Project C4, 85 Corvette

[Steve85]

i thought vettes were simple? how come there are wires EVERYWHERE? haven't cleaned up yet?

anyway, sounds great, and i love your choice of wheels!

CLeaned up?? Kan't even drive the dern thing yet. Just dropped it off at the exhaust shop.

The early ones are simple, from the factory anyway...This damn DFI harness is made for an engine that is 15' away from the control unit with a lot more stuff (nitrous , turbo, etc) than I have,. Mine is about 2' away.

The good part is you can't see the wires with the filter on

[HAULN-SS]

Sounds good! You should side-pipe that beast, haha.

On another note - are you a vette guy in general? My mom gave me a mission to find her a 'cool' used vette. I was thinking about setting her up with a ZR1, because they're just so fucking cool(quad cams ftw), an 02-04 Z06, or maybe a grandsport...any suggestions?

[WRXtranceformed]

Well, Dave's 'Vette is like 489rwhp right now and should be just over 500 I think he said once he gets a couple of things sorted out, and his engine is badass!! So I'm thinking you might still need a small shot of the juice to get me

[Steve85]

Well, Dave's 'Vette is like 489rwhp right now and should be just over 500 I think he said once he gets a couple of things sorted out, and his engine is badass!! So I'm thinking you might still need a small shot of the juice to get me

which is intersting because the two guys that built his motor and run the same motors are making about 600 (based on trap speed and weight) to the rear wheels.

Sounds good! You should side-pipe that beast, haha.

On another note - are you a vette guy in general? My mom gave me a mission to find her a 'cool' used vette. I was thinking about setting her up with a ZR1, because they're just so fucking cool(quad cams ftw), an 02-04 Z06, or maybe a grandsport...any suggestions?

Those are all good options in the same power range and capability. At that point it comes to personal preference. The GS was way under-rated at 330, laughably so. With the LS1 coming in the next year, GM didn't to say the old motor makes 20 more HP than the new generation. I'll send you a PM with more thoughts on it. ZR1's are a steal right now.

[WRXtranceformed]

Meh at trap speed, you need to strap it to the rollers to know for sure =P

I can't remember what he said he thought was wrong with it. I know he was getting a bunch of blowby IIRC and there was something going on with his intake imploding on itself. I think I remembered him saying something about the car overheating a little too...

[KPWSerpiente]

Actually, he doesn't need to strap it to anything. You both need to hit a track although I'm planning on fixing that issue for you.

-T

[WRXtranceformed]

Awesome, I can't wait to hear your results =)

The previous owner drove it to a 12.1 @ 10X.xx on a 350whp tune. I expect big traps out of you my friend!!

[Mike]

lee, when is my ride?

[WRXtranceformed]

I'll have to get back up there with the Subie sometime soon. Or if you still want all this paintball stuff we can meet up sometime during the day and I can give you a ride =)

[HAULN-SS]

Those are all good options in the same power range and capability. At that point it comes to personal preference. The GS was way under-rated at 330, laughably so. With the LS1 coming in the next year, GM didn't to say the old motor makes 20 more HP than the new generation. I'll send you a PM with more thoughts on it. ZR1's are a steal right now.

Yeah, thanks, I've been doing research on 'factory' specs and stuff, but havent talked to any of the owners or anything else yet. The ZR1s look like they were way ahead of their time - comparable times to the C5 Z06's it seems. You just miss out on all the goodies like HUD and nav and shit.

[JustinG]

back from the dead....

UPDATE???

[Steve85]

It's running great. Very tame at idle, low speeds with gobs of torque available. It is really quite easy to drive with no bad manners.

Traction is of course an issue when jumping on it. I will get my camera mounted and try to get some video but the 55-100 blast is ridiculous.

I need to get the exhaust reworked and add a second cooling fan. My car has the option for a second fan and I guess the previous owner removed it. It runs about 192*. The exhaust was a crimp job from a local shop so I am forcing the exhaust thru about 2" pipe at four bends. I have the mandrel bends in garage ready to go.

I just ordered the hood scoop today. I am still in recovery from cutting a hole in the hood. The only other option was a Hogan sheetmetal to keep it under the stock hood but at 2500 beans it was just more than I could justify. The scoop is a knockoff of a mid-late 60's big block Vette.

I printed out a road course tech sheet and have a lot of work to do..wipers, another harness, modify the existing harness mount and so on. Plus I will not run this thing too hard before I get an Accusump installed.

Guess I should post more often so they are not so damn long...

[.RJ]

another harness, modify the existing harness mount and so on.

Do you have a rollbar in the car?

[Steve85]

another harness, modify the existing harness mount and so on.

Do you have a rollbar in the car?

Yes, I needed six point to be NHRA legal but the belt is V-style and bolts to the roll bar via a single tab. Technically not legal but I was never sent home. I have two new harness' that are wrap style. I need the behind the seat bar moved back, and a couple locator hoops for the harness'.

[Steve85]

A little update, finally. One of the rare occassions that I let someone else do work on my car is over. I pick it up Friday but they emailed a bunch of pics ahead of time. He has a cd with over 60 pics he took along the way for me.

I had headers made, a 3in dual exhaust, valve cover clearanced for the wiper motor and a bracket made to mount the vac pump where the AC used to be. Someday I will get around to learning how to use my welder, I like doing ALL my work.

We saved a lot of money going with a scrap box of bends for the header material. Basically, header manufacturer mistakes.

Raw headers

Jet Hot coated (they now have a facitlity in PA which cuts down on time and shipping for east coasters now)

Exhaust piping is aluminized steel.


I see dryft is doing a dyno day friday...very tempting

[ScottyB]

your project thread owns :thumbup:

beauuttiiffuullll

[Goodspeed]

[HAULN-SS]

Those headers turned out nice...hope the finish lasts! You gonna do a breakin period before you tear it up on a dyno at least?

[Steve85]

Those headers turned out nice...hope the finish lasts! You gonna do a breakin period before you tear it up on a dyno at least?

The engine has a few hundred miles on it already so it is dyno ready. I was running a set of modified headers for a while and a shitty exhaust setup. I will head over to drift if I can get a vac gauge. I need to set the regulator right to about 12" vac to do its job but not start sucking oil off of parts. That is bad.

[Steve85]

I spent some time this morning working on the rich idle issue. Without cats there is only so much stink I can take out of it but I know it can be much better.

I was doing some research on how to combat cam overlap. One solution was running open loop all the time, not something I want to do. The other I came across was driving up the target A/F ratio. One person I spoke with said his wideband reads 17:1 when the mixture is correct.

I started pushing A/F table up and up and found my injectors are likely too big, duty cycle drops and stays at 2%. I'm guessing that is some sort of built in safety feature or limit. They are 50# and I have a set of 42's on the shelf ready to go. (I'm working on being able to post the screen shots)

It's been fun so far. I am learnring a lot about what goes into a complete tune.

I have driven the car though and it feels much better but it always does after months of not driving it. Track times will tell the tale. Until then I will work on cruise and tuning and save WOT for spring.

I did the get the dipstick installed :oops: . The block has no provision, luckily Canton provides a stick that goes directly in the pan.

So that's it for today, we will see what the 42's bring tomorrow.