I'll agree with the 18" tire cost argument for keeping 17's, i was pricing 18's for a few minutes only to see the comparable tire cost almost 2x more than the 17" equivalent.

17's are the new 15's

i hit dragway 42 last month for a few runs with the 54 belair

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS4Wf1cM_eM

best of the night was a 13.9@99.58 - just missed 100mph, i'll get it next year. i think it moves well for a 4 door with a mild street 350 and a 2.73 open diff "launching" on 245/45/17 HTR-Z's

needs more gear, but i don't want to give up my cruising rpm, so i might add more power instead.

it's officially .5 sec and 6mph faster than the vette if you count the runs i made at beech bend in 01 with a cracked spark plug when it was my dad's car and he had no idea i was running it.

bah - my customer today had her trick or treat candy out and told me to help myself so i had i think 6 twix and 8 snickers while i was putting her new windows in. and she bought me a big ass tray of cinammon rolls to take home.

no kids to bring home candy for me, which is good because i have too much candy around already.

i love charlie and am happy for him. i got to spend 4 hours with him at a hitting clinic once for one-on-one hitting instruction when he was the indians' hitting coach. he told me the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me - "there aint much i can help with, you hit like Jim Thome" - best thing ever to hear as a 14 year old playing in high school.

one of my customers is in the Rockies organization and about to be their next 3rd base coach but i dont think i'm supposed to say who until he goes to colorado next week, but anyway i was at his house today and he said the same thing - charlie is genuinely the nicest guy you'll ever meet. he also said he was rooting for TB because he liked how they play, but was happy for charlie. we had some fun going back and forth at each other when it looked like the indians were going to beat boston and meet colorado in the series, he was a coach with the indians in the 90s when we were in the series twice.

i love baseball almost as much as i love life itself. possibly more.

nah the 91 is best, has the better looking body of the LT1 style cars but with the awesome-o gen1 small block and no funky backasswards cooling or optimusprimesparks to get leaked onto by weird cam gear driven water pumps.

squared off bumpers and round taillights - sheesh!

send me a PM with what you want for it

i'd rather throw $ your way and beadblast/sell the 2 intakes i have now and not have to do any work.

has anyone modded their own LT1 intake for the L98?

i've seen the pics at LT1intake.com and think i can do it at least as well as they did, like not pretending JB weld is actually a weld and making up fancy sentences somewhat equivalent of "original intake bolt holes are filled with a cold weld" instead of "we glue em shut with epoxy, it'll work unless you want to powdercoat"

i dont want to pay $1000+ for a miniram or $400+ for someone to mod a junkyard intake for me, and i have 2 to play with.

is there a source for the distributor plate?

i already have to pull my intake over the winter to fix end seal oil leaks and plan to delete the AIR injection system while i've got it off since my "lifetime warranty" pump has a bearing failure and needs replaced annually.

i'm not interested in modding them for sale or anyone else, i just want to make one for me. one guy on other site who was doing them only asks if perimeter or centerbolt valve covers so i don't trust him to provide proper center bolt hole angle nor have i heard the best of the machine work. and i'm more than willing to invest the $400+ i'd pay into tools to get the job done that i'll have forever.

i saw the forecast for next week, i'm keeping the cars out for another week.

I have a P71 vic so i'm kinda bad about knowing the difference between a vic and marquis day or night from the front or rear. that and i was coming under a well lit highway interchange so i could see his red/blue lights.

anyway the chief inadvertently is hearing about it, my mom is friends with one of the chief's buddies and the same officer did the same thing to him while he was on his way to lunch with the chief. same intimidating questions, accusations of lying, etc... i'd rather not piss off the guy but maybe he'll get a slap on the wrist and told to chill out.


i didn't give him permission to search anything, he posed a hypothetical question. either way i'm over it. i was angry last night, felt like my rights were violated this morning, and when the sun came out and i started working and had to take off my hoodie it was so warm i was back to normal.

