Hi everyone. I'm back after some emergency family health issues and a death. The Corvette is still running strong and all is well with it. A friend made me name the Corvette a couple of weeks ago, so I chose.... The Starship Enterprise. LOL, LOL, LOL.
I still have the audio files to post from late last summer, and Lord will I'll get them up here asap...but not tonight. LOL, LOL, LOL.. I'm looking forward to milling around again and soaking up all of the knowledge. I also have plans to take the...ummm "starship" up to Black Hawk Farms once or twice this summer, along with a place down in Southern IL about 3.5hrs away from me. Before that however I plan a dyno tune for all of the bolt-ons that I did last year, and I am also eyeing some new tires. At this point I am thinking that the new tires may still have to be Ultra High Performance All Seasons (just in case) since we didn't get the winter run about that we planned to get (Praise the Lord we had an extremely mild winter by suburban Chicagoland standards). With that said the plan still IS to get a run about car for the winter so I CAN entertain looking at summer (dry/wet) tires also. On the AS side of the coin my friend likes the DSW 06's but I still have some literature review to do on other AS tires before I would draw that conclusion. Any suggestions, for both AS and Summer tires would be greatly appreciated.

Man, it's good to be back on the forum.

 

FINALLY, the sound clips video of my exhaust from October of last year (2015)! It only took me 8mos to get around to putting it on here. LOL, LOL, LOL.



IMG_0339 (2).mp3

IMG_0339 (7).mp3

IMG_0339 (6).mp3

 

So now that I'm off for the summer, part of the plan for the Corvette is to go to Bloomington Gold in Indianapolis again in 3 weeks with the wife. Hopefully I'll be able to get setup to run on the ole' Brickyard track itself; also prayerfully it will be bright and sunny the whole day we are there, instead of a monsoon. LOL

 

The wife and I had a great time at Bloomington Gold this past Saturday. First, we were able to find the correct expansion tank for our 99'. I put that on yesterday and said good bye to the "low coolant level" false read every 10 minutes. LOL

The second item that we bought there on Saturday was a Breathless Vortex air bridge and smooth silicone coupling. The couple was put on when we got back and taken for a cruise. All I can say is that my idle pitch smoothed out dramatically, and the decibel was reduced even more so. That really surprised me. I have to drill the hole in the CF air bridge in order to install my air temp sensor so that will have to wait for a week or so until I get around to it.

The third item we bought was a good used set of Z06/Z51 front and Z51 rear springs. I plan to get those put on before the end of July.

But the fourth item we bought took the cake. We were able to get a good set of actual C5 Z06 wheels! So with the spring set and now the wider Z06 wheels the handling package part of the goal is ready to be put into motion. The goal for our C5 is for it to be faster than a C7 Stingray. In order to accomplish this goal we needed A) the handling & grip of a C5 Z06, and B) the Bolt On's + a Stage 2 mild Cam/Valve Spring/Timing Chain package. Part B will have to wait until next summer, but I'm glad that part A will be done this summer. A couple of easy going Track days looks like a real payoff this year.

We ended the event with an historic 2 laps around the actual Indy 500 Motor Speedway itself. Dee took an actual video from the passenger seat. It was a blast going through one of the corners at +100mph!!! Since we were the last group of the event the C6 GS in front of us would lag severely behind and then blast it; which in turn allowed me to blast it!!! We even got waived by at some speed by a C3 who dipped way down to the apron!! The Corvette shirts and hat that we finished our spending with after being on the track was a fine ending to a great day. Of course dinner at Joe's Crab Shack in Merriville IN was totally fun as well.

BTW, I think we got to follow a certain black C5 Z06 with IL plates on it for a little while when we left, that is before he just flat out left us through traffic. LOL, LOL, LOL. Was that you Stroker87 ???

 

Z06 Springs go on today!!!!! Next will be to pick out some tires for the Z06 wheels that I have. I Seafoam'ed the engine last week and got a decent amount of gunk out after letting it sit for 2hrs. To clean the engine a little further I put in 4.6gallon of E85 with 3/4 of a tank full of Premium Unleaded and ran that for two days before having the oil changed. All I can say is that I definitely noticed the increased power. After my road trip, I had the oil changed, and I refilled with good ole' Shell Nitro. Car is running quite well. I plan to run at the Windy City Corvettes Sept. outing at the Joliet Autobahn (autoX, and more importantly, Touring Laps around the road course). I'm also looking into running at the Corvette club's Blackhawk PDEF day in October (I missed this one last year). I'm going to need some tires!!! Any suggestions for Z06 wheels???

