Casey - were you guys hit with the hale storm? I just saw it on the Weather Channel...

We are swapping web hosts... it could happen as quickly as this weekend, but I am aiming for the early part of next week.

This will mean we will be unavailable until everyones DNS refreshes and finds us again.

I will update as we get closer!!!!

This update has been initiated. It could happen as early as tonight, but I don't expect it will happen until tomorrow sometime.

Just be prepared!!!!

19lb injectors are perfectly fine on a STOCK L98.

I ran a set on my wifes 87, and they were just fine.

My suggestion was because I didn't want you to waste the money on a tune.

30lb injectors, with a tune, would work.

I am a firm beleiver in replacing before it breaks. I would rather spend the $$ than get shut down for a long period of time. It's called Preventative Maintenance.

don't fret the rear diff. Unless you race it, the D36 is very durable for a long life... just don't race it. and don't rebuild it. save your pennies and get a D44.

headgaskets, yes.

Power window motors, don't worry... they will die a slow death, once they start messing up, replace. same with the headlight motors.

fuel lines are ok. very durable.

brake lines are easy... the metal ones are long lived, the rubber ones, replace with SS.

heater core, you will smell that.

injectors? get a set of Ford Motorsport 19 lb, matched.

12.9v is a LITTLE low at idle, but the key is what does the voltage say at speed... a little over 1000 rpm is what matters.

the battery completes the circuit in some cars... in others, you can remove the battery and it won't effect a thing.

The neons don't draw jack... the AC fans will, as will the lights. But I bet if you tested voltage wihtout the neons, it would still be at 12.9v.

of course if you ran stuff with the accessories on and no engine running the battery would die... duh. Batteries won't hold a charge forever. as for how long? depends... 2 hours? 30 minutes... I donno... depends on the load.

that's a good question.

How many miles? What is the maintenance history like?

back to work... I am taking friday off, tho.

it was an exciting weekend in some respects... F1 was more than a little thrilling, however, USC took a dump all over the Colliseum and the Phils got swept by the Rockies (which was not a surprise, the Rockies were playing like a team possessed).

I did get the Jeep fixed up some, tho. Two owners ago, there was a fender-bender... the driver rear ended someone. Smashed the facia, bumper, grill, etc. I replaced all of that with freshly rattle canned junk yard parts. Looks GREAT! Even added some Hella fogs.

Will post pics later.

I have been preaching to the chior about the crappy wiring on the pre 90 C4s.

Glad you found it!!! If you can get some heat shield tubing for that harness, it would help even more.

Less like an alignment issue and more like worn tires.

The parts just age... the metal stresses, it can't seal, it can't push... it get's tired.

engines are complex things. There are many moving parts that wear down.

Cams loose a bit of lift, valve springs loose a bit of spring, rocker arms a touch of accuracy... and then there is the loss of compression... rings wear, cylinder bores wear, valve seats weaken, it all adds up. Lifters weep...

Mileage ultimately = damage.

When it call comes down to it, engines are pumps. The amount of power they create is directly related to the amount of air they can move. All the fuel in the world isn't worth crap without the air to mix it with.

This is why small displacment engines need boost - super or turbo charging - to keep pace with larger displacement engines. The other option is RPM.

Think for a moment... your 5.7 litre L98 made 230 hp, stock, in 1986. Then, that was pretty good. But today, thanks to turbos and better engine controls (and things like VTEC), there are 2.4 litre I4s making MORE than that... The Honda S2000 - 240hp; Mazdaspeed 3 - 270hp; Mitsubishi Evo - 300hp; Subaru WRX STi - 300hp.

Now, part of the problem with the likes of the S2000 is the lack of torque... it's a trade off.

Case in point, NASCAR vs Formula 1. NASCAR engines are 5.8, sorta stock based pushrod V8s. The current NASCAR Chevy engine, for example, is directly related to the original SBC of 1955. The newer R07 engine is a clean sheet design, but NASCAR is now allowing pure race engines.

The current F1 engine spec is a 2.4 litre V8.

