vezePilot

... but having joined this InterWeb site, in only ONE WEEK it is clear that my 2007 C6 A6 Base LS2 is some kind of Drug Habit out of Star Wars. In the short term, I'm gonna need the VaraRam SC1 Snake Charmer Cold-Air Intake, the DiabloSport InTune i3 and might as well throw in a new battery. Then I'll be looking to have the great folks at McCaddon Cadillac-Buick-GMC, Boulder install the Bilstein HD (B6) shocks all around and the StopTech Sport brake pads front & rear before they do a good street alignment. That will all be fine and dandy for avoiding tickets around town. Later, I might consider visiting the High Plains Raceway Road Course for Open Lapping Days.

But ... before I head out there I'll need to replace the StopTech Pads with the Hawk DTC-60/70's, consider which New Slotted Rotors to get, change out all of the Brake Fluid with Motul 600 DOT4, replace the Rear Differential Oil with Amsoil, replace the rubber brake lines at the Calipers with Braided Stainless Steel (like my airplane has) ... and then just toss in the Hotchkis Sway Bars, Front and Rear.

After that, my understanding is that I will only be getting started with the Road Race habit. It's a good thing that I'm winding down at flying my canard homebuilt airplane-- not gonna have time for that.

edit: Should I think about doing a lot of this work myself? I've got at least two sets of the required tools, a garage and driveway at home, a nice open ramp area and a fully-stocked airplane maintenance hangar at the airport, and ramps, jacks, lifts, etc. And 50 years of experience with cars, motorcycles, trucks and airplanes including work long ago on SAC B-52's.

farmington

check with sponsor Wild Vettes for that vararam. best price around.

vezePilot

Yup, Wild Vettes is the place for hardware. Apparently CARiD, as well. And I've already ordered hat, jacket, windshield sunshade, leather kit bag, leather driving gloves, etc from the Corvette Aisle on Amazon and from CorvetteCentral.

schizcat

Sounds like you have a good resume to work on the car (and the required equipment). I enjoy working on my car but it gets to be a PITA. Also check the parts section of this site for some of the "non-wear and tear" parts (i.e. snake charmer). You may pick something up at a decent price.

Hope you have fun with that Canard. My dad dreamed of building either a Canard or Rutan Long EZ for years. He started the project but never finished before he passed. I would have loved to have seen it.

Dano523

Before you mod the car in any way, see how close you get get to getting around the high plains track in under 2mins.

If you can't lap the track in under 2:20 in a stock vet to start with, do nothing to the car yet, since you have some driving talent that you need to learn before you have a clue what really needs to be mod'd on the car to make you faster in it.

vezePilot

Okay, I can do that. It's not often --like, maybe NEVER-- that the best advice for a car or an airplane ... is also the least expensive in the short term. Works for me.

Patsgarage

Just do it. Like I always tell myself, "just one more time".

vezePilot

What do you call it when tires gently let you know you're near THE EDGE ... instead of just breaking loose and suddenly betraying you? Isn't there a term for that in a tire?

Was up enjoying a curvey mountain road today, --I mean, really curvey-- and managed to see 0.61 g at one point. Twice it felt like the Michelin Pilot Sport rear tires were reaching their limit, but then I'm pretty new to this. Roads were dry and in good condition, uphill was more interesting than downhill. I have a minor ankle injury which driving a manual every day would aggravate, so I'm glad that of the three Corvettes I was seriously considering, it is the Auto that I bought. But these Paddle Shifters take some getting used to. I'll need to drive it a lot, practice often, lots of miles, going through a bunch of gas ... it's just terrible.

Patsgarage

FWIW .61G is not very high at all, these cars can pull over 1.0G easily. I have seen almost 1.2G in the HUD, but that was not sustained. I would check the date codes on your tires to see how old they are, a loss of grip is one sign of an aging tire.
I drive my 13 GS very hard and very rarely come close to the grip limits of the car or the tires. I can't speak to the at the limit behavior of the Michelins, but most performance tires will give you plenty of notice before they break loose. The auto may affect this more, as an unwanted downshift could upset the balance of the car.

camarokidz28

You have far more experience than me mechanically, and I've been tackling most things myself with my car. When you run into a question, just google it or search the forum and there is usually an answer, and often even a step by step guide.

Go check out the Auto-X forum and they can get you started. From what I've read, it doesn't take much to be road course ready at all and most people over do it thinking they need a lot of parts.

vezePilot

Up to 0.72 g now ... Whoo Hoo! (I have had the car only 8 days now, please cut me slack.)
I would guess that most people --those who do not drive high-performance sports cars-- have never experienced more than point three g. People like ME before I bought this Corvette. I would bet that if I ever pull more than 0.25 g in my Silverado I will have done something very wrong to get there ...

These curvey, winding mountain roads are really great, especially when the really slow Subaru family wagons pull over just to let me go by. That actually happened this morning ... was really surprised.

edit: Oh, also ... concerns about the Michelins yesterday was probably entirely due to rough road surface.

