Things I do with my C6 Z06 Corvette.

mr2s2000elise said:

Beauty!

 

How many miles on the Vette?

Thanks! About 61k at the moment.

A 401 CJ said:

So what went bang in the new crate motor?  That’s disconcerting.

Ah, I'm not sure I should go into that too much. There was some back and forth with the dealer that supplied the motor on who did what wrong and I don't want to get anywhere in the middle of it. I trust what my friend's have told me and I've left the details to them.

My other thought on the exhaust movement is that the transmission / transaxle mounts might be shot. Those spring hangers on the exhaust connect to the transmission via brackets on either side and so maybe the exhaust is in the right place, but the trans moves enough under full throttle that the exhaust can move up and down too much. 

I ordered some new ones from the dealer for a princely sum and will replace them. Couldn't hurt overall given they are going on 12 years old now and take a brutal beating.

Thanks for documenting all this- it's enjoyable to read!

damen

I now have parts. The reverse lockout solenoid and the transmission mounts. Crossing fingers the solenoid is my reverse problem. 

Need to find time to put them in. Autocross at Metlife Stadium on Saturday. I dislike being under pressure to get a job done so I'll probably wait until Sunday to attempt these updates.

badwaytolive said:

Thanks for documenting all this- it's enjoyable to read!

damen

You're welcome! Glad you enjoy it!

So, I found a solution (it seems) for the exhaust flange hitting the tunnel plate, but before I found that solution I changed a bunch of other stuff to see if those things were the problem. 

One thing I did was change out the transmission mounts. All replacement parts I use are OEM GM parts unless otherwise noted.

Here is a decent view of the mounts from under the car facing towards the rear. The lower bolts are sticking out of rear suspension crossmember there. I have them unbolted in this pic. Disconnecting the lower shock bolts, the swaybar endlinks and unbolting the crossmember itself gets you to where you can drop the thing down far enough to access the mounts, though that is not pictured here.

Now, you probably want to remove the muffler section of the exhaust as that would make getting to the upper bolts on the mount a lot easier, but I really didn't want to mess around with that as the pipes curve up and over the crossmember and people seemed to have gotten away without doing this.

It's actually quite simple to get to the mount on the driver side of the car (right side in the above picture), because the L shaped bracket at the top of the support coming off the transmission is facing out towards the wheel well. 

Take off the wheel and hey, you have bolts! The only problem is that this section on the other side faces the same way. So when you take off the wheel you are looking at the back of the L. So, it requires a bit of finnagling to get onto the bolts, but I managed to go over the top of the bracket and remove them.

The bottom bolts are easy, but of course dropping the transaxle crossmember required supporting things from underneath. I used the hydraulic table cart with some jackstands for this. Apparently in this picture I was still trying to figure out what needed support and what didn't.

After some swearing and recriminations we had success!

The above is an old mount and a new mount next to each other. The old ones didn't look like they were that bad off overall, though I did notice this problem with one.

That isn't supposed to be bent like that. So, even though this didn't fix my exhaust issue, I'm pretty sure it was worth doing. Putting it all back together is pretty easy overall.

My other issue is that the car is hard to get into reverse and because I wasn't quite sure where the reverse lockout solenoid engaged the lockout I figured I might as well try swapping it out to see if that fixed the issue. It's a bit of a bitch to get to the thing as it's on top of the transmission and the factory manual has you drop the transmission to replace it, but I figured I could do it without dropping the trans.

Once again I used my handy table cart and some jackstands for this project. This time to help drop the midpipe of the exhaust.

This is the view you get once the mid pipe is removed up towards the top of the transmission. Ees dark up there!

I would not advise trying to do this with the car on jackstands as it would likely be horrid trying to get up on top of the transmission. It wasn't easy with a lift.

The first thing is that there is a really annoying connector attached to the solenoid that you have to remove. I felt around up there until I popped it off. The solenoid itself is screwed into the housing and a deep well socket will fit around it. The one that came out of the car required a 34mm socket to remove. I had to use a series of universal extensions and joints to get it so that I could undo the solenoid. You can see here the contraption almost onto the solenoid.

The initial loosening was the tough part and then after that I was able to thread it off by hand.

