• Got the Contributing Memberships stuff finally worked out and made up a thread as a sort of "How-To" to help people figure out how to participate. So if you need help figuring it out, here's the thread you need to take a look at -> http://www.corvetteflorida.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3581 Thank you, everyone! Rich Z.

427 engine (part 2) - RHS block

I got the suspension back together on the driver's side front today. New bearing/hub, rotor and pads. Just need to put in the new braided brake hoses and new bleeder screws, then bleed/flush the brake fluid and that should all be done.

One thing that puzzled me was that Aaron said he found two cross threaded bolts in the suspension, and I've been over every bit of the suspension and not seen any sign of that. If it was a bolt/nut cross threaded, I would have thought that either the bolt, nut, or both would have been replaced rather than rethreading them and having the threads weakened by the damage. But I don't see any signs of new hardware anywhere in the suspension. Heck, I pulled out many of the bolts during the stuff I was doing and ran them through a die to clean out the original sealant still on them before putting them back in. :shrug01: Heck, I dunno. Maybe they just happened to be two bolts I DIDN'T look at somewhere.

The fuel pump was shipped to Lonnie's Performance on Thursday, and Jon at FIC said that he shipped out the new injectors today for me.

I guess in the meantime I may go ahead and get a new fuel pressure regulator rather than worrying about it being screwed up with metal particles inside, and try to figure out what to do about the vacuum plumbing. But it may be best to just wait to see what I need when the new fuel pump comes back. And by then maybe I'll have some idea of whether or not I'll be putting that 2 bar MAP sensor in.
 
Can someone with a C5Z take a picture of their battery so I can see what is used to hold it in place? I just noticed that I have NOTHING holding the battery down at all. It's just sitting in that little space on what looks like a steel plate. Could be kind of awkward having the battery slapping around in there if I should have to make sharp turns or braking. The only thing that might hold it in place are the positive and negative cables attached to it... :crazy9:
 
Rich Z said:
Can someone with a C5Z take a picture of their battery so I can see what is used to hold it in place? I just noticed that I have NOTHING holding the battery down at all. It's just sitting in that little space on what looks like a steel plate. Could be kind of awkward having the battery slapping around in there if I should have to make sharp turns or braking. The only thing that might hold it in place are the positive and negative cables attached to it... :crazy9:
Click to expand...

Rich

Here are a couple pics I just took off my '04 Z16. The hold down is a small plastic block with a single bolt holding it to the battery tray.

I hope this helps.

Rich

Z06batteryholdown002.jpg


Z06batteryholdown001.jpg
 
Rich Z said:
Yesterday I just spent time cleaning up some hardware on the passenger's side front suspension. Cleaned up the bolts, and put a wire brush to a steel panel that goes between the hub and the knuckle that holds the connector for the wheel speed sensor. The panel looks like it had some sort of sealant or something on it, giving it a rough texture where the hub and knuckle meet, so I wanted to smooth it out so the hub would be flush against the knuckle. Since it was steel, I went ahead and put a light coat of paint on it as well. I painted the caliper bracket, so I'm pretty much in a state of waiting for paint to dry thoroughly on those parts before I put the passenger side together and get to the driver's side.

Today I decided to start working on the fuel system. Still waiting on at least one of the new fuel filters to show up, but I figured that in the meantime I could pull out the old one and start rerouting the plumbing back there. Lucky I did, because I found out that there are two sized fittings needed for those three tubes coming out of the fuel pump. Two of the lines are 3/8ths and the other (the blue line) is 5/16ths. Since the return hose from the fuel pressure regulator was on the green line of the pump (which is not correct) it had a 3/8ths to -6AN fitting on it, which, of course, would not work on that 5/16ths tube. So I had to scramble to find one to try to get it here by this weekend. Fortunately Summit Racing carries it (although it was pretty tough to find), so it should get here on Saturday. Lately I've been learning about 10 times as much about the Corvette fuel system than I EVER really wanted to know about. :ack2:

But in any event, I got the Aeromotive pump disconnected and pulled off of the car. Pulled that funky red hot wire off of the fuse block and pulled it out of the car. The darn plastic convoluted tubing that the power and ground wire ran through to the pump OVER the turbo wastegate on the driver's side was all melted and gaping open with the wires exposed. Wonder how long it would have taken for the hot wire itself to have the insulation start melting off of it exposing a live wire right near the fuel lines? :rolleyes:

Anyway, here's the stuff I pulled off of the car today:

aeromotive_gone_01.jpg


And here's a close-up of the fuel filter that came out:

fuel_filter_10.jpg


I had read all kinds of horror stories online about getting this filter and the front line from the output separated, so I went ahead and bought the GM tools made for disconnecting these types of fuel connections. This is what they look like:

fuel_line_tool_10.jpg


Actually it came apart very easily for me, so perhaps it was just a matter of having the right tool for the job.

