Stock Car Mafia

After spending the weekend painting the kitchen and planting over 175 bulbs of tulips and daffodils, we were able to take the car out for a short cruise. Car went in to limp mode and kicked a PO60e code. I think it is something with the pedal or TB. Cleared it and it went away for the most part. Good thing winter is approaching! Time to get my winter wish list of tasks to accomplish...

The Z got new glass yesterday. It was a long process to find someone that was able to replace it. In the end the new glass is fantastic. Can't wait to take it to work tomorrow Not too much rust under the glass. If I ever paint the car, she will get the best treatment.

Thanks Zkid! It definitely isn't perfect but possibly some day I can make it such. Honestly, I've kept most of the original wiring. The body harness was left intact leaving all lights and blinkers alone. I cut and capped off any live wires that ran to the old coil and distributor, etc. I haven't done the EZ wiring kit, but I do believe most of it is self explanatory. It will just take a lot of time to run it all. I will leave the stock wiring until there comes a need to run all new.

The cowl is 2". I dicked around with the latch 2 nights ago and cant get it to click fully shut.

It fits pretty well. I haven't figured how to get the hood to fully latch. I had to slam my stock hood pretty hard to get it to close. I'm sure this being lighter, it's harder to get it shut without feeling I'm gonna break it. I'm gonna tweak it tonight to see if I can get it shut. I haven't measured the cowl yet but I'd assume 2-3". I don't have a bathroom scale but it is substantially lighter than the stock hood. I'd say about 40 lb lighter. I should be there this Saturday! Weather is looking quite cold but I like that.

The starter was taken out last night and got a new one ready to be exchanged at O'Reilly. I am looking for the best idea to wrap the starter on short notice. I did get the hood on Sunday when we got back from my brother's wedding. The two front corners of the hood got crushed in shipping. Other than that the hood is in pretty damn good shape. I don't know if I want to dick with shipping damages as I've done that in the past and it is a BITCH. Other than the the hood looks fricken awesome! Now, the hood and car need paint... Now, it is just up to me to figure out exactly how I want the hood to be mounted. I got 1" angle aluminum to see if I can make my own front brackets. I don't think the hood frame will allow the stock latch so I may have to do hood pins...

SHHHHHH!!!! I don't need O'Reilly knowing. My thought is exactly that. Either ceramic coating isn't what its talked up to be or the job I got isn't good quality. I'll be wrapping the next starter and possibly the headers down the road. We will see what kind of shape the hood is in. Now with the starter acting up I may park the car and call it for this year. Possibly I'll get it replaced to make the last CnC.

I forgot to mention that the starter has been acting up since last week. I almost got stranded getting some parts. So much for a refurbished starter from O'Reilly. I will be taking it back.

I hear you man. We had to do a clean up and final inspection on the girlfriend's townhouse so I don't think I could have if I wanted to. Did you talk to the guy with the 5.3? It is always great to find other guys with similar cars. Make sure to post up the results on your page when you get them! So a little good news although not much. I finally found a cowl hood for the car. It looks identical to what Rebekahsz has on his car. From the sounds of it, the company who used to make them must have gone out of business years ago. I'm hoping it isn't distorted and fits well but we will see probably late Sunday. I have a wedding packed weekend coming up.

Nice! Now you can put some fresh miles on it.

Have you checked anything underneath and noticed anything that has come loose? I really am banking on luck because I have double checked nothing since I got it on the road. But I do feel confident everything was torqued to spec and I've had no issues since. Coming from stock car racing where we would check every nut and bolt after each race night....lol No worries on the email, sometimes it's just easier to ask. I've been doing a lot of thinking about a Procharger install. In order to get it to fit I would have to convert to a C6 ProCharger set up and convert to the Corvette drive system. I'm not sure if there is room for the damper to clear the crossmember and I hate the look of the high mounted alternator. I guess it couldn't hurt to fab up my own alt. mount else where. I do believe I would have to hack the rad. mount off and move it forward to make room for air intake tubing. Overall I think it is doable. And reason for going centrifugal belt driven...I don't think it would be wise to go with a roots/twin screw that would just blow the tires out in the low rpm. The torque curves for turbos seem to be all over the boards and not as linear. I don't need CRAZY horsepower as I want this to be a road car. Plus with the compression ratio of the LS2 is 10.9:1 so I will be very limited on the boost I can throw at it safely. I am motor limited right now. But hey we all love to dream.