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nothing, because there are no police of the police.

he told me my plate has to be readable from 50 feet, funny thing this morning i could read it from in excess of 100 feet.


it was a local guy, barney fife if you will, playing pretend real cop. the local dept has 5 cars and maybe 10 officers.

this is why i dont set a big lifetime goal, because when i hit that goal i'll die.

tonight i was on my way home from lowe's, had to pick up some plumbing stuff to move the washing machine. it was ~10pm, and i took the vette because i'm putting it away sunday for winter hibernation.

i was on a 50mph 2 lanes each way state route going dead on 50mph and i saw a vic coming at me on the other side, it was one of the locals. in my rearview mirror i saw him whip around and gun it and ride my ass for a mile until i hit my signal to turn onto the road that goes to my house.

he came up to the car after a few minutes of blinding me with his spotlight and asked for my license and insurance card, which i politely handed over. i had to open the console to get the card and pop my seatbelt off to get my wallet. then he informed me that i was pulled over because my rear plate cover was too faded for him to rear my plate - which i'm sure he could tell at night with me going 50mph one way and him doing the same in the opposite direction - i'm positive it was enough for him to warrant whipping his car around and flying up on me - so long as he has superman's eyes.

after taking my license and verifying i have insurance he asked me if i was hiding anything, so i said no. then he asked again and my answer was the same. he said "i'm being a nice guy but i hate being lied to, i'm going to ask you one more time and you better tell me the truth, is there anything in this car you are hiding that i need to know about?" and i was like wtf in my brain so i said there is absolutely nothing in this car you need to know about. this exchange went on for 3 or 4 minutes of him repeating himself telling me once he is lied to all bets are off so i better tell the truth. then he was like "what if i ask you if you mind i search your car" so i said no - as in i do not mind. he said "is that a no i cant search or no you dont mind" so i replied "i dont mind" then he asked me again at least 3 times "what if" he asked to search the car until i said "be my guest there is nothing you will find by searching my car." he proceeded to recheck my insurance card and license - which match - and ask whose car it was.

then he got his flashlight in my face and looked me in the eye and told me not to lie to him, and asked me what that silver thing in the console was, flashing his light at the targa top wrench. so i pointed at my phone and asked "oh that? thats my phone" then he asked again so i whipped out the top wrench and gave him a lesson on removing the top on a c4. on top of all that i got the "where are you coming from" twice in a row.

then he said "are you sure when i go run your license there is nothing i should know about - no prior arrests, no warrants?" of course i said no, and he ran it and i came back squeaky clean, i've only had 2 tickets in 12+ years of driving. he said he asked me all those questions because i looked nervous - so i told him that seeing the red and blue lights in your rearview is intimidating when you've done nothing to warrant being pulled over, and he let me go home.

he was a total ass through the process, i was polite till the last sentence, and he shouldnt have even pulled me over in the first place. but i guess a 28 year old shouldnt be driving a nice corvette.

i got my 8 hour work day done in under 4 so i went to moe's and ate some tacos. tacos rule. then i came home and put a new intake manifold and spark plugs in/on my crown vic's 4.6 and managed to crack the EGR tube in process, but it runs better now and no risk of the cracked intake asploding on me. they had junk champion plugs in it- yuck. i think mustang headers fit so i'm going to look up some longtubes and go on crownvic.net to see if they will work and delete the EGR system altogether, scrap the cats to pay for some of the new stuff, and have the pcm reflashed to delete EGR and rear O2's so i can pass e-check in 2011.

we should hook up and go for a ride in the country or metropark or something before they need put away, i'm probably pulling my driving insurance and putting the cover on it next weekend.

i LOVE the LS family of engines, but i love my C4 - looks, ride, and cockpit wise compared to a c5. i like hopping in and feeling like i'm piloting a jet.

i gather i'll probably put an LS2/3/6/7 in my car when the L98 gives up, but it only has 115k miles so there should be plenty of life left.

bogus, the 3900 is not a bigger version of the buick 3.8

the 3500 and 3900 are the most modern incarnations of the 60* V6 engine - the same family as the 2.8, 3.1, 3100, 3400, 3.4TDC.

the 3900 i think is in the G6 GTP and is rated 240hp n/a - the same as the previous supercharged boat anchor 3.8 - good stuff.