Now... to get the same volume of air, the F1 engine must spin twice as fast - and it does! 19000 RPM vs 9000 RPM. The trade off? TORQUE - the F1 engines don't push as much torque, maybe 275 ft lbs, whereas the NASCAR motor puts out 500+. Then again, the F1 only has to push a 1550lb car around, 2000 lbs less than a NASCAR. It's also why, when all things being equal, they are putting out about the same HP (figure 750), that the F1 is SO much quicker.

An F1 car will beat a NASCAR at just about every quantitative measure there is. Accelloration (try 0-60 in 2.5 seconds), cornering (upwards of 4+ g), qtr mile (under 10 seconds). The only area where a stock car might win is top end. The F1 can be geared and trimmed for upwards of 215, but Rusty Wallace proved that a modern, unrestricted stock car at Talledega can hit 240 or so.

What it all comes down to is air... movement of air... and the LT1 beats the L98 hands down.

BTW, you can modify an LT1 intake to fit the L98.

I honestly suspect many folks buy the same brand without cross shopping.

I am saying that Chevy's ARE built like crap... or, more accurately, have been for the last 30 odd years.

BMW's, on the other hand, are a quality piece, just way to complex for their own good. A 3-series BMW is a well built car. Very nicely put together. They are not without bugs, tho... but the main structure, and the drivetrain are about bullet proof...

It's only been the last 4 or 5 years, hell, 2 or 3, that GM has FINALLY figured out that quality really matters. That something must be built to a standard that people have come to expect. Why do you think Toyota has creamed GM? It's not because their cars are faster, more interesting or better handling, it's cause they are better engineered, more thoughtfully designed and more durable.

GM ruled the world in the 1960s. It's their own arrogance that made them think they were still the undisputed #1. Denial is a deadly thing. And that's why they are fading... and it's been a full scale retreat since 1973... hell, before that, but I digress.

There was a time when Cadillac called themselves the "Standard of the World." They were the target that Rolls and Mercedes aimed at. And, after about 30 years of trying, nailed. Caddy is now, finally, going after Mercedes and the upstarts - Lexus, Acura, Audi, BMW - and Buick is becoming the "Standard for American Luxury."

The bottom line is this: When Honda was giving us the Civic, Chevy was giving us the Cavalier. Remember the Cadillac Cimmeron? Think about that for a moment.

How did Toyota and such win? It's simple, product. Way back in the mid-1970s, a dear friend of mine, Paul, was looking for a truck. He had been a staunch Ford man for many years. Paul is a World War II vet, survived a land mine in the Arden Forest in Nov, 1944. He wears his scars as a reminder that our freedom includes choice. However, he had bought a new Ford truck, and it was horrible. It didn't run well and was just plain useless. He went back to the Ford dealer and tried to trade it in for yet another new Ford truck (a couple of years passed) and the dealer gave him a pile of grief. Paul said, "enough!" He went across town and made a deal on a new Toyota truck. He still drives nothing but Toyota's today. 30 years later. When you have enough bad customer service, piled on with a bad product and a non-responsive manufacturer, the customer will speak - with his legs. This is why GM and Ford are in the dumps.

Chrysler is another story... mostly due to bad quality control.

Blind alegence to a single brand will only get you heartbroken... don't fall into that trap.

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dude... you are believing all the ads way too much.

most of the performance gains you have claimed are killed - nay, beaten to a pulp - by the stock TPI. You giveth, the TPI taketh away.

Any mod to an L98 is pointless unless you do something with the TPI.

figure 20% loss for an automatic, hence, 240 crank.

The Cross fire is what it is... and that is a bit under powered. But it can be brought back to life with little effort. It's a lot better than a carb, that's for sure.

As for the BMW, I think you have just seen the difference between a BMW and a Chevy.

Ok... I know I need to update the graphic... and I am going to do that shortly, but I wanted these articles out there for you all to enjoy!

The first:

Brake Fluid - This is an analysis by our own VTVette - Brian did a great job discussing the pros and cons of each major type and several of the major brands of brake fluid. A must read. C4 Guru - Brake Fluids

A Buyers Guide - I put this one together... it's 7 years of knowledge, learned the hard way, on how to buy a C4. C4 Guru - A Buyers Guide

I always speak in US gallons... that extra bit in an Imperial gallon screws with my math.

