Aeros For Sale/Everyday driver?

[mangusta1969]

Hi,

I am seriously looking for an Aero-bodied car which I can use as a 4-5,000 mile a year car. Let me know if you have or know of any cars that "might" be for sale.

Are there particular problems to watch out for due to reliability, insurance, or parts availability issues? If the microfueler fails, are there other parts that can be substituted to ensure safe fuel/air ratios are maintained under boost?

I will be driving this car mostly at 5-7,000 foot altitudes, so I would be interested in people's experiences with high altitude as well.

I have had a turbo BMW (Dinan) for several years, so I am pretty familiar with the base technology and performance improvements provided by turbocharging. I have a twenty LED display in this car that shows
1. % injector duration
2. Fuel/air ratio

This device attaches to one of the injectors (for duration measurement) and to the o2 sensor (for fuel/air measurement). I use it to make certain that the fuel enrichment system is working under boost. Has anyone tried something similar in a Callaway TT or otherwise measured the fuel/air ratios under boost conditions?

thanks,

Steve

 

[*89x2*]

check out the cars at www.callawaycars.com in the "preowned" section.. Tha will get you off to a good start. There is a Quasar Blue B2K coupe for sale in Colorado (talk about high altitude...) w/ 2x,xxx miles on it and I think they want 45k for it. Also, for 50K there is a 91 coupe for sale in Californiaw/ 5k on it - both are aerobodies. try a keyword search for Callaway corvette and see what you get there as well.
It would be my opinion though, that if you were to get a callaway Twin Turbo, to get an 87 for daily use (as Magic Dragon drives his every few days to and from work, etc...)
Good luck. *89x2*
ps, parts replacement...case by case, there are some issues as the turbo's, wheels, and other pieces are no longer made.

 

[mangusta1969]

Aero car search/Daily driver issues?

89x2, thanks for the info and search tips.

Before sending my previous post, I was already parked out on the Callaway pre-owned section, have exchanged a few emails with Joanne Mercer (she is quite responsive and helpful) and have done a lot of internet searches. I figured it was time to ask for some more expert and experienced help from people who might be using their cars on the street.

Are there any reliability down-sides to the later (89 and later) cars or do you only know of examples of 1987 cars being in semi-daily use? To my knowledge, factory aero bodies only started with the 89 model year. There are also some suspension updates that I would like that only exist in the 89 and later cars.

Steve

 

[TurboLuigi]

Mangusta,

Check this thread http://www.corvetteactioncenter.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11367

for a 1989 Dark Blue Mettalic with 5500 miles and happens to be the first Aerobody ordered car. Contact Dan Barr at 954-236-0170. The otherone mentioned at that link already sold.

Luigi
:cool

 

[mangusta1969]

Luigi,

Your car is a beauty. A convertible Aero is my ultimate goal. How long have you had yours and how many miles have you put on it?

As luck would have it, I have already been talking to Dan Barr and Ron Buccarelli. They race an Unlimited P51 Mustang and are both good guys. I talked to them both at last week's Reno Air Races. Their coupe is a dark blue (Midnight Blue) color, which may be a little too dark for me. But I may go to look at the car, anyway, as it is priced okay and is very low miles. Lack of use on an old car can be more of a drawback than a benefit, however.

Thanks for the tip,

Steve

 

[*89x2*]

That white Aerobody Convertible on callaway web site has been up for awhile and I am sure could be had for a nice price (asking 42k) The car if I recall, is in Texas and is a 1990 model.
Good luck! *89x2*

 

[mangusta1969]

89x2,

Thanks, I have already been talking to the owner of the White Aero, too.

Does anyone know of any cars that are not on the internet? I think I have found all of the internet ones already.

Is anyone successfully using an aftermarket fuel enrichment controller on a Callaway TT?

Steve

 

[*89x2*]

Does anyone know of any cars that are not on the internet? I think I have found all of the internet ones already.

Everything is on the Internet
I will keep my ears open... *89x2*

 

[TurboLuigi]

Mangusta,

The Dark Blue Metallic is not on the internet and is the car is in mint condition. Give Dan a call (see link posted above), I think you will be pleased.

Luigi
:cool

 

[mangusta1969]

Callaway Daily Drivers out there?

Thanks for the tips in finding Aero cars. I will land one somehow.

Are there any of you out there who are using your cars for daily drivers or vacation trip cars? Are there any driveability or reliability issues to be worried about?

Is the Callaway fuel enrichment circuit completely reliable? From my current turbo car, I know that it is very dangerous to not run every cylinder quite rich under boost. I am a little nervous about the microfueler concept, as this turns what was a "dry" intake manifold design into a wet design, with possible fuel puddling and uneven (read "lean") fuel distribution problems within the manifold.