I forgot to take a picture of the new one, but it was much smaller than this old one. Same connectors on each end, but the housing was not nearly as large and so needed a different size socket to snug it down.

This wasn't my problem though, so that one is still sitting in a box just in case. I think I can confirm that the reverse lockout solenoid stops you from even getting over to where you might put the car up into reverse. My problem is that I can get over there, but it won't go up and in sometimes. I later tried swapping the transmission fluid over to the part synthetic GM Syncromesh fluid on the advice of Sam Strano as he said it has helped other folks.  So far I'm not sure yet if it has cured the problem, but it might have alleviated it somewhat. If I have the problem I move the car forward slightly and then it goes in. I've encountered other people with this same problem on the car so I'm not the only one.

While I was under there I got out my swaybar grease and lubed up the rear bushings on the car. Pretty sure they haven't had that done in a while. Should probably have occurred to me sooner to do it.

Once the bar was freed up it also became apparent that the rear endlinks are shot, so I have some ordered at the dealer.

The solution for the exhaust flanges hitting was loosening the exhaust manifolds then taking a pry bar and pulling the exhaust down at the flange location on each side and then tightening up the manifold on that side.

It's becoming a spring tradition that I take the car out on a somewhat cold but sunny day and the right side catback falls out of the midpipe. This is one of those things that you don't experience very often, because the pipe is usually rusted on and the problem is getting it off, but of course the car has no rust on it.

I got under it for I think about the fifth time now and I think I've finally got it clamped down such that it will hold. I found there is a slight bump on one section of the outer pipe and the clamp needs to be forward of that to really get a full hold. At least that's my theory. Crossing fingers for exhaust not falling off, final time.

I had a similar problem on my 1978 Ford Fiesta when I was a kid and my dad simply ran a sheet metal screw through the joint (in addition to the clamp) and it never came apart again. 

It is one of those hack fixes that I justify on my own stuff but if I saw someone else do it, I would hypocritically pass unfavorable judgment.

sad to see that you’re having these issues.  I am loving my 06 z06 although I rarely drive it except to and from the track.  

Im surprised at the quality issues on what was GM's prized superVette. At 60,000 miles youve had more QC issues than i have ever had on any vehicle GM or not. Maybe it was built on a Friday at quitting time?

The exhaust pipe thing alone would have driven me nuts and i would have pulled the welder out moons ago. Maybe swap to some V band couplings in on the trouble spots?

It's probably not helping that this was the first year of this particular car. Later years have some definite improvements. 

So far the exhaust hasn't fallen off yet, but the weather hasn't been good enough to really drive it hard.

I will say that I do not drive the car as a normal person would so my impressions should not be taken as the normal driver. I regularly autocross the car in lots of varying quality on BFG Rival S tires and I run the Koni shocks at near full stiff all the time so things are bound to fall off a bit more often than for a normal user (though TBH the Konis at this setting are not bad in terms of ride quality). I have a larger front bar on the car and it also has an aggressive autocross alignment with -3 degrees of camber up front and -1.7 out back.

Still haven't figured out why the one side of the exhaust keeps falling off. Both catback sides are connected to the same mid-pipe section and yet the right side falls off and the left side stays on. The most recent thing I tried was making the clamp tighter by grinding down the spacer in there and that seems to have not worked very well at all. If not for the fact that the one side stays on I would definitely have welded it by now, but I keep thinking something must be wrong with what I've done up till now. This is the clamp after I ground down the spacer slightly. Whenever the thing falls off it does not appear to be because that bolt loosens at all, the pipe just slips out.

Meanwhile I was under the car checking on that and noticed this issue with the rear swaybar...

Yes, the bracket just snapped off.

I pulled both brackets off and when I inspected the other one I found it had cracks on both sides.

So, I got some new brackets and for good measure some new bushings both from the dealer, but strangely the new bushings didn't fit. They aren't even close to closing up when I put them on the bar. At first I thought they gave me the wrong part, but the number looks correct for an FE4 suspension and unless someone went to the trouble of faking up the tag that says FE4 on the rear swaybar the car still has the stock swaybar on it. I ended up putting the old bushings back on.

