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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
- Thread starter Rich Z
- Start date
Well, the car is back in the garage. When Connie and I got out to Champion Chevrolet, my car was up on the lift and Shane handed me a flashlight so I could inspect everything. He pointed out a couple of things that he said I might want to dress up somewhat but he already did most of that work and had it looking pretty good. Everything looked in good order, so he got the car off of the lift, and I got behind the wheel for a test drive.
That new clutch works really nice. Pretty much like a stock clutch on letoff from a dead stop, and gear shifts are really smooth. I had no complaints whatsoever and figured maybe we have a winner here. So I paid the bill and headed on home with it with Connie following behind, just in case.
Seriously, the car drives REALLY nice now. No mysterious noises coming from the drivetrain, no odd feeling to the clutch engagement, and a subtle vibration that used to be there around 1800 to 2200 rpm seems to be gone. Matter of fact, I have to admit that the drivetrain sounds better than it did before I drove the car into Chris Harwood's shop many moons ago. There used to be an annoying rattle and vibration between shifts most of the time, and that seems to be completely gone now. Once I got used to the clutch, it seems effortless to use. Engages smoothly from a dead stop, and the car pulls up to speed without any apparent lugging, hesitation or odd groaning noises that I used to hear.
Quite honestly, I'm impressed. I think Shane did an exceptional job of fixing this problem for me and obviously went above and beyond what the job would have really required from the dealership's perspective from one of their techs. Based on what I experienced on the drive home, I honestly could not have wished for anything more. Man, thanks Shane for helping me out with this. I know people were ragging on you for taking on this car, and honestly you were my only hope of getting this done locally. I really appreciate your taking this on and bucking that "don't want to get involved" attitude that seems to be rampant around this area lately concerning me and my car.
Oh, Shane did tell me that a few of the bolt holes for the headers in the heads have gotten buggered up a bit by the work done prior to the car getting into his hands. They are fine for now, and holding, but I really should not be planning to be taking the headers on and off very often if I don't want things to get worse. And I can't recall if I mentioned it before, but yes, those two bolts holding the bell housing to the engine block were, in fact, missing, as I surmised.
And I also did not hear anything disconcerting from the engine neither, so maybe the increased endplay of the crankshaft is just a non issue.
Ah well, hopefully I've finally got my car back in driveable condition. Lordy I do hope so...
That new clutch works really nice. Pretty much like a stock clutch on letoff from a dead stop, and gear shifts are really smooth. I had no complaints whatsoever and figured maybe we have a winner here. So I paid the bill and headed on home with it with Connie following behind, just in case.
Seriously, the car drives REALLY nice now. No mysterious noises coming from the drivetrain, no odd feeling to the clutch engagement, and a subtle vibration that used to be there around 1800 to 2200 rpm seems to be gone. Matter of fact, I have to admit that the drivetrain sounds better than it did before I drove the car into Chris Harwood's shop many moons ago. There used to be an annoying rattle and vibration between shifts most of the time, and that seems to be completely gone now. Once I got used to the clutch, it seems effortless to use. Engages smoothly from a dead stop, and the car pulls up to speed without any apparent lugging, hesitation or odd groaning noises that I used to hear.
Quite honestly, I'm impressed. I think Shane did an exceptional job of fixing this problem for me and obviously went above and beyond what the job would have really required from the dealership's perspective from one of their techs. Based on what I experienced on the drive home, I honestly could not have wished for anything more. Man, thanks Shane for helping me out with this. I know people were ragging on you for taking on this car, and honestly you were my only hope of getting this done locally. I really appreciate your taking this on and bucking that "don't want to get involved" attitude that seems to be rampant around this area lately concerning me and my car.
Oh, Shane did tell me that a few of the bolt holes for the headers in the heads have gotten buggered up a bit by the work done prior to the car getting into his hands. They are fine for now, and holding, but I really should not be planning to be taking the headers on and off very often if I don't want things to get worse. And I can't recall if I mentioned it before, but yes, those two bolts holding the bell housing to the engine block were, in fact, missing, as I surmised.
And I also did not hear anything disconcerting from the engine neither, so maybe the increased endplay of the crankshaft is just a non issue.
Ah well, hopefully I've finally got my car back in driveable condition. Lordy I do hope so...
navy2kcoupe
!ereH nI depparT m'I pleH
HAL-A-FREAKIN-LUIA! That would be SWEET if all of the gremlins have been taken care of! :thumbsup:
Way to go Shane as well! :thumbsup::thumbsup:
Andy :wavey:
Way to go Shane as well! :thumbsup::thumbsup:
Andy :wavey:
CorvetteJohn
Deceased
Get that camera out and take us for a ride. I'll bet it turns heads when your driving it down the street with what it sounds like. Don't be surprised if you get someone doing what happened to my dad with his 60 vette. While setting at a light with the top down a kid on the sidewalk yelled at him "get on it grandpa" well in your case maybe not the grandpa part. Up until this I thought that an elephant had the longest pregnancy before delivering it's baby.:lmao:
shakedown067
Sinister C4
Fantastic news! Hope you finally get to actually enjoy the car! :dancer01:
Thanks guys. I'm hoping this feeling of having that huge weight off of my shoulders isn't temporary like the last time I felt like this. It gets tiresome getting knocked to the ground over and over again. I truly hope I never have to post another "look what I found done wrong NOW" reply here again.