yarp (yes)

the ones to watch are 84-85 that had the old style rear main seal, 87 and 90 have the new style rear main and the pans interchange.

the only thing i'm not sure of if there are low oil sensors or any of that may be different.

damn right, i made it from medina(25 miles south of cleveland) to my sister's place in chicago(logan square) in 5 hours flat on thursday.

the cops dont even look twice.

plus i have a v8 RWD "daily" again instead of FWD v6 even though the FWD one was quicker.

heres a picture bumpdate - it's all black now. and i cut the bumper cover and put on pushbars.

turned on TV- saw shortly after first plane hit. i was off work that day. knew the stern show was in NYC so i turned on howard and they stayed on the air all morning, listened to them while watching cnn and saw the 2nd plane hit. the plane that crashed in PA turned back east over cleveland so the local news was a little concerned.

my sister was off at college in DC at trinity and heard the plane that hit the pentagon fly over and felt the ground shake from the explosion. one of her friends lost her dad in the WTC. my best friend's dad was supposed to be on the plane that hit it out of boston but missed his flight, must have had his lucky underwear on that day.

i doubt i'll ever rid myself of the 91, but no doubt i'll put an LSx engine in it when the L98 dies but who knows when that will be since i've seen plenty with 200K+ miles and mine is only at 115k

i could see getting a c5 Z06 in the future as a track bitch.

as a murderer of 700r4's due to overheating them under high stress operation - i say you can never keep the tranny too cool or have too big a cooler. i saw a study once on the exponential effect that heat - even only a 10* change - has on clutch pack lifeline, and it was quite enlightening. maybe i can dig it out.

now i run a huge tranny cooler on everything with an auto.

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that's pretty classic right there.

why yes, it is a K9 unit








no pushbars yet, i'll only do that if i can make a set fit without holes in the bumper cover and that i can remove quickly. i'm sure i could modify a set or build some.

i added the marauder lip spoiler, 17x8 bullitt wheels, and 03+ honeycomb grille. phase 2 begins in a couple weeks and is top secret.

i sold the McLaren turbo grand prix a few weeks ago and picked up this one at the same time.







its a 99 P71 police interceptor with 64k miles.

1998 S10 ext cab with new trans $1900
cap for S10 $75

trade S10 for corvette $1975

wheels/tires $1150

head unit $270(4 years ago, been in 4 cars)

acrylic top $125

$3520 total

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apparently thats how it works, seeing as how the c6 i saw waved at the c5 2 cars in front of me then looked at me like i was some kind of ass for waving at him.

yeah. toss a tranny jack under it. unbolt converter from flexplate and pop it back with a prybar/screwdriver.

do they not have building codes in texas? when that crap happens in ohio the trailer buckles, not the overhang.

good stuff, hope it all works out.

i'll contact you soon about getting out there if only to BS about cars.

congrats frank!

when i get married whatever we pull away in will be doing a big smokey burnout on the way out of the lot.

updated with the first shots of starting building toy #4 - 1940 chevy pickup on 92 S10 chassis w/ 2001 LS1&4L60-e








more on the 54:

has a TCI IFS with power rack and pinion and disc brakes, tubular upper and lower control arms, 96 corvette sway bar. 10 bolt camaro rear with 12" disc brakes on a 4 link suspension with panhard bar and coil overs.

engine is a late model 350 roller block bored .030, running gmpp vortec heads, billet hydraulic roller cam, rpm vortec intake, holley 600, HEI, headers, NX nitrous plate nitrous system. summit racing th350 tranny.

i am slowly gathering parts to twin-turbo the 355.

i have to check mine tomorrow, it probably wont even come down. it has never been down, and i'm driving over 1300 miles this week.

