Project C4, 85 Corvette

[WRXtranceformed]

Ouch dude!! I guess the builder isn't going to warranty the work? I would give them hell and make them fix it. At least you've got it back up and running... man you poor C4 guys seem to have terrible luck with engine builders.

[Steve85]

The people I brought it to and gave me the estimate are not the ones that originally built it. The estimate is from a local shop.

I thought about going back to the original builder but it's not going to cost much with the help I'm going to get. I will finally learn how to do it myself, beginning to end, with someone that has decades of experience.

The original shop is in h-burg and I don't have time (or desire) to be running back and forth to keep him on his toes and I feel like I'll get another questionable short block. And yeah, it's very hard to get over the feeling of wanting to throttle the guy...

I need to talk to Dave, I think he PM'd me a few weeks ago on CF. He's redoing his this winter.

[WRXtranceformed]

I need to call him too just to catch up, it's been a while since I've spoken to him...shoot I guess since I moved down south. I loved his C4, he let me drive it once but I didn't really get on it too much because the ass-end kicked out too quick haha...I was worried I'd put it into a divider or something!

You should get him to sign up for this forum! He's close enough where he could probably participate in a lot of the MM stuff.

[Goodspeed]

Glad to hear its back, Steve. What was the name of the shop that was doing the work? I stumbled across a few speed shops unknown to me recently while searching for some fittings, like J&L and another place near R&R Hardware, just wondering if this was one of those places

[Steve85]

Glad to hear its back, Steve. What was the name of the shop that was doing the work? I stumbled across a few speed shops unknown to me recently while searching for some fittings, like J&L and another place near R&R Hardware, just wondering if this was one of those places

Coy Miller did it. They are actually two buildings over from JL Fab. He was in the middle of moving his shop, starting a trucking company and had some turnover issues. I should have listened to my gut and pulled the project from him...They converted the carb manifold for FI and the f'ing fuel rails would lift when pressure hit them!!

I think JL focuses on chassis fabrication. JL did my headers / exhaust for the 434 and I wouldn't hesitate to use them again.

[Steve85]

A few setbacks since getting the interim motor in. My boys 3 and 5 decided to play on my car and broke the acrylic roof. They are usually around $500 for a good one and very expensive to ship if you don't find a local cheap one. Brand new is over $1K. So, the car sat for most of the winter and does not want to run very good now. I suspected fuel problems so I've been adding gas drier and fresh gas delivered via gas can. It's been getting better all week so I really cranked up the fuel last night and it liked it, a lot.

It sucks, the less I drive it the more problems I have. I used to drive it to work everyday with this motor in it years ago. Obviously, life gets in the way (no room for babay seats, gas nearly twice what it was) but man it's frustrating.

I'll be taking it out tonight to finally top off the tank and hopefully have it ready for the weekend.

I also did some work on the hood scoop and have it to acceptable. There are some other areas on the body that need to be addressed so it will do for now. I've been using the SMC panel adhesive to bond the scoop to the hood and as a smoothing agent. It's been good practice for when I decide to tackle smoothing in the rear fender flares.

Short-term plans:
Front suspension rebuild. All new bushings, check and replace if necessary everything else
Replace the bushings in the rear diff "batwing". (all other bushings done)
More street friendly cam (thanks to 3-piece timing cover a much easier job)

Long-term plans:
Sell it and get a convertible muscle car that fits everybody. Something fun I can drive WAY more often.

[Dave]

A few setbacks since getting the interim motor in. My boys 3 and 5 decided to play on my car and broke the acrylic roof. They are usually around $500 for a good one and very expensive to ship if you don't find a local cheap one. Brand new is over $1K.

That totally sucks. Guess there's no more allowances going out in your house :-)

[Steve85]

A few setbacks since getting the interim motor in. My boys 3 and 5 decided to play on my car and broke the acrylic roof. They are usually around $500 for a good one and very expensive to ship if you don't find a local cheap one. Brand new is over $1K.

That totally sucks. Guess there's no more allowances going out in your house :-)

You got that right...oxygen is considered a privilege at this point...

[Mike]

It sucks, the less I drive it the more problems I have. I

I've learned that too. It really kills the motivation to get it working correctly again because it'll just sit for another month and something else will be broken by then.

[HAULN-SS]

Yeah..letting a car sit is the quickest way for it to go to shit

[D_Eclipse9916]

^^^ ditto, soon as I stopped daily driving mine it just became a hassle of fixing things.

[Steve85]

It was running great. Took it to a not yet occupied industrial park for a little more hardcore testing. I was enjoying the power I so dearly miss until...



I think excessive blow-by finally got the best of me. Valve covers had oil coming out, front crank seak had oil pissing out. I'm not sure exactly where this was coming from but was in the area of the rear intake/block seal and the oil pressure switch is there.

