Mikelly

Not sure that isn't the case. But I'd still want upgrades in the rod bolts at a minimum if I was doing an LS1. Prior to 2001 the rod bolts on all LS1s are considered very weak links when adding power. I found out the hard way! Mike

I'd not go a couple states away to tow that one home. Just the amount of rust in the spare tirewell area would make me run. Looking at the fender where they bolt to the uni-body is an indicator of what you'll find on the underside of the car. I'd bet the floor pans and rails, battery box, and rear hatch/ tail light area are suffering as well... "Run Forrest Run" away from this one! Mike

Sorry Tim. Wasn't sure if this was something you had planned to pursue on a more frequent basis. For the others, I made a stickie out of Tim's thread. Somewhere else in another thread I believe Mark had a step by step instructional on all the parts needed and how it fit. Be forewarned, There are other members who have suffered Diff failures due in part to the amount of power being applied to the rear. I believe the traditional mustache bar setup isn't capable of slicks and hard launches. Do a search and you'll see the topics being discussed elsewhere. Mike

This one has been stickied since there has been so much discussion over this topic. Thanks to Tim240Z for digging it up! Mike

The comment was I believe TWO WEEKENDS, aZZuming you had all parts in house. I suspect 50 hours would be a good estimate if all parts and tools were there and you had several people all working on the project, and each with a well thought out plan for sections of the project. Mike

You won't be sorry. Mike

I don't think anyone has a drawing of either part. I wouldn't recommend using them anyway. Basically all you need to do is take the pickup points off the existing controll arm as your parameters, and go from there. Building a rear control arm isn't that hard. Building one that won't fail is VERY hard. Mike

YOiu might want to get someone at M/T on the phone and discuss this. I once had a very enlightening discussion with someone from BFG about shoe-horning a set of tires onto rims about 1 inch narrower than recommended. You might be ok for normal driving, but the additional forced put on the tire diring hard launches could potentially cause you to have sidewall deflection issues and problems with the bead holding. Last thing you want is to have a tire de-bead itself on you at about the 300Ft. Mark when you're well into the power band and speeds are UP! Is it probably? Maybe not. Is it possible? Talk to a M/T tech to get that answer. Mike

My 383stroker equipped Z was running the T56 Tranny, a BG 750 race carb, singleplane high rise intake, and 3.70 gears turning over 26.5inch tires. In 6th gear on the interstate cruising at about 80MPH I'd get around 22mpg. I would have gotten better, but the cam/carb/vacuum issues precluded the car from running properly at lower cruise RPMs. I'd maybe done better with it in 5th gear instead of 6th. Who knows. I've seen over 30MPG in the C5 w/LS1-T56 combo and 26inch tires turning stock 3.42 gearing. With the current 445flywheelHP I'm seeing 27.5-28mpg on the interstate cruising at 78mph. In town it falls off to 23-24mpg if I behave. Yea, like that happens! Mike

Contact Tim240Z for his contact at Speedway Engineering. He built me a set of Q45 Axles with their centers. I don't know the part numbers, but I'd bet they are easy enough to find. Tim, You out there??? Mike

I plan to come up with something that will incorporate a custom control arm and a custom rear subframe to carry the Q45 rear. This will be something similar to what Jamie T. has come up with in his design, but a little more robust. Mike

The C5 and C6 suspension arms are interchangable and the C5 aluminum arms are available for $140 each from GM, inclouding bushings, ball joints and hardware. However, there are parts available elsewhere from stock car and race car suppliers that would work much better I'd think. Getting the geometry correct would be the key. I've always hated the stupid strut insert design of the original S30. Mike

Bingo Terry! You're on to something there... Need to get a couple of rear uprights and hack them up. Unfortunately I gave the last good pair I had to Michael for his bigblock Z. Mike

Mike, Between rolling the lip and doing the coil over conversion, you can gain easily 3/4 inch and maybe more. I've done both on my car and I'm running 255-40-17s under the real with zero tire sticking out past the inner fender liner. Mike

http://www.davidfarmerracing.com/c6b.html These pics are of Dave's conversion of his car to the C6 racing platform, but the parts are the exact same, as this particular tub is I believe a C5 converted. Dave Farmer is one of the regulars over in the road race section on corvetteforum.com, along with lou gigliati from LG Racing, and the acquolette boys from Phoenix Performance. Based on how compact the double Aarm design is, I don't see there being a huge issue with retrofitting these parts to a Zcar, espescially in the rear. You could do away with the composite leaf spring by going with coil over shocks with the threaded shock bodies. Mike

I'd think it would be easier to just weld in some clevises and adapt the rear control arms and uprights from something like the Cobra IRS or the C5 Vette IRS arms. Basically the same thought, but well proven in strength for much higher HP and torque loads, and on heavier cars. You could also look through the catalogs and check out some of the upper and lower control arms sold for race car fabrication. Mike