My earlier fix for the right side marker lamp didn't work out. So, eventually I figured out that the socket and harness were only $50 and so I picked it up. I thought this would be a little easier than it ended up being, but it turns out you have to remove the headlamp assembly to get disconnect this particular segment of the light harness. To remove the headlamp assembly you have to not only remove part of the inner fender liner you also have to loosen the fender itself and the front bumper cover.

There are seven screws that hold the fender in place, but one of them is hidden under the front bumper cover which is why you need to loosen it first.

This is looking towards the front of the engine compartment where you can see various screw holes and plastic clips that hold the front bumper cover on. You have to remove the four screws located there and then you can pop the top of the bumper cover up and expose the hidden screw.

I didn't get a great pic of this in place, but you can see in the below pic in the upper left of the picture where there is a little tab with a hole that sticks out of the end of the fender and that is what is screwed down under the bumper cover.

After you get that screw out then you can easily remove all the rest of the screws holding the fender on.

Then you have to raise the car on jackstands or a lift and remove the wheel so that you can get access to the inner fender area.

The pic below is what you get once you remove the various inner fender well pieces as well as the lamp assembly itself. There is a soft cover that fits over the large hole in the upper left. This is attached using plastic push clips. Pull the center of those out and you'll be able to pull the clip out. The main panel that comes off to expose the rest requires you to take off the trim piece that is attached to those holes you see there at the right side on the fender edge. In addition there are several screws and nuts underneath the trim piece that need to come off.

There are also these guys hidden inside the fender well once you take off the trim.

This is a close up of the cavity where the light assembly itself rests when it is in the car. At this point I had already removed it.

There are three nuts holding the light assembly in place to the panel. You have to get up into that cavity to get to the nuts. You'll notice in the wider angle pic of the interior of the fender that I removed the brake air duct as it got in the way of getting a wrench with extension onto the nuts. There is a screw and a plastic clip that holds the air duct on that are both easy to remove. In the pic below you can see the underside of the light assembly and the bolt locations.

Once everything is disconnected you need to pull the fender up enough so that you can remove the light assembly from the front. The bumper cover tends to stay out of the way once you pull it up, but I found I needed to stick something under the fender to keep it from falling back down and blocking me from pulling out the light assembly. Once the assembly is out it's pretty easy to swap the marker light harness out. I'm pretty lazy and would not have done it this way if it wasn't impossible to swap this without taking out the light. There is just no way to get at the connectors otherwise.

When you put the light assembly back in just make sure you take it easy as there are various plastic tabs and things that need to go back in the right spot. The one I immediately noticed was the one right on top of the headlight assembly that has to fit up into the fender when it goes back on. This is also why you definitely have to pull the fender and bumper cover away from the light to get it out.

There isn't much else that is tricky about putting it back together. Took me about an hour or so overall to get everything out and back in and my marker light works again.

I finally gave up on the idea that the axle back was going to stay in with clamps and had it tack welded.

And yes, the right side clamp looks like it is not on all the way, but it is tightened down. I replaced the clamp, tried different positions, nothing helped.  The thing never kept the pipe from falling out. Strangely the left side would never fall out, only the right side, but I had both of them welded by a local shop.

I suppose since I have a lift I should have a welder, but I have had no need for one up until now.

Okay, we are back after a brief intermission while I had the motor rebuilt. Yes, the crank bearings seized. I guess she took some beatings before me, because I've been pretty diligent about oil changes. Unless of course the whole autocross thing has the same effect as high speed cornering on track with r-comp tires, which is the primary way people say the car will oil starve. 

Regardless, even if the motor had oil starved at some point during my use I never would have known. There is no light on the dash or other indication after the fact that tells you the oil pressure went too low, only a gauge that you would have to be looking at the moment the pressure loss happens. It's a bit ironic since avoiding a loss of oil pressure is pretty much the reason why you have a dry sump, but it's a E36 M3ty dry sump in these cars.

