Need help with Radical C4 mods
#1
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Need help with Radical C4 mods
Well, I have an old ragged out 84' C4. I have been driving to work for the past year. Well, I bought my sweet little wife a 98' Corvette and well, when I park mine next to hers nobody even notices mine. I know, I could buy a newer or older style Vette, but I have decided to get a little creative with my C4. She needs paint, interior work and the engine rebuilt. Other than that the car is pretty good.
The Wife and I are in the Tri-City Corvette club (Beaumont TX) and we want to be able to do club events, each in our own car. I am going to throw away a lot of money into my C4. I will never be able to get it back, so I want this car to stand out. What I mean is...... If I am in a line of Corvettes (with our club) I want that 15 year old kid to point at MY CAR as I rumble by and say WOW!...
Here are the modifications I am proposing:
1) Rebuild engine.
2) Replace cam (Possibly with 400)
3) Cut hood and install blower (this is the most radical and expensive upgrade) to me done with rebuild first
4) New rims, I am wanting Craiger SS style, but can not find them for my C4. I want 60s on the back if possible. But I don't want them sticking out! Anybody know of a source for my C4.
5) Tri-tone silver paint job. Top half medium silver, lower half dark silver. Then paint silver flames, top half light silver flames lower half flames painted medium silver, so the flames look ghosted.
That is all it will take.
Oh, buy the way Hi. My first post. I will do this...... trust me! I have the support of my sweetie I am posting, because I am ready and need help finding the best equipment.
If you guys know of a good source for a blower let me know. I am looking at one in jegs for about $2600.
I am not going to add outrageous ground effects to my car. I may add Ferrari vents on the hood and louvers on the lights, but that is about it.
Life is about....
Fast running cars
&
Slow sailing boats....
John Mc
The Wife and I are in the Tri-City Corvette club (Beaumont TX) and we want to be able to do club events, each in our own car. I am going to throw away a lot of money into my C4. I will never be able to get it back, so I want this car to stand out. What I mean is...... If I am in a line of Corvettes (with our club) I want that 15 year old kid to point at MY CAR as I rumble by and say WOW!...
Here are the modifications I am proposing:
1) Rebuild engine.
2) Replace cam (Possibly with 400)
3) Cut hood and install blower (this is the most radical and expensive upgrade) to me done with rebuild first
4) New rims, I am wanting Craiger SS style, but can not find them for my C4. I want 60s on the back if possible. But I don't want them sticking out! Anybody know of a source for my C4.
5) Tri-tone silver paint job. Top half medium silver, lower half dark silver. Then paint silver flames, top half light silver flames lower half flames painted medium silver, so the flames look ghosted.
That is all it will take.
Oh, buy the way Hi. My first post. I will do this...... trust me! I have the support of my sweetie I am posting, because I am ready and need help finding the best equipment.
If you guys know of a good source for a blower let me know. I am looking at one in jegs for about $2600.
I am not going to add outrageous ground effects to my car. I may add Ferrari vents on the hood and louvers on the lights, but that is about it.
Life is about....
Fast running cars
&
Slow sailing boats....
John Mc
#2
Race Director
What part of the country do you live in? One cannot tell from your profile. If we knew where you are located we might be able to come up with some locals to help you out.
Look in the C4 forced induction section and the racing section of this Forum for some good tips also.
Have you thought of using a Toledo Pro hood with its built in cowl induction scoop?
And - welcome!
Look in the C4 forced induction section and the racing section of this Forum for some good tips also.
Have you thought of using a Toledo Pro hood with its built in cowl induction scoop?
And - welcome!
#3
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Where I Be
I am located in Southeast Texas just outside of Beaumont. As far as the hood I was thinking about cutting a hole in the hood and ligning it with polished aliminum rivetted to the hood. Then maybe taking a hig rise hood scoop and making it removable. I guess I could just have stainless bolts and wing nuts to attach it. I will have to work on that.
I will have to check out the other sections.
Thanks,
John Mc
I will have to check out the other sections.
Thanks,
John Mc
#6
Burning Brakes
Somebody who knows (or has yanked their engine) could probably tell you for sure; but I think you may have some SERIOUS clearance issues with getting the gilmer belt drive to clear the front cross member.
