Looking inside a $10,000 ZR1 Corvette Engine that was Salt Water Flooded and Sat for Months!

1. I would say you got to this drive line before it did it damage… That is a win. What saved the engine I would say was lack of air for the salt water to do anything..

2. always good to see Ratarossa like always.

3. Can tell if you are acting dumb to get people commenting or maybe you just are.

   Flooded yacht motors are brought back to life all the time.

   Corrosion requires water+air.
   The oil in the motor (or any compartment) float to the surface creating a barrier between the air and water. No rust. Exception of cavities.

4. I'd fill that motor back up with diesel while you wait… use a temp gasket of some kind for the oil pan and keep any air from being where the salt water was.

5. I have a 91 and a 94 ZR1 vettes ,I bought both for cheap after hurricane Katrina

   We took both cars and dumped them in a fresh water pond for a couple days ,it did a amazing job

6. Sam, love your videos. What do you do with all of that contaminated liquid?

7. I don’t see why this won’t run and drive! I was way more worried about the electrical. Probably consult your stepmom as well.😂

8. The cliffhanger in the last episode was definitely worth the wait.

9. did you drain the trans cooler?

10. I guess those Ferrari parts are headed to Vtuned… 🤔🤷‍♂️

11. So glad there’s still hope. I always look forward to seeing another “Samcrac” success stories! Say “hi” to Step-Mom for me!

12. You should be fine. Corrosion when regards to saltwater needs air or/and sunlight. It being sealed helped a ton.

13. Yikes! You tightened the diff bolts too soon. While the diff gasket maker is liquid, you hand tighten the bolts. Then wait at least an hour. Then tighten with a torque wrench to spec. Otherwise, you'll get leaks.

14. Sam, I wanna know about the white AMG GT. Cmon now. You’ve been teasing us in like 4 videos now dude

15. lmao less than 50K. What a find. What a gamble. What a payoff.

16. Lots of work

17. If this wasn't a ZR1, then it would have been sold for scrap? $1-2k, if that?

18. Amazed how good the internals look. Must be because they were fully immersed so there was no oxygen able to attack with the water.
    And perhaps it wasn't salt water after all, it was just fresh water?
    Reckon you could be onto a winner here.

19. I've taken a lot of those differentials apart. That one is fine. The good news on that ZR1 is that so much is aluminum that the salt water probably did much less damage than it would on most cars. I would have changed the axle seals on the diff before putting it back in – salt on those seals ruins them (I live in New England – road salt kills them here). It would probably have been another 30 minutes of work while the unit was out. Those cars have a very strong 6 speed transmission, I would not expect it to have any issues mechanically after it gets new fluid. The engine internally were surprisingly good. The diesel fuel trick seemed to work.

    Water over the rear diff will have had it above a bunch of sensors. That is probably going to be the biggest problem.

20. I think your tranny , will be alright Tranny fluid has a lot of detergents to breakdown the salt.

21. This is exciting … this once flooded car is about to get a new lease on life!

22. I can't believe how lucky you've been with the internals of everything so far.

23. How is the bbl paint?

24. I do hope you can save this zr1. It's a modern classic and fun fact, even though the heads and internals were lt5 specific, the block literally is your standard 4 bolt main 350 engine block. The oil pan design and gasket are different but the basic design of the block is exactly like the l98 and later lt1 v8s. Lotus helped co design that motor and mercury marine put it together. It's a great motor and extremely underrated too. Lpe back in the day had a small group of upgrades that could easily bump it to nearly 500 crank hp with no changes to the cams. Lots of untapped potential.

25. Looking forward to more on this car !!

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