Hi Everyone,

I've had several PM's asking about a post-Renegade install dyno test so I thought I'd address the question here for all who are wondering.

I've had some odd and unrelated problems that are keeping the car from running smoothly right now. Once I get them sorted out, I'll take it back for another test.

An example of that would be the o2 sensor that literally fell apart yesterday morning, leaving a major exhaust leak. $20 for a new one and a place to swap it out courtesy of my best friend and I was back on the road. The car runs smoother, but I still need to replace the TPS too.

I also suspect that my balancer may have spun a little bit as ignition timing seems to be off. I'll need to measure that well to see if I need to replace the balancer.

I had to spend last weekend replacing the failing rear wheel bearings that were making horrid grinding noises, and while I was in there I replaced the rear brakes as well as all the rear control arms and camber adjusting rods. I also did braided steel brake hoses and did new pads up front till I can get new uprights so that I can do my J55 conversion.

So yeah, I've been a little busy and I'm still moving kinda slow after the surgery. Don't worry though, as soon as I get it running right I'll take it for a dyno test. For now though, I'll say that the car pulls better getting onto the freeway than it did before in first gear. I have to be careful now merging as foot to the floor acceleration quickly puts me past 80 whereas before I'd have to hold it down longer just to get up to 70. No loss in throttle response or low end either, just gains everywhere. Oh, and before it couldn't spin the tires, it would just grab and go. Now it will spin them about 2 car lengths - woohoo!

Of course that's SOTP so it's subjective - I'm just reporting my initial impressions. We'll see what the dyno has to say.

 

Good show Marc! How you feeling?

 

Doing better, especially now that the doctor removed the suture she "forgot". I think there's still some left in there, so I may need to go back for another little visit. Maybe this time I'll stop by the hospital administrators office first.

 

Funny, my buddy Mike thinks I enjoy working on the car more than driving it There were a lot of problems to correct when I first got it, plus I always do a standard list of things like tune up, brakes, etc. when I get a used car just so I know where things are. Since everything the PO did was worng one way or the other, I've been finding a lot of things to fix that I shouldn't have had too - but it's all part of the fun, right?

No pics, but I can snap some of the front fairly easily. I'll see if I can get a pic of the rear too.

 

Seems like your "married to your car" more than your wife.

I would hate to spend that much time on a car. Its hard to remember everything you have already did on that car already.

What about the Sears and Roebuck yellow paint. Seems like it needs some cosmetics to go with all the engine, suspension, and other work you have already did.

 

...from the long arm of the law....great song! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXhuso4OTG4

I bought the lines on E-bay from a seller in Florida. http://stores.ebay.com/Corvette-Stainless-Steel-Brakes

I did expect a certain amount of repairs and mods, so not much of this has bee too unexpected. I've always been a car guy and pretty much always worked on my daily driver varying amounts. Sometimes they get taken off road for an engine or trans re-build, but for the most part things get done in one day or over a weekend.

The list is fairly long of what I've done so far. Here's what I can think of at this point:

• tires
• underdrive pulleys
• new radiator
• VB&P 32mm front sway bar
• Crane 1.5 roller rockers
• Renegade intake
• swapped out injectors from an 89 truck - still need to ship off the originals to FIC
• MSD coil, wires, cap & rotor - new plugs
• replaced the steering rack with a reman Z-51 unit and new pump & lines
• new rear brakes (complete)
• new front pads - only till I can get the rest of the parts to do the J55 upgrade
• braided stainless brake lines
• replaced master cylinder
• Magnaflow mufflers to replace the rusted out muffler eliminators
• replaced the o2 sensor
• fixed assorted bad fuses/burned out lamps/wipers, etc.
• replaced driver and passenger door glass weatherstrips
• replaced hood release cable
• replaced the rear control arms with new ones (to keep rubber bushings there for ride quality)
• replaced the camber adjusting rods with Mid-America adjustable rods w/poly bushings
• Edelbrock rear shocks
• Hella E-code headlights with 80/100 Xenon bulbs
• new emblems front & rear
• new rear wheel bearings

I located a good L-98 to clean up and use, but I need to get the $$ together for that and mke sure I have all my ducks in a row to get that done with the time contraints I have to work with.

And here are some pics - sorry they're not better.

 

The paint really isn't that bad. Sure, it's not show paint job, but the car is pretty much all one color - except for the spot in the back where it got hit before I got it. I've had FAR worse paint jobs on cars.

Later down the road I'll get it painted but after all the mechanical stuff is done.

 

Actually, that's on the list too. Hopefully I can get wavefront surgery soon so I'll only need reading glasses.

 

Good grief! I've worked on cars all my life and am amazed at what you got done in such a short time! And with a nasty surgery in-between! I think I'll change my avatar to a sloth! Of course, I can always use my age and fixed income as an alibi....

Well done Marc! I enjoy your updates!

 

Marc,
It seems like you're rebuilding your car while you're rebuilding yourself. I'm sure your car takes your mind off your health problems and helps you heal.

If you don't have the money have you ever thought of Maco. I've had a few cars painted by Maco (never a Corvette). If you mask the car off yourself it's not a bad paint job for the price. For about $800 you can get their best paint job. BTW, the strip around the car where it says "Crossfire Injection" should not be painted in that vintage of C4. It should be black.

 

Steven J. Cannell died about 2 months ago.

That was a cool show.

Mike

 

Why do you keep making fun of Marc? He's doing a good job especially with his health problems. Try not to be a dork.