I had the motor rebuilt with a steel rotating assembly, because titanium rods are berkeleying expensive and because there are known issues with the titanium rod coating coming off and causing titanium shards to rub off and foul the motor. At least, some of the stock rods have an issue in this regard. I'm sure if I worked at it I could possible have found a titanium replacement that I would be assured would not have issues, but at the same time it would have cost a lot of dough. Essentially I could get all eight connecting rods in forged steel that will take 7500rpm and 650hp for the price of one titanium rod. My friend that did the rebuild also took care of getting the block machined and the heads checked. Apparently even after having the heads rebuilt less than 10k ago by a well known provider of said service the valve guides were showing excessive wear. Bronze guides this time around.

I've also done some minor modifications to ensure that the car won't have an oiling problem again. She goes to CAM-S for this and any future season of autocross.

The pre-2009 cars have a smaller sump tank. In 2009 the total capacity went from 8 quarts to 10.5 quarts via an add-on tank. Ostensibly this addition to the sump tank was because the ZR1 with its supercharger required more oil and so both cars got the upgrade. It's said that there is different baffling in the 09+ tanks as well, though I have not been able to verify that. There is some evidence the oil scavenging problem the sump has is alleviated to some extent by having more oil tank capacity.

What I did was send the bottom half of the stock tank out to Lingenfelter for a modification.

Here it is hooked back up to the top half and getting ready to go in the car.

The tank modification is that box welded on to the side and adds 3.5 quarts to the original capacity for a total of 11.5 quarts capacity. I also added the Aviaid tank baffle to minimize any aeration of the oil from problems with the scavenging pump.

https://www.aviaid.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/access-z06-ls7.html

Neither of these items require any modification to the car, the enlarged tank fits right into the stock location. I debated whether to add the Aviaid pan modifications, but I wasn't sure that it would work since I was not using the stock bottom end on the rebuild and I also figured the extra tank capacity and baffling would be enough since I don't track the car.

I have a bunch more things to do on the car before it will be ready for autocross, including putting more miles on the motor to break it in.

What I did today though was easy and especially satisfying.  

The car has no handle or lever either on the inside or outside of the door. Instead it has buttons that activate door poppers that open the door. The outside buttons only work if the key is near the car. I will note that there are actually backup levers in the trunk and footwell in case you have a dead battery or the door buttons stop working, but this means if the exterior door button stops working you have to pop the trunk and pull on a cord back there to open the door. Not fun.

The car had to sit out in the cold waiting for its motor to be rebuilt and it came back very annoyed at me. One thing that had really gone downhill was the exterior door buttons. The response had been lazy before, but now it was not even working at all sometimes.

I got two replacement buttons for $20 a piece from the dealer.

This is what you see from the outside of the door.

With the door closed you reach behind that and your hand naturally finds the button.

Remove those two screws you see there and the whole handle piece pops off and you'll find an easily removable electrical connector. This is notable since many electrical connectors on the car are hard as hell to remove.

It's pretty obvious how the replacement works.  You pop out the center section of the handle which is the button assembly.

You're left with just the handle.

The new button just wedges itself into where the old one was located.

It holds together well enough to put the electrical connector back on and pop it into the door without any real issue. Two screws go back in and you're set. Probably 5 minutes for either side and now my doors open immediately. I should have done this sooner.

More to come as I put right some common issues.

Radiator was leaking. The service manual has you remove the condenser to replace the radiator and given the positioning I can see why they advise this, but at the same time I don't have any way to reclaim the AC refrigerant so I had to do it with the condenser in the car.

Getting to things is not too tough.  This is where I ended up with the intake removed. I think this is actually a partial after pic because I don't see the inlet hose for the radiator connected. Condenser is under that shroud on the right, then you have the radiator and the cooling fan to the left.

I drained all the coolant which is done easily enough by opening a valve on the radiator on the underside of the car.

I removed all the coolant hoses that are in the way up top or pushed them out of the way. The hose going to the expansion tank was disconnected as it's impossible to get at that radiator inlet hose without removing it. I also disconnected the radiator return hose which is annoyingly placed and has a monster clamp on it. A while back I got a cheap hose clamp removal set off of Amazon and it was generally pretty helpful.

I unbolted the fan from the radiator and lifted that out.

