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lol, Worst thing about modifying stuff is trying to get it figured out. Glad your driving yours. Mine still on jack stands, still finishing up stuff, but I'm very close.
Your car is one sweet ride buddy, I like the color and the rims/wheels.
Thanks Mike, ya getting stuff sorted out can be a bit frusterating at times but in the end its worthwhile.
Hopefully soon both of us can get are cars all figured out and driving properly.
I spent the weekend wiring my car alarm and tweaking my exhaust system. I wanted a remote to unlock my doors/hatch, to make the car like a new car. I also broke my plastic link from the door lock mechanism to the latch. My hands are too big to fit into that tight spot to fix.
I had one exhaust pipe sitting too low on the passenger side.
I've had to add fuel to my maps as the stock set-up was too lean and popped when I free reved the engine.
Neat thing about doing the LS swap is I have an in cab digital pad to adjust my coolant fans on/off setting. Same goes for the engine timing and fuel adjustments for the different engine speeds.
I had my driver side front brake caliper froze up on me, so that on the list as well.
Last edited by Mike Holmen; 06-13-2017 at 10:37 PM.
I spent the weekend wiring my car alarm and tweaking my exhaust system. I wanted a remote to unlock my doors/hatch, to make the car like a new car. I also broke my plastic link from the door lock mechanism to the latch. My hands are too big to fit into that tight spot to fix.
I had one exhaust pipe sitting too low on the passenger side.
I've had to add fuel to my maps as the stock set-up was too lean and popped when I free reved the engine.
Neat thing about doing the LS swap is I have an in cab digital pad to adjust my coolant fans on/off setting. Same goes for the engine timing and fuel adjustments for the different engine speeds.
I had my driver side front brake caliper froze up on me, so that on the list as well.
Sounds like you have your hands full getting things sorted out!
That is pretty cool having the ability to tune on the fly like that, my cts-v is like that also and it makes tuning so much easier!
Unfortunatly tuning adjustments on my corvette means a PROM burn so its a bit more time consuming. I will proabbly arrange to do some data logging with my tuner once I get all the other issues sorted out on the car.
If your brake caliper is frozen, it might be a good excuse to do a front brake upgrade on your car...If found the C5/C6 stuff was pretty inexpensive and didn't require to many other changes to the rest of the brake system but still works much better than my C4 J55 brakes did.
So I went by my local NAPA and got a new O2 sensor. I wanted to get a new alternator also but they were no longer supplying them for my application
Anyway, I jacked the car up and replaced the O2 sensor it was a pretty easy job.
New O2 sensor...
The old sensor just unscrewed from this hole in the driver's side header and I put the new one in and connected the single wire connection, super easy.
I let the car warm up for about 10 min and no codes so I took it for a short drive, and it ran well, i then let it idle for another 5 min and still no codes or anything so I think the new 02 sensor fixed the rough running/ rich condition I was getting in closed loop before. *I hope*
Now I just need to find a local place that sells replacement alternators, or I might have mine rebuilt instead... as its only producing about 11V right now.
I see that rockauto sells your alternator. You can have my old unit if that works for you. I'm not using mine. I had to convert my new four wire alternator to two wire. So far it works.
Most of my car is built off rockauto parts. I hear you on the brake swap, but then I need new tires for my rims. I'm probably going to run the big Z06 brakesand rotors on my car. My wallet is still pretty sore from all the extra taxes we charged for these days. With work being slow, probably going to be down the road.
My neighbor wants my old L98 engine for a his 78 short bed truck. Been difficult trying to talk him out running that engine. A new 5.3 is cheaper and easier these days, for what you end up with.
Last edited by Mike Holmen; 06-14-2017 at 12:48 AM.
I see that rockauto sells your alternator. You can have my old unit if that works for you. I'm not using mine. I had to convert my new four wire alternator to two wire. So far it works.
That's very kind of you to offer Mike! If you aren't going to use your old alternator and still works fine then I will gladly accept.
I hear you about taxes its amazing how much the government takes as its share. I'm getting ready to hand over a bunch of money for propery taxes this month.
Mittz, you may consider rebuilding your alternator yourself. I know internals are available and takes a couple hours. sorry that i dont have a link for u but if you know the model number nomenclature of your alt you can get internals, it can be googled.
Mittz, you may consider rebuilding your alternator yourself. I know internals are available and takes a couple hours. sorry that i dont have a link for u but if you know the model number nomenclature of your alt you can get internals, it can be googled.
Thanks for the tip about the rebuild kits VT, I wasn't aware such kits were avaiable.
