Poor life choices - C4 content

In reply to Pete Gossett :

You're really addicted to yellow and brown!

For every sticker you put on a C4 another Q45 wins. 

In reply to Stampie :

There not THAT many Q-ships entered!

Go get em Pete.   Decals and a car wash always make a car run better.

Why would you want a license plate from Madiganistan?

In reply to Miller Lake Monster :

Mississippi enacted a new law this year requiring that used cars purchased out of state must have the previous owner's registration, which I didn't have. Presumably they want the buyer to prove the car hasn't been parked in MS unused - and thus no taxes being paid. Since we still haven't sold our property in IL, plating it there was the quick & easy solution. 

I'll transfer the registration to MS next year - its a one-time/lifetime registration for antique vehicles with no restrictions. 

What an awesome and sleep-deprived weekend!

The Vette did well, other than persisting issues with the front seal leak that limited our runs(more details about the seal below). I took the car out early for our first autocross run(a 40.8xx IIRC), just to make sure the alignment didn't cause any weird handling issues, and that no parts fell off - and set FTD - okay, it was only the 3rd or 4th run of the day, so that didn't last long. lol I had Danny Shields take a couple runs and he managed to get our time down to a 40.340. 

I pulled back into the pits after his 2nd run to check the oil status, and confirmed it had started spraying all over again. So I parked the car(fortunately in the shade) and let it cool down a while before changing out the seal. If we could have kept running, there was likely another 1.5 seconds or so out there for us, which probably would have bumped us up 5 or 6 spots in the autocross. I think we were in 15th after the autocross was done.

Knowing there was a strong likelihood of the new seal leaking on our drag runs, I waited until near the end to make sure my potential leak didn't send anyone into the wall, nor cause the track crew to take up other competitors' possible run time while cleaning up my mess. After the first run, a 15.877, I pulled back into the pits and checked the car. It was dark, so I was using the flashlight on my phone, but I didn't have any fresh oil on the the inside of the passenger's tire, nor did I see any fresh oil on the front end accessories or crossmember. I took it back out for one more run and dropped down to a 15.575, with wheelspin about 1/3 of the way down the track, and accidentally bumping it into neutral about 100-yards before the finish. I parked in the pits, checked again but didn't see any signs of oil, then went back to the stands to watch for a while. When they called for final runs, I was on my way back to the car to take one more pass, but they called it a night after someone left a mess on the track. I checked the car Saturday morning when we got to the track, and realized it actually had been leaking, but presumably because of the higher speeds the front wheel was flinging the oil off the tire, although in the light I could tell there was fresh oil in some places.

Our concours score was 13.75, which I'm happy with given that I didn't really have any engineering or fabrication to show off. That gave us a final position of 16 out of 40 - and we beat Stampie, so there's that too.

Regarding the oil leak, I realized on the drive home today that for the 4 seals I've replaced so far, the process has been something like: drive car at high engine speeds, discover leak, change seal, drive slow & observe no leaks, rinse/lather/repeat. However, I don't actually know that once the leak occurs whether the seal has actually failed - in all cases I've gingerly driven the car back without any noticeable oil loss, then replaced the seal. So here's my strategy:

1.) Run up the RPM in the garage & hold it for a bit to see if the leak occurs under no load.

2.) Assuming/hoping it does, I'll try removing the dipstick and/or breather - or possibly hook my shop vac up to the valve cover hole - just to see if drawing a vacuum on the crank case prevents/reduces the leak.

However, I have one other thought/question: If the exhaust was restricted, like a plugged cat or similar, would that increase crankcase pressure???

I had a dream about putting painters tape on your car. 

Fantastic to meet you and see the car. Next year we should bring a pressure washer and pressure wash the engine compartment in the parking lot. 

In reply to mazdeuce :

Awesome meeting you too! The Challenge really is like a dysfunctional family reunion, but one where people actually like each other. 

I thought about pressure washing the engine bay & wheel wells before the event, but I knew there was a likelihood of the oil leak returning & I didn't want to introduce any new problems from the water or pressure. It's on my to-do list though. 