With the Z06 there are a couple of these fittings on the radiator with hard lines running into them, one is for the engine oil cooler and the other is for the transmission oil cooler. They have a plastic cap over the fitting and then a circlip holding the hose in there. I used a small pick to get hold of the clip and pull it off. The damned thing of course is nearly invisible when it falls on my garage floor so I spent a little time hunting for it, but I needn't have bothered because the new radiator includes them (duh).

After all the attachments points are off the radiator you need to pull the condenser up to get it off the radiator. I found I had to pull the radiator and condenser up together to get the radiator off the mounting points and then I could push down on the rad and pull up on the condenser to get them apart. It's a pain in the ass.

Not a lot of room overall to wiggle in there. The condenser connection goes right by the side of the radiator and it's really awkward getting the two apart with that in the way. If I had a way to do the AC I probably would have removed the condenser as I think it might be easier overall.

That said, I got it back in buttoned things up and got about two and a half gallons of coolant into the system. It was a bit stubborn about burping out some of the air, but eventually it came around. Temps look good after a few days of driving it around.

Next I need to tackle the front control arms and the shock bushings.

I struggled with a mount in the bottom left... either for the fan or for the condenser.  It was a royal pain.  Getting it back on was nearly impossible and I ended up notching something and possibly leaving one of the bolts out.  
 

it was a challenge for sure. 
 

have you had issues with your fan connector at the controller?  Apparently they are known to melt.  
 

I put a dewitts radiator in mine and am very happy with it.  
 

Also, did you contact the place that did the valve guides?  I think I know who you used and they have made a point of publicly saying they have only had a few problems and have taken care of those people. 
 

hipefully they fixed it!
 

jfryjfry said:

I struggled with a mount in the bottom left... either for the fan or for the condenser.  It was a royal pain.  Getting it back on was nearly impossible and I ended up notching something and possibly leaving one of the bolts out.  
 

it was a challenge for sure. 
 

have you had issues with your fan connector at the controller?  Apparently they are known to melt.  
 

 

I put a dewitts radiator in mine and am very happy with it.  
 

No issues with melting, but now that you say that I'm sure it will happen. If this radiator goes out then I'll get an aluminum one, but for the price this is fine.

jfryjfry said:

Also, did you contact the place that did the valve guides?  I think I know who you used and they have made a point of publicly saying they have only had a few problems and have taken care of those people. 
 

hipefully they fixed it!
 

 

The machine shop that did the block work redid the worn valve guides with bronze guides. I'm not sure what I would do about contacting the people that originally did the heads for me or what I would hope to get out of them. The bottom end was no good, they could maybe make some sort of case that this affected the heads, I dunno.

A long intermission due to covid.

After all the fitment issues with the exhaust I realized the car's exhaust was bent. I ended up sourcing a mid pipe and axle back from a 2010 with about 10k miles on it for $600 shipped. Apparently everyone wants the stock exhaust from 2011+ because I guess it has some minor modification to the tailpipes, but anything prior to that doesn't bring any money. Even after that was replaced the downpipe needed some tweaking to get it moved down slightly, but after a liberal application of heat and a prybar all issues with the exhaust hitting on the car have been completely resolved. I'm not sure how the exhaust got bent, but the axle back was really messed up when I compared it against the newer one I got.

New(er) one on top, old one on the bottom.

Also replaced the mid-pipe exhaust pieces (gaskets?) that go in between the mid pipe and downpipe while I had the whole thing out.

Exhaust sits nice and even after replacing everything.

At this time the upper mounts on the car were shot and so because you can't get the stock upper mounts without buying the shocks I decided to replace them with Delrin pieces made for the Konis I was running on the car sourced from Sam Strano. The Delrin parts eliminate deflection and allow the shocks to pivot more predictably.

There are four pieces to each mount.

Ends up looking like this once everything is put together.

This worked out well overall. There wasn't much extra noise or harshness from these and I could soften the dampers up slightly.

At this point I had pretty much decided that I would run the car in CAM-S class for autocross and so I decided to swap the stock shifter out for an MGW shifter.

I'm an expert at taking out the console at this point, so out it came and then out came the old shifter mechanism. You take some of the pieces from the stock box and use them in the new one.

No shifting can be done...

MGW gives you a few pieces of heat resistant and noise dampening material that you stick onto that area and once the box goes back in you end up here.

