I sold my Steel Blue Metallic 91 coupe this summer and have not been here on this or other boards too much lately.
Just wanted to say thanks for those that offered me advice over the years.
Although this site does not have the traffic that the 2 big forums have I feel that the members here have the most knowledge and expertise.
I think my health is doing pretty good but my wife seems to think that the Alzheimer's and Dementia are going to turn me into a drooling, blank-minded drone any day now.
I miss not having an old Corvette to mess around with. I miss my tools, my air compressor and my man cave garage too.
I sure had a great run though! Of all the cars I ever owned I think I loved the 65 black convertible the most along with that red LT4 vert.
Hey - be sure to appreciate what you have while you can still drive it or break parts on it. You are only here for a short time.
I will continue to lurk as long as I can though. Regardless of what some may tell me I think there is still about a half tank of Premium left in the tank!

Well, I got the left side ok but the right side is about an inch off. Gonna sneak down some back roads (don't have a current plate)and take it to a local mechanic who says he can heat the muffler's curved inlet pipe while his helper pushes on it to straighten it out.
While under the car I found a coolant leak at one of the clamps for the oil cooler. Just got back from NAPA with a new hose.
I have the nose, gills, rocker panels, headlight buckets, license plate cover off and prepped to paint. Looks like I am ordering base/clearcoat from TCP Global Restoration shop. It is priced reasonable and covers well according to a painter friend. $500 shipped to Michigan for primer, base, clear and all the required reducer/hardner.
Those rocker panels are interesting to take off. I have never done this on a C4 before. 4 stainless screws at the top, 2 screws at each end and 7 bolts on the lower side. It is difficult to see them with the car on the ground but they have quite a bit of road tar on them. Lots of dirt jammed in behind them too. Good thing I took them off. I am only going to rear cap loose and pull the marker and tail lights when I paint.
Eastwood has a nice "how to paint" series for anyone contemplating doing this.

The tips came with the Magnaflow mufflers. I am thinking of using a pipe wrench to twist the pipe that attaches to the rear Y to see if that might make the adjustment. No instructions came with the mufflers.

Over the last few years I have purchased some new and some used parts for my 91 L98 coupe.
This is my second summer of being retired. Last year I got all the projects done around the house and so this is my "Corvette Summer".
My current project is redoing the exhaust. I am too cheap to take it somewhere plus I like to play in the garage. I have a used catless front Y and the rest of the system (cat, O2 sensor, rear Y with crossover and mufflers) are all from Corvette Central.
Any advice out there? My LT-1 style muffler tips are both cockeyed and seem to set in about 1" too far.
In fact, the rear Y is about 1" too far forward of its rubber hanger. I'm wondering if I shoved the cat in too far on the front Y (slip fit).
It is very difficult doing this without being able to stand and get full leverage.
Any advice is appreciated!

I personally think that any Grand Sport purchase is a good investment right now. I will qualify that by saying that original cars are good investments. Those that have been customized might not do as well.
Also - GREAT TO SEE THE SITE UP AND RUNNING AGAIN!

Not too bad. Looks like I have to have a driving test done by the State to see if I am OK to drive. My ability to concentrate seems to be off.
That is going to really suck. Don't want to injure/kill someone else on the road so this is probably the wisest thing to do.

A few more pics not connected with the sinkhole:
My brick out front at the original entrance:

I now think that the previous pics I could not identify are of the C6

This is the Mallett C5. The museum was very quiet as it was early Saturday before Easter with hardly anyone there. One of the guides was there and was able to show us around and tell stories. He said the owner of this donated Vette did not wish it to be rebuilt. He wanted it displayed "as is". The car literally looked like it had been T boned at the driver's door and only appeared to be about 3' wide at that point!









Gonna take a little break here. Will be back with more in a bit.

More:
I am not even sure which car these pics are for - nasty looking!

More:

More:
The 62 was also donated by heirs of the original owner. They wanted it to be displayed in a safe place!

More:




The holding garage had a 93 Ruby vert that was getting cleaned up to be put on display. The owner and her deceased spouse had talked about donating it to the NCM and after the sinkhole disaster she decided to go ahead with the donation. The flash reflected off the window of the garage door so it looks nasty.

Just got back yesterday. My impression of the display of the sinkhole cars is that the last cars in look like they were hit by a large freight train.
Here are my pics:
One of the boulders has been set outside for display:

Some pieces of the PPG Pacer that are still in the dome area:

The viewing port does not get you very close to the pit:



http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a4d ... /r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a4d ... /r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

Here is the PPG Pace car. Evidently it went in first. I took these in March 2013 when I visited last.

