Almost finished-It runs and drives!!!
Len,
Man, I wish she had a sister. Then I could trade her off with her sister when I make her mad :L
Her mom is pretty cool, and single.
Back to the miniram.
Okay, we timed out for several hours yesterday while the RTV was drying. Came back to the house around 5:00 and gave it a try.
First of all, I am the King of DUFAS. There is something wrong with the reducer that I screwed in the Edelbrock head, or something, because everytime I tighten a temp sensor into the right head it reads off the chart. So, I went ahead and moved my wire to the left head for good. While I was doing that I unpluged the knock sensor lead to get it out of my way. Keep that in mind.
Well, I plugged in and dialed up the scanner, fired off the car, and off we went. I figured we could get a few WOT run at closed loop to watch the O2 etc. for final tuning. WRONG. It would barely run past idle. I stalled several times, was back firing, etc. etc. I limped it home and found code 43 (ESC). Dooooooooh! I left the knock sensor unplugged! Back underneath, plugged in, and away we go...........................
Short of running it on the track, here is the result:
Postive:
1. Extremely fast---as in the fastest C4 I have EVER been in, including a 1990 ZR1 I test drove many moons ago (seat of the pants).
2. Powerful exhaust note-extremely crisp.
3. Rapid throttle response.
4. massive clutch bite with a postive feel (either on or off!).
5. Good idle characteristics, decent road manners. (in terms of throttle response and ease of power transfer with minimum changes to driving conditions and speeds).
Negative:
1. The Ram clutch converion makes the trans NOISY! It is noisy at idle with the clutch out, and in high gear in low RPM on the road it picks up the drive train noise like metal to metal motor mounts. This is not pleasant at all, but is an acceptable trade off for me especially after feeling the difference the lighter flywheel makes on throttle response.
2. Exhaust TOOOO Loud. Other than headers, the car has the same basic exhaust as before. However, this replacment engine is making a TON more noise. It sounds awesome at WOT, and standing behind it. But riding inside is nasty. That goodness for the 10" sub and amp.
3. Rich smelling idle, makes you clothes stink standing behind it too long.
4. There is a small loss in low RPM torque coupled with the light weight flywheel, and short window of slip on the clutch that makes if tricky right now to take off super smooth. I think I gave Nikki whip lash several times last night.
Okay, see, I am honest about the project. This is not a perfect conversion by any means.
Let's talk about power. Hmmmmmm, how can I describe it. I will put it this way. In first and second gear it is near impossible to keep the tires from breaking loose when you punch it. In fact, I can drop the hammer in second and put them up in smoke, pull to third with them still up in smoke before you realize what is going on.
It races to red line like a beast, and there is no sensation that the engine is dropping off the powerband all the way to 6K plus RPM. I found myself shifting gears--not because I was peaking my power,--but for the sake of avoiding 7K RPM.
We warmed it all up, clutch included and hit a long strip of vacant highway. Brought it to a stop, checked the radar detector, then I nailed it. Taking it very easy on the clutch out of the hole I immediatly lost traction up to third, and was at 100 mph within seconds. It will take your breath away.
Providing I can get traction, there is NO doubt in my mind that this mild mannored, polo green stock looking Corvette is a solid mid 12 second car.
I will get some of my specifications and post them up here so you can get an exact read on my
I'm sure that Nicki was grinning like a mad woman herself ! Maybe one day I can ease down that a way and hear that awsome beast myself ! Congratulations on a job well done !
