1987 Corvette Z52

[Basement Paul]

The Badger is right. But he's not accounting for my hatred of getting a new phone. I just hate the whole process. Ugh. I have the same hatred for new glasses, but I'm due for those too.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

The majority of yesterday's work was dedicated to getting the Lokar throttle cable in place. It took a solid two hours just to get it in place under the dash. I used the plastic sleeve, sacrificed from the original cable assembly, to get it attached to the pedal. Then it was a solid two man effort to get it mounted to the fire wall because the mounting threads are a bit too short. But we persevered.
Then we put the rest of the windshield wiper assembly back in place so it should function when necessary.
Next week the seat can go back in, the intake and coils can go back on, and if we're lucky, we can get the other end of the throttle cable cut to length and attached to the throttle body.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

The seat is back in place. And since I had most of the top end apart, I put new gaskets, or seals in this case, on the valve covers, intake manifold, and valley cover. Next week we should be able to finally get the intake back on for good, finish up the throttle cable, and work on some PCV tubing and brake vacuum hose. It's a little slower going as dad's broken tractor deck has been sucking up some Saturday morning time.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

Over the weekend the throttle cable got hooked up and seems to be functional at this point. I'm hoping the tiny little set screw is able to hold the cable in place during all the abuse. If not I think there's a backup way that should work.
Today I got a 1/4" tube nipple tig welded into my upper radiator hose assembly so I can attach my steam port hose to it. I also picked up a PCV breather like the one in my S10 to route the crankcase crud into, instead of back into the engine. I got both of these things accomplished at Hutter's.

I have also enlisted Camaro Bob to do some finish work on the fuel system, old engine wiring, and hooking up the Holley Injection system. I love Hutter's, but their rate is significantly higher than Bob's, and I believe the exact same outcome will be had. I'm hoping to get him the car in the next week or two.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

The Corvette went to Bob's last Thursday with the help of Kevin and his big car trailer. Hopefully the next 2-3 weeks will see it to driving completion. But I didn't set a deadline as I know he bounces around on some of his shop projects. I also ordered some John Deere counterweights this morning on Amazon. Once I get it back, I will work on getting the weight bracket assembled into the rear hitch. I thought the JD Green would accent my car nicely in the dirt.

More excitement to come...

-BP

[Basement Paul]

Pictures first.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

The Vette is back and running like a champ (sort of, LOL). I drove it back from Bob's early in the week. Put a few miles around town this week, and took it to breakfast in Burton this morning with a trip to my parents place after to put the drag shocks on and put on the drag tires instead of the road course tires that have been on it since that fatal day last July. It runs and drives amazingly well. Tons of power, trans shifts really well, driveability is amazing too. No flaws so far, except on my way home from there I saw a puff of smoke come out the back of the car on 44, but then nothing else after so I thought my eyes were deceiving me. I made it home with no problems but a little later I looked under the hood and saw a rubber trans cooler hose split. Fluid must have gotten between the outer rubber and the reinforced inside part which exploded all over the passenger side under the hood, but then just dripped slowly after.
This will not be a major ordeal to repair. I also bought new front calipers as the left one seems to be super weak and creaky and it pulls to the right a little under braking. So I have some work to do tomorrow.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

The hose repair wasn't too terrible. I was able to chop the hose about two inches shorter and still room to slide the hose back on without anything being too tight. I got the new calipers installed too. These are so easy on this car, and it did fix the pull to the right. After looking at the pads, I think the passengers side was clamping just a little off. The slides were all good on both sides, but the calipers looked original, so they were due either way.
The plan is to run it this Wed if the weather allows.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

As GM mentioned in his post, we were at KMP on Wed night. TireSmoker was spectating and MarkSS327 was there with his Vette too. My best pass was the 12.21 against John, and I was able to duplicate it in the first round. The track was going away a little and the drag radials I have are lackluster at best requiring a careful application of throttle to get it to hook. I also had to relearn how to burnout in this car as it pushes through the brakes if I attempt to spin the tires on the more dry pavement, so I just stay in the water to get some heat into them. I lost to Alex in his 17 sec Subaru in the semis when the Vette fell on it's face about 150' out. I had him on the tree, and I got the car to hook up, but I think fuel slosh got me on that run as I was below about 3/8 tank.
With my expectations being somewhere around 12.8, and hopes to run 12.6, this car has well exceeded my expectations for straight line performance already and this was only the first time out. I know LS motors love good air, and it was good. Probably just under 1000' DA when I got the first 12.21. I'm still short shifting 1st gear because I have to shift it manually because if I leave it in auto and it spins and I have to pedal even a little, it automatically shifts to 2nd, then back to 1st which is bad. I'm sure there's something in the tuning I can do to fix that. I also have a set of Mickey Thompson drag radials coming today, so I can launch this car for real and hopefully not worry about spinning at all. I looked and my best 60' with the new motor is exactly the same as my best 60' with the L98. That's unacceptable. LOL
The weather looks to be about the same so far, for next Wed, and I hope to have the new tires on, and maybe get my new turbo mufflers installed too.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

I bought these Walker Quietflow mufflers for the Vette awhile back after seeing rust piles under both of my stock mufflers, figuring they weren't long for the world. Today was install day. I was a little bummed to find out they had weird exhaust outlets on them that turn straight down instead of what the factory ones did. I surmised that they did this so they didn't have to make left and right hand versions. Ultimately after test fitting, I decided to just put a 45 ish cut on them, which, IMO, looks as good or better than the original, and isn't really noticeable as an aftermarket/ hot rod muffler. The install went otherwise as planned.
Although everyone that mounted these claimed them as no drone mufflers, they're actually pretty good at droning. Most of that is because I have zero insulation inside my car. LOL They do give it a good, deep sound on the outside, and under WOT, do a great job keeping the exhaust rapping to a minimum. Hopefully they even flow better than the stock ones and maybe there's a few HP to be had there.

-BP