blackmachdown

Well, I never really made a build thread here about my z06, so I figure why not start now...

My first day with my first corvette, it was love at first site
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Bone stock. So excited about having the car I have always wanted
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First official mod, I lowered the car, and had it corner balanced and aligned for an agressive street/autox set up




Corvettes are entirely too quiet so i added a new exhaust, borla stingers with quad tips. I also decided to murder out the car (this was circa 2009)

front lights are smoked


rear lights are completed
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My car is dressed for your car's funeral
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Finally I was happy with the way the vette looked and sounded


So the vette stayed stock for about a year and a half, during that time I went through a rough divorce and after I came out of it I decided to really live for myself. I had seen a lamborghini in the most beautiful white color ever and decided to get my vette repainted that color. Here is the results (I later found out that my painter never painted the car correctly so the car ended up looking more champagne as it got older)


The white and black contrast looked so good I had to add side skirts and a front lip to make it pop even more.
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After the paint job I was ready to make it go as fast as it looked. I ended up meeting CK and the group at UPP, I originally wanted to buy some long tube headers CK had for sale, but decided I should step up to some twin turbskies.





Dyno Video:

we parked her at 600 rwhp with their at that time new Fuel System they were working on (2011)

End Part 1

blackmachdown

Ok So at this point after the car was finished at UPP I ordered the spoiler the car desperately needed
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Drove the car around for a year without any issues.

One day I hit a bump and the tires contacted the pipes that run through the fender and managed to crack the paint...so instead of repainting I had these nifty decals made to cover the damage
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As you can imagine having 600 rwhp on tap, Traction is something that was hard to come by, until i landed on these CCW Classics



These were for a c6z06 so the fitment was all off, but damn did it look and hook good! 335/30/18


UPP needed some shot for their Facebook and Ads so I got this cool shot taken of my car
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I ended up selling the CCW classics and going back to the stockers,
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Around this time I ended up getting another c5 to mess around with, but it only lasted about a year...
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So I missed my ccw wheels real bad and stumbled on this set for a bit
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I really liked the gold on the champagne, but the red and black stripes had to go...
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Life was going good until I got greedy and wanted more power....

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Is that Bad?
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Well I wish I could say that was caused by my massive power but really I had an injector that failed open on me and caused a hydrolock on the motor. cylinder 7 was the one that let go

blackmachdown

Oldandslow

Wow what a journey. Keep on keeping on.

MrNiceGuy!

Great post. Really enjoyed reading about your build. I hope you continue with both the build and the post.

Pacobeagle

Hmmm, wonders what those CCW's will go for...(please keep me in mind). I really loved the gold look!!!!

Jose

Vetteman Jack

Interesting journey that your car has gone through. Too bad you had so many problems and good luck returning the car to an NA status.

Route99

Nice overview of your efforts and the challenges you faced. Hopefully everything goes smoother for you going forward!

FYRARMS

Great thread! Following!

beboggled

Thanks for sharing your build. Subscribed!

lewislgZ06

boostedfury

What a crazy journey! Also crazy that I have loved your pearl white vette over all these years to find out it was a mistake and still the beautiful! Can't wait to read more.

~Josh

blackmachdown

How about some videos?

This first video is of the cam lope on the new motor, not bad for a turbo cam with a high lsa, sorry in advance for the Text and vertical film, I post alot to Instagram and that's where these videos are from


The valve train is super quiet on this car, that loud hissing noise is my Race blow off valve


Car makes boost and makes it in a hurry


Sometimes Merging onto the freeway can be difficult


Don't get me wrong the car was so much fun and I drove her a ton!