Short-term plans:
Front suspension rebuild. All new bushings, check and replace if necessary everything else
Replace the bushings in the rear diff "batwing". (all other bushings done)
More street friendly cam inside fresh rebuild(thanks to engine out of car a much easier job)
Make the motor pretty

I've been working to get the other motor back together and working with a very knowledgable local guy. He has some great sim software and the preliminary numbers look good. This engine will be built, run in on a dyno and installed only after all quirks have been resolved and power is where I want it.

Long-term plans:
Keep banging my head against the wall

[Mike]

you are a masochist. i would have long ago walked away... far away.

[Dave]

Take this with a grain of salt b/c I've never had an actual fast/powerful car, but why not just put a stock motor in there? I bet you could pick up one of the more recent Chevy engines, get some respectable power, and have the reliability and drivability to turn this car back into a "drive whenever you want" car.

[HAULN-SS]

I'm still not sure what keeps going on here.....I know a lot of guys running 400+ HP smallblocks and driving them to work every day and getting 22mpg doing so. Are you shooting for way more than that?

[Steve85]

I'm still not sure what keeps going on here.....I know a lot of guys running 400+ HP smallblocks and driving them to work every day and getting 22mpg doing so. Are you shooting for way more than that?

Yeah, that's just it, it's not the "power" breaking things. And to Dave, I guess that would be my answer. The 434 was an oiling issue that ate up the bearings, a similar issue in a lawn mower would be disastrous. It's just stupid crap. Maybe that's why I keep going back for more, it's stuff that would kill any motor. Admittedly, I have been searching for the few parts I would need to put the stock motor back together. Or, maybe Mike is right.

And, when it comes down to it, while I may complain, I don't really mind working on it and trying new things.

I'm looking to be quite a bit over that (580-600) but not by doing anything radical (like a huge peaky cam with 8000rpm). Torque will be flat, cam overlap less than it is now, and all in by 6500rpm. And the HP isn't necessarily the goal, the heads will support over 700hp, it's taking a streetable cam putting it under killer heads with an rpm limit in mind and seeing what you get. The sim software says 580-600. The engine will be built, tested on a dyno, all quirks worked out, and then installed.

Short term project:
Add Sta Bil to the tank.

[Steve85]

Update: Fixed

Fuel pump oil pressure switch blew out. It was basically squirting oil directly out all over the back of the engine and firewall. It's the original so I can't be upset. WTF is a fuel pump oil pressure switch? It is in parallel with the fuel pump circuit and if the fuel pump relay goes bad, the power will go through this switch so long as there is oil pressure. Since the fuel pump is now wired through the DFI, I removed the switch and just happened to have a 1/8 npt plug. The pressure switch for the gauge is seperate.

And the front oil leak is my fault, it's coming from the timing cover. I must have missed a spot with the RTV. :oops:

The culprit...(the thing with the bent tab)

[Steve85]

Here is the top with the big fat crack from my kids climbing on the car



There was some separation that left about an 1/8" gap for about half the length of the crack which presents a problem for the acrylic adhesive I was going to use so I had to break out the stuff Iused to put the hood scoop on.


So armed with SMC panel adhesive, a strip of fiberglass cloth and IPS Corporation Weld-On #40 Acrylice Adhesive I prepped the underside surface with 400 grit


I put SMC adhesive down, then the cloth, then SMC adhesive on top.


In the area the joint was still tight, I used the acrylic adhesive and some weight to level the two surfaces being glued. the glossy "river" between the roughed up area is the acrylic adhesive. The crack is about 10" longer than you can see here. It was shaped like a nike swoosh. It wraps back around the air gun I used for weight.


From the top, you could see the SMC/Fiberglass repair so I painted it flat black which hid it quite well (when viewed from the exterior).


I also had to paint the 1/8" strip on top (exterior) that the SMC sealed. So finished product from the top...


All in all I am pretty happy. The goal was to have a usable top w/out spending 500-1000. I hate that it really is a suburbaneck engineered repair but oh well. I just need to clean up the tape goo...

BTW, It knows I'm looking to replace it. It has been running smooth and very strong lately. Not sure I can go back to just over 200hp. Actually it isn't HP I care about, it's the 330+ ft/lbs of torque from 2000-6000 rpm I love, no waiting, it's just there, all the time, any time.

[ScottyB]

suburbaneck engineering or not, thats a nice finished product.

[Steve85]

suburbaneck engineering or not, thats a nice finished product.

Thanks...just need to test it before track day.

I'm also addressing a few other items.
The VC breather rubber grommets leak so I am welding in AN bungs to run -16 line to the breather tank.
My VC gaskets have just been on and off too many times so I'm replacing those
Replacing the broken AC bracket.
Timing cover is a 3 piece unit and one of the joints is leaking, nothing a little RTV can't solve.

The dampener needs to come off to do the timing cover and I don't believe I have ever gotten so lucky as this:


Here's the broken AC bracket. Not sure how it happened but I picked up a new one at Carlisle swap meet for $15 a few weeks ago.