Now when I was trying to figure out exactly what kind of fitting it was that I would be needing for that 5/16ths fuel tube, I decided to take apart the one that came off of the 3/8ths tube that is the fuel OUT line (black tag) coming out of the pump and had been going to the input of the Aeromotive pump. You may recall that when I took a look at the AN fitting at the Aeromotive pump end of this same fuel line, the tip of the fitting was all corroded. Well, come to find out that the fitting on the stock fuel pump side of this same fuel line looked identical.

fitting_corroded_01.jpg


What in the world caused that to happen? I didn't see any corrosion like that on the output side of the Aeromotive pump. But when I take apart the fuel rails, I am certainly going to inspect all those fittings carefully to see what they look like. I sure am glad that I'll be getting those fuel injectors inspected and cleaned. If those fittings were shedding junk, then certainly some garbage got into the injectors since there wasn't ANY filter between those fittings and the injectors the entire time Aaron was running the engine.

Ah well... I've now got to plug those holes in my trunk where the bolts holding the Aeromotive pump were located.
Click to expand...

The corrosin is electrolisys (excuse my spelling...it is wrong I know). Looks like there was no dedictaed ground to the fule pump and it was gronging through the fittings.

That is where much of the debris in the system seems to have come from.

The washers your using on the fuel rail/banjo fittings are AC gaskets, but should stand up to the fuel I believe
 
RevXtreme 1 said:
The corrosin is electrolisys (excuse my spelling...it is wrong I know). Looks like there was no dedictaed ground to the fule pump and it was gronging through the fittings.

That is where much of the debris in the system seems to have come from.

The washers your using on the fuel rail/banjo fittings are AC gaskets, but should stand up to the fuel I believe
Click to expand...

Interesting. I wondered about that ground strap on the fuel filter I removed from the car. So what is the correct method to make sure the fuel system is grounded properly?

Thanks for your insight in this.
 
Looking at the picture of the fuel filter it appears that the filter is to be bolted to the frame. The bolt then becomes the ground connection for the filter. If the filter is just hanging on the fuel lines then you will have to put a strap from it to a frame bolt to complete the circut.
 
The 97-98 model fuel filter that I used to replace the 2002 version doesn't have a grounding strap on it like you can see in that picture. I'll have to take another look at it, as I can't recall if that bracket holding the filter is insulated from the can or not.

But the electrolysis thing does make sense when I think about it. Especially since the two worst fittings were those in the fuel line between the stock fuel pump and the Aeromotive external pump. Both of which had power applied to them and there may have been a voltage differential between them. So the gasoline might have been acting as an electrolyte solution.

I guess things could get pretty ugly if enough voltage potential build up to throw a spark inside the fuel system somewhere. :eek:

I think that if I do need to run a ground wire, the easiest place would be from one of the mounting bolts on the stock fuel pump.
 
My head hurts....

I was talking to a friend of mine this evening, and of course we got to talking about my car. Specifically the fuel system. I told him the things I had done and mentioned about the possible issue of grounding the fuel system. The conversation turned to the fuel tanks and how the passenger side wasn't even hooked up when I inspected the plumbing, and how I then did the plumbing to put them back in line. Somewhere during that conversation an alarm started going off in my head. Because I just don't understand something and I'm not sure what it means, and this conversation just brought it all up onto the front burner.

When I left Aaron's shop, I stopped in Thomasville to get the gas tank(s) filled up at a local gas station. I honestly don't remember what the gas gauge was reading, but I figure it had to be around half tank or so. It only took 10.4 gallons to top it off, so nothing seemed out of sorts.