Went on some mountain cruises:


My hood was up because the car liked to overheat on long climbs up hill

More of the cruise group


Here is one of my favorites with my 2000 mag red coupe I bought to play around with


Even took some funny Christmas Pictures



Every now and then my wife would take the red car and we would roll around to car shows and hang outs together



I do admit, having two corvettes in the garage was fun, but as the issues with my white car increased (now it was leaving oil and coolant on the floor, overheating) I began to really understand what I really wanted. The red car had a 383 with a brian tooley stage 2 cam, she only made 400 hp and 420 tq but it was way more fun to drive and more reliable than the white car.


Here you can see a video of just how oily my bumper would get just driving around...


My first thought was to figure out a way to keep both corvettes, so I decided just to remove the upp kit and throw on some long tube headers and go from there. After a ton of research and the realization that with the compression ratio I had using the 317 heads I needed to change directions if i wanted to make anywhere over 400 hp.

I ended up deciding to go ahead and doing a budget heads cam intake set up.
I bought some 799 heads and had them sent off to Texas Speed for their stage 2.5 porting and to mill the heads down to bump compression on my forged lq4
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I also wanted a cam that was a little more aggressive than the brian tooley stage 2 and decided on an Ed Curtis grind, the FTI Street Sweeper HT
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I was going to use an ls6 intake and send it off to get the 90 mm snout grafted on by TPIS, but I found a Fast 90 MM intake for sale that i jumped on
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it looked terrible so I had my friend that painted my car re do the intake:
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looks alot better!

Since I would be running an iron block, I decided to go with an aluminum radiator:


went with the ECP radiator, i ended up buying it on ebay when they had a 20% off sale and I had some ebay bucks to burn so it was a no brainer for me.

I was pretty set with my plan until...I came to the realization that all this was going into a motor that would be perfect in another boosted car, and i really should be looking at going back to an aluminum block.

I started paying attention more and more to Nsogiba's L92 Swap thread (Click Here) because I was interested in swapping in an l92 motor, with my existing top end and hoping to hit a solid 450-460 rwhp. I also had visions of swapping over to ported ls3 top end parts and then running a 416 stroker. Some of my closest friends and wife all knew though what i really wanted...

At this point I decided to go ahead and sell the red car because I was going to take the time and energy to get my white c5 back to being the car it was before the original motor blew.

Red Car sold in less than a week and I ended up calling Texas Speed and ordering their sleeved 427 long block, 236/250 .650/.650 114+4 LSA Cam, PRC 265 CNC LS7 heads, I also went with a Peak Speed Shop ported LS7 intake, American Racing 1 7/8 headers.

Ported LS7 Intake


My 427 Long block from Texas Speed arriving:


whats inside?


So pumped!

So last week I dropped the car off at the shop that handled the red car (super impressed with their work)


And that brings is to today...I am waiting for the headers to come in, and on Wednesday the shop is asking me to take the motor in...once they get that the car will be up and running with the new stuff in no time. Can't wait to update this thread!

jglassmaker

wow, thank you for sharing your journey! I actually really enjoyed reading this.

tommypenguin

Wow what a journey Ralph! Think the new build is going to give you the balance of reliability and performance you are looking for. Can't wait to see the results.

zeevette

Looks great whatever powers it. You've gone through the same back and forth as me, only more so. I too am thinking of going back to NA, but I would be happy with 450 RWHP instead of the 635 I now have. Great thread, fun but expensive hobby, innit?

blackmachdown

Oh these aren't for sale! I am keeping these for the unforeseeable future

Alot of my problems stemmed from the terrible work performed by the nameless shop, this new shop will definitely get me squared away.

That was a huge mind trip to me too!

I don't blame the turbo kit, if I wanted to it would take less than half of what im spending to get everything right and working the way the car sits. I have had a Turbo corvette longer than I have ever had a N/A corvette so I want to try the other side of the fence. The new 427 is running forged internals if i ever wanted to go back to boost.

blackmachdown

Thanks Nick! Even though the car won't make the big power that it used to, I am sure I will be happy with it.

I hear ya! Good luck on your decision, I know i am not done with boost though...got my eye on a new project once this car is all fixed up

boostedfury