Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

Well, I guess this officially makes me a South Dakotan... The Corvette license plate was the final bit of Texas I was clinging to :lol:

https://scontent.ffsd1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...4f&oe=5D74E52D

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

^The funny part is, that license plate picture was taken at the nearby Indian casino ;)

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

Finally got the AFE pipes back from the coater (https://www.facebook.com/SSPowderCoating/) and had them installed by the local Corvette specialty shop (https://www.facebook.com/CustomImageCorvettes/)...who would have known Watertown had one?!

Factory cat pipes w/DEI heatshields:
http://www.mitsustyle.com/photopost/...0606191838.jpg

AFE pipes before coating:
http://www.mitsustyle.com/photopost/...0406191623.jpg
http://www.mitsustyle.com/photopost/...406191623a.jpg

AFE pipes after coating:
http://www.mitsustyle.com/photopost/...0603191650.jpg

Here are some comparison pics of the pipe inlets and cat density showing, in theory, how much more restrictive the factory pipes are:

http://www.mitsustyle.com/photopost/...606191838a.jpg
http://www.mitsustyle.com/photopost/...606191838b.jpg

Vs.
http://www.mitsustyle.com/photopost/...406191623b.jpg

I only have a few miles on then so far to cure the coating, but so far no CEL. I've gotten on the car a bit and it definitely has some additional volume to it; same with start-up and idle. Tour mode while cruising still seems plenty tame for roadtrips though which is exactly what I wanted.

I have a tank of 93 right now so I'll get some logs off to my tuner this weekend, then once that tank is gone we'll get it done again with the local 91 available in-town.

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

Do u notice an increase in smell now that the cats are fine?

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

Nothing out of the ordinary yet, even when idling in the garage, but I'll probably need more time/miles to accurately make that claim.

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

Looking good, gonna try to swap those blankets on the new pipes?

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

I figured I'd at least try since it keeps a good amount of heat away from the oil cooler and dry-sump oil lines! The ceramic coating should help quite a bit as well. I thought about having the shop that did the install wrap at least the pre-cat section of pipe, but I really didn't want to risk having a cracked weld down the road sometime. I'll have to be very careful not to scratch up the coating with the blankets' metal standoffs though since I don't want it flaking off. I'll likely give it a try and see if/how they fit while swapping out the shocks. Speaking of, here's my thread on that: https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...k-failure.html

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

DOH!!!

http://www.mitsustyle.com/photopost/...0615191527.jpg

Looks like I'll be having my tuner disable the code. I could have used non-foulers as I knew it was a 50/50 risk per AFE but I'm fine just having it disabled.

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

I know that code 😋

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

Now that I replaced all 4 shocks (3 of 4 were leaking their sweet magnetic juices) for a cool $1300 I still have a faint clunk coming from somewhere in the suspension over bumps. I replaced the rear sway bushings & end-links yesterday hoping that might be it but unfortunately that didn’t change anything. The factory bushings looked fine and so did the end-links other than feeling a little looser than brand new. Up next are the front swaybar bushings & end-links to see if that’s the issue! Unfortunately, the car’s age (5 years/45k miles) is starting to show as its needed quite a few wear-n-tear items replaced this year it feels like. At least I got in a good 200+ mile roofless drive yesterday; still enjoying the car just as much as I did back in 2014, and at least replacing these parts is still cheaper than trading-in for a new one!

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

I thought 45k on a Corvette was like 120k on a passenger car, you sure you dont want to trade in on that sweet new mid engine?? :banana:

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

Zero interest in the C8; Julie and I both despise the interior and the fact it's auto-only. Bigger/heavier car, but with a more cramped interior... Brilliant! The row of buttons along the wall separating the driver and passenger sides is idiotic too. If anything, I'd get a 2019 C7, but realistically I may as well just keep this one for another 5+ years.

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

I'm dropping it off at the local Corvette shop today to have the front swaybar bushings/end-links done along with the Big Daddy angled o2 sensor spacers to eliminate the CEL so AFM can be reenabled.

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

Looks good! Can't believe you've had that for 5 years already.

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

Time flies! Not sure how 5 years has gone by so quickly. Even crazier to realize I've owned 3 different houses in that time too.

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

I bet the front sway links are contributing to that clunk that sounds like its from the rear. Hopefully an easy fix! They dont seem to last more than 50k miles.

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

Thank you, sounds like you've had similar experiences! We'll find out soon enough... Hopefully this will be the end of it for the year, as far as maintenance/repairs go.