As of today we are planning on visiting the NCM on Good Friday, May 18.
I would go on my own earlier but my wife no longer trusts me driving that far alone due to the onset of Alzheimer's. Sucks. I think I am doing pretty good but she worries.
I will post up some pics. I read that they are planning on having the last 5 Corvettes out of the sinkhole by April 15 so maybe we can see them.

Any solutions yet?

I used to own a 23' Baja boat with a 454 Magnum engine. The Mercury dealer told me I did not have to worry about winterizing the block and outdrive until the outside temps got into the 20s. So it appears that there is a bit of leeway in there. Still, I would not tempt fate!
I used to work with a guy who had been a pipeline contractor mechanic when he worked in Alaska. He said that in extremely low temps such as -40F they would leave equipment running or shut it off and drain the fluids.

Here's the article which has finally been published in a digital version. The new name of the magazine is now "Cars and Parts".
http://www.carsandparts.com/Articles/ ... ExactTarget&utm_campaign=

Looks like the digital edition lags behind the print edition by a month or so.

Just went out to the mailbox and found that my February 2014 Auto Enthusiast Magazine had arrived.
Imagine my surprise to discover a nice article about the ADM on El Segundo written by Andy Bogus!
Great article and lots of nice photos!
The ADM has a collection of about 150 cars that they rotate through the showroom. Every Sunday at 3:00 PM they pull three of the cars out and take museum guests for a ride!
Very cool. I hope to visit there when I get a chance to visit my Torrance, California relatives some day soon.

Don't forget the "DAMMIT" doll. This causes much less damage than throwing a Craftsman wrench when your mechanical skills result in another broken bolt.

The AFPR is the "hat" and disc only. I need the rubber guts too as mine are rotted.

91 L98. This week I have been unable to get her to fire up. Pulled codes (none), checked spark (it's strong), checked timing while it cranked (right on).
Checked fuel pressure while cranking: goes from 0 to 68 lbs after 20 seconds of cranking. My book says it should be at 40-42 lbs while cranking.
I checked #1 plug and it is wet and checked the oil dipstick (no fuel smell and not too high on dipstick). There is a gasoline smell after I crank on it for a while but I see no external leaks. Engine will not even cough.
I think I have a bad fuel pressure regulator. It came with my replacement intake manifold so I have no idea how many miles are on it. When I replaced the O rings in the fuel rail recently the existing rings were intact but some of them were a bit mushy.
I can get a fuel pressure regulator rebuild kit from Corvette Central for mid $80 range. I will check with the local NAPA store to see if they make one too.
Does it look like I am on the right track or should I be looking elsewhere?
Go Detroit Tigers! Getting ready to watch game 6 and hoping for the best.

The new injectors worked! Wish I had realized this earlier.

Injectors came in today but I am going to wait till tomorrow when my son can come over to assist. I have found that an extra set of hands are nice to have when installing the fuel rail.
Thanks Jon !!!!

E-mail from Jon Banner of FIC this morning: "Two coming your way".
What a great company!!!!!

Are you as sick of this post as I am?
Sending two of the injectors back to Jon at FIC. Each port I move them to leaks.
Not sure he will warranty them so I told him I would pay for two more if they are no longer covered.
This SHOULD solve the leak so I can get on to fixing the other minor problems with her.
Probably missed the selling season and have incurred another value drop.

Anyone know how to bleed the ABS system? I read somewhere that it needs to be bled separate from the rest of the system. My 91's FSM just has blank pages and tells me to refer to the 1990 FSM.

I have tried almost everything I can think of. Inspection of the fuel rail "well" where the injector sits. Used a jeweler's loupe and could not see any scratches or burrs or dirt. We inspected the new O rings under magnification and they are defect free. Tried with lots of Vaseline and again with dish soap. After 2 tries today I still have 2 injectors at the back of the driver's side fuel rail that leak and are now worse than ever.
I plan to use a micrometer to measure the bores and compare them to the non-leakers. I will then swap the front 2 injectors on that rail with the leakers and see if that makes a difference.
If no luck then I plan to call Jon at FIC on Tuesday to see if he has any advice or will maybe swap these 2 out for 2 new ones. If I find that the rail's bores are worn (highly unlikely) then I will buy a used fuel rail from Vette2Vette.
Interesting that I can only really see the leaks after cranking the engine over for a few seconds. I do not have the plenum or the throttle body on and the runners are loose. Dang thing started to run during the last cranking session! I had to shut the key off! If it had kept on running I bet the RPMs would have soared!!!!
I need to get this solved so I can fix a couple of other small problems and get the car on the market.

I had a great response over at CF. You may want to save this for your records if you are ever involved with the TPI system:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c4-te ... 1-l98-fuel-rail-leak.html

Thanks - I will see what they can do for me when I call Tuesday.