Ahrmike

Check out the halltech intake too.. If youre gonna get it tuned, their -1R intake might give you the biggest bump - especially if you plan on doing intake mani/ported throttle body eventually.

vezePilot

Well, all that aftermarket/upgrade/mod stuff is gonna have to wait. Looking closely at my LS2 while running today, I noticed that ... the big pulley on the bottom-front is wobbling. Uh Oh.

Yes, indeed-- gonna need to have the Harmonic Balancer replaced. I have gone through some excellent threads here at CorvetteForums.com regarding this issue, have seen suggestions for the PowerBond Race part PB1117SS and related components, and am planning to meet with my service manager about McCaddon Cadillac installing a few non-OEM parts. Probly going to have them install StopTech Sport brake pads, as well as the new ARP Bolt and a new crankshaft Seal. Maybe even a complete brake fluid flush.

It's a good thing that my wife and I planned for the potential expenses involved in buying a Corvette. Beyond the purchase and the insurance, we knew there might be other expenses. So no regrets whatsoever.

Dano523

Timing cover seal is part of the HB replacement. As for ARP HB bolt, would run with a new OEM bolt loctite and stretch to torque, including new diamond washer behind the HB to the crank as well. But yes on the PB1117SS over the oem HB!!!

As for brake pads, power flush, and the rest, unless you can't wrench on the car yourself, all of this I would suggest that you do it yourself isntead. Hence the brake fluid should be power flushed every 2 years, and gets spendy having to have the shop do this for you every time. Same goes for oil changes yearly, since Walmart has blow out sale on Jugs of moble one 5-30 from time to time, as well as the AC-Delco PF46 oil filters as well. Hence new oil and ever filter ends up begin about $25 a shot, verse double the money your going to pay for someone else to change it instead. So the trick, what for walmart to have the sale and pick up a few jugs and filters, and this will carry you for a few years at a time.

As for brake pads, if your going to run them on the street, then will need to have a working street temp. Yes, on a HIgh speed track, you will need to change the pads out to a high temp race pad so you don't burn the pads up. But since race pads have a higher working temp that they need to be brought up to before they will grab correctly (will not achieve such driving on the street), you change out the pads with race tires when you at the track, then swap the pads and tires back to your street tires for street uses before leaving the track instead. So the trick here, is to find both a set of street and race pads that the material as compatable, so your not having to clean the rotors at the pad swaps isntead.

If you need a hand the first time around wrenching on the vet, I live in Centennial and could give you hand the first time around. Also, I have a tech II and MDI, so makes power flushing a snap, since you need to use a Tech II to cycle the ABS pump to get the old fluid out of it during a power flush.

Really, begin able to wrench on the vet yourself for most of the work, makes owning the vet way, way less expensive to own in the first place. Granted that from time to time, your going to run into major items that may require a lift and specialized tool that you may have to take the car to the shop (like the HB replacement), but for smaller items like brakes, no reason to farm such out isntead.

Cheers,
Dano

vezePilot

Wow, you're in Centennial? That's great. I talked with my service manager at McCaddon today, and I'll take my C6 over there tomorrow for a "consultation" with his top mechanic. I would like him to look at my HB. The mechanic has already said that just because it's wobbling does not mean that it is going to fail suddenly. He said they don't do that. In another thread, someone said that even with some wobble, if I don't hear a squeal or squeak, if I'm not racing the car, and if I don't have a cam/headers/supercharger the HB may not even need to be replaced. When I do decide to get it done, I will probably have McCaddon install the new HB and do the brake fluid flush then, as well. But I may need a flush sooner than a new HB: my brake fluid is really dark, like black.

I'm preparing to replace the front brake pads tomorrow and/or Friday, as well. I got in a hurry, thinking that the front pads are really thin, and ordered race pads through O'Reilly auto parts. These are not the StopTech ... they are Performance Friction (PFC) CarbonMetallic:

Company Site: https://pfcbrakes.com/Applications/M...rts/Sports-car
O'reilly auto parts: https://tinyurl.com/y9s4jnvy

I'm also installing a new set of Locking Lug Nuts. This will be the first job that I'm doing myself on my C6. I _DO_ want to start doing a lot of the work. Really motivated to work on the Corvette myself, unlike for my Silverado truck. I saw your advice, I think it was, to take the car AS-IS to High Plains Raceway, and see how I do with it. I'm not planning to start another hobby, but I did watch several videos of drivers going around HPR in their C6's. The fastest I saw was 1:55, but I think it's possible I can get below 2:20 ... I've done some radical dirt bike racing in the past. For serious racing, I could consider the Hawk DTC60/70's and new rotors. But I really don't think I'm going to go that far ...

I've had my Corvette only 10 days. Learning lots really fast. I certainly want to bring it over to visit you. That is going to be great! One thing that I learned from Flying, and I'm sure it will be the same with Corvettes ... It's THE PEOPLE that I meet that are THE BEST PART OF IT.

