Thank you, I appreciate the kind words! I am extremely proud of him!

 

Really, the pictures say it all and no doubt you are proud, any of us would be. It makes me feel good inside to know there are still kids that want to learn and parents who are eager and happy to teach. I am glad you are still with us, and happily living life.

I understand the health issues and what they take from us as well as what they give us. I have never really mentioned why I retired early, I don't enjoy pity. Around 2012 I began getting dizzy, really dizzy, to the point of randomly passing out. This of course made driving a dangerous activity. I have been poked, prodded and hooked up to every machine imaginable trying to get a diagnosis, none ever came from the medical community though they did give me some cool scans of my brain waves, lol, after about 3 years of any test they could come up I gave up on them. It took a Naturopathic doctor to figure it out, no cure but temporary relief. I have a kind of plaque in my ear canals that interferes with the movement of the fluid that helps balance. There is a technical term for it, I forget. Over the years I have learned from him how to break it up and temporarily correct it. In the past few years there has been some success at blasting them into little pieces, a very specialized procedure, but it carries risks that I am not ready for because I have got better. When I do drive it is on back roads for while until my brain figures out how to accommodate the motion. Long trips are easy after an hour or so, short trips are still difficult but I haven't hit the floor or passed out in a while. Short trips are easier now, but I always start out on back roads, never straight to the highway. In the past few years my back and knees have been more of a problem than my balance.

We persevere and life continues to be what we let it be,

 

I have 8 children and being a parent is a struggle these days. My oldest will be 19 in May and she has her struggles with keeping a job and low feelings of self worth. She just doesn't prioritize what needs prioritized and I have been there for her since day 1, a rock she can step on, count on, and offer the best advice a parent can give. She comes to me with most everything and I know she loces me very much. She loves cars. But her mind isn't mechanical at this stage. But I support each and every conversation we have about cars and every ride her and I go on. Though she's moved out so that doesn't happen often anymore. My youngest is a boy. His name is Lance and he will be 3 in July. He loves cars. He follows me around with Hot Wheels cars in his hands and we play with them on the floor. He comes to the garage and gets in the cars and plays. I think he will be the next one that I will be teaching in the garage. At least, I hope so and I will do my best to direct his attention to cars. Rides in the Corvettes as he gets older will solidify this I feel. It's worked with my oldest boy and middle son. I don't want to hijack your thread with my kids, but I would like to share a few pictures of them when they were younger. I have had them around csrs and my Corvettes since they could walk. Most of them seem to have a love for cars and I continue to support their love for cars:

This is me and my oldest in 2009 with my 84 Corvette. I still have the car





She even helped me reassemble an L83 in 2013-2014ish. This was another flood car I was restoring:



My oldest boy helping me on the same 84 engine:





He loved that 84 so much, he would sleep in it in the garage when he was tired and we were out there:



Of course he's a bit older now. He's 6'3 and 225lbs. He's a good kid:



My little Jade last spring (I think) in my 93:



My middle son that is into tools also has loved cars for some time:





I'm sorry to hear of your medical condition. It honestly sounds awful and I know that going to medical appointments and feeling glimmers of hope and feelings of worry and let down are are very real things. I'm very glad that you are gaining confidence and are still able to drive. You do amazing work and it reflects in this thread. You Corvette is beautiful and it has come a long way since day 1. It's motivating to read your thread and each post is very informative and I appreciate all of your updates! I wish you nothing but the best in life and I pray that you find relief and hopefully things will continue to be better without the specialized procedure.

 

@mazdaverx7 GREAT photos of you and your kids. I'm very glad to hear you're doing so well. Your children are lucky to have you as their father!

@SirReal63 Good on you for figuring out how to live your life to its fullest "in spite of." Thanks for sharing. I agree with Dave: it is motivating to read your thread.

 

We each do the best we can.

I ordered the trans tunnel carpet pieces and sill pieces and once it is a little warmer I will order the MAMO color match "dye" to try and get it close enough. The replacement distributor from FiTech dropped into place and the car fired right up before my little camping trip.

 

I decided on a small change, since the FiTech installation I have had the MAF and associated airbox in place I have been pondering how to remove the MAF and make it look halfway decent. I like how the 90+ units have a larger air opening and larger accordion hose, I managed to find a used one from a 90 locally for the price I wanted to pay, so I grabbed it. It is not a direct bolt on replacement as in 90 the radiator got tilted toward the engine as opposed to the 89 and older having a vertical radiator. I had hoped I could heat up the 90 unit and bend it into shape to fit, but I cannot, the lower part is smaller than on the 89 so that won't work. I then decided to see if I could merge the two into one that had the right shape and use the larger piping.

This will broken in a couple of parts or the post will be way too long, and I am not finished yet.

The difference between the two, the other end is aligned in the same plane as it would be mounted on the TB, although it slid down a little in this pic. The white lines show where it is aligned to be even. I will have to use the 89 filter as there was no feasible way to use the larger 90 air filter, not the end of the world, I don't really expect there to be a massive difference in airflow between the two.



The other major difference is the size and where the center lies.




The other difference is the width, the 90 is wider than the 89.


I believe I can merge these and have it fit like it is supposed to without any interference. I should have waited a day or so to make my marks, pain pills and thinking sometimes don't align but I had a small weather window so I went for it. The mark on the old piece is in the wrong spot for the cut. It should be above the round mounting holes, not below them. Ooops. I cut it like an idiot and had to cut it again and glass it back together. The old 89 part was smaller and fit into the 90 but I had a lot of cutting and shaping to make the transition smooth on the inside.



