I have a 1999 c5, I was wondering what I could do to it to make it unbreakable for example never having to worry about breaking the engine clutch or transmission if I had an unlimited budget.

 

Common sense preventive maintenance? These things go forever if you just drive them regularly.

Try to focus your goal or question so we can go in a better direction. In the meantime, go watch a ton of old videos from Sloppy Mechanics on YT/FB etc and get a feel for just how much these LS platforms can take before they fail. We're talking quarter million mile junkyard engines with cheap turbos bumping 600, 800, 1000 rwhp.

 

You will likely reduce your car's reliability if you go swapping out parts without a reason to. Things will break even if you never drive it. Save your unlimited budget for when things do break, or buy a few more C5's.

 

- LMC5 column lock fix
- Absorbent mat under battery to protect from potential leakage onto ECU
- Tick Performance Clutch Master Cylinder Kit
- Aftermarket harmonic balancer (the OEM ones are junk and eventually wobble)

Those are the only reliability-related aftermarket mods I can think of.

 

Change all fluids regularly. NO more than five years on coolant, 30,000 miles on transmission fluid/ filter and use full synthetic fluids where available, including power steering fluid.

Use a rubber bulb syringe to remove and replace power steering, clutch and brake fluid from their reservoirs at every engine oil change. Until these fluids remain clear between oil changes, remove and change in between until they do.

Have a competent system programmer set the rev limit to 5,800 RPM. If you are a track or drag guy/girl, install a well designed rocker arm/trunnion set to routinely rev higher. Make all the cooling mods necessary to keep coolant, oil and transmission temperatures below 250 on track.

If your car is an A4, do NOT try burnouts by revving and shifting into gear at high RPM-- DEATH to A4 sun gear and further driving until fixed for big money. If you intend to pass someone on the highway with your A4 at full throttle, shift from D to 3 first- less stress on the drive train in the upshift to 2nd.

My car is a 2001 A4, 118,000 miles, 24 days on road course race tracks over 11 years, 6,000 upshifts at full throttle from 2nd to 3rd.

 

Put it up on jacks and buy another car to drive, Corvette will last forever lol.

 

My daily has 118,000 miles. I changed fluids once when I bought it because it had sat for a decade. Only oil since then. This car has had 10psi of boost for almost five years. I daily it year round. Snow. Ice. High heat. Rain. Etc. It has been a midnight run car to the mountains. I have done homemade time attacks to the state border. I have redlined the pig for twenty minutes to slide it out of a snowed in parking lot (mindful of temp). I don't do smoke shows because tires cost too much. But I also have 4 sets of wheels/tires to play with. The car lives outside. I paid a kid to wash it last year. I drag race the thing for fun. They're pretty darned durable. But I've also put on better parts over time. Clutch wore out? Time for RST, lightweight fly, tick master, and remote bleeder. Added the blower? Time for springs and trunnion-to-bushing as well as better fuel pump. 'wheel hop'? Time for pfadt trans mount and ecs brace. The only thing I have broken on this car has been that I straight up sheered the rear coupler bolts when na trying to get the drop on a ZL1. It was worth it. 80 down to 3rd and I absolutely got the hit before his 600hp walked me on the highway, LOL.

I wouldn't be overly worried. Common sense stuff. A magic regimen won't prevent failure. How you shift might though.

Edit: for note, I bought this 99 in 2012 with 34k miles. It already had headers, full exhaust, ram air cai, C5 Z06 suspension and wheels plus Bilsteins. And for such low miles, when I did the springs and pulled the valve covers for the first time... I found grass clippings in there! Lol. These things are beasts. They'll work hard. You have to be trying to break them to break them.

 

'Things will break even if you never drive it.' Please explain how this could happen???

 

deterioration of hoses and rubber bits?

 

It is a machine and machines eventually have problems, no matter what you do. Good preventative maintenance will go a long way to keeping the car out of the repair shop as will common sense driving habits.

 

Until you create a lot more hp you have a pretty stout piece. The shortcomings are the clutch hydraulics, so keep that fluid clean; the harmonic balancer is known to come apart so keep an eye out for any wobble there; and the car is known to have electrical gremlins often tied to corroded ground connections. Still, many owners never experience these issues.

If you indeed have unlimited funds, please have a Katech 416 shipped to my world race headquarters.

Now, go have some fun with that beast!

 

ok right now its stock with an air intake and billy boat exhaust and upgraded breaks so it should be good with regular maintenance

 

Thank you. I guess rot/dry rot/deteriorate would've been more on point, but your point is now understood. If you're 20 miles from the nearest home or shop, it doesn't much matter if the hose rots, blows, or breaks!!!