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

If the clunking is in the front, have you tried moving some of the weight to the rear, like say the engine?

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

I'll swap the 'Vette & Volt powertrains and report back.

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

:score009:

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

I got the car back from the Corvette shop last night after getting home from the afternoon in Sioux Falls for Julie's initial Lasik consultation appointment (I took the opportunity to make a Harbor Freight run!). I still hear some light suspension noise, but definitely seems diminished with an overall tighter feeling. Guess I need to come to terms with the fact the car is over 5 years old and won't be flawless forever. Their mechanic looked over everything along with taking it for a test-drive and said it all checked out with nothing appearing excessively worn or damaged.

Now that I have new swaybar bushings & end-links front & rear I'm just going to leave well enough alone and keep on enjoying it for the remainder of the summer! Hopefully next year comes and it won't need anything more since this year has been excessive in the replacement parts department. I can also reenable AFM with these angled o2 sensor sims installed :)

Local Corvette BBQ next weekend at this shop, then a Corvette picnic in northern Minnesota at my parents house the weekend after that (catered by Famous Dave's which should be awesome, especially with 25+ cars)!

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

Good to hear, weird on the noise though. Car is getting old at 40k!

Cool on vettebbqsaus, wish it were closer haha. Dang 25 cars up north, did your dad discover the northern mn vetteclub? haha

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

I think I'm just being hyper sensitive/paranoid trying to hear a noise. Julie thinks I'm crazy and says she doesn't hear anything.

He did! Corvettes North Car Club is what it's called. They do an annual summer picnic and they're hosting it at their place this year.

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

Another check engine light, more failed parts. Both rear o2 sensors went bad. New ones in and testing good. Let roadtrip season begin!

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

Hopefully no more issues for awhile!

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

Fingers crossed! 700 miles coming up this weekend so that will be a sure test.

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

O2 sensors seem like not a big deal. Good work and good luck on the trip.

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

Coming from the DSM world, you should have a tool box and jackstands in every vehicle and be ready to replace those O2 sensors on the side of the road. :D

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

It was such a smooth effortless 5 years I've lost my inner DSMer :lol:

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

Let's see... I might as well throw out a quick winter update:
The car's been sitting covered up and plugged in for 2+ months now with likely another 3+ to go. Fun!

I've been toying with the idea of adding a Callaway shifter to it since they get great reviews and honestly I just need something to tinker with. I'll proably get that ordered in the coming week. I also plan to have my front splitter repainted this spring; some dumbass drove it straight into a parking curb down in Houston. I'm not sure who it was so don't ask ;)

I'm also going to replace the Big Daddies angled o2 sensor spacers with the straight ones to see if that adds a little exhaust flow back to the rear o2 sensors. They're still triggering a CEL, but because they aren't seeing enough dirty exhaust and the ECU thinks they're dead (which they're not, they're brand new). There's also a suspension clunk that developed over the summer that I need to get back to tracking down. The shocks are new, the end-links are new, the swaybar bushings are new, so I'm thinking it may be a ball joint. We'll see! I'm not overly impressed with the durability of suspension components considering the car has less than 50k miles on it (49k to be exact) and a lot of these issues started developing when it came out of storage last spring at 43k. At least most (shocks excluded) OEM ACDelco parts are cheap (maybe that's why they're failing so early on) to replace.

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

I swapped on a new ported throttle body over the weekend to replace my nearly 6 year old ported unit from WeaponX. I sent a brand new OEM core to Soler Performance and had him machine it to spec. Long story short, its actually engineered with read R&D testing to back it up vs. just porting to make it smooth & pretty.

Plenty of actual data here: https://www.solerengineering.com/technical

We'll see how it feels once I fire the car up for spring, but figured for a net cost of $200 (after buying a new core and selling my WeaponX) it would scratch that mod itch a bit and give me a little wrenching time in the garage.

I doubt I do much else to the car this year besides the above post plus general maintenance/fluids and what not.

Pics of the two side-by-side:

http://www.mitsustyle.com/photopost/...321201554b.jpg

http://www.mitsustyle.com/photopost/...0321201554.jpg

http://www.mitsustyle.com/photopost/...321201554a.jpg

http://www.mitsustyle.com/photopost/...321201554c.jpg

Re: Meet GheyRay: Lower, Wider, Lighter!
 

TB mods! Seems a lot easier than the adapted Fox body stuff I was putting on my GSX back in the day.