Well, I had to put two gaskets on each of those exhaust flanges, one of which is an extra thick stainless steel gasket, and I found that I still have a slight leak. So it will apparently take three (3) gaskets to get them to seal up right. That's even after filing down the flanges on the LGM rear pipes trying to get them flush and straight. I checked with a straight edge and those flanges are definitely warped, which is why I have been having a devil of a time getting them sealed up properly. No idea how that happened, but with everything else this car has been through, I don't know why I would think this would surprise me. Heck, I don't think even over tightening those flange bolts would produce the type of warping I am seeing. It's not just the flanges at the bolt holes being bent out, it's like the flanges themselves got twisted somehow. I tried taking pics to show that I mean, but it just doesn't show what I can see by eyeball.
Anyway, I ordered new rear pipes from LG Motorsports and they showed up today. Got the old ones off, but decided to order new exhaust clamps, since I don't know how many times the two chop shops might have tightened and over tightened them. Plus I noticed that the gaskets I have (2.5" hole, 2 bolt, 4 inches between bolt hole centers) have a raised lip around the exhaust pipe hole, and if that gasket is even slightly off center, that lip just will not seal properly between the flanges. So I decided to order new gaskets with 2.75" holes so that alignment won't be so critical.
So the car is on ice till those clamps and gaskets come in. Not that the C5Z isn't used to living on the lift or anything....
I posted another thread (
http://www.corvetteflorida.com/forum...d.php?t=106200) showing the video I took trying to either solidify the theory that it is the clutch making the drivetrain noise, or else provide evidence that it is from something else. Certainly seems to be originating from the clutch as best I can tell. I think that the Centerforce clutch is just real noisy, probably from those weights on the fingers of the clutch that are used to press the pressure plate harder against the disk because of the action of centrifugal force acting upon them. At slow speeds, they probably are just rattling around and chattering, which might be what the noise is coming from when I release the clutch pedal.
If it's just an irritation and aggravation, I might just live with it for as long as I can instead of jumping right in with a clutch replacement. I figure I've got about 6,000 miles on this clutch, so I might as well use it as long as I can.