I did some mods this weekend and what I thought were going to be simple bolt-ons turned out not to be so simple. A friend of mine has a nice new set up in his garage with a lift, cold AC and lots of tools. He lives about 1.5 hours from me in PA. I planed on doing the following mods:

1) Z06 sway bars
2) Elite Engineering SS tunnel plate
3) Magnaflow X pipe

First the sway bars, I got a bit confused with the front bussing orientation (I am dyslexic ), when we tried to fasten the bracket we thought we had to force it because the bushings are bigger, nope we just had them on wrong. Almost stripped the aluminum threads, had to use a tap to clean them up. After that they went in ok.

Second, when we went to bolt the exhaust back up to the exhaust manifold we snapped one bolt and striped one nut. Click for Pic So I had to drive all the way home with an exhaust leak with that ticking sound.

So my friend gets a lot of work done at Cartek in NJ and it is only about 20 mins from my house. So he calls Dave from Cartek today for a favor to get me in and I lucked out that he had a lift open in the afternoon. I head over there and hang out while my car cools down and they finish up some other work. The tech went and replaced all the studs, said that was the best thing to do from his experience. Said the nut is a locking nut and if it don't come off easy it most likely wont go back on easy. So if you do this kind of work make sure you have some extra nut and bolts. So a big thanks to Cartek for fixing my goof-up.


The Z06 sway bars are a huge improvement over stock, the car feels much more secure when corning and stays level, I don't know why GM even bothers with a base suspension. I do have creaking in the front now when going over wavy pavement, I was told this is typical and to give it some time to wear in then go back and re tighten every thing. I did lube up the bushings when I installed them.

The Elite Engineering SS tunnel plate did reduce the tunnel temperature in the cabin, it still a bit warm but improved. Now since I did both the sway bars and plate at the same time I can't tell how it impacted the handling.

I have the Corsa pace car exhaust and added the Magnaflow X pipe. The X pipe does take the edge off that tin sound that some people don't like. It sounds nice now, at cruse it is whisper quite and sings under throttle. The only thing I don't like about the bolt on X pipe is the clamps. The hang blow the frame. I had the tech at Cartek cut down the bolts, however I think it would be better off being welded in.

Here are some pics (if they don't show hit refresh a few times, the server is acting up) : http://community.webshots.com/photo/...62520902jHRkBb

 

Congrats on the new mods!

 

Now that's some good cornering stuff!

Congrats

 

Nice mods, good job.

 

Nice mods!

 

Good mods! Congrats!

 

Even with the unexpected problems, it sounds like you had a very productive weekend. Nice mods you did - enjoy the car.