 

I'm running Nitto NT-05s 275/295. Really like the tire and reasonably priced.

 

Awesome. Thanks for the recommendation!
I've been looking for some max performance summer dry/wet tires. TireRack doesn't offer Nitto's and most of their other offerings want to put me at 255/285 for that category. I was thinking of the Bridgestone S04 Pole Positions, but now I think I'm leaning towards these. Have you had any other tires on to compare their dry/wet grip and handling/turn-in characteristics with the Nitto's?

 

The springs are AWESOME!!!! Much, much better than the softer base springs. I actually PREFER the more controlled ride of the stiffer spring set to the base springs, and that's with me still being on the Michelin PS A/S's on the magnesium wheels! In all honesty the ride actually feels LESS harsh, with far more control than with the softer springs. I'm sure that the Z06 shocks bump/rebound profile was a little out of sorts with the softer springs since they were made for the stiffer spring set package.

Even more so, I LOVE the improved traction; you can really feel the tires digging in laterally, with much less tire noise. Finally, the off-center dullness, while noticeably reduced and improved with the Z06 shocks and sway bars (Steinjger's), has been further reduced and improved with the spring set. To be completely accurate I have the Z51 spring set, which we all know shares the same front spring as the Z06 but has a 10% softer rear spring than the Z06. Please forgive the enthusiastic oversight on that by naming them Z06 springs.

 

Just replaced the radiator. I had the classic Corvette upper tank crack. After a lot of literature review I went with the ECP unit. I needed something that would allow me to put the Staightline Performance Head/Cam package in next Spring, so an upgrade was in order. The price for the ECP along with the many excellent reviews from Corvette Forum members made it a natural. I was blessed that ECP is about 25 miles from my house so I was able to go pick it up. Frank and Tony are first rate guys. The unit looks awesome, with a very bright aluminum finish, and the welds look great. It took me about 40min to get the old unit out because of the tight fit with the shroud, but it was a straightforward affair otherwise. Getting the slightly larger ECP unit in took twice as long. The unit is a drop in fit for 97'-99' C5's. Tony told me that for 2001 and later you have to do a little trimming with either the shroud or the bottom rubber mount. Tony said that this was due to the fact that when they designed their radiator they used a 97' Corvette and that the 01' and later were ever so slightly different. The biggest issue with getting the ECP unit in was setup to the condenser. It had been a while since I've done this type of repair and it was a little tight from the top on the Vette. With that said I am glad I did it. It saved me $200. I'll post again about the cooling performance over the past four days, but it's been nice.

 

Doesn't get any better than that. Get out with a bunch of other Corvettes and you will quickly figure out exactly what you want to do. Best wishes.

 

I did the zip & flip air cleaner mod with the Vararam air bridge and an LS6 intake. ARH headers with dyno tune - doing 340hp at the rear wheels.

 

Yep.
The nice thing is that my more permanent goal of equaling a C7 Stingray is about 90% complete; well ok, equaling it in HP, and surpassing it in grip.
That's a nice feeling.

Although I just realized that I had forgotten to include the final piece of the handling/grip package (other than getting some tires for the Z06 wheels) which is the acquisition of a 1/8" center tunnel brace, and if possible, a 1/4" one. The C5 Z06 and the C6, used a 1/8" vs. the base C5's 1/16" from what I've been able to dig up. Of course the C6 Z06 used a 1/4", if I'm not mistaken; that would REALLY be the cat's meow.

 

Btw, thank you for the advice. I really do agree. It looks like the dates may be clear for me to get out to Blackhawk in late Oct. I'm also looking forward to "touring" around one of the Autobahn tracks in Joliet next month with Windy City Corvette Club. I missed getting my entry mailed off in time to autocross (first 20 entries), but the "touring" laps will more than make up for it. I see it as a little more of a precursor to Blackhawk.

