Harvey wrote: Then I have a set of these coming. 18x9.5 fronts and 18x12 rears. Oof, my aching tire budget.
My Co-Driver has had these on order for 19+ weeks now. Still not in. Hopefully your results are better.....
Harvey wrote: Then I have a set of these coming. 18x9.5 fronts and 18x12 rears. Oof, my aching tire budget.
My Co-Driver has had these on order for 19+ weeks now. Still not in. Hopefully your results are better.....
cmcgregor wrote: I ended up working the course during your runs, looked like you were having a good time out there though. The heat was pretty brutal
Sorry, next time. It was fun, needs more grip!
The heat was kinda nasty, but it definitely was an improvement over a couple of weeks ago. I nearly melted at our local.
Thinkkker wrote:Harvey wrote: Then I have a set of these coming. 18x9.5 fronts and 18x12 rears. Oof, my aching tire budget.My Co-Driver has had these on order for 19+ weeks now. Still not in. Hopefully your results are better.....
Well, they are made to order, so I'm expecting a wait.
Now the stock exhaust has started to rattle a lot. Before it was rattling a little, but two autocrosses seem to have loosened up whatever is rattling in there even more. The information I can find indicates that the stock exhaust has the valves somewhere around the mufflers that open and close to keep it quiet and those valves are what cause this rattle. I'm considering getting the Corsa sport axle back to fix this problem. They claim that it also fixes the issue with the droning in sixth. The stock exhaust has a really loud drone anywhere under 2k rpm if you use the throttle heavily and cruising at 70 in sixth puts you at around 1500rpm.
I realized after talking with a friend with a Z06 that you can just disable the NPP exhaust valves by removing one fuse, that way they stay open all the time.
This cured my rattle! Yay!
FYI, if you get another set of wheels to race on, instead of paying a large sum for the air pressure monitors, you can unplug one thing and disable the TC still.
You cannot fully disable the TC if you do not have the monitors installed. UNLESS, you remove the steering sensor, which is under the dash off the steering shaft. It will throw a code to the dash that the TCS is messed up, but one push of the TC button will disable it.
Not sure you knew this, but it saved us from $300 some odd in TPM's for the car.
If it disables the traction control for street driving I will probably just pay for sensors as I do not want to drive without it on the street.
Upgraded (with more durable valve guides only) heads arrive on Wednesday. A friend of mine is going to do the swap so I'm gonna bring the car over to him tonight to start the disassembly. Then I drop it off for the clutch swap this weekend. Hoping no really crappy things come to light in all this.
Heads are here.
Shiny!
Doing the clutch this weekend. Stock one going back in. Next week is the heads.
My least Grassroots project continues.
Took the car up to Corvette Center. Surprisingly, when they disassembled the drivetrain they found that the clutch was stock. Given how stiff and grabby it was I was really surprised, but apparently it was completely used up to the point where even the pressure plate was bad. Also the pilot bearing had gone bad and the movement that allowed on the driveshaft damaged the driveshaft bearings, which was probably the cause of some odd noises I was hearing. So they disassembled the torque tube and replaced the problem bearings in addition to installing the new stock clutch. I'm supposed to pick up the car soon, but they are reporting that the clutch is MUCH lighter and the car is MUCH easier to shift now, so I think I'm going to be pretty happy and I'm glad I had it checked out, because now I know for sure the drivetrain is solid.
This also is a weight off my mind, because I could not think of a good reason why the car had an aftermarket clutch in it (which based on the heavy pedal and how grabby it was is what I thought it had), only bad reasons.
I had them install a remote bleeder for the clutch while they were in there as a friend recommended it.
In addition, I am having them remove the shims from the suspension so I can dial in 3 degrees of negative camber up front and -1.6 out back and I'm having them do the alignment.
I also had them drill some new holes in the underside of the bumper and install a new front lip spoiler/curb rubber. Two of the old holes had come apart with the old spoiler falling off. I guess the front bumper itself is plastic rather than fiberglass so this was the best option overall.
