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However, there still seems to be an occasional pop on deceleration our the passenger side muff. It must be ignition related. I still haven’t figured it out. Time to check the resistance of the plug wires.
I am taking a bit of a dramatic turn here
Thanks to several folks on this board @derekderek@leigh1322@c3_dk I got over my denial and recognized that getting this V6 T5 is just too much effin' around.
See here and here.
I will probably flog in on eBay, or something.
In the meantime I made a deposit on a T5 + assorted parts located in Milwaukee. I have a close friend who will swing by there (his hometown) for Turkey-Day and pick everything up 'n' ship it to me.
Here are some of the parts:
Last edited by DorianC3; Oct 24, 2019 at 09:13 AM.
The EFI seems to be working well. I quite like it. I did find a plug wire that did not seem to be fully seated. It might be my imagination, but it seems to be running significantly smoother now that I fixed that.
The idle is very good. Cold starts are very nice... still, it is a little strange no longer to have to reset the choke with the throttle pedal. It does require some cranking before starting... more than on a carb... but the fast idle is immediately stable. Hot starts are more immediate.
It is no longer running rich either. Fuel efficiency increased noticeably. I would not call it modern car smooth - but certainly good.
I do occasionally get an occasional light pop out of the passenger side tail pipe.
Hmmm
The rebuilt front suspension was initially a bit disappointing. However, it seems to be breaking in. Much better now. I think I will put in a boost restrictor on the power steering pump. It still feel over assisted.
Mmmm - one rather annoying occurrence did happen last night. I was idling in first at a stop light with my foot on the clutch and... it popped out of gear ! My T5 project will likely get a front burner spot.
I also found out that the firewall is now correctly sealed from the rain... the rear glass and T-tops, are not...
Last edited by DorianC3; Oct 28, 2019 at 10:56 AM.
A minor update. As someone said on this board, we all screw up sometimes and buy things that we never will use. I eventually got over my denial and decided to suck it up and pull the plug on the T5 that came from a V6 Firebird.
The T5 I was eyeing from a 1991 Camaro shipped yesterday to my consolidator in Florida.
Hopefully I will be able to resell the old V6 T5. I suspect the demand for it here is very small.
I have a couple of small errands to do before I retire my corvette for the winter. This includes welding up some holes in the frame; a job that I will outsource. Once that is done, I will garage the Corvette for the winter.
As is often the case with wishy-washy me , I change direction. I am now focusing on the brakes, rear suspension and driveline.
The driveline had a vibration that would manifest itself as of 55 mph. It was more of an annoyance than anything else, but it took the fun out of driving. I always thought this was an imbalance in the motor but now I am thinking it is driveline related. After taking a closer look, I think I found the source. When I got the car the transmount was so shot that it had lowered the height of the rear of the trans by a significant amount, like nearly half an inch. This is turn took its toll on the yoke and the front U-joint. I will be replacing the yoke + front and rear U-joint.
I also thought I noticed a crack in the rear spring.
Sure enough:
I will be replacing it with a composite one.
The front has been completely rebuilt. And yet the rear remained silly vague make me disappointed with the results. I must admit that I am worried that these cars are by nature vague... but, when I see left of the strut rod bushings, I now believe that my poor assessment of the C3 suspension might not be fair. In any case, the jury is still out. I will be replacing it with heim joints. Expensive but worth it, it seems.
I don't see anyway around it, I think I am going to have to saw the struts off the shock mounts.
they make a strut rod knocker , or correctly it screws onto the shock support piece so you can hammer at it with out destroying the threads .
Im not sure where your at with it but if you lift the trailing arm you can take any torque off the strut so it can come out of the bracket under the diff (apologies for being captain obvious here )
I managed to get the strut out from under the diff. It is completely seized in the TA. I tried turning around the castelated nut and pounding ...but wisely gave up. According to what I read, the strut bushing rubber encases a split steel liner that needs to be "peeled" off. Point taken tho, I may order that tool if it is not too $$$.
Of course, while I was at it, I disassembled the calipers. The bores look in good condition, as did the seals and pistons. The only thing a bit weak were the springs. All but one were a bit corroded and weak. I probably could have rebuilt them as is and they’d be fine. On the other hand, since they are off... might as well detail them and give them new pistons and O-ring seals.
Of course you wont see much of them with the rally's !!!
I went with blue. Silver required a white primer (which I didn’t have). Red and yellow seemed like these stock shoes would be posing to be more trick than they really are. So...
The next caliper also had surface rust... and like the others, the bores were very clean.
The last caliper I was expecting to be a pain... someone had started to paint it silver, then gave up.
The pistons weren’t seized, but neither were the springs pushing them out. New looking bolt...
Digging deeper... I think these are steel. The dust seal rubber seems to have been dissolved by the brake fluid. There was black goo around the pistons I won’t have to dip these. They have no rust. And they’re stamped something other than Delco Moraine. They were clearly replacing OEM at one point.
Time to sawzall out the remaining trailing arm. I was not looking forward to this job. I heard it too forever.
I could not afford a deWalt so I got the best compromise. Same goes for the blade, I could not find a Lenox carbide blade here... but I did find a 9-inch Bosch blade. Also carbide. All I could do was patiently hack away. I started on the inside hoping the bolt might slide out. I lucked out ! Within a few minutes 4 ??? I was through the bolt. The shims had been modified and unhooked It was then easy to get the other side of the bolt. I’d be generous saying the entire operation took me more than 15 minutes. That sawzall blade was badass !!! And I got a nice new too out of this. Burned right through it !!!! For once, something on this car took a fraction of the time I was expecting
If anyone has tips on how to get those bushing out... I’m all eyes
It does require some cranking before starting... more than on a carb... but the fast idle is immediately stable. Hot starts are more immediate.
My T5 project will likely get a front burner spot.
Of course you wont see much of them with the rally's !!!