On the way home the gas gauge died, pegged over on the EMPTY side, and of course I figured that was just par for the course. So there was no way for me to actually monitor the gasoline usage on the way back home. I did have the DIC set to show instantaneous MPG, and it was running about 25 mpg if I remember correctly. In any event, since I had filled the gas tank and wasn't going all that far, just 55 miles to get back home, no big deal about that gas gauge not working. Just something to have to deal with another day. So I pulled the car into the garage and called it a day. Or actually a night, since it was well past nightfall when we got back home.

I can't remember whether I started the car again the following day or when it was exactly, but I remember noting that the gas gauge was back to working again. But what didn't register was that the gas gauge was showing just a bit over a half tank. Hmm, half a tank of gas to drive just 55 miles?

Anyway, jumping to the present, when I decided to empty the driver's side gas tank to extract the fuel pump, my efforts to empty the tank by what I thought would be the easy way just didn't work. So I decided to just run the engine at idle until I had emptied the tanks. When I got down to a bit over a quarter tank, that's when I got sidetracked into figuring out exactly how the fuel system was plumbed and finding out just how screwed up it was. So I got some advice on how to put it right, and then did all the plumbing necessary to make it that way. Car started up fine, and actually seemed to run a lot better than before, so things were looking up. I decided to then proceed with emptying the tanks so I could get that fuel pump out and off to Lonnie's. So over a weekend I ran the engine at stretches of an hour each until the gas gauge got way below redline and I decided that would be good enough.

So here's what's got me spooked. When I replumbed the fuel lines and hooked up that passenger side fuel tank back into the plumbing, why didn't the fuel gauge register the additional fuel that suddenly came online that was available in that passenger side tank? Not that I understand how the two fuel gauge sensors work in tandem, mind you, but I would have thought SOMETHING would have changed. Not only that, why did the fuel seem to get used up at the same rate that it did before that passenger side tank was brought online?

From what I understand, when you fill up at the gas station, the driver's side tank fills up first and then when it reaches the connecting tube at the top of the driver's side tank going over to the passenger side tank, then the passenger side fuel tank fills up. When driving, the fuel pump in the driver's side tank working in tandem with the siphon pump in the passenger side tend to keep the fuel levels in both tanks about equal. Please correct me if I am wrong here.

Now when I hooked up the plumbing with the passenger side tank now engaged, I did hear that siphon pump gurgling away within that passenger side gas tank. So I figured it was working properly and all was well with the fuel system now. Mostly, anyhow.

But what the heck is going on? If that passenger side tank got filled up along with the driver side tank when I stopped at the gas station in Thomasville, then why didn't the fuel in there get added to the total amount of gasoline that I was trying to empty out while running the engine? The fuel gauge didn't change, and certainly when the gauge read way below empty, there was very little gasoline left in that driver's side tank. So is there still a full tank of gasoline over in that passenger side gas tank? And if so, why didn't it get transferred over to the driver's side tank?

Or, if there is NOT any gasoline in that passenger side tank, then why didn't it get filled when I filled up at the gas station? I always fill up the cars when I go to the gas station, so I ran the gas station pump till it clicked off from the fuel backing up the filler tube. So either there was already approximately a half tank of gasoline remaining in the car, since it only took 10.4 gallons, or something is screwy going on. I believe the total volume of both gas tanks is 19 gallons, so if I were only filling up the single driver's side tank, then the MAX I could have put in would have been about 9.5 gallons. But a gallon OVER that amount went in.

Sorry, but my brain is swirling in circles trying to figure this out.

Now, is there any way to tell how much gasoline is actually in that passenger side tank without cracking open the mounting plate for that siphon fuel pump to see how much leaks out? I guess if there is still a problem in the fuel system, now is the time to figure that out!
 
That sounds like a situation I had with a GM pick up truck with duel tanks. I was running along on the interstate and showing a half tank of fuel on the gage. All of a sudden I ran out of gas in rush hour traffic and pulled it off the road. I went and got gas and got it to a station and filled it up. The next day the mechanic were I worked looked at it and came in and told me there was a blown fuse and that was why the fuel from the one tank did not transfer to the other tank. So maybe you have a blown fuse or a wire off from all the hammer bangers that installed your fuel lines etc.:yesnod:
 
CorvetteJohn said:
That sounds like a situation I had with a GM pick up truck with duel tanks. I was running along on the interstate and showing a half tank of fuel on the gage. All of a sudden I ran out of gas in rush hour traffic and pulled it off the road. I went and got gas and got it to a station and filled it up. The next day the mechanic were I worked looked at it and came in and told me there was a blown fuse and that was why the fuel from the one tank did not transfer to the other tank. So maybe you have a blown fuse or a wire off from all the hammer bangers that installed your fuel lines etc.:yesnod:
Click to expand...

