Hey everyone! Always keep track of my builds. Figured its time to start up a build thread for the C5Z

Some background in case anyones interested, this is my first Corvette, first American car all together actually. I've been a Mercedes enthusiast my whole life, owned and built quite a few AMG cars but always had my eye on a C5 ZO6. Most people are afraid of AMG Mercedes out of warranty and think American or Asian cars are cheaper... (I sure used to!)
Well this car by far has cost me more than any AMG ever has in maintenance, Ive even engine swapped my old C43 with a hand built 5.5L AMG engine and a transmission for less than $1,600 (engine and trans were $1k)
My dad purchased a C5Z brand new in 2004, at the time I was only 12 years old and it blew me away! Ever since then I knew id have to have one some day... Fast forward 12 years and 10 cars later I finally got one! Thanks to the prices finally coming down, its crazy how these cars hold their value what was a $50k car is still $20k!! My CL55 AMG was $140k new in 2006 and I purchased it for less than $10K

Here are a few previous build threads for anyone interested.

https://mbworld.org/forums/cl55-amg-...re-thread.html

https://mbworld.org/forums/c36-amg-c...d-55-swap.html

https://mbworld.org/forums/w210-amg/...s-e55-amg.html

https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...-its-kind.html


Anyways on to the Corvette build!

I purchased my 2003 ZO6 on July 13th 2017, It had an LS2 swapped into it with Long tube headers and Exhaust.




The first weekend I threw on some black C6 Rep wheels, not a bad look imo just needed to be lowered









After rocking the C6 wheels for a month or two enjoying the car I got a set of CCW Classics that needed to be refinished and had them fully polished

 

Once I got the CCW's back I picked up a set of Nitto NT05 tires as well as a few goodies from West Coast Corvette, a set of lowering bolts and a full blackout light kit all around! Looks SO much better!









I then found an awesome set of seats here of the forum! a member was nice enough to drive them out from Vegas on Thanksgiving while he was here visiting family, Thanks again buddy!

 

All was going well, the car was everything I hoped it to be, until one day..... two days before Christmas.... it began to knock....
The engine was toast. And so the engine build began







Once we had the engine out we could asses the damages, it turned out to be worse than we hoped for... the bearings inside the block had spun.







Decided to do a few upgrades while I had the engine out, also had to send the block off for new upgraded bearings. Turns out the piston holes were out of round and had to bored out to approx. 6.2L

 

After about a month of working on the motor and waiting for parts here and there it was time to go back in!











Idle video with the new set up!

With the engine finally back together I spent a few days lightly driving the engine to "break it in" before she was off to the tuner!






Was sadly very disappointed on the dyno, didnt even break 400WHP with Long tube headers, X pipe, full exhaust, Intake, Bored out, Bigger pistons, cammed with upgraded springs
Beleive its the LS6 TB and manifold choking it but still not sure....

 

After having everything pulled apart every few days my passenger side axel back kept rattling loose where it was clamped, had my buddy tig weld them on solid and straight





After driving about a month with the new motor I was driving home, pulled up to a light, went to put the car in gear and the shifter was completely loose! uh oh! looks like my breathless "Performance" Shifter, had completely broken clean off! Back to stock for now!






The next issue I ran into was with my CCW's I just had refinished a few months before hand, we went through a small rainy season in socal and EVERY few days after busting *** to hand polish my wheels they would look like this





These spots did not just wipe or polish off they had to be scrubbed and polished HARD by hand to remove, needless to say after about a month of this and I was over it. Time to paint the faces.









Honestly was a blessing is disguise imo I think the black faces look so much better!

 

Last weekend I did an oil change and Tuesday she rolled to 100k!






Car has also devloped a strange random misfire! Happens randomly under light RPM once it begins car has to be revved up or rpm shifted around until it goes back to normal, starts smelling like its dumping fuel during that time and sputtering, will die at idle unless I hold up the rpms, Hoping its fuel injectors, Have some replacements on the way, going to replace Spark plug wires, coil packs, 02 sensors, and even though I just did on the engine build, spark plugs.

Hopefully get around to it this weekend! all further updates will be posted in this build thread!

 

 

I enjoy threads like this. Thanks for sharing.

 

Cool car and a good build so far. Best of luck with your future work.

 

 

Good thread so far and your Z is the right color

 

Looking forward to your updates!

 

Thanks guys! should be updating fairly often!

 

So this weekend I got around to swapping out my fuel injectors for replacement factory ones because of the intermittent misfire I have been having. Sadly its still there!



Scanned it with my friends GM scanner, even with it plugged in while driving, giving live info during a misfire episode it wouldnt throw a code other than p0300

As of two weeks ago only after start up, while crusing at a steady pace around 1.5-2K rpm the car will start misfiring/bogging down /hesitating/bucking if I just keep my foot on the pedal giving it gas it will continue to misfire for 10-30 seconds then "kick back on" to normal power again.
When it has started doing this and I got caught at a red light I had to rev it up and give it gas or else it will flood itself and die. I say flood because when it does this I can smell a strong fuel odor burning in my exhaust.

Any ideas what to swap next? Coil packs, Plug wires, new spark plugs (again), 02 sensors, vaccum leaks?

Thanks....


Also got around to swapping out my stock radio, which even the cd player wouldnt work. For something with bluetooth and hands free calling, so great to listen to my own music again! Would like to change the bezel and put a screen in some day but for now this is perfect for my needs!
Thanks again to forum member Stroker87 for the radio as well as wiring up a PAC-OEM1 for me! Making installation as simple as tapping into one 12 V power wire. The Yellow wire wire was easily located tucked up in the passenger foot well.

 

how did you get the ls2 to bore out that far? I was always under the impression that aluminum blocks with their liners can only be honed. Unless you have an iron block (lq)

 

 

a local machine shop did the work on it. I say approx because im not sure exactly how far it was taken. I have an aluminum block LS2

 

Replaced spark plugs, spark plus wires, head gaskets this weekend. Still misfires until light driving cold start
​​​

Car is throwing tons of codes...

PCM
P0135 C - Drivers side 02 sensor
P0155 H. C - Passenger side 02 sensor
P0522 H - Oil Pressure Sensor
P1637 H - Generator L terminal circuit PCM connections and grounds.

TCS
C1214 H C - EBCM bad relay
C1282 H - Yaw rate sensor bias circuit malfunction
C1287 H - Steering rate malfunction
C1288 H - Steering wheel position sensor
C1296 H - Master cylinder sensor circuit

SDM
U1016 H - Loss of connection with PCM

IPC
B0521 H Tachometer Signal Circuit malfunction - issues with the IPC reading rpm signals from the PCM
U1255 H Serial data line malfunction

HVAC
B0333 H C - outside air temp open
B0361 H C - left actuator short to GND
B0441 H - left actuator out of range

LDCM
B2284 H - battery #2 fault
B2262 H - horizontal position sensor fault
B2264 H - verticle position sensor fault
U1016 H - loss of communications with PCM
U1096 H - Loss of communications with IPC

RDCM
U1016 H - loss of communications with PCM
U1096 H - Loss of commutation with IPC

 

Holy crap that's a lot of codes. Sorry can't help but good luck. How do the plugs look? Maybe a compression test?

 

Buddy and I went for a cruise a few weeks back and shot some pictures, enjoy!