Got the car up on the rack today and just poked around looking at stuff.
Shane mentioned that I need to get the oil feed line going to the junction that feeds oil to the turbos up off or the driver's side exhaust pipe. I had tried wrapping it with a black convoluted mesh tubing a while back, but it obviously could not take the heat and melted. So Shane suggested putting in a hanger to pull the braided hose line up and away from the exhaust pipe. So I did that today. Also pulled off that black plastic and ran the silver high temp stuff I had around it. Also wrapped the smaller lines coming from the junction with the high temp stuff as well.
But I think I would like to relocate that oil line stuff all over again, since it looks pretty funky. Chris Harwood apparently moved it to bit around the Aeromotive fuel pump he put back there, but now that the pump is gone, I'd like to dress it up a little bit better sometime. Then Aaron Scott put in the steel braided main oil lines for me, both coming from the oil pan, and then going back to the scavenge pump. But I don't have any idea what sort of fittings those are going into and coming out of that "T" junction to the turbos themselves.
I'm thinking it is going to be a mess pulling those lines off and having oil spilling out of them. Maybe I could just get a straight AN fitting to replace that angled one and make do with the others. Well, no, I can't, because one of them runs right through a rubber tail pipe hanger. So I'm going to have to pull off one end of that side, regardless.
Anyone have any idea what kind of fittings those brass ones are? And how they come apart and what I would need to do to shorten the braided lines? I've put AN fittings on the fuel lines, but I'm not sure how these things work.
And is that AN fitting an adapter of some sort to tie into that brass "T" fitting? That looks like an AN -6 line going into the back of the "T" junction. Not sure what size the feed lines are. I'd rather order the stuff ahead of time rather than take it all apart and then try to figure it all out.
Anyway, it was refreshing to look underneath my car after bringing it home from a shop and not have to deal with all kinds of crap left hanging underneath there haphazardly. Shane did a real good job putting everything back together again and in place they way it all should be. I've just got to do some minor positioning of the tail pipes, since one is slightly lower than the other side, but no big deal.
Been raining every day, so I haven't had it out for a drive since bringing it back home. Maybe the monsoons will go away some day soon and I can get that new clutch broken in...
Shane mentioned that I need to get the oil feed line going to the junction that feeds oil to the turbos up off or the driver's side exhaust pipe. I had tried wrapping it with a black convoluted mesh tubing a while back, but it obviously could not take the heat and melted. So Shane suggested putting in a hanger to pull the braided hose line up and away from the exhaust pipe. So I did that today. Also pulled off that black plastic and ran the silver high temp stuff I had around it. Also wrapped the smaller lines coming from the junction with the high temp stuff as well.
But I think I would like to relocate that oil line stuff all over again, since it looks pretty funky. Chris Harwood apparently moved it to bit around the Aeromotive fuel pump he put back there, but now that the pump is gone, I'd like to dress it up a little bit better sometime. Then Aaron Scott put in the steel braided main oil lines for me, both coming from the oil pan, and then going back to the scavenge pump. But I don't have any idea what sort of fittings those are going into and coming out of that "T" junction to the turbos themselves.
I'm thinking it is going to be a mess pulling those lines off and having oil spilling out of them. Maybe I could just get a straight AN fitting to replace that angled one and make do with the others. Well, no, I can't, because one of them runs right through a rubber tail pipe hanger. So I'm going to have to pull off one end of that side, regardless.
Anyone have any idea what kind of fittings those brass ones are? And how they come apart and what I would need to do to shorten the braided lines? I've put AN fittings on the fuel lines, but I'm not sure how these things work.
And is that AN fitting an adapter of some sort to tie into that brass "T" fitting? That looks like an AN -6 line going into the back of the "T" junction. Not sure what size the feed lines are. I'd rather order the stuff ahead of time rather than take it all apart and then try to figure it all out.
Anyway, it was refreshing to look underneath my car after bringing it home from a shop and not have to deal with all kinds of crap left hanging underneath there haphazardly. Shane did a real good job putting everything back together again and in place they way it all should be. I've just got to do some minor positioning of the tail pipes, since one is slightly lower than the other side, but no big deal.