My daughter found a local moving company who will drive their truck and load up here and unload and place her stuff in her second floor condo in Florida. And for less money that renting the U-Haul. No worry about Atlanta traffic and no extra gas bill for the truck.
So she decided to go this way and I no longer have to drive down there. This allows me more time to work on my fuel leak problem here.

Still leaking at the #6 injector. We could see that the 6 and 8 injectors were sitting a bit high into the rails so pulled them down farther into the manifold. Now they leaked at the rails. Noticed that there is quite a deep bore in the fuel rails so got the bright idea to pull those two injectors and install an extra O ring in the rail before re installing the injectors.
Now #8 is leak free and #6 leaks.#!&*%!
Here are some extenders that FIC offers. They are not open and due to the holiday will not be available until Tuesday so I am unable to ask them for advice.
http://fuelinjectorconnection.com/shop/viewitem.php?productid=180
My worry is that these are 1/2" extenders. If I put these on one injector then the entire fuel rail might be up too high and cause them all to leak.
My problem is that there is obviously too much room between the fuel rail and the intake manifold and the Bosch IIIs are too short to fill the gap. The FIC website says these are modified so that they match the length of the stock L98 injectors but I don't think they do.
Any ideas? I found myself hoping the dang thing would catch fire and let me collect on the insurance. Sad that it has come to this.
Good news is that I no longer have to drive the U-Haul to Florida tomorrow so at least I can stay here and work on this.

I can just see Tommy with his bad back and me with a bum left knee hauling her huge entertainment center up 2 flights of stairs!!!!
Ain't gonna happen.
Great idea about the church group, the small moving companies and the day laborers.
Atlanta on labor day weekend. Gack - I hate to drive around Atlanta. I flew there to pick up my LT4 a few years ago. Brandt's father picked me up at the airport and we drove up to Kennesaw to get the car. He was hitting 110 mph in places. Crazy man, crazy freeways.
I am a country boy who once lived on a dirt road. Wish me luck!

Found that I used an O ring that was too thin. Replaced it with a thicker one that gave a much better seal. The humidity and heat here in Michigan has been brutal this week. I don't have AC in my pole barn but even with 3 fans blowing air around I am still drenched with sweat when working on the car. This is NOT fun.
Anyway - got her back together and trying to start it. Crank and crank and get it to run a bit while the starter is still cranking. As soon as I release the key it dies. Had one helper watching for fuel leaks and adjusting the distributor and another with a timing light. Got the timing right on but no start and the battery is dying. Also noticed a very small amount of fuel at the intake manifold side of the #8 injector.
So - she is on the charger over night. There is quite a bit of space in the fuel rail opening at the top of the fuel injector. I think I will pry #8 downward 1/8" or so to see if it will seal a bit better at the manifold side. I will also be checking the routing of my new spark plug wires again to insure we did not get them fouled up.
Then off to Florida for a few days.
Somehow I broke the plastic off the coolant temp sensor while messing around with things.
Grrrrrr!

One of our daughters got a job in Lake Worth teaching school and the other one just got a job in the same city doing billing for a Hospice place.
This coming Labor Day weekend I will be driving a U Haul from Michigan through Atlanta and down the road to the heat and humidity of Palm county. Road trip! Looks like a 19 hour drive but will probably take longer in a truck loaded with furniture.
Any advice on who to call for help unloading the goods?
I will be staying a couple of days and plan to fly back to Michigan's cooler climate on Sept 5 out of Ft Lauderdale.
So - if you wonder why the old fool with the Detroit Tigers hat is waving at you from the U Haul - it just be me.
Gonna peep around down there and see if it might be a nice place to move if and when our house ever sells.

Got my new O rings installed and no longer having leaks at any of the fuel injector rails (91 L98). BUT - cranked her up and am leaking fuel at the schraeder valve and at the O ring where the fuel outlet tube connects to the fuel pressure regulator.
I had the cap off of the schraeder valve and was able to stop that leak by putting the cap back on. But - the valve itself was loose. When I tightened it down it did not help. Is the proper replacement simply a new valve out of a tire stem? Guess I will head to NAPA after I cut the grass in the morning.
I have a bunch of spare O rings. I will take the fuel rail apart again and see if I have the correct-sized O ring for that particular orifice and try, try again.

Welcome! Good place to be when you need help,

We have all seen worse for more $

Very nice. Unable to attend again
Thanks!

Jon shipped the O rings within 45 min of me ordering. That guy is amazing!

