I have had 2 C5's, 2 C4's and 5 C3's counting the turd I bought and got bent over on. Most of my C3's were never mint but good drivers. The leaks and rattles were enough to drive me nuts. I am finally at a point in life where I am able to build what I want. It's easy dropping $30K on a restored car but I'd rather spend $60k doing it myself. My logic is undeniable.

I love all vettes but to be honest, most guys selling a C2 these days have lost their minds. No disrespect intended. Plus, they were before my time. My best memories as a child were of my fathers 74 he bought new and his 67 Chevelle, which is also on my bucket list of restorations.

 

WideopenC5,

Great project. You may be aware that I've got one going on too. Here's my thread.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-g...od-thread.html

I see your in the Houston area, like me. We will have to share notes and check out each other's cars once we're done.

Chris

 

I am a long ways from being done. Now that drag racing is under way again this year I wont have a lot of time to dedicate to it. I was telling my wife the other day that I was think I might stop racing or put it on the back burner for a while. So I am currently weighing pros and cons.

I wouldn't mind picking your brain and sharing ideas.

 

I should mention that I ended up cutting off most of the rubber boot except for the top to keep out dirt. I found that the rubber boot exerted enough tension on the shifter that the trans would pop out of gear into neutral on occasion. Removing the bulk of the rubber boot fixed that problem.



Rick B.

 

Great start to a nice build, you have my attention, I look forward to seeing your progress on this build.



Things you will run into are,

1. Motor mounted 1" back leaves you tight against the fire wall, nothing rubbing, but tough
To get to the bell housing bolt if you need to drop the trans later for clutch replace, or to pull
The motor only back out for what ever reason.

2. Relocation of water pump heater hose connections so that they don't hit the upper A arms. Gordon and I have both come up with a nice setup for this that works well.

3.Cooling fans are best if they are of an electric type, but some have used a fan off the water pump.

4. Location for computer, some put them inside the car, some put them in the engine bay.

5. Coil pack relocation seams to be another area that becomes a concern for most people just to move them off the valve cover to clean up what most say makes the LS ugly.

6.Reworking the electrical harness to clean it up and remove anything that is unnecessary in the harness, personally I think building a custom harness is the best way to go in order to reroute the harness to make it less noticeable on the engine and you can relocate the ECU inside the car easier with a custom built harness.

7.Front accessory brackets some get buy with the F body setup, and others fab up their own or you can buy from http://kwikperf.com/

8.Fuel system is best with an in tank electric pump with a C5 filter regulator installed near fuel tank, eliminating the need for a return line from motor to fuel tank.

9. Cold air intake, you can do a simple 90 fitting with a filter, or be one of the first to create a way to get fresh cool air from in front of the radiator, the Radiator is difficult to get around unless you mod the hood to get over the radiator core support, with the intake you have on there now, you will have to run a tall hood any how so now would be the time to mod the hood to get over the core support, or one of many ideals that are out there for sucking cool are through the hood.

10.Exhaust headers are one of the bigger problem areas, but I see you already have that worked out with those nice looking side pipe headers.
Off the shelf headers are also a problem, no one makes a good set that tuck up under the car as well as they should, Kooks F body stainless headers seam to be the best choice as of yet.

11.F body oil pan seems to be the better pan to use on the C3 with a stock steering system I do believe, I am running the F body pan with a Rack and Pinion setup myself.

My car is running a 4L70E auto trans that really had no fitment issues, but the Manual trans do need some attention to get them to fit.

I know there are things that I am forgetting, but I am sure there will be some that chimes in and fills in the blanks for me.

Here is a photo of my current setup, LS2 stroker (402) but there will be changes coming to the appearance.



Riggs

 

Thank you very much for taking the time to write that up. I wish I could say I have worked on it some more. I pulled the the t56 from the donor car but thats as far as I got. What fuel pump is being ran with these tanks. I plan on putting the suspension back under it next along with the fuel system. I would prefer an internal pump unless someone offers a quiet inline pump but, still prefer in tank setup.

As it sets I believe I am one inch back. I can't go any further forward unless I do so serious work to the headers. I have soft mounts in it now but under a heavy load the headers might hit the steering box so I may have to either try poly or solid mounts. We just put solid mounts on my son Mustang because of tight header fit. It definitely added a lot more vibration. I don't want that.

I don't mind the coil back where they are. I did coil covers on my new camaro and it looks better. So I may steal them off the camaro or buy something similar.

 

For the in tank pump setup,
Here is a link that Gordon sent to me, for the setup I'm running, I think it's a clean setup that was easy to install. Use a C5 fuel filter/regulator near the tank and you will not have to run a return line from the fuel rails.

I have a set of those Edelbrock coil covers myself, they won't fit in the C3 with out cutting away the rear section of the cover to clear the heater box on the passenger side or the bump out on the drivers side that the brake booster sets on.

The Camaro motor looks great. If you don't mind sharing, what cold air intake are you running on that, any photos of how it's ran. I am thinking of using a cold air intake that runs under the core support and I see that your turns down like I will be running mine. I found a few that might work from Vararam. Any photos of that setup would be great if you have time to post them.


Riggs

 

Riggs.....you forgot the link

 

http://www.tanksinc.com/

http://www.tanksinc.com/index.cfm/pa...=cat/cat61.htm


Sorry about that, I was enterrupted before I could finish the post and forgot to list it.

Riggs

 

It's just a K&N. The elbow was a 4" stainless 90 degree turn that I cut to a 45*. I just installed a thru hull exhaust on my sport boat and had them laying around. Worked out ok I guess. Im not in love with it but it looks right. This is the only pic I could find.

 

Thanks for the photo, Not what I thought I was going to see, in the first picture it looked like it turned down and headed down under the car. Still a very nice setup over all.
Getting cold air Into the I take on these C3s is a challeng, but I have a few ideals I will be trying some time soon.

Riggs

 

No problem. My poor Camaro has not been on the road in over a year. Actually getting closer to 2 years now. It's kinda of a pain to drive. I don't like dealing with the roll bar with the swing out door bar and the 5 point is a pain as well. Car has less than 3000 miles on it and its a 2010. Wife dosen't understand why I wont drive it yet I am building this Corvette that will probably not see much use either. I hope thats not the case. Anybody can build a camaro like mine. Now the vette... that's a whole other story and something I will be showing off when its done.