Dano523

Read before you install the PFC pads,

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...he-street.html

Hence the pads don't start to bit until you get the brakes warmed up,and this is not good for a street use pad.
https://pfc.parts/motorsports/pfc-co...ed-compound-2/


Truth is, would be better off with Carbotech™ 1521 for street use isntead. I'm more of a fan of the OEM HD pads since they have a slightly higher working temp while stop great dead cold as well for street and autocross use, but some can' get past the amount that they dust for street use isntead.


As for the rotors, would pull all 4 while you have the car up on the jack stands, and take them down not only for the rotors to be turned, but the rear rotor drums if they are lipped as well (just the outer lips sections turned off, not go buck wild on turning the entire R drums down isntead). This will square the disc surfaces to each other, and allow for faster break in of the pads. As for the E-drums on the rear rotors, the E brakes are not self adjusting on the car, and you have to remove and reinstall the rear rotors a few times to adjust the E shoes correctly. To tell if the E shoes need to be adjusted, pull up on the E brake handle and count the clicks. If you have more than 13 clicks until you can't pull the E handle up any more, the E pads need to be adjusted. With the e shoes adjusted correctly, should be about 8 clicks up isntead.

As for power flushing the brakes, would use Prestone dot 4 since it has a dry boiling point of 510, and will not break the bank with the multitudes that your going to be power flushing the system after each track event. Motul rbf 600 has a higher boil point of 594 dry, but ends up costing about $60 a power flush, verses around $20 using Prestone Dot 4 instead (takes about a quart of brake fluid to do a power flush). I bring this up, since you don't know that fluid the dealer is going to use for a power flush, and may end up with the fluid having too low of a dry boiling point if they just use a Dot 3 fluid.

Bottom line, if you are going to track the car, and take it to the dealer for all the needed work, it's going to get spendy real quick. Also, may have to veer way from the dealer for track type work on the car, since again, your dealing track type needed mods, and not standard OEM street use/work that they tend to only install OEM parts only.

vezePilot

The PFC's were only $112, so if I don't like 'em, I'll try Carbotech, or StopTech, or Hawk. Getting the rotors turned is problematic for me, cuz I'll need to have a friend drive me over to any shop with those. I'll be doing mechanic work on my C6 at my hangar in Longmont, not in my driveway in Boulder. Right now, I'm only doing the front pads. The rear pads look really thick. For the E brake, I can only pull the handle 7 clicks right now. It does sound like a good idea to have these rotors turned at least once, before I replace them. It will probably work out best for me to take your advice for part brands, rotor work and such in the Fall. Right now the car is still too new (to us) to get a lot of stuff to buy and add and do ... past the wife.

edit: Oh, I just remembered: the friend who might drive me to a machine shop to get rotors turned ... IS A MACHINIST and he has a big, solid lathe and a Bridgeport mill in his hangar just one row over from me. It may be quite easy to have my rotors turned ...

edit2: For the PFC pads, the ones I have ordered are not the 01 compound, nor the 11 compound; these are different from either of those used by drivers posting in that thread. So I guess we'll see how they work. And regardless, I probably won't keep them in very long. I'll follow advice and use either CarbonTech, StopTech or Hawk. I'm putting in the PFCs today because it seems it needs new pads sooner than products can be shipped from the others.

I went for the consultation with a senior Tech at McCaddon. He said that I might wait a coupla months on the HB replacement. And that for my C6 it will definitely cost more than just $900. So it is likely that I will get the brake fluid flushed sometime before that. My brake fluid is black.

Dano523

Change the pads on all corners to you have the same pads front and back, not just the front ones alone.

With different pads front and back, it going to effect the braking balance of the car!!!!!
Hence if this is a base car with OEM ceramic pads all 4 corners, the front PFC pads installed only are going to way out break the rear pads.

vezePilot

The OEM pads on Corvettes are Ceramic? Huh, I didn't know that.

So I set up for and tried to change the front pads today. Didn't get far, because I could not get the first caliper bolt loose. It _was_ gratifying, however, to collect the tools, make a simple ramp, lift the car by the reinforced point with a hocky puck on the jack, and get the wheel off. It's been a few years since I have worked on cars. (This is why I drive a Chevy truck).

I also met with my GM service manager and a senior Tech. He said right away that, Yes, that balancer is wobbling more than it should. Jon and Dan laughed at the idea of an owner doing the replacement. In 35 years as a certified mechanic, former Corvette owner and GM Tech Dan said that he hates doing the HB replacement. He was a little impressed that I knew what components must be disconnected/removed to do the work, and that it was possible to also Pin the replacement balancer. They both agreed that $900 for this job is silly ... it will be quite a bit more than that. Finally, Dan said it won't need the HB for a coupla months.

So, what my C6 DOES NEED in the short term is a Brake Fluid flush. My wife (the Mustang GT owner) also agrees it needs new shocks. That is what I need help with. Unfortunately, I am always busy otherwise every Saturday. Doing this sort of work, or visiting your place in Centennial, Dano, cannot be on a Saturday.

Would it be feasible for me to visit you any other day of the week?

98Gambler