Once the pieces were cut and the old side fixed from my bad cut I then slid the old into the new and took it to the car to see how I would need to align them so it would fit without obstruction. I marked them and ran some self tappers into the overlap so it would not move. I noticed the alignment for the center would be almost exact if I slid the two pieces to the drivers side and trimmed down the passenger side overlap and heated it up to bent the pieces to where it fit like the other side. The extra length at the center of the cut was trimmed to fit. The glass and epoxy is where I had to mend back the piece I cut wrong.



I epoxied the two halve together after using the heat gut to massage the two pieces until they fit tightly together. The self tappers and paint lines allowed me to get in back into the proper place after applying the thickened epoxy. The bond was much stronger than I was expecting, but it needed a lot more work to make it look right.

After it was cured I sanded the lip down and tried to get it as close to flat as I could, it wasn't a smooth and fair transition, I knew it wouldn't be. I mixed up more thickened epoxy and created a fillet that I could glass over. I used the epoxy all the way around the seam and filled most of it in. It took several applications and sanding to get it close enough.

This is in process, I did not take enough pics of each step but you get the idea.

This is the top, the visible part in process. the first layer of fillet done.



After a little sanding to see what still needs to be filled.



The bottom glassed but not yet sanded. I sanded the bottom after this cured but did not bother to try and make as finished as the top. It isn't visible and each step takes hours for the epoxy to cure before I can sandit.



This is where I am as of tonight. I still have a lot of work to do with sanding and filling. The work so far is just to have enough material to sand out and make look halfway decent. I coated most of the top in leftover resin as I will probably have to paint this airbox when the glass work is done. Having it all epoxy should help the paint look right because of the consistent texture, plastic will probably paint differently than the epoxy and the seam will be much more visible.



I will need to fill what looks like a divot in, it isn't as deep as it appears but it looks off, even though there is a divot in the original piece right where I made the cut, the divot is not larger because of the merge.



This is the passenger side I had to cut down and mold with heat. It is going to need a lot more work.



The edges were by far the most difficult, this is the drivers side where both pieces were pushed together, but the 89 was more round and the 90 more square. This will need a little more work. but is getting close.



I have to take a break from this for a couple of days, the temps are marginal for epoxy to kick, today was too cool so a lot of it ran instead of sticking like it should. Temps will be 85 to 90 this weekend which is perfect for this kind of work, it was only 62 for a high today I used fast cure hardener for everything but the last coats.

 

Teaser pics...it is getting there.

The passenger side almost done, this is the side I had to cut, heat and mold the plastic.



Most of the divot is filled in.





I am not sure how much more I will do before paint.

I need to fix where the filter cover mounts, I am not sure yet how I am going to do that. It will be more difficult to get the needed strength in that area.

 

excellent work as always - that is a sizable difference on the inlet i would guess better on the air in potential - to a point -

 

Need bigger injectors next...

 

I don't really expect the overall flow to much different, if any as the filter side is still the same. I will have a little room to open it us with porting tools, but I don't know that I will go that far. It will look cleaner without the MAF in there. If it breathes better that would be a bonus but I am not expecting it to.

 

well ive never seen anyone do that. impressive! what are you doing with your original ecm?

 

That may have to happen down the road, I am kicking some ideas around.

For the time being I have been collecting parts to keep me busy. I got the front carpet set and the Cognac "dye" from MAMO so that is upcoming. I am also going to replace the knock sensor, the ones for the speed density cars are different, Rock Auto already delivered the GM replacement.

I just got back from another score... Hooker 2149HKR.



Though I am not sure I want/need to do headers for $300 bucks I could not pass them up. They may be wall hangers or I may flip them, or maybe I will install them, I don't know.

 

Thanks, it has been a learning process, the plastic used is not one I can cement (glue) with anything I have hound. The epoxy and glass seem to be working. I wish I had been able to find an easier solution, I will have a couple weeks into this before I am done. lol

I am hanging onto the ECM, for now, then I will probably sell it and the APYP prom. At this point the FiTech has impressed me, everything works as it should. It doesn't seem to have lost any power or economy (not that mpg's are important) and it starts right up. If it continues to be trouble free I won't need the original ECM any more.

 

More air in, more air out.

 

does the fitech ditch batchfire?

 

No, but it uses a modified version of it. It is not sequential but the same as the OEM batch fire. I will see if I can find the explanation of how it works. My brain is taking a vacation today.

 

I had considered an LT1 exhaust, Hooker makes 1-3/4 shorties that are supposed to be a bolt on replacement for the stock LT1 exhaust manifold.

 

From the installation manual...

"HOW ULTIMATE TPI INJECTION WORKS: The injection method of the FiTech Ultimate TPI system is NOT sequential with reference to the engine – as there is not a cam synchronization signal that would indicate which cylinder is actually cylinder #1 compression from the distributor. However, the injection method differs from the stock TPI injection method in that the injectors do fire in a sequential-but-not-synchronized-to-engine-position order. This means it will inject 1 pulse per 2 revolutions, in the firing order of 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2 but the injection will not be timed to inject, for example, on the closed intake valve.
The stock TPI computer injects in a different manner of injecting all injectors once per revolution, and all at once or all in each bank at once. This double injection requires halving the injection pulsewidth, which causes issues at low loads and large injectors and inconsistent fuel delivery. With the sequential injection method, the pulsewidth is larger and more controllable with respect to the injector’s ability to deliver consistent fueling and more equal cylinder-to-cylinder, delivering a more stable operation."

 

ok, my takeaway is it a bit better than batch but not at the resolution of sequential. cool.

 

I was unable to discern a difference, perhaps if I do a mpg calculation it will show up, otherwise, it feels the same.