I swear my C4 is cursed.

In May of last year, I purchased a clean, low-mile 96 LT1 Vette. It was a self-reward for doing well on chemo (good prognosis) and I wanted to get back into the garage tinkering. My original thought was to ProCharge the Vette after weighing the costs of an LS3 either now or rebuilding one and installation. The ProCharger option seemed at the time, the most economical. Unfortunately, I overestimated my abilities due to the poor condition chemo had left me in due to no stamina and lack of strength overall. This forced me to farm out work I was planning on doing myself. Enough of the sidetrack…

Shortly after purchase, the Vette began blowing cruise control fuses. A pinched wire in the steering column was the cause. A week later, the AC programmer became saddled with the curse of the 96 ventilation and would only blow out the defrost and floor vents. I found a recommended vendor to do the install of the supercharger based on a recommendation from ProCharger. We scheduled the install for July which was then pushed back to the 1st of August due to delays in receiving the parts needed from ProCharger. Dropped the Vette off and what was to take 2-3 weeks turned into 2.5 months.

I finally got to pick up my car from the installers shop and drove the 130 miles home from Chicagoland. When I got home, I was greeted by the sickly smell of burnt oil. The front main seal gave up on me during the trip home and I was nearly 3 quarts low on oil. I towed the car back up to the installer since they were familiar with the cars configuration. They replaced the seal and sent the car back home with me. It was now mid-November. Took the car out for a drive the next day and after traveling ½ mile, I looked in my rear-view mirror and was greeted by the sight of a massive oil cloud following me immediately followed by the transmission slipping badly. When the shop modified one of the transmission cooler lines to allow routing around the intercooler piping, they did not flare the end of the tubing they cut which allowed the line to slip off, quickly depleting my supply of transmission fluid.

Got the car back a few days later. It was the day before Thanksgiving. Took the car for a ride early Thanksgiving morning, hit a small bump (barely felt it). The car however immediately shutoff after hitting the bump. Turns out it was a bad battery. A cell came loose and shorted against another cell, killing the battery.

Got the car back again. The next day we were hit with 6 inches of snow and the ground remained snow covered until around the 1st of March. We had a beautiful weekend day of driving around country roads and just enjoying the day in general. On the way home about ½ mile from my drive, 4th gear began slipping badly. I downshifted to 3rd which was better. About a block later, it was slipping badly. The 3/4 clutch pack went out on the transmission. Got the transmission rebuilt and drove the car around for 2-weeks.

Last week, warm idle speed dropped, and the car began stalling at lights and stop signs. I scheduled an appointment with my friendly neighborhood vette mechanic. On Saturday, I took a drive with the car to go see the cars at a local car show. I stopped to wash the car. After washing, I started the car and began driving to the show when the car died. Exhaust smelled of unburnt fuel and the motor turned over and would not fire. I waited 5 minutes and attempted to restart the car. It fired up immediately then ran for 5-10 seconds then acted like it lost spark. Again, the exhaust smelled of unburnt fuel. Another tow to the shop where it now awaits diagnosis until my mechanic comes back from vacation.

Cursed I tell you! Hope you’re doing better than I. 😊

 

Well...

On the plus side, sooner or later you're gonna run out of crap to fix...

Besides, you've survived cancer. This is nothing in comparison!!!

 

My 87 breaks down every time I drive it. I have the tow company on speed dial.....

 

True, I should look at the glass as half full.

 

Unfortunately I now have 4 different tow companies on speed dial. I should have a punch card. Thankfully, I have towing coverage add-on to my insurance.

 

It's a 25 year old car and things will malfunction, consider the car a project and not a daily driver.
Once you chase down all the gremlins and repair them correctly you will be rewarded with a (mostly) dependable car. Be thankful you have a tech close by.

Congratulations on a successful battle with a terrible disease.

 

No, that's your bank account that's half full.

 

Is this to hint to us to be happy with the way the car is designed and forego modifications? Share a memory of when the car worked...How is the pro-charger pulling?

 

First and foremost, dealing with a terrible disease is the worst thing life hands you, second, wowow! your corvette life totally blows! Hope you get it all figured out Good luck!

 

The car has not been 100% since purchasing. Just minor stuff for the most part. The previous owner put 1000 miles on it in 4-years so I think I’m getting the waking out of a long slumber teething pains. The ProCharger pulls good! Approximately 450 ft-lbs of torque from 1500 RPM to redline. It just pulls and pulls. With some dyno tuning the hidden potential could be brought out.

 

LMAO!

 

thanks! 2-years ago I was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. A month ago a nuclear PET scan failed to identify any active cancer cells in my body. I’m one lucky SOB. Now if that luck would just roll over to the vette, I’d be really happy.

 

Hang in there. You're winning on the important stuff.
Eventually the Vette will be sorted out.
Peace! 👍

 

So the car is not cursed. It just had some rot from lack of exercise.

 

Update on my "cursed" C4.

When we last left our hero, his Corvette would sputter and die whenever it was around water...When it gets wet, it stumbles, dies then, will not run. It was frustrating because no codes were generated leaving me to guess. After systematically wetting different parts of the engine bay, I finally narrowed down the issue to the K&N air filter getting wet, saturated then passing moisture through the charge tube, wetting the Procharger 96 LT1/4 specific Mass Air Flow Massager sensor. This resulted in run then engine shutdown and non-start issues. Of course, there are no codes associated with the new, specialty sensor.

I confirmed the issue with Procharger but they could not provide me with an answer regarding unplugging it to get the car into a limp home mode (testing to be forthcoming). The wetted air filter is caused by the modified filter and charge tube being relocated directly under the passenger side flip-up headlight opening. Whenever it rains or you wash your car, the filter gets wet. It's a K&N filter that basically needed cleaning and reoiling to make it work like new again (providing a moisture barrier). Discussing with K&N revealed that they have an air filter wrap designed to protect watercraft intakes from moisture that does not inhibit air intake. After ordering a spare air filter (to allow for proper set time following cleaning and re-oiling the filter), the air filter wrap, cleaning solution and oil, I think I have this issue sorted out and relatively inexpensively (thanks to having towing on my insurance).

FYI for anyone else with a Procharger on their otherwise stock 96.

 

Keep the luck instead of giving it to the car. You made it this far with a clean PET scan through one of the toughest cancers to beat. You have some serious good mojo going and I'm very happy for you man.

 

Thank you! Just got back from Mayo - 6 months after my first clean scan and still clean! I've definitely been lucky and appreciative of that luck for sure.

 

I'm praying for you Andy.

 

Andy, congrats on beating the big C! I love hearing from fellow cancer survivors.