Well, heck, I dunno... I could hear the siphon pump in the passenger side tank working. I don't think there is anything else electrically that either a missing or blown fuse, or a damaged wire would affect. I've been looking over the service manual and I don't see anything obvious that might cause what I am seeing. But I'm certainly no expert at this.... :shrug01:
 
Well, yesterday I was just studying the layout of the vacuum line coming from the brake booster and seeing if I could relocate the vacuum line coming from the blow off valve to the front of the intake so I could move the relocated MAP sensor there. Kind of hard figuring out where to put a vacuum block manifold, but I think it will mount OK down on the frame near the windshield washer reservoir on the driver's side.

Anyway, for some reason I decided to make sure the bolts holding the intake manifold were tightened. There are actually two sets of bolts, one set holding the top half of the manifold to the bottom half, and then another set holding the manifold itself to the heads. So I grabbed a 5mm T-handle wrench and just checked one of the bolts. Sheesh..... I could turn the wrench with just two fingers. Long story short is that EVERY bolt was loose at least 1 full turn and most needed 2 turns to tighten them down. I had to do them all in stages so I would be tightening down the manifold evenly, so each time I tightened down one bolt, others could be tightened even more to take up the slack. I'm not sure I had any vacuum leaks there, because I did try the trick of spraying carb cleaner around the intake with the engine running to see if the rpms would increase, and didn't note that happening. But those bolts sure were very loose, regardless, and that couldn't be a good thing.

I hate to think it, but I guess it would be wise for me to pull off the valve covers and check every bolt I possibly can to make sure everything is tight. I sure can't believe anything anyone else has told me about what they have checked. :rolleyes:
 
I found a company selling different kinds of recessed panel plugs, and they were kind enough to send me free samples, since they sold them in hundred lots, and I certainly didn't need that many. I'm glad they just didn't blow me off, since obviously there was no sale in store for them from me with this stuff.

But in any event, one of the plugs they sent me appears to have done the job hiding that unsightly hole in the firewall. And I certainly didn't like the idea that water from rain or washing the car could run through that hole into the back of the engine bay. I had to mark out a circle to make the hole more uniformly round with my Dremel cutting tool. I just used a suitably sized socket for that purpose and it seemed to do what I needed for the outline I needed to cut. I bought a right angle adapter for the Dremel that made working on the firewall MUCH easier to do. Those side cutting bits for the Dremel really do cut!

Heck, the plug fit in there so well that I didn't even glue it in there. As long as the heat doesn't affect it, then I think it will do the job just fine.

hole_plug_01.jpg


Otherwise, just been puttering around under the car straightening up things. Putting heat shrink tubing on unsightly exposed wires on connectors, removing heat damaged convoluted tubing, and using convoluted tubing on brake lines that were a tad too close to things to keep them from being rubbed and perhaps damaged. I found some heat shrink tubing that shrinks to a 4:1 ratio that works REALLY well with those large connectors that I had to slide the tubing over. The 2:1 stuff just won't shrink down enough to cover the wires properly if the tubing is wide enough to go over the connector.

I noticed some black junk on the passenger side tail pipe that looks like melted plastic, so I had to move that big convoluted tube there away from the pipe and closer to the top of the differential. Come to find out there is a metal bracket on that tube that should have been mounted onto a bolt at the rear of the differential that was not done so. Fortunately I had a correctly threaded nut here, so I tightened that up and put the tube out of the way of things.

Yeah, I know I should be pulling off the valve covers to take a look at the valvetrain, but I didn't really feel like setting myself up for another potential unpleasant surprise again. I'll do that when I'm feeling a bit more chipper, I guess. Doing this minor stuff is a whole lot easier on my brain and state of mind. Besides, nothing much can happen anyway till my fuel pump comes back from Lonnie's Performance.

BTW, if anyone wants the source for that recessed panel plug, here's where I got it from -> http://www.harmancorp.com/products/plasticplugs/recessedstyleplugs.aspx

You'll have to beg for a free sample, though, as minimum ordering quantity for a 1 3/4 hole plug is 1500 units. :ack2:
 
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