 

Congratulations on your Vette.
Just do some research on what you want to do to make the car your own. Also know that if you ever go to trade the Vette for something newer, a dealership won't give you squat for the amount of money you put into the car. Even if it's for a newer Vette.
Enjoy.

 

Thanks Stingraymyway. I appreciate the advice. My hope is to keep this and pass it down to my son, while I pick up a C7 several years from now when they are more affordable

 

Thanks JJC. I wanted to get a dyno tune but at $350-$500 I was like LOL. As a result I figured that it would be better to see what I had when I have Straightline Performance do the Head/Cam package next year since it's included. That way the money goes towards completing the HP goal.

With that said, I REALLY like what you've done and the fact that you were able to get roughly 390+ crank HP with your bolt on mod's. It further serves as a beacon to everyone else who is has been, and will be told that bolt-on's are basically a placebo that aren't worth much. That's why I did what I did as well; because my readings from other forum members highly indicated through their own dyno tunes that a number of bolt-on's that are generally said to not be worth anything, actually are, when they are integrated properly.

What's next for you on your Corvette?

 

Regarding the improved lateral grip performance from the Z51 spring set; I never really quantified the results. So my friend James and I went back to a place that somewhat simulates a large one way only, 2 lane wide, skid pad about a week ago to find out. We had gone there last summer after the C6 Z06 Shocks and equivalent Sway bars from Stienjager had been put on. The weather, time of day, and temps were similar last week to what they were when we were there last year. No one was around either. Honestly.

Last summer I was able to hit a peak of X mph with a sustained average about 6mph less. This was on good ole Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Runflats, with stock base sizes, on the magnesium wheels. This was noticeably better than the base setup for those items had been there, even though I must admit that some of the improvement came from the base items being at the end of their service life.

Fast forward to last week, and I was able to go 5mph faster than last year at peak speed, but even more impressive, I was able to AVERAGE what my former peak had been!

What makes this even better is that I was still on the same tires, but now they are near the bars in the rear. As a result of the wear I had been keenly aware the past few months that neither end of the car had been displaying as much grip as they did last summer when they had more rubber on them.

I can't imagine how much better some Nitto NT 05 Max Summer, or Nitto NT555 G2 UHP Summer tires are going to feel going only 50% (this IS my DD, lol) around Blackhawk.

 

Regarding the all AL ECP radiator; I've found that its performance is everything I had hoped it would be. In a nutshell, it takes a lot longer for it to heat soak than my stock unit did. This is partially seen in the fact that it takes roughly 10min longer to get up to operating temp (199 F), with the fans off. I am also consistently finding that its normal "stop light" idle temperature stays between 202 F - 204 F with the fans off. This has been in days that were 88 F - 92 F.

Last night the wife told me I could go out with James for a cruise and at the end we sat in front of his house talking fishing (of all things, LOL) for 19min with no air on. The temp eventually climbed to 230 F and started the heat cycle. It was 77 F last night. When I left his house the temps were at 210 F. However, by the time I got one block away the temps were down to 204 F. And, by the time I went another block away, the temps were down to 199 F; and I had only been going 28mph.

Today, I drove with the heat at full blast because I had gotten soaked in a downpour while I was outside. Even though it was only 72 F due to the cooling off from the rain, running the heat at full blast for over 10min while driving between 25 - 48mph used to get the temps up a little bit. Today however, the car stayed between 192 F - 199 F, even while I was stopped for red lights.

So basically, my car runs and idles cooler with the ECP radiator in then it did with the stock unit and it takes longer for it to heat soak and get to a point were it starts the heat cycle. This should translate into a cooler running engine when I'm using the rev's a little at an autoX or on a road course, as well as when I get the Head/Cam package put in next year. I'll see if I can get some installed pic's up within the next week.

 

Car looks great! Got a question about the Steinjager sway bar kit, I have ready several places that the bolts on the links are too short, what did you do to fix this? Also, i noticed they have HD and Extreme links price is about $30 difference, wonder if it is worth it to get the Extreme ones. Thanks for any assistance

 

Please forgive me for not seeing this sooner; too many family members getting very poor health.

I got the HD ends which are adjustable. From there I simply had to lengthen them to fit. The Extreme links look great, and I don't think you will be disappointed with using them. If I had it to do all over again I would have gotten the Extreme links...just because.