As much of it has to do with economics, and lifestyle changes, too. These cars are reasonably cheap to get into at first, and driver stock. Then, you break out the old plastic and start ordering parts. Next thing you know, you've got $15K in a car that isn't worth $5K on paper. That's a big challenge for a guy just out of college, or with a wife and kids. High credit card debt, and a pile of parts that may be over your personal head to assemble. It can be daunting. I think it IS interesting that a lot of the guys selling their Zs are moving onto other swaps with more creature comforts. I know there are those who are going to argue that the whole beauty of the Z is its lightweight, but we've polled more than a few HybridZcar owners and those cars aren't as light as we initially thought. You add the heavier R230 or Q45 diff, a T56 or SFI bellhouing equipped tranny, 200# worth of metal for subframes/rust repair/cage, Custom CV axles the size of dumbells, and a few other niceties like A/C and stereo. All the sudden your ubber lightweight L6 based 240Z is somewhere north of 2600#, and more realistically pushing 2800#. All the sudden a 3rd gen rx7 or (Dare I say) portly 3200#C5 looks pretty attractive. Maybe it just has to do with people losing interest in one hobby, or gaining interest in another. One of our members, BLKMGK had built a SWEET 240Z with a 383stroker and T56 combo. He started breaking half shafts like no bodies business. The car ended up on several rollbacks and he finally stopped driving the car because somehow a Red 1995 Toyota Supra ended up in his garage. Next thing you know, 'Ole Jim's got himself a 700+ WHP supra and the Zcar is collecting dust for YEARS. It happens. Why spend all my extra cash on a car that just sits, requires lots of work, and rewards with deep debt, and no movement? This IS reality for some. Just a thought... Mike

Not to mention the abuse that 8Krpms puts on everything involved. If you plan this to be a daily driver, don't plan on a lot of miles without frequent tear downs. If you don't like adjusting lash on valve train parts, you'll defenitely won't like the associated maintenance or cost involved in a high reving SBC. Goodluck! Mike

http://www.spdkilz.com/videoaudio.php#Other%20Corvettes Pretty cool footage of some higher end cars at speed! Mike

Just a word on those GM 3 layer metal gaskets... I've had one pair off FOUR times and they always seal back up. I'm convinced this 3 layer metal gasket is the best on the market... Hard to believe GM made it! Mike

I'm with you Grumpy! Of course I OWN a 383! Mike

Turning a T5 at those RPM levels is also gonna be an issue... Seriously do some research. A bone stock T5 tranny is not gonna handle it. Anything custom is gonna be bucks. Talk to Paul Cangialosi at http://www.5speeds.com about what you're facing with regards to those RPMs on that tranny configuration. Mike

I don't even get guys lining up to me anymore thanks to my kids. Word has spread that the Vette is modified and making XXX HP at the wheels, so I can't even line it up on a stop light run. There's another guy in my subdivision now with a Pewter C5 with polished wheels (Mine are painted). We ran into each other the other day and he asked about stop light runs, and said he couldn't get anyone to play with him at all... Relays to me a story one of the ricers passed on to him about HIS car being a heads cam car with heads and other mods, and a custom tune. He pointed at me and said "So you're the reason I can't get any play on the street!" My funnest to date was last spring, just before my car went BOOM. Went to my oldest stepson's tech school graduation party. I was alone in the car and I rolled up next to a silver GTS Viper. It had the lighter colored stripes. Guy was nice... But made it clear he intended to show his tail lights to me... He had a radar detector and told me we were clear for take-off... I gave the thumbs and the light changed. I don't think his car had any mods. Mine was making 335WHP/ 353#ft. torque at the time. I took him by a door. We ran for over a half mile and I let off at 145mph. He caught up, and we cruised a few miles until we came to another light and pulled into the parking lot of a 7-11. I chatted with him for a good 10 minutes, as he wanted to know what was done to the car. He was a cool guy and was even happy about the loss. Said it would give him an excuse to "upgrade". Let's hope my "upgrade" kept pace with his. Haven't seen him since. But I have seen a few Ferraris running around Fredericksburg lately. I'd be interested in seeing how they stack up. Mike

I'll get to it later today. But I can tell you that with coil overs on my Zcar, I've got Bridgestone RE72s on the rear in 255-40-17. They are on an 8.5 inch factory Ford Mustang 5 lug wheel. Section Width was 10.3 and the tread width was 8.8. I have zero rubbing, but I couldn't fit anything wider as the clearance is minimal (1/4 - 3/8th inch) on each side when fully compressed. Mike

Denny, It goes in phases. Kinda like my teenagers... The oldest was soooo consumed by the Honda thing when he was 16. Now, almost 21, he's stuffing an RB25 into a 240SX. Eventually he'll move on to real cars! The youngest just told me he wants out of the "honda" thing, and wants to start a "real" project car. He's 18 and He has spent enough time around me that my influence has rubbed off. He wants to stuff an LS1 into a Miata! It all goes in phases... Mike