The 4L60E will easily handle a stock LSx. No question. Just don't abuse it. The 700R4 barely handles a stock L98... that's sad.

Figure it this way, the LSx and 4L60E from a late model Camaro is about $3500 USC used from a good salvage yard - complete with accessories, harness and PCM. Figure another $1500 in incidentals - installation kits, things like that. You are now at about 330hp, and fully stock.

The LSx responds nicely to a tune, roller rockers and a touch of cam... bam! You are at 400hp. And still bullet proof.

I did all this research before I went LT1 for my wifes 87.

As for the IP, the digidash isn't all that fancy, it takes standard analogue signals and displays them... BFD... all you lose is the instant MPG. The VSS requires a signal doubler, tho.

As for Honda's, I was referring to them as stock beater cars, not for performance. However, a properly built 2.2 litre VTEC will make 800hp. It's just that most folks don't have the patience, skill or money to do it right.

Your friend with the 200SX has issues... those things should get better MPG. I bet he was flogging the hell out of it.

When I still had my Prelude, one night, coming home to Delaware from Atlanta, GA (a friend of mine and I went down for a big Kyosho RC car race, we finished 6th!), we stopped at a rest station in North Carolina, right over the boarder with South Carolina, going north on Interstate 95 (you can check maps if you want reference points).

I-95 in North Carolina is about 181 miles long. Normally, it's a 2.5 to 3 hr drive. That night, I became lead rabbit of a 6 car train. We were cruising at 95MPH for about 170 of the 181 miles. We covered that distance in about 90 minutes. When I stopped for gas in Emporia, Virginia, about 10 miles north of the North Carolina boarder, we averaged 26mpg. The Vette would never touch that kinda MPG at those speeds, 20mpg, tops, is my guess.

My point is simple, proper selection can get you a nice little "economy" car, that gets good performance without breaking the wallet, either with maintenance or with random failures. In the 6.5 years and 173k miles I owned that car, it only was on the hook one time, and that was after an accident. I never had problems with failing fuel pumps, or wheel bearings or electrical gremlins that made no sense at all... injectors failing... window seals drying up... head gaskets and valve seals...

But even with all our know issues, the Prelude lacked the character that is a Corvette... do we really think people buy Ferrari's cause they are reliable? No, they buy them because they are Ferrari's, warts and all.

yea... one real big thing... the hack job of removing the Crossfire.

You see, Crossfire is NOT that unreliable, infact, it beats a carb, hands down. All it needs is a marginally knowledgeable repair tech to service it.

And with that, all it really takes is a competent mechanic and a factory service manual! This worries me that someone would do this and call it an improvement. Sure, Xfire wasn't perfect, but it wasn't the great evil some make it out to be. Besides, converting to carbs will cause a lot of smog related testing issues, especially in the states that follow California's laws.

Also, carb conversions are truly the cheap way out. There are many seriously better technical alternatives, not withstanding, fixing the Xfire.

For the money, eh... it's been abused... Offer no more than $2k... but restoring and keeping up on maintenance is gonna prove costly. At 125k miles, the transmission isn't long for this world.

The door panels are different colours, so you will have to do something with that... I can't vouch for the weather stripping...

I just finished a new Tech Tip - C4 Guru - A Buyers Guide! Just uploaded it in fact!

Read that and enjoy! I hope it helps you make a good decision.

I found this link with the playlist!

http://www.buffettnews.com/show1140.html

If you want, I am sure I can make you a sample...

I do recommend you search out a copy of the Live in Hawaii CD. Great deal! It includes a short DVD.

The Challenger is a classic shape. I love it!!! My brother had a 1970. His was a base 318, tho... slow as slow, but still nice looking.



and lets get that colour right.

Casey is right - what code do you have? Just because the light went out doesn't mean the code is gone.... it's stored until otherwise cleared.

and what is wrong with a Honda? Stock, with a 4 banger, you can't kill the damned things. Pick one... Civic? 40mpg highway... Accord? Space, pace and reasonable grace, figure 35 highway... the Prelude? high-20s on the highway, but decent performance and GREAT handling. I mean GREAT handling. I had a 94 Prelude VTEC prior to the Vette and that thing would CORNER. FWD or not, it was divine.

