ZL1s don't spin their tires (when new) as much as you might expect. Everything about the car is designed for traction, not drifting. Back in the summer of 2017 I could get my car to hook just fine on 0-60 pulls on warm days. Rarely spun the tires in Sport and never in Tour, Wet or Track. Drive mode matters.
That said, almost 6 years later it easily breaks its nearly slick still factory OEM 9800 mile hard as hockey puck tires loose with ease in sport mode. Breaking tires loose in track, tour, or snow/wet mode is far less likely as the car will cut throttle to maintain traction.
OP, you can monitor engine and trans torque PIDs on basic OBD2 readers IIRC. Might not hurt to invest a couple benjamins in a scan tool that can read them and log the data, along with knock retard and all the rest of the things folks usually look at. If the car is misbehaving, you'll see it in the data. Data will be far more reliable than any diagnosis or advice you receive over the internet, including this. For example, if the intercooler pump is not working, you'll see high IATs and timing being pulled. Faulty knock sensor? Yep. The list goes on. I'll have to admit the lack of soot in the exhaust is new to me.
For break-in, my advice is to follow the crate engine procedure starting at step #6 (steps one to five were done at the factory). Do your first oil change at 500 miles (i.e. skip step 10). Then follow the owner's manual break-in to 1500. Don't hammer the car too hard until after 1500 miles to give the rear diff gears time to work-harden, and change the diff oil at 1500. Send the engine oil samples to
blackstone labs for a baseline. Another excellent way to get hard data on the health of your engine.