PM sent. Trust me I am shocked I haven't done it either. I have all the supplies, but with the little time I do get, I choose to drive it. It funny after putting in all the time last winter, but at you understand when the weather is nice, the to do list gets put off to the side.

I definitely know it wouldn't take much to get down there for it. I can't find the time to seal my quarterpanels up yet. Yes they are still open :/ I get that tire rub on really hard bump or dips in the road. It haven't had it in a long time but I don't remember how rough the roads are on that section. Are you going to go and spectate? I have a working list of outside house projects to complete before it gets too cold...

I've been away from the forums for some time. It's just been busy with life and enjoying time with family and family events. I don't think I will have time to prepare for the hill climb in Waumandee, WI this year. It looks like a hellufa time. I took the car out briefly earlier this week and was able to get the speedo calibrated. It's good to see a closer to accurate speed

Keith, I've been looking for a carbon cowl hood like this for some time. I think you mentioned MSA but I am really curious if they still make these.

I would assume you are dying to get this on the road again.

I've had extremely long days going through ISO 9001:2015 auditor training this week. I was able to take the car out for a cruise and to get gas for a car show I am going with some relatives today. Leaving the development, I was ripping through the gears and the damn shifter broke! It turns out the bolt on the lower mount snapped and the shifter was only connect by the other and flopped around. I was able to pull off and turn the car off to investigate. I ended up using a portion of the bolt threads to at least align the shifter so it could be used. Drove to the nearest hardware store 20 minutes away and got a new one.

That was quite funny! We were up at Osaka's having lunch and picking up some interior paint. The river road was the quickest way to 694. What a coincidence.

Ha I know how this goes. I can set a tool down and literally not remember where I put it 5 minutes later. I've learned to use my SS cart to put my tools on. All sockets get put in a smaller box and most other items just randomly on top. I still spend more time looking for tools than actually working. I don't know any way around it! #carguyproblems

Well time definitely has been flying and there has been a lack of time spent in the garage and more on other priorities. I think it's been about a month since I was able to get some solid work done. Sunday I was able to get some time alone and wind down in the garage. I got the cars moved out and a lot of tools and stuff put away and garage swept. I got the daily driver waxed and set for the next couple months. I did get the new S30 front grill from Skillard. I wanted to try something since I have a huge open area for road debris to fly through. The install was pretty simple and wasn't too bad. I will have to take some pictures when I can and post them up. I eff'ed up my front air damn cutting to make room for the grill where it wasn't necessary...oh well. The grill is powdercoated black and doesn't look too bad!

Son of a B!%CH!!! Man I am happy to hear that you are ok. Having a close call in my life makes me view life just as you stat. Being able to wake up every morning is enough to make me appreciate life's ups and downs. As for the car, I haven't heard of many Z's that make it alive out of an accident. Do you have basic coverage or a collector car insurance policy? You've put so much work in to that car, it would be nice to recoup more than just the parts costs.

That is quite frustrating to hear. I know some of this stuff does happen but it really has compounded for you. I would could your progress as a win though. Good lord you guys did a lot in a short span and none of those issues were caused by you. Keep your head up dude! It is a tall order to swap a car in a pinch.

Here I thought I had the stock sway bar figured out. There is no problem under acceleration, as the diff lifts up under load. I took the car out last night and drove it pretty hard, like usual. On a couple down shifts where I didn't rev match I could hear clicking coming from the rear. I would assume this is the diff nose diving from deceleration from the motor. The diff mount is poly but still flexible enough for it to move. I'm not too worried by this but it is annoying. Probably will be switching sway bar mount locations at some point.

This tends to happen! How many miles did you put on the unit and was it used when you bought it?

Damn dude! It's nice having a spot to lay out parts like that. Doing anything with the suspension?