I am with CSS and Casey on this... get your car right and then it will be time to mod.

All the bolt ons in the world won't get you past 240hp at the wheels... as long as you have a stock long block, your wasting your money.

The reason I suggested the LSx conversion had nothing to do with the TPI ( a consideration, yes, but not the reason). The reason was simple - you will spend upwards of $5k building the L98 to reasonable power - figure 400hp at the crank - and you will STILL be dealing with a 1986 vintage computer and harness.

Doing the LSx with 4L60E (or manual transmission conversion) is about the same money, but you START with 350hp... And factory level reliabilty. Plus, a modern PCM and transmission. Seems like a no brainer to me.

smoke out the passengers side of the engine compartment?

The was AC on... interesting. Does it still blow cold air? Any funny smells?

Did you check the code? How did the car run? Good? Bad?

Quote:

actually, I do. Most folks have ear canals that run at about 10 degrees up... mine run about 40 degress up. Does this have an effect? I don't know, but my hearing is ultra sensitive and can detect sounds at higher frequencies than most.

I can analyse a sound system, and without fail tell you where the sound is weakest, almost as good as a spectrum analyser (my results are a bit more linear).

I know what Black86 did... he used "universal" battery terminals. They clamp the bare wire end to the terminal... I hate them bastards... all they do is cause corrosion. I am glad he is getting new cables.

Sounds rather invigorating... and you get paid!

We have a quiet weekend planned...

First off, there is a ton of racing on TV... NASCAR from Talledega, ALMS from Atlanta, F1 from China... I am about ready to install the front bumper on the Jeep - the new paint looks WONDERFUL! I am so thrilled. It's not perfect... no, I never intended for that, but gee, from 3' away, it looks brand spanking new.

JrRifleCoach from CF is coming down... We are having lunch on Sunday. I need to get him to start hanging out here more. As people come to realize this is the new place to be, traffic will increase!

fantastic!!

Great to see you here!

loud, to me, isn't the key... it's all about SQ. And the better it sounds, the happier I am.

My system is an Alpine 7998, JL Audio 500/5, Canton Pullman RS3 for the front stage and a JL Audio 10W3V2 for the sub, no rear stage. That sounds 100x better than the crappy Delco/Blose.

From my reading on the Optima site, both batteries are essentially deep cycle.

Glad it's working for ya!!!

You don't need a 2nd battery. They only suck down alternator output.

It's all about understanding the charging system. The battery ONLY starts the car, after it is recharged, the alternator is all that runs the car.

So that means you need a good alternator. And the factory 120 amp unit is more than ok.

The different colours of the Optima battery refers to it's application, nothing more. The red tops are for big block or high compression applications. The yellow top is more for modern cars with hightech electronics.

The thing is, the average alternator does much of the work, so who cares what battery you are running?

Unless you are running 2000 watts, or more, you don't need to do anything. The only thing you might need is a capacitor, but even that is questionable. For that matter, the Vette doesn't need 2000 watts... so screw that. It will sound great at 500 watts... that's all I have. And it ROCKS.

dude... you need to take a breather!!! Doing a TT conversion on 2 hrs sleep is only guarenteed to cause you to screw up!!!

Casey - get some rest!!!

We are off to trivia!

The Rockies? eh.

The Phillies ROCK!!!!! I am a transplanted Delawarian, so guess what? That makes me a Phillies Phan!!! And an Eagles fan, but I am not all that proud of that these days....

So what... the Phil's lost game one... no biggie...

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yea... it really does suck, but manufacturers like to keep this stuff secret.

whew... good luck...

To the best of my knowledge, the schematic is not available.

My other concern is that if you replace components that are not to spec, the new part simply wouldn't hold up.

As an aside, the component that has more than likely died is the UART that controls communications.

The Jeep is just cool. We needed a 2nd, er, third vehicle. And with Bastet44's being down for the count, we decided to get a small SUV/wagon thing.

