Dana 36

Picked up a Dana 36 differential last night for Keira and I have to admit I'm a little excited to get this thing installed. Now the 36 isn't the super tough 44 model that I wanted and its actually the same one already in the car but this one comes with a 3.07 gear compared to my 2.5x currently installed. This is the exact gear I wanted for my intake setup and should provide me a good acceleration boost, lets just hope it lasts once my build is complete. I didn't pay much for the diff and it came with a pair of wheel bearings that makes this a super deal, plus I meet Norm, cool elderly man with some awesome old school ford hot-rods. Now lets hope the snow melts and the garage warms up so I can get some work done!

Dana 36 with 3.07 gear

Saw this Mclaren MP4-12C on my travels in Manhattan. Snow covered and rusting brakes.

New Year, New Plans

After a few less then eventful years tuning its time to get back into things, well hopefully. Work's taken over my life causing me to spend plenty of time away from home, and with the girlfriend and I looking at homes my schedule isn't looking anymore free.

First plan of action was consolidating my projects which meant Megan(silvia) had to go. Sold the car to two brothers in burlington so hopefully they fix her up and enjoy.

Minutes before she was officially sold

Second was I decided that the G35 wasn't the car I wanted and have now placed it up on the sales block.

Ready for Sale

 All that's left now is Keira(c4 vette). Nothing has changed since 2012 but I've already begun work. I've cleaned up the casting edges on the Edlebrock lower manifold, preparing it for installation. Just need to purchase an adjustable fuel regulator then I may begin tare down. I'm contemplating picking up some aluminum L98 heads and roller rockers to complement the build. But we'll see if I can find them for the right price.

Ports cleaned on the Edlebrock lower manifold

G35 Carbonetic diff and Nismo cover

 Installed the Carbonetic diff with Nismo cover last week, install was simple minus the seized drive shaft to the open diff. Before installing the diff I had Brian at BC Enterprise reassemble the unit and make sure everything was torqued correctly because the previous owner had mentioned it was really noisy. Brian mentioned that the fluid was filthy and that for some strange reason that it appears the house had stretched allowing torque specs to drift. Everything is buttoned up and working great. Slight gear whine because of the used bearings but nothing excessive. Sill have to do a celebratory burnout!

New Best 1/4 mile

Installed some new parts on Keira so it was time to see the difference. I installed a TPI air foil which I didn't expect anything from and March under drive pulleys which made the engine feel a lot more responsive with better mid range.

I didn't improve as much as expected but consider my run had an average 60' and not the best trap speed with shitty gas, a 13.602 is a definite sign of improvement.

 

This car has some serious rubber!

And I started mocking up flares on Megan

New 1/4 Mile Time

Set a new best 1/4 mile time this past Friday and new best mph. 13.8s and on a separate run a top speed of 101mph . New mods were light weight battery (-27lbs) and Z51 front lip.

FYI car in the left lane was a Jeep SRT8... damn!

At the end of this week I'm going to order a number of parts that most people probably wouldn't consider a performance mod. Hopefully we get some good results!

Z51 Front Lip Install

The Z51 Front Lip finally arrived the other day to my delight. The difference between the Z51 and base model is the Z51 is about an inch longer. The one received doesn't look like an OEM piece but certainly looks to be a better replacement. Consisting of thicker plastic, better defined holes and exceptional fit-n-finish.
Install is a minor pain in the ass with removal of the vacuum reservoir required. I painted the piece directing air to the rad as well.

Before

 

Comparison

After

How she sits now.

Light Weight Battery Mod

The current battery in Keira was out of the Silvia (Megan) so one day it would have to go back in. Considering I do plan on driving both these cars it doesn't make sense swapping the battery back and forth. Perfect excuse for a performance oriented mod.

I started out comparing light weight battery manufacturers specifically between Braille and Odyssey, the bigger brand being Braille. With Braille they offered more exotic designs with carbon fiber cases and larger product ranges, however far more expensive and difficult to source. Odyssey offered an excellent alternative simpler in design, price, and with a slight compromise on Cold Cranking Amps which didn't really apply so it was a perfect choice. I picked up a PC545 off Ebay for about $150.

