Wharf Rat Posted June 6, 2015 Share Posted June 6, 2015 This winter I started looking for a car to beat on at the strip and road courses since my GT500 is pretty much a garage queen. I was cruising Craigslist a lot and started noticing how cheap C4's were getting (especially high mileage cars or cars on the rough end of the spectrum). I've never owned or even driven a Vette but figured a 300 hp car that only weighed 3,300 lbs and had decent IRS was a pretty good platform for only $5k give or take. I was looking for a 91-95 LT1 with a stick and stumbled onto a 96 with an LT4 and 100k miles. Every bushing on the car was shot, the brakes were half-assedly painted red, the paint on the targa top was bad, and the whole car was in fair shape at best. However, the paint on the rest of the car was good, it had longtubes already, and cool wheels with good tires. I bought it right but knew I was gonna be spending some money to get it track worthy (would be the case with whatever I started with). I brought it home and the fun began. First call was to VB&P for a full front end rebuild kit, shocks, and full rear arm kit with heim joints. Next up was multiple sources for new calipers, rotors, pads, and SS lines. Before and after: Next up was dealing with the exhaust. When I really started looking at it the headers on there were ill fitting leaky pieces of dung. Most of the bolts wouldn't come within 3 turns of contacting the flanges since the welds looked they were squeezed out of a tube of toothpaste. I probably could have taken them off and made them work but I'm a sucker for stainless longtubes. I've ran American Racing Headers on a few of my Mustangs and what do you know? They make a set for the C4. There went $1,500. While I had everything torn apart I did all of the u-joints and picked up a 52mm ported TB. Figured it needed a tune so PCMforLESS was enlisted since nobody locally wants anything to do with an LT car. Classic Gold did an alignment and sprayed the targa. Lastly I've always had wood for C5Z06 wheels and since they fit nicely on C4s I bought a set and had NT05 Nittos put on them. I spent way more than I wanted (is it ever possible to buy a car and NOT do that?) but am very happy with how it turned out. Gotta get it on a dyno and check the tune next week and hopefully I'm done for a while. Scrap pile.... Torn apart... "Done" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest badbobs95 Posted June 6, 2015 Share Posted June 6, 2015 Now you have two garage queens! That car looks great, wonderful job. I think you know what you're doing there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shifty Posted June 6, 2015 Share Posted June 6, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MOTV8 Posted June 6, 2015 Share Posted June 6, 2015 She's a beauty, well done Sir! She's a beauty, well done Sir! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sleezy E Posted June 6, 2015 Share Posted June 6, 2015 looks good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCMSH Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Helluva job, well done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Two Fangs Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Very nicely done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P51tj Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 She's a beauty, well done Sir! She's a beauty, well done Sir! Ditto!!! Ditto!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C4orce2 Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 I hate seeing anyone spending big bucks on C4s!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cr133r Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Very nice. Kinda makes me miss my '95 ZR-1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desertdawg Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Looking good, hope to see it an one of the upcoming ACE lunch's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unreal Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Great looking car. ARH headers are the best. I won't run anything else on any of my cars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C4orce2 Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Looking good, hope to see it an one of the upcoming ACE lunch's. When you come to an ACE event of any type, make sure you park next to Desertdawg; he loves to park next to C4s!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desertdawg Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 Larry parks next to me so my vette looks better ... And he doesn't have to worry about door dings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daltimaion Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 Larry parks next to me so my vette looks better ... And he doesn't have to worry about door dings. Can we even get door dings? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LastC3 Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 nice work ...... look forward to seeing it in full form next fall/winter !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wharf Rat Posted June 9, 2015 Author Share Posted June 9, 2015 Larry parks next to me so my vette looks better ... And he doesn't have to worry about door dings. Can we even get door dings? I didn't think so. My cool magnetic flashlight doesn't stick to the bottom of the hood either (yes I tried). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desertdawg Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 I guess I should have said, " Larry doesn't even have to worry about door dinging the prious's he usually parks next to." (sorry, I don't even know how to spell that little cars name) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shifty Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 I guess I should have said, " Larry doesn't even have to worry about door dinging the prious's he usually parks next to." (sorry, I don't even know how to spell that little cars name) And you're a better person for it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wharf Rat Posted June 11, 2015 Author Share Posted June 11, 2015 Finally got it on a dyno today. Made 300rwhp/320rwtq on dyno dynamics dyno. I think that's about right since those read a little lower than a dynojet. The PCMforLess tune is a smidge lean though. Probably end up buying the LT1edit stuff and getting a real tune. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C4orce2 Posted June 11, 2015 Share Posted June 11, 2015 Finally got it on a dyno today. Made 300rwhp/320rwtq on dyno dynamics dyno. I think that's about right since those read a little lower than a dynojet. The PCMforLess tune is a smudge lean though. Probably end up buying the LT1edit stuff and getting a real tune. They have done all the tuning on my car as well. Not cheap, but good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wharf Rat Posted June 11, 2015 Author Share Posted June 11, 2015 I hear ya. I'd rather buy an expensive tune now than an expensive motor later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1991 ZR1 Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 good choice of tires, more power or 4.10 gear(this is way to go), you may need nitto drag radial Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wharf Rat Posted June 12, 2015 Author Share Posted June 12, 2015 good choice of tires, more power or 4.10 gear(this is way to go), you may need nitto drag radial I'm probably done with it for a while but 4.10s or a cam will be the next mod (has 3.54s now). I wanna run it at the track a few times and feel out which it needs more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1991 ZR1 Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 The calculation assumes a 15% power loss through the drive line. WHP/.85 = CHP For example: 550 WHP/.85 = 647 CHP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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