Been raining every day, so I haven't had it out for a drive since bringing it back home. Maybe the monsoons will go away some day soon and I can get that new clutch broken in...
vetteguy61
New member
Hi Rich, Glad to see you finally got your car back. Sounds like Shane did a great job getting it fixed. Now maybe we can go to Silver Springs in Nov. I get my car back this Thursday. So far no reduced power the past 2 weeks of Clint driving it every day. Maybe our saga is finally over!!!
CorvetteJohn
Deceased
If everything is working and it were mine I would just drive it for 6 months. What's the old saying if it ain't broke don't break it. Those fitting in brass look like they came from someplace like Lowe's plumbing department. I know that connection does not meet your standards and I understand that but there comes a time when you have to turn the key and just enjoy the drive. My son is very particular about his vehicles and the slightest scratch and there off to the body shop. I told him one time to forget it because at 100 feet and 100 MPH nobody will see them. I don't know about Florida but here nobody has ever come up to my car and jacked it up to look at the underside.:lmao:
That's not to say if it is a poor place for those lines to be run then by all means you will have to figure something out.
That's not to say if it is a poor place for those lines to be run then by all means you will have to figure something out.
Mike, glad to hear that your car may finally be fixed too. :thumbsup:
Hopefully you will never see that "Reduced engine power" message again.
I just wish it would stop raining around here every day so I could take the car out and put some "test" miles on it.
Heck, I'm not in any real hurry to do this, but I would like to know what I am dealing with so I can get what I need prior to taking it apart.
I found an older pic showing how Chris Harwood had rearranged that plumbing to fit around that Aeromotive fuel pump he mounted back there.
Don't you just LOVE how he had the output fuel line from the fuel pump routed right above the *hot* turbo waste gate on the right? Of course, then Aaron Scott mounted the second waste gate on the left, and then that put the input fuel line directly above that new gate. :banghead:
In any event, it looks like that oil plumbing going TO the turbos includes a check valve for each of them.
I went back through some OLD pictures and found one of the plumbing right after Greg at Antivenom installed the turbos for me.
So it appears that the only thing on the actual plumbing that Chris Harwood changed was that AN angled fitting that replaced the original one on there. Everything else was as it came installed from the STS kit, I believe.
But no, as long as it is all working, I'm not in any hurry to do anything about it. At this point it's just one of those nagging perfectionist things that will be in the back of my mind.
Besides, I've noticed that while I was doing a bit of wrenching on the exhaust system yesterday, that now my left elbow is beginning to give me some problems. Just might be that my wrenching days are numbered... Or at least greatly limited in scope. :nonod:
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CorvetteJohn
Deceased
This morning while working on my car all the fingers on my hands suddenly cramped into a ball. I fully understand what your saying about wrenching. I now look at my work from the view point of can I use power or air tools to do the wrenching so that I don't have to suffer for days with soar elbows and fingers. And yet as a wise old man told me once these are the best years of our life (retirement). Oh and those are interesting pictures of the brass fittings as done by Chris. Frame that picture because it looks like the only thing he didn't screw up. By that I meant the fittings were left in there original configuration. On the other hand when he moved them and put the fuel line over the waste gate now that was a stroke of genuis:lmao: And not be outdone Aaron took a page from Chris's book on that one.
I pulled the input and output shafts off of that carbon fiber driveshaft today. Waiting for a shipping box that Pfadt says is on the way to me to return that shaft so they can measure it and verify that it is the incorrect length or not. Not that it's going to do me a damn bit of good if they send me a correct length shaft. Even if I wanted to put that thing back in there, which I certainly DON'T if the car is running fine, Shane would probably call me a damned idiot and refuse to do it, washing his hands of this imbecile here completely. So I wind up with a $2,000 paperweight. Not to mention the damages and expenses it caused.
Oh well, it would be nice if Pfadt owned up to it and made this right in a way that would really amount to something making me feel a little better about this, but I'm not holding my breath. I expect a CYA and damage control is about all I'll be hearing when they "inspect" that driveshaft.
Oh well, it would be nice if Pfadt owned up to it and made this right in a way that would really amount to something making me feel a little better about this, but I'm not holding my breath. I expect a CYA and damage control is about all I'll be hearing when they "inspect" that driveshaft.
miami993c297
New member
The sister thread in Corvette Forum is now locked...
Christian
Christian
shakedown067
Sinister C4
Typical of that forum. A bunch of know it alls, and never do anything wrongers...yeah right. More like backstabbers. They all take a side immediately, without knowing the entire storying. We all know damn well by now that Chris would never have measured that driveshaft, and if it was hard to fit, would have just made it fit rather than contacting Pfadt that something wasn't right. Of course, I'd like to know how they made a driveshaft 10mm too long. One more notch in the vette-o-wierdness.
I think you need this graphic on the front fenders.
I think you need this graphic on the front fenders.
CorvetteJohn
Deceased
I left that forum a long time ago because of the attitude of some of the people on the forum and the administrators didn't seem to have the required male parts to police it.