Get that figured out and you will have no problems attacting attention to your Vette! You won't need wild paint or out ragous body mods. Just a 6-71 (oow, better yet the big B&M blower)
Look at some of the Vettes (and other stuff too) over at Lateral-G
Get that figured out and you will have no problems attacting attention to your Vette! You won't need wild paint or out ragous body mods. Just a 6-71 (oow, better yet the big B&M blower)
Look at some of the Vettes (and other stuff too) over at Lateral-G
#8
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St. Jude Donor '04-'05-'06-'07
Originally Posted by Redeasysport
On your wheel request I have seen "Bullet" style rims on Ebay that fit a Vette. They look like Cragar SS's.
#9
Melting Slicks
Cragar does make a S/S wheel now in 17x9. They come with -25mm or +25mm offset and I believe they would work for an 84 car. If the -25 offset doesn't work there are adapters available from VB&P in 0.75" or wider. These would take the 40 series tires that are standard for the C4.
I love the look of the Cragar S/S, unfortunately these are not alloy wheels and I couldn't tolerate the weight (33 pounds) for the driving I do.
I love the look of the Cragar S/S, unfortunately these are not alloy wheels and I couldn't tolerate the weight (33 pounds) for the driving I do.
#10
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Bullet Style
I do like the Bullet style, but they all have the Mustang or Cobra emblem in the center. Is the bolt pattern the on the 84 C4 the same as the mustang??? Surley not.. I will have to do another search for the Craigers.
#11
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[QUOTE=DanZ51]
..... (oow, better yet the big B&M blower)
QUOTE]
I may have clearance problems with the belt..... Hummmmm.
I added up everything and decided I need to do the mods in steps.
I am going to pull the engine (with a friends help) have it rebuilt and put a 400 cam in it. With my single chamber flow-masters, single in, dual out it should sound good. A little loud, but good. If it is too loud I may put the quietest mufflers I can on it and install two cut-outs, one in front of each muffler. Then all I have to do is pull the cables and I would be running straight pipes. The cast iron cut-out are only about $45 ea from Jegs and they come with all the cabling to open up your exhaust from inside. Then I may save up and have Corvette Specialties install the blower. They already told me they could do it. I am still leaning toward a flaming paint job though.
..... (oow, better yet the big B&M blower)
QUOTE]
I may have clearance problems with the belt..... Hummmmm.
I added up everything and decided I need to do the mods in steps.
I am going to pull the engine (with a friends help) have it rebuilt and put a 400 cam in it. With my single chamber flow-masters, single in, dual out it should sound good. A little loud, but good. If it is too loud I may put the quietest mufflers I can on it and install two cut-outs, one in front of each muffler. Then all I have to do is pull the cables and I would be running straight pipes. The cast iron cut-out are only about $45 ea from Jegs and they come with all the cabling to open up your exhaust from inside. Then I may save up and have Corvette Specialties install the blower. They already told me they could do it. I am still leaning toward a flaming paint job though.
#13
Melting Slicks
Originally Posted by John Mc
4) New rims, I am wanting Craiger SS style, but can not find them for my C4. I want 60s on the back if possible. But I don't want them sticking out! Anybody know of a source for my C4.
John Mc
You can find information on the Cragar S/S wheels here Cragar web site
IF you click on Click here for details a table will pop up. In here you get the offset, weight, and lug standard. The C4 is 5x4.75. The wheels for the C4 would be part # 617934 and 617934P.
I've been checking VB& P information for wheel offsets to determine what I will need when I upgrade the brakes. They indicate that a C4 from 1984-87 needs a 0.75" adapter to get the correct offset with later C4 wheels that have a 56mm offset. THe A-mold wheel is a 36mm offset and is less than half an inch off from the Cragar S/S wheel at -25mm.
The wheel center caps obviously say Cragar S/S instead of Musturd.
#16
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Originally Posted by John Mc
She needs paint, interior work and the engine rebuilt. Other than that the car is pretty good.
Sorry, but I got a kick outta that statement.
I would start with the interior work first unless you're planning on doing all this in one shot. If the motor is driveable as is, it will be that much more enjoyable with just that.
For wheels, check for Torq Thrust II by American Racing, they have ones with the right offset. Those +25mm ones mentioned will also fit fine.