The battery weighed in at 11.5 pounds compared to my Optima Redtop that weighed in at 40lbs. After install a total weight savings of  27lbs.

 The install didn't require much modification. I removed the insulation and fasteners on the stock battery ring terminals and used the bolts included with the battery with a washer to fasten it to the battery. I then bent an aluminum bracket into a top hat shape which was bolted down on the wheel side and then used the original battery bolt and retainer to clamp down on the other side. The mount is extremely solid and when I try moving it I'm really just shaking the entire car.

This Fridays weather isn't looking to promising but mods on order are Z51 lower front lip, and light weight battery probably arriving by next friday.

1. I'm expecting to save 25 pounds on the battery by switching to an odyssey light weight battery from the current optima redtop. I'll probably leave my emergency tool bag at home to save an additional 25 pounds. total -50lbs

2. I Don't expect much difference from the front lip if any. I'll probably increase the tire pressures considering I had no issues with traction.

3. Finally I'll see if removing the license plate has any effect as well. (popular myth)

These are relatively cheap easy mods that I want to get out of the way. Slowly I'll work my way up to more expensive mods including my super ram intake that I have collecting dust in the basement.


Dreams... If my car did this everything from the drive shaft back would explode :(

Quarter Mile Baseline

I headed down to Toronto Motorsports Park this Friday and baseline'd Keira (85 vette). I'm happy with the results considering I did nothing to optimize the car for drag and didn't really do any fancy launches.

Best time and mph 13.913 @ 98.47mph

Mod List
-lowered all around
-slp cold air intake
-hedmen long tube headers
-egr delete pulley
-maf screen removal
-spare tire delete
-2.5" true duel ghetto exhaust with cats and borla mufflers. (no mandrel bends)
-17x9.5 295s front and 17x9.5 285s rear

Kira See's the Sun for the First Time this Year

Finally completed lowering Kira and managed to get her started and out for a quick pic. The KYB shocks feel great! However after tons of work the front isn't as low as I liked. Sadly there isn't anything more I can do that I know of so I'm going to see if I can think of something crazy that may work. 1/2" all around more is all I want :( hopefully after some driving it settles some more.

Kira = Lowering Sucks

During winter I lowered the rear of Kira about 2 inches which is the point of almost tucking tire. By typical corvette standards this drop is BIG.
Lowering the rear requires longer bolts which were special order from Fastenal. The bolts were actually metric and were slightly thinner, still fit damn near perfect and were somewhere between 12 to 13 inches in length from what I recall. All I know is that the length was definitely on the extreme end from what people normally purchase. I then purchased nylock nuts and installed them virtually on the end of the bolt. I'll post pics later on.
I'm not sure if this will be low enough but I have to drive the car around for the suspension to settle before I can decide.

I find that the majority of vette owners are timid and lack the creativity required to successfully modify these cars, especially considering most of them have much larger financial capabilities. I've already discovered a much easier solution to lowering the rear more if need be and requires nothing!

In the center spring channel the spring is secured with spacers on either side allowing the spring to be clamped in place. By simply dropping the spring in the rear which is a million times easier then the front and switching the majority of spacers from the top to the bottom will effectively lower the car.

Currently I'm working on the front which has been a nightmare! I'm almost done just waiting on a new ball joint for the drivers side then everything gets buttoned-up.

Pic of the passenger side that I tided-up. Oh and new shocks to replace the crappy Monroe's on all four corners. Yes, they are KYB's and I'm aware they aren't that great but considering all four cost the equivalent of one koni shock I'm willing to accept the reliability risks. Performance wise I expect them to be day and night over the worn out Monroe's.

Silvia Interior

Reupholstered the driver side door. Looks better but was not fun so I may do something simpler for the pass side

Corvette Interior

Figured I should post a pic of the finished interior on Kira
Mods completed:
-new headliner
-new shift boot
-blue LED map lights
-all dash bulbs converted to LED
-courtesy bulbs converted to LED
-gear bulb converted to blue LED
-carpet died black
-gray doors and armrest vinyl painted black
-seats died black
-dash trim painted satin black
-all new fasteners
-push button start
-relocated alarm antenna
-painted speaker covers black