Oh, I forgot to mention the scale results:

I'm really happy with the 3075lb weight(stock is around 3200lbs), and 48.6%-51.4% cross weights. CAM-S minimum weight is 2900lbs, so even though I won't too competitive anyway, at least I'm not carrying too much extra weight. 

Mr G.  Goes to show how a "well balanced plan" can arrive at good results.   Despite all the aggravations, you did very well.  You should be proud of yourself.  Congratulations.   You had lot of people pulling for you.

In reply to Dirtydog :

Thank you!!!

Congrats to the first and only C4 to ever beat Team Stampie. I bow down to the winner. 

In reply to Stampie :

You guys did good despite all the setbacks you had, and you did beat us in the drags. Oh, and you still managed to build a bar in the hotel parking lot too. 

Here's my fastest pass down the 1/4. You can hear me accidentally bump it into neutral right before the finish.

After a week of recovering from the Challenge, it's time to get back to work.

The problem of oil spraying past the front crank seal under high-load/RPM has been perplexing. While opinions on whether excessive exhaust backpressure could cause increased crankcase pressure are nearly a 50/50 split, knowing that I'd lost a cleaning brush down the passengers side exhaust, I figured searching for any exhaust blockage seemed like a good idea.

I didn't find any remnants of the brush, but just to make sure it hadn't complexity melted into the converter...

Weapons of cat destruction:

The cat was definitely plugged. There were several pounds of light grey ashy/sandy material that came out along with the catalyst. 

There was a Corvette show at the mall today, so I headed over after the car was back together. The exhaust is definitely louder now, but not overly so. 

Corvette owners sure are a weird bunch...

I'm definitely going to need to paint a mural under my hood now...

This one was kinda cool though.

I saw this on another C4, I'll have to do some research & find out how necessary and effective it is, but it would be pretty easy to copy if needed.

The national Corvette Museum had a booth setup, so I bought a C4 belt  I've officially begun my descent into this E36 M3...

I had the opportunity on the way home to tip into it a couple times, and when I got home I didn't find any fresh oil spray. I'm hesitant to say unplugging the cat cured my oil leak yet, but it's definitely a good sign  

Oh, and I had to get a vid of this - it's the white C4 vert pictured above. Classy. 

You just highlighted why Corvette groups weird me out. I know there are a lot of good guys involved, I've met them, but I can't see that kind of obsession being fun long term. 

In reply to mazdeuce :

Definitely. There was one guy there I knew from the local FB Corvette group - he's an older guy with an old-school hotrodder vibe about him, and has a cool & well-used 79 C3. I talked to him for about 10-minutes when I arrived, but only talked to one other person: I was checking out a C7 Z51 when the owner walked up, so I asked him what the specs were on the current Z51 cars & differences vs. the Z06. That started a 5-minute narrative that ended with him explaining how his car is 1 of 2. I'm happy for the guy, but considering they've built tens of thousands of C7 the fact you have a unique combination of options doesn't really mean that much. Not to me, anyway.

I don't get the "1/whatever with exactly these options" nonsense that exists. Admittedly I am a bit of a snob when it comes to low production cars.

1 of 2? That stuff never impressed me either. Thousands of Corvettes made but he has 1 of 2, lol. Slap a GRM sticker on that bitch and get it down to 1 of 1!

Hmm. Plugged cat would for sure be costing you some ponies which probably explains your dyno results. So, revel in the newfound power!

I’ve heard yea and nay on the camber brace. It can’t hurt but be aware it make sure a roadside serpentine belt replacement impossible (or at least very difficult) and some routine maintenance becomes more involved than it strictly has to be. 

In reply to conesare2seconds :

That's what I thought too. Without it, you're really just preventing the outside wheel from gaining positive camber. So while reducing flex is good, I'm not sure it would actually result in faster autox times. It's like the tests GM did running with/without the top - flex was much more noticeable without it, but lap times weren't any slower. 

Please provide a picture of the Bronze Bomber similar to this and we can help you with your mural:

In reply to coexist :

Oh I have ideas...

Good lord those underhood murals are bad. Obviously, now you need one.

Great job on the Challenge. I can't believe I kept up with 80+ pages of you basically just replacing and tuning an engine but I enjoyed it the whole way!