Last edited by CentralCoaster; 11-20-2005 at 02:53 AM.
#17
Le Mans Master
If you seriously want to do this and be a badass, here's what I would do...
First off, if the car is driveable AT ALL, I would get the interior sorted out as well as the wheels, so at least you can still drive it.
For wheels, I would also suggest getting the Torq Thrust II's in 16x8½ (stock size will be fine) and putting those 255/50 16's back on it. Trust me, you DON'T want "60's" on a C4 corvette (I assume you're meaning 60 series sidewall
OK, for the engine, what you'll probably want to do, is completely tear that stock motor apart, have it all checked out, put some GOOD forged, low compression pistons in it (Between 8:1-9:1), then, I would call a Cam manufacture and tell them what you're going to do, and they would recommend the best cam to suit your "blower motor". Probably something with 114º LSA, to better suit boost. As for a blower, a 6-71 Wieand should do fine, but you WILL have to cut a good size hole in the hood as well as modify the front cross-member (get to be good friends with someone who can fabricate.) As for heads, a good set of Aluminum heads (ie: AFR, Canfield, Brodix, Dart) will work fine. Next, you'll DEFINATELY have to have that transmission beefed up to handle the power, and you'll be faced with either swapping your rear end out for the stick-car equipped Dana44, or cutting out the IRS completely and going with a solid axle...that stock Dana36 won't last one day with a "blower motor".
But, trust me, after all is said and done (and probably $25k-$30k later) your C4 will be ONE BAD MOTHER!
P.S.- Sorry for being so long winded, but building fast cars is what I do.
First off, if the car is driveable AT ALL, I would get the interior sorted out as well as the wheels, so at least you can still drive it.
For wheels, I would also suggest getting the Torq Thrust II's in 16x8½ (stock size will be fine) and putting those 255/50 16's back on it. Trust me, you DON'T want "60's" on a C4 corvette (I assume you're meaning 60 series sidewall
OK, for the engine, what you'll probably want to do, is completely tear that stock motor apart, have it all checked out, put some GOOD forged, low compression pistons in it (Between 8:1-9:1), then, I would call a Cam manufacture and tell them what you're going to do, and they would recommend the best cam to suit your "blower motor". Probably something with 114º LSA, to better suit boost. As for a blower, a 6-71 Wieand should do fine, but you WILL have to cut a good size hole in the hood as well as modify the front cross-member (get to be good friends with someone who can fabricate.) As for heads, a good set of Aluminum heads (ie: AFR, Canfield, Brodix, Dart) will work fine. Next, you'll DEFINATELY have to have that transmission beefed up to handle the power, and you'll be faced with either swapping your rear end out for the stick-car equipped Dana44, or cutting out the IRS completely and going with a solid axle...that stock Dana36 won't last one day with a "blower motor".
But, trust me, after all is said and done (and probably $25k-$30k later) your C4 will be ONE BAD MOTHER!
P.S.- Sorry for being so long winded, but building fast cars is what I do.
#18
Drifting
Originally Posted by DanZ51
Somebody who knows (or has yanked their engine) could probably tell you for sure; but I think you may have some SERIOUS clearance issues with getting the gilmer belt drive to clear the front cross member.
Major mod
We had to a ton of notching and mods to the front end with my set-up. I cannot see how to run a 3 inch belt with the current setup in a C4. But never say never, there are guys on the forum with huffers on their C4's. I assume you are talking about running a 6-71 roots system. Boo-yeah!
The easiest way that I could see would be to change the mount set-up (engine/trans) to take the engine up around and inch and through trial and error, get the correct dirveshaft/pumpkin angle.
Enjoy and keep us posted!!!!!
#19
Originally Posted by CentralCoaster
For wheels, check for Torq Thrust II by American Racing, they have ones with the right offset.
#20
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Originally Posted by John Mc
Quote:
Originally Posted by DanZ51
WTF is a 400 cam?
Hahaha. Somebody finaly said something. 4 under.....
Originally Posted by DanZ51
WTF is a 400 cam?
Hahaha. Somebody finaly said something. 4 under.....
Originally Posted by TIMSPEED
put some GOOD forged, low compression pistons in it (Between 8:1-9:1)
RACE ON!!!