What is the highest mileage TT car out there? The highest mileage cars that I have seen for sale are in the low 40K miles range.

thanks,

Steve

 

[TurboLuigi]

Steve,

I drove mine from South Florida to Carlisle last month. Quite a fun trip!...

It is a corvette, so the usual GM problems to look out for are there, alternator, etc.

I put about 12K on my car over the last year. Granted it had 11K to start with. However, Reeves mentioned cars w/over 100K. Like any car, if you are on top of it you will minimize wear & tear. You don't want to drive it to the ground.

There are some parts that may not be replaceable and thus we have put some pressure on Callaway, as owners. They have responded by saying that they will help us with part stocking/repairing or identifying OEM replacements as much as possible. Granted they are a small company in the overall car industry so they can only go so far. And the limited amount of production increases the cost of specially designed parts.

As a daily driver, it depends on what your plans are if/when you need to service the car.

As for me, its not my daily driver. But I have FUN with it. If it breaks, then I will deal with the consequences. In the mean time, I am having the time of my life with it.

Luigi
:cool
"You don't have many friends at 200 MPH"

 

[EricVonHa]

A/F Ratio and the MicroFueler

Well said Luigi. It's important that these cars be driven and enjoyed. Unless you have a humidity and thermostatically controlled environment to store your cars, you're gonna want to run it at least once a month to keep everything fresh. The worst thing for a car is to let it sit for an extended period of time. The seals dry out, everything rusts (including cylinder liners), tires rot, on and on...

I have been meaning to get my car on the dyno for the last 6 months and just haven't really focused on scheduling it yet. I'm very very curious to see what the A/F feedback looks like because mine has had numerous Callaway "updates" but no where can I find that the Microfueler or prom has been changed/reprogrammed. Within limits, the ECM should be able to adjust itself for increased boost/flow, but I'm curious to see what the real world feedback shows.

 

[mangusta1969]

Air/Fuel Monitoring

Thanks for the daily driver info. It is encouraging.

In case anyone wants to pursue better monitoring of your car electronics/fuel management, here are a couple of air/fuel montiors (at the url below).

http://www.racerpartswholesale.com/afratio.htm

I have been using the dual row unit "Injector Air/Fuel Ratio Monitor" for about two years now in another turbo car. It seems very accurate and responsive. It's not shown on the web site, but the same manufacturer also makes a dual row unit that measures the output from two O2 sensors, instead of using one row of LEDs for the injector duty cycle. This would be ideal for the Callaway as it would measure both sides of the engine simultaneously.

Summit also has a normal gauge (round 2 1/16 inch, made by Cyberdyne) that has a row of LEDs on it to measure air/fuel ratio. I have not tried it, but all of these units really just measure the 0-1volt output from the O2 sensors that are already on your engine.

Under boost, the O2 sensor output voltage should be around .85 volts (about a 12.5/1 air/fuel ratio. Normal cruising voltages will be lower, with the "ideal" air/fuel ratio being a 14.7/1 ratio.

This is another good internet resource which describes monitoring ratios, gauges, etc:

http://www.scuderiaciriani.com/rx7/AF_meter.html

Callaway is a little lean on measuring things on a turbo car, so I plan to "improve" my car (once I find one) with the following:

Exhaust Gas Temp meter
Fuel Pressure meter
Air/Fuel meter

The trick will be how to mount these instruments to look nice and also be useful to the driver. Has anyone done this to their TT car?

Steve

 

[EricVonHa]

Mounting Gages

Summit Racing carries the Autometer dual gage pod for the A-pillar of the C4 Vettes. I've seen the triples on other cars (not Vette), so I gotta believe that it may be available for the Vettes too! Of course, the A-pillar mounting arrangement will only accept the round gages.

I've got a Halmeter A/F ratio monitor on a turbo non-vette car. I think I got it from Kinsler fuel injection. The issue with these instruments is that they are no better than a toy, unless the wideband O2 sensor is bought with the package. ($$$)

The Halmeter is rectangular in nature. Mounting it or any other gage like it becomes a custom install if you really want to do a nice job and show the car. ABS plastic can be purchased from most any reputable car audio installation shop. The ABS plastic can be used to frame out the gage and install it in the glove box area or other. I'm not preferential to see the gage at all times because, typically, once you get the car into a satisfactory state of tune, hopefully it remains there!