FYI unless you have big huge windows or want something other than vinyl, it shouldnt be 8 grand unless you have 24 of them in the house. it's what i do and i can give you a quote if you want.

and i'll offer a hand or advice if you decide to take on the head gasket job.

i'd buy if i did not have a bunch of other projects

hell i'd even think of offering to do your windows in trade for the car if it were feasible on both sides.

and FWIW the steel powdercoated ones have been on the 91 since 1997 and they are about rusted out so i pulled them off. now there are rust stains on the carpet. so for anyone considering them keep this in mind if you have crappy weatherstripping

it's monday?

it feels like friday. i honestly thought it was tuesday till i saw this thread, and was wondering why the radio show i listen to on tuesday nights was not on.

this weekend was blah

today sucked, my TGP has a rod knock. now i get to rebuild a turbo 3.1 that i did not want to have to do.

all body kits are hideous.

i fail to see the need to add wings, diffusers, side skirts, and air dams to something that attained perfection when it rolled off the assembly line.

every scammer uses $4500

FYI

eww, its worse than i thought. 2.59's

i do not want a manual. my work truck is a manual, and after climbing ladders or stairs all day and having to drive a stick home from the job, i want to just hop in the car and let my left leg have a break. if i want to shift gears fast i have the turbo grand prix.

i do not drag race this car. my belair is faster and more fun for that, and i would never try to launch the vette on sticky tires. i want to stick around corners, not stick in a straight line.

now i just need to decide to go 3.54 or 3.73 - as of right now i am leaning to the 3.54. my dad's suburban has 3.73 with the same 700r4 tranny and with the fairly steep first gear, you don't go very far before it shifts

"won't sound that good" is all relative.

compared to the car having no tunes at all for the last 6 years...

i gave in and went with the sony unit. it has outs should i decide to add a sub, has ins should i decide to add anything else, plays wma and mp3, and best of all i had it. not terribly impressed with the METRA install kit - it really is a POS - but i got it to work and look right. with all the holes on their brackets you'd think one on each side would match up with one on the head unit, and their screws to hold the little cubby hole sucked and didnt work.

thanks for the advice.

i'll look into the 3.54 as well. i'll also re-check the RPO code because it was 10+ years ago that i looked up the gears.

this is how i see things going:

phase 1 - gears
phase 2 - sticky tires
phase 3 - autocross

i do not plan on more power for a long time, the car has 110k miles and i'm not tossing more power into a relatively high mile engine, nor am i replacing or rebuilding a good running one.

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teasers since i'm getting ready to go work

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phase 1: find and kill manbearpig.

phase 2: Al Gore no longer has to look for manbearpig, so he can concentrate on and fix global warming.

next?

my car has the 2.73 rear in it. weak. my first real performance thing i want to do, as i am going to just drive the L98 stock till it pops, is to go with a 3.73 rear gear.

I've checked ebay and come up with this place "justdifferentials" selling made in USA for $375 made for the 2 series carrier. i'd just pull my diff and take it to my uncle's place since he sets up axles all the time.

are there better deals out there than $375 for USA made gears? i do not want some chinese crap that will implode upon hard driving, but i'm trying to be as easy on the wallet as possible while keeping our manufacturing guys employed.

i still may go with it, depending what i can do about the bracket situation. the brackets on the olds head unit are part of the steel case of the head unit itself so not easily reconfigured. if i buy the adapter kit and it contains brackets that could be epoxied onto the olds head unit after the others are removed i would definitely be up for the challenge.

today i put a pair of 6.5" pioneers in the back and made a long adapter harness to stick my spare sony head unit in the car. the car has tunes for the first time in 5 years, even if the head unit is just sitting there and i dont have front speakers yet. tomorrow i'll pick up the late c4 specific dash adapter and properly mount the head unit and maybe run RCA's and an amp lead back to the little compartment behind the passenger seat so i can pop my amp and sub in there.

not looking forward to running those or a power lead.

drive slower in curves with bumps in them?

i have to do that on the curve right out in front of my house. if i'm going over 45 it'll toss the rear end of the vette or my truck straight sideways.

lame. i found your FAQ on the other site and checked it out. i hate lotsa crap to deal with but it must be done.

so. this thing is the same size as the corvette unit but the mounting is different and integrated to the head unit as opposed to the typical any 1.5 din GM unit fits any gm car so long as you swap the brackets that i am used to.

my dash is apart

how much has to come out? the plug in the bose head unit is not the same as the adapter plug that i have, so are the other wires down in the dash/console somewhere at another part of the system?

couple months for me, but my dad bought it in 1995 with 43,000 on it.