same as my old L (93) at 85. The next day I took to 135 for a few seconds. I changed the oil to synthetic.
My recommendation. The warrenty is good to 35k or whatever. I bought the 75K package. My motto, drive it hard. Break it in fast and it will run fast. If it's going to blow up let's blow it up under warranty. If the pistons are making noice run it harder. It will either go away or blow up. What have you got to loose. Babying it gets you nothing.
According to a survey on Blue Oval News about 5% of 5.4's (all 5.4 not just Ls) have been replaced for piston slap. "Drive it like you stole it."
Noel

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70 Vette LS-6, 99 Red Ligntning, K&N, Syn Oil. Looking at chips.

 

Although I don't agree about putting synthetic oil in for the first 500 miles or so, I do agree that noelvm is right. A piston aircraft engine will not seat the rings properly or EVER develop its rated power unless it is run at max RPM and max power for the first 25 hours. This includes varying power settings and manifold pressure settings. With today's computer controlled engines, run your truck hard and vary the speeds. I would still use the oil that comes with the truck and change to anything you want at 500 miles. If you run it hard and don't defeat the computer for the first 500 miles, it should last forever!

By the way , there is nothing magic about 500 miles - I just equate it to about the first 25 hours of aircraft engine operation.

adp
#1530
Black '99
ATP CFII ASMEL 1587036
B737/B757/B767

 

It was my understanding that the engines were already broken in at the factory.

Mike

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99.5 Black Lightning
PowerSurge Cone Filter
JBA Jet-Hot coated headers
Flowmaster muffler
So-Cal Lowering Kit; Cal-Tracs traction bars
Watter Wetter
Lo-Jack

 

Folks - thanks for all the advice and replies. When i called SVT, they said they knew nothing about any piston slap problems, never heard of TSB's for the problem, and that they were not a service line - call the dealer ! i just wanted to let them know there still was a problem, but they couldn't wait to get off the phone. i am going to put in synthetic soon. i traded a 98Z28 LS1 that had 25,000 miles on it, and i put in synthetic like the vettes at 800 miles, with no problems. with the 3/36 factory, and the 6/72 extended i bought, i figure if the engine lunches itself, it's their problem. even if i go to the dealer, and they agree, i hate the thought of them messing with a new truck so early. let's just see what happens.

once again, thanks for the replies.

Daves00L

 

You know I swear I can hear it as well when I start this thing up in the morning. I purchased the 100,000 mile as a precaution..What am I doing about it. Beating the hell out of the motor to see if I can break it, thats what...and Im having a blast doing it. I figure if it breaks oh well their prob...if it doesnt ...my motor will run very good ..
later,
seb

 

Remember, if all else fails, turn up the radio.

 

You guys do know that Forged pistons require a bit more clearance, as they expand (as the engine warms) more that cast or hyper"eutectoid" pistons. And this will make them looser in the bore, until they expand.
Mine is quieter when it gets warm, but I do not have the piston slack like sound.
How loud is it? Louder than the blower at 5K?




[This message has been edited by 2000Silverbulletonorder (edited 03-25-2000).]

 

Here's my 2 cents.

On my boat motor (461 ci 575 hp) we "broke it in" on the dyno. We spent about 10 minutes bringing it up to temp, checked for leaks then made 10 power runs! 1st run out of the box she made 550 hp. By the 6th or 7th pass we had the carb dialed in and that's when she pulled the 575 hp @ 6250 rpm. 1 year later and 100 hours of not so delicate use, 1% leak down, no excess oil use and everything runs as good or better than brand new. We ran dino juice for the dyno runs then switched to pure synthetic from that point on. I'm sure we could have used synthetic from the begining but it's a 10 quart system so we saved a few bucks. The engine builder believed the old wives tale that you need to run regular oil for the dyno runs just to make sure everything seats. He's since switched to Mobil 1 on the dyno then up to Red Line or Dysan on the first change. It's now more of a money issue than any problems with the pure synthetics.

My Porsche has nicosil (sp?) lined cylinders which makes them roughly the same hardness as diamonds. There's nothing to seat since there is virtually no wear. I know people who still swear by the regular oil right after a rebuild even when they know there's no way for anything to "seat" due to it's hardness. (It's so hard we just re-ring whenever we open the motor up, usually @ 125K miles then again @ 250K miles) Old habits die hard.

I have piston slap on every one of my vehicles when they are cold and guess what, they all have forged pistons! I took my old '96 LT4 Vette back to the dealer for the slap and they said it was caused by the forged pistons and it should go away when it warms up. It did. If you still get the slap when it's fully up to temp then there's something wrong BUT, don't confuse valve train noise for piston slap. Roller valve trains always make noise, sometimes more when they heat up.
As for the Lightning (I suppose it would be nice to include Lightning info on the Lightning board ) I use Mobil 1, change it every 3000 - 5000 miles and I've never had a problem in 18500 miles. In fact, it's running so good these days I can't wait to get to the track.

My advice, for what it's worth. Fill er up with your favorite oil, accelerate until you see God, then brake.....


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Mark Whatman
mwhatman@earthlink.net

• 99.5 White Lightning (PSP Filter & Chip)
• 99 Buell S3 Thunderbolt (not stock!)
• 96 26' Velocity Offshore Race Boat (far from stock!!!)
• 89 Porsche 911 Turbo (930)

[This message has been edited by Mark W (edited 03-25-2000).]