Mike is kindly sending me his alternator so I will use it on my car, but I'll keep my old alternator and proabbly rebuild it at some point. Since I'll have a working alternator to use and it won't be a rush, rebuilding my existing alternator sounds like a fun rainny day project when I get a chance. I'll probbably polish or powder coat the case while I'm at it. But for now I'm happy to put a ready to go alternator on the car and get it on the road.
No probs buddy, but truthfully my old alternator is pretty grimy, so no thanks is really required.
Hopefully you got your car out for a ride? I drove mine for the first time this year last Sunday. It was like driving the car again for the first time.
First, I want to give a big thanks to fourm member Mike Holeman who kindly sent me his alternator.
Unfortunatley, I learned that somewhere between 1985 and 1988 Chevrolet changed the design of the alternators, mine used a '4 prong' style where as mike's 85' one used a '2 prong' style for the electronic connector.
Anyway moving forward, as I mentioned none of my usual parts places sold a replacement alternator. I did a bit of calling around and finally did find a place that did have a replacement alternator.
I also figured that since my red top optima battery was at least 10 years old and since my battery tender died this winter and let the battery go dead for quite a while it would be a good idea to replace the battery also.
So I picked up a new Ultima yellow top battery. It has almost the same CCA as my old red top but its deep cycle capacity should be nice to have.
New Yellow top optima
Old red top one.
As I mentioned suprisingly the CCA for the yellow top is 750 vs 800 for the red top. Not much difference given the yellow is a deep cycle.
So after wrestling the old battery out of the storage compartment and installing the new one I took the car an hour long drive, no major issue.
The only I thing that have to be work out is while cruising at below 1600rpm under moderate to heavy load the engine runs really rough ??? proabbly need to talk to my tuner as I think it is a tune issue, other than that it runs great.
The power band is greaty improved tons of power from 2000-5600rpm
Also the handling is improved with the sway bar and the front suspension seems like it moves much more easily which makes the ride softer. I think the new sway bar got rid of some of the binding in the sway bar.
Also the handling is improved with the sway bar and the front suspension seems like it moves much more easily which makes the ride softer. I think the new sway bar got rid of some of the binding in the sway bar.
Looking good as always buddy. One thing with these older cars there is always seems to require a few minor tweaks. Gives us reasons to drink a cold beer in the garage after a long day at work.
My car, my autometer gauges died on me on this weekend. My oil pressure is stuck at 80 psi and my temperature is stuck at 210 deg's F.
I'm sure impressed on how smooth the power from the LQ9 is. Probably racks up with one of my best mods to date.
Last edited by Mike Holmen; 06-26-2017 at 10:07 AM.
Ya older cars certainly are a hobby, because there is always something that needs to be repaired, adjusted or upgraded. I don't know exactly how many hours i've spent working on this car in the last few years but I'm guessing it is at least several hundred hours (maybe more) and I still have so much stuff I COULD do and a few things I NEED to do, I've never yet been able to stand back and say its finished, proabbly never will lol.
Luckily I enjoy the work, my own sort of stress relief therapy
I think that's pretty awesome you got your corvette going with the LQ9! The LS motors are pretty sweet, they make great power and have really good driveability the 6.2L in my CTS-V is a beast when I step on the gas but has no trouble putting around town with the A/C on all day in traffic. With the light weight and handling of the C4 I'm sure the LQ9 in your car can really shine. Must be cool to open the hood uo and see that LS engine in there, not too many LS powered C4's around.
One thing that I need to adjust to with the super ram is I have to remember not to shift too early. I got into the habit of shifting the Corvette at 4500-4600 rpm with the edelbrock intake and I keep forgetting to let the motor wind out to 5500 when I step on gas.
Here's a picture from yesterday just before I took the car out for a drive.
So I had my friend Will come by yesterday to take a look at the non-functioning CD player and he figured out there was a fuse in the CD player that was blown, so we just replaced that and it works now
I also had him take a look at my non-functioning horn, I had already tried changing the relay but that didn't fix it. After doing a bit of electrical testing he determined the problem was in the steering colum.
We did a bit more diagnosing and determined the horn swtich was fine, also pulled the steering wheel and determined the electrical contacts are ok. So somewhere in the colum between the contacts and the wire that enters the colum there is a problem.
Apprently there is a special tool needed to take to colum apart.
I'm powder coating a set of wheels for Will so when he comes to pick them up he'll bring the tool and we'll take the colum apart and do the elecrical repair.
I called Scott Hansen yesterday about the tuning and he thinks I should proabbly do some data logging and send him the results so we can get the tune right. So I've ordered the Moates cable so I can connect a laptop to the diagnostic port. I proabbly won't recieve it for a week or two with the holiday weekend. Once it arrives I can data log the car and send the results to Scott.
06-12-2017, 11:46 PM