 

Glad you are feeling ok I also have the 84 vette was your 32mm sway bar curved to fit around the fan or is it straight? Im thinking about mounting electric flex-a-lite fans so I can clear the fan housing when I install the gm 30mm front bar. I am waiting patiently for my renegade intake were you one of the first pre-buy guys? I paid back in sept. 09

 

That made no sense. Only someone with an IQ of about 60 would say that.

 

Here we go again........



I love this place!

 

You've got nerve. A troll calling someone else a troll. You live on this forum making fun of people like Marc. So what if his Vette isn't as nice as yours yet. It will be. Got to give the guy an A+ for effort. Try helping him instead of laughing at him or his Vette.

 

My bar was straight so I had to trim off a little bit of the lower fan support. The alternative would possibly be to get an 85 and later fan setup, but I don't know what they look like or if that would work - I didn't bother to look into it.

 

Yes, I've thought about that, but right now there are other things that are more important like the seats which are quickly shredding themselves, and if I do the seats, then I want to do the carpet and get some heat barrier around the trans tunnel too. I have a fair oil leak from the timing cover so that's a drop the pan and strip most of the accessories off the front of the engine job. If I have the cover off, then I'll replace the timing chain too - but if I'm in it that far I'm close enough to reaplce the cam while I'm in there. It just goes on and on. I still need to fix the courtesy lights on the passenger side of the car, plus the hatch release from the driver door doesn't work and that would help a lot when I take my wife to the store. I'd like to get a stereo in it since right now I have no music at all. I still need to replace the cracked windshield, and both of the driver and passenger door glasses need to be replaced (scratched). The defrosted on the rear hatch needs to be soldered on one corner and I'm not going to try doing that myself. My door panels don't fit well so that's another little project that will probably end with a purchase of 2 new replacement panels.

On top of all that, I'm working 2 jobs anywhere from 52 to 80 hours a week. One is a 3 hour round trip, the other can easily be a 2 hour round trip depending on traffic. On top of all that I have all the extra stuff at home to take care of, plus helping my mom. So, you see, the paint just really isn't that big a deal right now.

The car is pretty much all one color and if it REALLY bugs so many people here, then I suggest everyone get together and put your money where your mouth is. Everyone is free to donate cash and time into getting my car properly prepped for a GOOD paint job because I'm not going to do a trash job of it like what was done painting it yellow, and make sure that I have something to drive while it's in the shop. If you're not willing to help then please don't bother complaining about my paint job. I'm fixing things just as quickly as I can.

Thanks!

OH, and Mundo, this wasn't meant as a rant at you, I just got carried away again

And I just realized I left out needing to replace all the weatherstriping, but since it's a 26 year old C4 I guess that goes without saying.

 

Sorry, but you apparently can't add. There are 168 hours in a week. Where do you get 21 hours a day? Since you and your buddy socalman seem so lost, I'll spell it all out for you. Use Google Maps to see where I am and where I travel for work.

I live in San Carlos, CA and work one job in Berkeley, CA (82 miles door to door, round trip, driving) and one job in Santa Clara, CA (52 miles rounds trip, door to door, driving). On RARE occasion I go to both jobs in one day. When I do that, I drive from home to Santa Clara, then continue up the East Bay to Berkeley and then come back home from there - it's a 100+ mile round trip. The last time I did that I left the apartment at 7 AM and got home at 10:30 that night.

Usually I'm up at 6 AM (like today), drive up to either the Milbrae or San Bruno BART station (about a 25 minute drive in traffic), park, then wait around for a train (up to 15 minutes) then ride the train for an hour to Berkeley. I work 10 hours then do the whole commute again and get home (if I'm lucky) in time to sit down with my wife and watch our Korean drama on KBS at 7:15, but about half the time I miss it. When I get home I eat and then check e-mail for the Santa Clara job, respond to those e-mails, and usually end up having to remote into work. That adds another hour or 2 to my day. Sometimes I drive, but usually I take BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit, just so you don't have to look it up on Wikipedia).

On the other days when I go to Santa Clara I still get up early to avoid the commute traffic. I also usually spend 10-12 hours at this job, but 15 hour days are not uncommon. Sometimes I'm there 4 days a week, but usually it's only 3. As long as I avoid commute traffic, it's about a 30 minute trip each way. Commute traffic can easily double that.

Funny how several people have commented on how much I've done to the car in so short a time yet you and socalman apparently have nothing better to do than sit around and chat about me being a BS artist. I've explained my life IN DETAIL, yet you two sit behind your keyboards making asses of yourselves to the point that others have to tell you to STFU. I'm glad I provide so much entertainment for you - maybe I should add that to my list of jobs.

As for my finanaces but without getting into too much detail - by the time I pay 35% in Federal tax, plus state tax, plus rent, food, medical bills that you can't imagine if you don't don't have a chronically ill loved one (about $250,000 in the last ~7 years), about $450 a month for gas currently as I've driven the Vette almost 10K miles since I bought it in early July - I'd say do the math yourself, but apparently that's not your strong suit and other than being serious jerks I'm pretty doubtful at this point that either of you have any redeeming characteristics . I'll just leave it as this: you two need to get a freakin life. I'm done wasting my time on YOUR comments.

I'm surprised the mods haven't done anything about you two since you rarely have anything positive or helpful to contribute to the board and spend most of your time attacking other members.

 

You tell them Marc! Good for you. None of their business what you do and how you do it and how much you spend. Ch@os and Socialman do nothing but rag on and make fun of other members. I'll give PLRX some slack because he's a Marine proudly serving our country.

It's none of my business but I think you're doing a great job with your car especially in light of your medical issues. I had an '84. Feel free to ask me any question about an '84. If I know the answer or have experience I'll gladly help you out.