Then you use their alignment tool to get things into the right position.

Then it's time to put on the shifter itself and screw it down. That special allen wrench tool comes with the kit and it is very very necessary.

Then you just button everything back up. It's very nice overall. The shifting is much more predictable. I found the difference to be huge when I first started using it, but then quickly became enamored with the new feel and now I can't imagine having something else in the car.

I ended up just using the stock shifter knob with the new shifter as I've never had a problem with it. You can go either way you want, aftermarket or stock.

Covid hit right around then so the car sat for a while. Things started up again later in the year and I did a few events in the area. The car was not driving the way I wanted it to and I wasn't sure what exactly was wrong with it. Around October I took it out to an event and in a particular turn the car just came around on me and I ended up backing it up onto a curb. Now, one would think this would be the death of a Corvette given how low it is, but because the ass end is more tapered up and because I came up the curb at an angle I managed to avoid damaging most anything on the car. I mostly rode swaybar up the curb. I was actually able to drive the car off the curb and finish the run without any funky noises or issues.

Then I checked the underside of the car and realized I had taken a chunk off the rear subframe.

I didn't finish the event, but I was able to drive home without incident. I put the car away as I was planning to give it back to my friend Joe, the guy that rebuilt the motor, over the winter to fix the transmission. Since the whole drivetrain would need to come out I sourced a used rear subframe on the cheap off of an eBay junkyard seller.

Ever since I got the car the transmission had been pretty finicky about going into reverse and nothing I did externally was making it better so it was time for a teardown and since everything was getting dropped out I did a few other things as well.

Joe pulled the transmission and found that the reverse synchro was all messed up and replaced it along with some other pieces. I won't even really pretend to know how a transmission works, but suffice it to say the damned thing goes in reverse without a problem now.

While everything was dropped out I had him inspect the torque tube bushings and bearings and he found some pieces that were no good. I was kind of annoyed because when I had the clutch done the first time around I was told the shop had gone over the torque tube and replaced any problem parts and I had specifically told them I heard a strange noise at speed (which was present and continued after that service) and yet these parts were still needing replacement. Once this was done the strange noise at speed was finally gone for good.

Joe put it to me that this was the time to decide if I wanted to go for any big changes to the suspension and I ended up deciding to swap out the leaf springs and shocks for coilovers.

After having skimped previously on other cars with this sort of thing I decided I wanted to go with the best. I looked around a bit and found a company called G-Speed that makes a coilover kit using Penske double adjustable shocks. After contacting them they were able to get the setup put together quickly and out the door and soon I had them in my hands. I partly went with them because I had the car apart and wanted to get it back together and they had the goods in stock, but they also turned out to be very good with customer service.

I picked up an adjustable rear bar from Hotchkis as the middle setting maintains the same rate as the stock rear bar, but this gives me the option if I need to make changes situationally. When Joe swapped this out for me he noted that the rear bar was totally locked up as the bushings I had used for replacements were too small. I could swear that those were the right part number and I even got them from a dealer after giving them the VIN of the car. I guess I should have known better especially after fitting them. That's probably why I ass ended around in the car as having the rear bar like that would make the car really unpredictable. I did feel really dumb about that one.

Since everything was dropped out I also decided to buy one of those tunnel plate insulation pieces that you can stick on to minimize heat transfer from the exhaust into the cabin.

Even though they offered some pieces that go on the side tunnel heat shields I noticed there was already insulation on the side pieces of my car. Little strange there. The overall heat issue in the cabin has been minimized significantly after redoing the cabin insulation on top and adding this on the tunnel plate.

Joe set the ride height, corner weighted and aligned the car to an agreed upon spec.

At this point I knew I needed to upsize the front end tires and wheels as I was still running the stock 9.5" rims up front with 275s. I got some 18x11" Forgestars through Strano for the front and then I picked up a set of four 315/30/18 Yokohama Advan A052 as that is the hot tire for autox right now and 315 is as wide as they go.

Unmounted Yoks next to mounted 335 BFG Rival S.

The 11s with 315s stick out quite a bit more up front, but I haven't noticed any issues with rubbing.