Early this morning I ordered a set of O rings from Jon at FIC. I KNOW those will work.
Thanks for the tip about carefully seating them into the fuel rail first. I will be extra careful this time around and enlist the aid of a helper.
I guess it might even be worthwhile to put a third O ring on the manifold side if it feels like they are still setting too high. Not sure if there is room for that though.
I am pretty sure the FIC supplied O rings will do the trick though. It was only $1 for 8 of the little buggers. The Express mail is the killer though.
Goal is to get her back on the road in safe driveable condition whatever the cost.

Just ordered some new blue wires off the Bay so I will install those later. Should be purty as we used a power washer on the engine bay, I cleaned up the chrome valve covers, the TPI system had been hot tanked and I sprayed it with new correct-color paint. I also put on new hoses, water pump, underdrive pulleys and got rid of the AIR pump and diverter by replacing it with a chrome elim kit from Mid America. I also removed the busted up wire looms that run along the outer edge of the intake manifold and used some large, blue wire protectors that match my blue Summit Racing plug wires. All that along with my smoothie air bridge make the engine bay quite nice. I won't win any car shows but it is C L E A N !
After we get her started the plans are to sand down and repaint the nose and tail to match the rest of the Steel Blue Metallic body.

Started to leak gasoline from the fuel rails like a mofo. 91 L98
Just to get it running so I could sell it and move on my helpers and I swapped the LT1 intake conversion for a refurbished TPI system.
We finally got it together after a laughable episode with a stock style distributor. The Frick and Frack garage fools are definitely still alive and well. Sold the MSD small cap distributor and purchased a NAPA rebuilt stock one. Found that it did not include a coil, ESC module/pigtail, coil cover or ground strap. The instructions say to use your old parts - I have no old parts as I sold everything on the Forum. I had to source junkyard parts for the rest. Who does not include a ground strap with a distributor?????
My memory was/is fried so I test fit the rebuilt dizzy while waiting for the remainder of the parts. I placed it so the square part of the cap was on the passenger side and cut my 8mm blue Summit wires to fit along with nice looms - it looked great! Got all the parts together later and discover that the cap should have the square section on the driver's side instead. Now some of the plug wires are too short when I get the dizzy installed and lined up correctly so #1 cyl will fire on compression stroke. I go back to my old wires. This cost me several days.
The Bosch III injectors only have a few hours on them from the previous TPI setup (which I had sold on the Forum). I put new O rings on the fuel rail side and inspected the intake manifold side O rings to make sure they had no nicks or burrs. Each injector has 1 new O ring on top and 2 good O rings on the bottom. The fuel rails also have new O rings installed along with new O rings for the FPR. New bolts for the fuel rail, anti seize on the bolts and all 4 torqued to spec.
Then I filled her with coolant, went over my check list one last time, double checked that nothing was in the way and everything was hooked up. I got the fire extinguisher ready and hit the ignition switch. Note that we had previously turned the ignition on to make sure there were no fuel leaks the week before. It cranked a bit, started to catch and then my helper said, "Cut it off - fuel is spraying every where!"
On closer inspection it appears that the O rings at the fuel rail are indeed leaking. I guess our initial test the week before did not pressurize the rails or we would have caught this. The tank had been drained of old fuel, lines blown out and a new filter installed - guess the few seconds that the pump ran did not fill the system.
Only #5 and #4 injectors were leaking. The only clue to this problem is that the upper O rings I used were brown and just a bit thicker than the black Bosch O rings. I really thought I had been extra careful by lubing them with Vaseline first and plugging each injector in straight and not twisting them as I put them in the fuel rails. They appeared to be quite snug and the fuel rail were smooth and had no burrs at their openings.
So - almost got the fuel rail off (gave up for the night as it was late) except for the bolts that hold the inlet/outlet pipes in place due to some interference with the L shaped throttle body bypass I used. I will finish taking it off tomorrow, inspect the O rings again and buy some more. I purchased the last set from Auto Value so I will go to NAPA for this new set. Hopefully I can get the stock Bosch O rings this time instead of the blister pack with the brown rings and a bunch of extra odd ball rings.
Fun in the garage continues. Oh yeah - the neighbor who was interested in my car a few weeks ago bought a boat so no longer can afford my car! This just means I get to drive it down to Florida and maybe use it a while before my Alzheimer's gets too bad for me to drive. That's the way to go out now!!!! The lord does move in mysterious ways.

This show is getting bigger each year. I usually go to Carlisle during this time so have not been lately.
2013 dates are Aug 23/24 and I am taking my 12 year old grandson Kameron to sit it the Corvette section.
I got my friends Deb (Red ZR1) and Don (Yellow Z06) to agree to let Kam sit behind the wheel of each car and rev the engine.
He is already a gear head - this will push him over the edge.
Me in front of the machines earlier today:

That is what I was thinking. Thanks!