Gonna pick up a set of wheels with used Rival S tires for $1k from an autox friend of mine. I really don't have the money and I still have those Forgestars on the way, but there aren't many deals like this floating around. I've also got dibs on some new rears for the Forgestars from him since he has winnings from Nationals to sell off.
Interesting, glad it didn't have some questionable aftermarket clutch in there. I'm hoping I don't have to deal with my clutch while I own the car but who knows. Definitely post up after the heads are done, mine are soon to be on their way to me. I'm a little anxious about the job just because the motor is so damn pricey to replace if ruined.
Got those wheels and tires on. Great deal from my friend.
Oh and this is what the clutch looked like, disc was toast and the flywheel cracked and the spline on the driveshaft messed up.
How does it drive with the new clutch?
dj06482 wrote: How does it drive with the new clutch?
Just amazingly good. Clutch pedal is light and has predictable takeup and the shifting is very smooth.
Got her out for autocross with the new wheels and tires and the new alignment and it's just fantastic to drive. 4th in raw and 3rd in pax at our local out of 59 drivers.
Oh and it turns out the reason the dual mode exhaust rattled like it had marbles in it is because the vacuum line going to the exhaust valves had a hole in it, which the guys at Corvette Center found when they dropped the drivetrain, and now that they replaced that the exhaust once again works as expected.
Also I didn't take pics, but changing the oil is a bit of an ordeal, because it has a dry sump the thing has two different oil drain plugs. One is at the front of the pan and one is on the side. So, you need to level the car out to drain all the oil and of course the pan is deep under the car. So, I jacked up each side, put some ramps under the front (because it's too low to drive onto my ramps) and then jacked up the rear from the jack points on the suspension. I think I'm going to rig up something to connect the rear jack points as even though the thing is stiff as hell and the whole rear can be jacked up by one side I didn't really like having to do it that way.
Also need to make some ramp extensions.
Apparently, the early cars like mine only hold 8 quarts of oil whereas the later cars hold about 10 quarts.
Did the whole course in first gear. Photo credit to Said Hu.
The head swap commences.
Strangely, we drained the oil and it looks dirty. I just changed it with Mobil 1 this past Saturday. I wonder if the hard running on Sunday loosened up some dirt?
Head work continues.
Roger Schultz built my motor.
Hey, new one on.
I gather it's a little difficult to get this apart and back together, but I would only know from what my friend is telling me since he is doing the work in his driveway for a modest fee. I know my limitations and disassembly of a chevy small block is not in my wheelhouse. Or least it isn't in any reasonable amount of time.
Well, heads are back on, car runs fine. New plugs, new plug wires, new thermostat all went in since 10 years old and it was all right there.
Now I need to figure out what is the right tool for adjusting the Koni shocks. An allen wrench kind of works, but it's frickin annoying to get in there.
I just did my heads and cam myself. Holy project creep, had a few days off work but ended up needing like 4 solid days of wrenching to finish. Definitely would pay someone to do this unless you know what you're getting into. Corvette is not as easy to service as you'd think. A few seemingly mindless engineering decisions that can take hours to surmount.
turtl631 wrote: I just did my heads and cam myself. Holy project creep, had a few days off work but ended up needing like 4 solid days of wrenching to finish. Definitely would pay someone to do this unless you know what you're getting into. Corvette is not as easy to service as you'd think. A few seemingly mindless engineering decisions that can take hours to surmount.
My friend has a lot of small block Chevy work under his belt with the various SUVs and what not so he was able to do this fairly quickly, but it still took about 16 hours.
Got the Forgestars, just in time for winter! 
Did this the other day. Wasn't my fastest run. Overdrove a lot of the corners.
Harvey wrote:
Is it just me, or are some of the rocker tips not riding on the valves in the "after" pic?
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