The Advans stick like glue. I'm still tuning the setup for optimal grip in all situations, but just the tire grip alone is impressive and the Penskes handle bumps way way better than the stock suspension. The general ride quality even just driving around town is better overall too.
 

Somewhere in all this I decided I wanted to add some sound deadening material to the back area. This was in preparation for making changes to the sound system which I still haven't made yet. The stock Bose stuff is kinda bad even with the aftermarket head unit that is in the car.

This is by far the most laborious thing I have ever done on this car. Pulling out all the interior pieces was the least problematic part. Although since you have to pull the trunk lid struts you have to prop up the lid.

I got one of those Dynamat knockoffs and laying this stuff down is incredibly difficult if you don't have the right tools and for a while there I did not as that rubber/plastic roller you see there did jack and crap to flatten out the stuff. You're supposed to not even really see the lines in the stuff after you roll it down. I ended up getting a set of metal rollers and those were better, but still the cutting and fitting and rolling is a huge pain in the ass especially when you get to the parts that are rounded. If I ever consider doing this again I'd probably pay someone to do it as they could not charge too much.

Also, randomly when I pulled out one of the speakers to get behind it, what do I find?

Who knows how long this thing has been behind there, but since it was coming apart in my hands I would say quite a while. "You say you have a rattling noise in your Corvette? Have you checked for a number 2 pencil behind the interior walls?"

Not sure how much of a difference this made overall in terms of sound in the car. There is some minimization of road noise, but the problem is the stock speakers are still garbage, so that whole setup needs to go before I will see any real payoff from doing all of this.

So glad to see you still working hard with the old girl.  
can you tell me about your rotating assembly?  I don't think I have a rod issue but if I discover that I do, I'd love to know what you went with so I can consider it. 
 

I have heard the tailpipes changed at a certain point so maybe they weren't bent but were from a different year?

They're such fun cars.... so much power and grip...

jfryjfry (FS) said:

So glad to see you still working hard with the old girl.  
can you tell me about your rotating assembly?  I don't think I have a rod issue but if I discover that I do, I'd love to know what you went with so I can consider it. 
 

I have heard the tailpipes changed at a certain point so maybe they weren't bent but were from a different year?

They're such fun cars.... so much power and grip...

It's really all about what you want to do. I went with the stock camshaft and a rotating assembly that is nearly stock because I wanted to run on the stock ECU with stock fueling etc.

Rods
COMPSTAR ROD LS1 6.125 2.100 .927 PINCOMPSTAR 8 CTWT LS1 CRANK

Crank
COMPSTAR 8 CTWT LS1 CRANK

Then I had pistons made by Wiseco to these specs and the block machined to fit.

Pistons
Chevy LS7;4.130" x 1.110"ch;11:1 cr

You could change the camshaft and any number of other things out and make more power if you wanted to, but I felt the power level overall was fine. This doesn't spin up quite as quickly as with the titanium rods, but all you have to do is add more right foot and you get what you want.

The exhaust was just straight up bent. The tailpipe change does nothing other than change the exhaust tips AFAIK.

Well, that would probably explain the one side always falling out!   And thanks for the info and heads up on the parts you got.   I'm running a different cam and some other small stuff that puts me at about 600 crank, but at some point I might be facing the dreaded titanium rod failure and, like you, want something that is bullet-proof so I'd like to go with something else.

my current project is running 3" pipe through the stock mufflers instead of the necked down 2.25+" it is currently.

jfryjfry (FS) said:

Well, that would probably explain the one side always falling out!   And thanks for the info and heads up on the parts you got.   I'm running a different cam and some other small stuff that puts me at about 600 crank, but at some point I might be facing the dreaded titanium rod failure and, like you, want something that is bullet-proof so I'd like to go with something else.

 

my current project is running 3" pipe through the stock mufflers instead of the necked down 2.25+" it is currently.

 

 

Yeah, that was pretty much the reason for it falling out. When it was in a position where it no longer hit on the body it was too far out of the mid-pipe to stay connected.

Action shot from this past weekend. Need to take off the BFG stickers since I'm running Yokohamas 

Awesome.  How was it?  Did the car self-actuate open pipes or is that finally solved???