1996 Collector Edition Corvette

[Basement Paul]

The nice thing for you is that winter there isn't like winter here so you will be able to keep driving it and enjoying it now that you've gotten ahead of it.
It's pretty much all functional at this point, right?

-BP

[wxo]

Yep. She's very functional as long as I don't want to change the position of the seats. That's my last big thing and I'm not ready to tackle that yet. It requires a lot of disassembly of the console and the dash.

BTW, I have been successful at setting up some modern audio recently. I installed a blue tooth adapter to allow connecting all the audio stuff on my iPhone (including a vast collection of music from Amazon Music) to the Bose system in the Vette. Love the big sound of those road tunes!! I'm very happy with that old Bose system.

[wxo]

Since I've been driving Silvia a lot more, I decided to switch on the PKE (Passive Key Entry) feature on the key fob. PKE senses the transmitter in the key fob and unlocks the doors and disables the security. It worked for a while, but then went dead. I bit of diagnosis indicated that the fob was the problem. I checked the battery and it was sitting at 2.97 volts. That should have been plenty of voltage to operate the system. Anyway, I put a new battery in and it came to life again and things began looking up. The next day I went out to the garage, key fob in hand, expecting it to open the door as I approached. No such luck. I took the fob apart again to check voltage on the new battery again. Then I remembered that I had dropped the fob while hanging the keys on our key hook. Hmmm.... so I pushed down on the battery and held it in place while I walked out to the car. Bam! the door unlocked. The key fob had just enough room inside for the battery to move away from it's contact and render the fob inactive. To prevent this from happening again, I sliced a thin piece of foam rubber and glued it into the cover of the fob right over the battery to keep downward pressure on the battery when the fob is screwed together. As an additional test of my theory, I snagged the old battery (2.97 volts) out of the wastebasket and put it back in. Now it works, too. Good fix.

[wxo]

ODO: 105,648
Silvia is still running great! She starts and runs to my satisfaction with a high fun factor while rowing her around. Since changing the injectors, all drivability problems have disappeared.

At startup, an engine noise (knocking) on the right side is getting quieter over time. It goes away within a minute of startup, but I'm still puzzled over it's origin. Bottom line, I don't pay much attention to it any more.

Body noises have also quieted down with use.

Gas mileage is averaging (city) 16.3 mpg if I can keep my foot out of it.

No oil leaks on the garage floor. I love a car with no oil leaks.

The power seats still need to be diagnosed and fixed.

When I remove the seats, I plan to do a deep cleaning of the carpeting to remove as much of the dead mouse odor as possible. I'm not ready to replace the carpeting until I try the cleaning. Visually, it still doesn't show much wear.

Finally, I've contacted the Blackstone oil analysis lab and they sent me a test kit to collect oil the next time I change it. I'd like to see what kind of results come back on the LT4.

I'm looking forward to another year of driving fun.

[wxo]

For any of you interested, here's a video from C&S Corvettes talking about the '96 LT4 engine differences compared to the stock LT1 engine.
https://youtu.be/dEZ4PoE19cM

[wxo]

Up until now, I haven't been very fastidious about logging the work I've done on Silvia. Today I changed my evil ways. I downloaded a sample maintenance log from the web and modified it for my use. I read through the entire Tiresmoke thread of my Corvette and pulled all the major things I had done and entered them into the new log.

[Basement Paul]

That looks very official!

-BP

[wxo]

The Blackstone oil analysis lab forced me to do it. They wanted to know how many miles were on the oil sample I submitted. My notes on TireSmoke were not complete enough for me to tell. The answer was somewhere between 750 and 2000. I will try to do better in the future.

ODO: 105,673 oil change plus ACDelco filter PF52e.

[wxo]

ODO: 105,742
On the first of January, I proudly proclaimed "No oil leaks on the garage floor. I love a car with no oil leaks." Once I got her up on the jack stands and looked underneath, I saw the opposite. Oil covered the oil pan from front to back, but none had reached the floor. So when I finished changing the oil, I cleaned up the under side from front of the engine to the oil drain plug with brake cleaner and rags and waited until I had put some miles on the clock. I got a chance to look around today and saw some drops of oil on the cross member in front of the engine. I'm not sure, but I think it might be power steering fluid. I will be doing some more inspection to see if I can determine the source.

[wxo]

ODO: 105754
We had a 67° day today so I went out to the garage with the intent of finding an oil leak. I didn't find an oil leak, but I did find an antifreeze leak in the same area where I thought the oil leak was originating. One of the heater hoses needed the clamp tightened a bit more. Now, I wonder/hope that what I thought was oil running back over the oil pan was really this oily antifreeze.

I also painted and installed my Christmas gift...a much needed, usable cup holder.

[wxo]

ODO: 105,805

I received the results of the oil analysis today. Nothing shows up out of the ordinary. Pretty good news.

[wxo]

The oil analysis report mentioned that the viscosity of the oil was slightly low. I called Blackstone and asked about it. They were very eager to answer all questions and said that it may be some fuel in the oil. Looking back at the history of the oil I submitted, I saw that it was during the time when I had been running with 58# of fuel pressure and the bad injectors. Hmmm?? I'm looking forward to the next oil change and analysis to see if that changes.

[wxo]

ODO: 106,146
I finally got around to tackling the power driver's seat problems. Getting the seat out wasn't too bad and there weren't any dead, mummified, animals underneath.

There is a unit with three motors that controls the movement of the seat. I tested each motor with a 12 volt jumper and two of the motors worked. I ordered a replacement for the whole unit from eBay and it should be here in a couple of days.

[Basement Paul]

I haven't pulled my seats out for anything yet, but do you pull the seat bottom off to access the mounting bolts to the floor?

-BP

[wxo]

Yes. The front of the seat bottom is held on by a stiff wire latch that you push down to unlatch. Then just pull the seat forward and it comes out. For your first time, it's best to take a look under the front of the seat to get an understanding of how it works. After that you can do it by feel. You need to move the seat forward and back to get access to the nuts that hold it down front and back. You can get a look at the front nuts when get down to look for the latch.