 

[91callaway]

i bought my 91 in 95 with 47,500 miles. i drove it regularly on weekends and to work on nice days. (no abuse) i had 68,500 miles on it when it blew a rod. they are meant to be driven. i also said something could happen and u might wish you enjoyed your vette. well it happened to me. i had a major stroke 13 month ago. so at least i had great driving memories. i just now started to drive it again but difficult. (one handed and weak left leg) it will take time and effort but ill have her cruising above 100mph again.

 

[90Callaway]

I'm not sure I'd call 4-5000 miles a year a daily driver unless you don't have far to go. That should not be any problem at all. A number of us drove our cars to Carlisle this year. Luigi has the award for longest drive. Mine was just under 400 miles each way. I did have a couple of problems but nothing related to the engine. (alternator and heater core) The car ran flawlessly both cruising and mixing it up with the other TTs on the highway.

I share your concerns about the whole microfueler enrichment system. It makes the plenum which is designed for air only wet as you said and it's also a crude isolated unit not tied to the ECM. It used two inputs - RPM and manifold pressure. They do fail sometimes and are poorly installed up under the D/S dash where the connections frequently come disconnected. Our cars stock computers don't even understand boost. The 90-91 use the stock 1 bar MAP sensor!

My other concern is the turbos. My car has been through 4 in it's life (now on #s 5 and 6). They like to crack the exhaust housings. From what I understand this is most common on a daily driver if you run it hard in the rain when the turbos are real hot. The cold water splashing on them overstresses the casting. They are not readily available either. Callaway does not have any. They are a Rotomaster T04b with oil and water plumbing.

The rods that Callaway used in the original TT cars is also the weak link in the motor. They are the Chevy LT1 'pink rods' that have been around since the original 350 LT1 used in 1970 Camaros. They are not a bad rod but not up to the standards of todays better forged rods or the stresses of 12+ lbs of boost. I wish I knew how many of the original TTs threw a rod. It's a bunch I know that. (Ask me or 91Callaway!)

The high torque that the TT makes also stresses the driveline. The clutch, transmission, u-joints, drive and half shafts, spindles, etc. are all subject to much higher than stock stresses.

My car has 50,000 miles and was a daily driver for the previous owner from 1990-1995. He lived in CA and AZ during that time. So heat was probably a factor in that environment more so than rain.

 

[mangusta1969]

Turbo/rod reliability issues??

90 Callaway,

You are definitely scaring me a bit with the 4 turbo replacements in 50K miles and rod weakness issues Do you think all of these turbo failures were due to rain water issues? I am still on my first T04 turbo assembly (oil fed only), with 124,000 miles on my car. It, too, has an ECU that does not directly know anything about boost conditions, but has a little better external arrangement for enriching the mixture under boost.

When the housings cracked were there any impeller blades tossed into the motor or other problems? Do the cracked turbos just show up as exhaust leaks? What are the symptoms?

Has anyone put beefier forged rods into their car? What kind of rod did you use or is recommended?

For my pre-purchase inspection, since these are low compression motors (7.5/1), what kind of hot/warm compression results should I see in psi (first stroke as well as ultimate pressure reading)?

Sorry to have so many questions as a Callaway newbie-to-be,

Steve

 

[TAC]

Try going over to www.corvetteforum.com and paging for Turbocat in the ZR-1 forum. I'm pretty dang sure he's not running the stock microfueler anymore since he has 16 injectors now!

 

[90Callaway]

Very good questions...

All this mayhem happened before I bought the car. I can't say if water splashing on the turbos was a contributing factor to the housings cracking. The location of the turbos being so low in the car makes them very vulnerable to water splashing on them. I think it generally shows up as an exhaust leak if it's noticable at all without inspection. One of the turbos that failed on mine had the impeller making contact with the housing. No blades were ever broken off as far as I know.

I should point out that a guy in TX has an '89 with about 50K on his and the motor has never had the valve covers off. He's making about 530hp/670ft-lb at the wheels. He drives it hard but is meticulous about maintaining it. He goes by the name UltraSlow on the Corvette forum.

Some of the very late '91 TTs and the cars that were fitted with the "100+" package got better internal parts and 8.5:1 compression. The 100+ package gave about 100hp more than stock. I think they all got stronger Carrillo forged rods. I'm not sure if they all got the better Callies forged crank or not. I got both when mine was rebuilt and I think 91Callaway did as well.

I really don't know what you should see for pressure on a compression test with a stock TT. Just keep in mind you'll need to take half the car apart to get the two right rear spark plugs out.

 

[91callaway]

i know i have 8 1/2 pistons and a better rod. naturally i saved the rebuild bill. ill have to look at parts list. im worried that the tt blows rods some where between 50,000 - 70,000 miles. just a guess from what i hear. hope im wrong and hope my rebuild will outlast me.