The Jeep in question is a 1993 Cherokee. Nothing special, really... Big I6, A4, 2WD, 4dr. Quite a bit of interior space, but not so damned big as to be a problem. It also gets reasonable MPGs - about 18 average.

We bought it knowing it needed some maintenance, but for what we paid, I am not concerned. It only had 101k miles on it... chump change for that motor...

A prior owner wacked something and bent up the front bumper and grill... so I am replacing them. I don't have to... just want to. Right now, I am looking for some fog/driving lights to put on the newly painted bumper.

I have some pics... I will have to upload them later...

That Mac sounds SERIOUS!!! That sucker should FLY! My brother in FL owns a print shop, and he has a G5, dual Motorola CPU's, 2 or 3 gigs of core and 200 gigs of disc... he doesn't need the huge disc, Indesign files are not as big as your things are.

I would take a shot at the ebay ad...

otherwise, I am with Black86 - www.vette2vette.com

Casey is right.

John Greenwood is a Corvette legend, really. He built race cars back in the 70s that did pretty well, really.

http://www.greenwoodcorvettes.net/

Essentially, the Greenwood kits (and the Callaway Aero kit) are the only ones with anything that resembles real aerodynamic considerations. The rest are just bling.

ooh... iMac... cool!! Are you going for the massive 24" one? That looks sweet.

Here? Nothing of note... I am heading a massive project at work... and the meetings are getting old considering we have a 10/31 edict from the boss man/owner dude... then again, he has no clue what that means, really. so it's all smoke, mirrors, and wacky bonus money... hard to explain.

We did get a new front bumper for our Jeep, tho... looks great! I painted it... need to so some sanding, tho... one area didn't prime well. I must not have cleaned it enough. One patch about 2" x 6". A little surprising I missed it, really... but it will be fine.

off to work!

well... ain't you special... Mr. Right Hand Drive Converted Corvette Owner!



The side mounts are as reliable as top mounts, if not more so. I use a touch of dielectric grease on the terminals and that fixes the problem.

welcome aboard!

I have plans on expanding into other generations. I know we cannot survive as a single generational special.

It will stay free... but I am debating the membership model...

it's on many of his live CDs. I don't think there is a studio version.

check the cables, I agree.

I have had issues like this before with the C4... the ignition switch is a possible culpret, too. But I doubt it here.

For some, it was all you could smoke... heh heh heh

The show was great. one of the longest Buffett shows I have ever had the pleasure of attending - this was #5!

The expected norm of a Buffett show is like this:

8:15 - show starts

9:15 ~ 9:30 - 10 to 15 minute intermission. Play videoes of some sort.

10:30ish - show over.

Last nite:

8:19 - show started.

NO INTERMISSION.

10:40 - show ended.

It was a great show!

They played a nice mix of classics and newer songs.

Jimmy has taken a few covers and make them is own, too. Brown Eyed Girl, Southern Cross, (It's another) Saturday Night... They also did a little Beach Boy tribute, In My Room (they are a great band, just can't harmonize like the Beach Boys).

All the classics - One Particular Harbour, Son of a Son of a Sailor, Margaritaville, A Pirate Looks at Forty, Cheesebuger in Paradise & Volcano

Several off the latest album, Take the Weather With You - Hula Girl at Heart, Bama Breeze, Take the Weather With You & Reggae Billy Hill

I am sure I forgot some....

However, the biggest surprise, he didn't do Lets Get Drunk and....

We are off to see Buffett! He is playing in Irvine tonite.

If you want to tune in, the show will be available live at www.radiomargaritaville.com - world wide!

I shoulda read this thread a little closer last nite...

children, chill... ok??? play nice.

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first off, they MIGHT help some photoradar, but many times, those lenses are focused a lot father away, and at lower angles, than most people realize.

Second - they are illegal in most states.

Ecklers is not immune to selling junk to turn a quick buck... never ever forget that.

Guess what!?

I set the limit to 50. Is that ok?

It's a slow process... these things do not happen over night.

I hope to have this ready by the end of the year, actually, Thanksgiving... but it's subject to available time.

AFAIC, free posting in OT is fine... but that's it. I don't want the tech pages cluttered with junk.