My Ongoing Mid-Life Crisis
- Thread starter aaronc7
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aaronc7
Greenie Member
I got a new OEM water pump. The one I have now is not a true OEM replacement. It's made by ACDelco, but it's part of their "professional" series which apparently means its made in China. I've read a couple other reports of guys having slight alignment issues running this pump and other non OEM ones.... so I feel like this is a bit of a shot in the dark, but looks promising.
I've slowly started the swap, but motivation is not super high lol. You have to remove the blower completely to remove the water pump now... not a terrible amount of work, but not super easy either.
I think I'm also going to change up my cold pipe setup and bit and go to a single WMI nozzle to keep things more simple and probably better.
Going to move the IAT to pre-nozzle as well. Trying to find a good place to put the IAT, the cold pipe is really short and I already have the nozzles at the very "front" of the tube. There's a long custom coupler connecting to the IC from there, but I don't think putting an IAT in silicone is a good idea. Seems like the only good option might be putting it right at the outlet of the IC end tank (cold side of course). I did this on the Miata with speed density with good results.
In the meantime I also swapped in a new late style C6 steering wheel. It's a little more involved than it sounds... The actual shaft/spine is different so I bought a used C6 rack from a wrecked car, the wheel is new from rock auto. Then the next issue is that the C6 has a dual stage airbag vs single stage in C5. So a little research led me to buying a 2007 express van airbag, which is the same style as the C6 one (and fits in the cover), but it is single stage and makes it plug and play for the C5 airbag system.
Everything ended up being easier than I thought it would be. I don't have the steering wheels controls hooked up right now, but I could do that if I got a C6 clockspring and an Axxess ASWC-1 or similar aftermarket radio steering wheel control module. Otherwise I might look into getting some "blank" bezels down the road.
I've slowly started the swap, but motivation is not super high lol. You have to remove the blower completely to remove the water pump now... not a terrible amount of work, but not super easy either.
I think I'm also going to change up my cold pipe setup and bit and go to a single WMI nozzle to keep things more simple and probably better.
Going to move the IAT to pre-nozzle as well. Trying to find a good place to put the IAT, the cold pipe is really short and I already have the nozzles at the very "front" of the tube. There's a long custom coupler connecting to the IC from there, but I don't think putting an IAT in silicone is a good idea. Seems like the only good option might be putting it right at the outlet of the IC end tank (cold side of course). I did this on the Miata with speed density with good results.
In the meantime I also swapped in a new late style C6 steering wheel. It's a little more involved than it sounds... The actual shaft/spine is different so I bought a used C6 rack from a wrecked car, the wheel is new from rock auto. Then the next issue is that the C6 has a dual stage airbag vs single stage in C5. So a little research led me to buying a 2007 express van airbag, which is the same style as the C6 one (and fits in the cover), but it is single stage and makes it plug and play for the C5 airbag system.
Everything ended up being easier than I thought it would be. I don't have the steering wheels controls hooked up right now, but I could do that if I got a C6 clockspring and an Axxess ASWC-1 or similar aftermarket radio steering wheel control module. Otherwise I might look into getting some "blank" bezels down the road.
mangosmoothie
Greenie Member
You make me want a C5 in the worst kind of way
mangosmoothie
Greenie Member
can't swallow $20k for a C5 but it sure is nice https://www.hodgesmazda.com/used/Ch...Corvette-34f265f30a0e0a17425a26363b46eaf3.htm
Maybe Eric can cut you a dealio.
Also got an 08, 62k and Z51 suspension!
You are in the right age bracket buy it yourself
Eric be like, "BUH I HATE GM. EVERYTHING BREAKS ON THEM!" *proceeds to replace literally every part on 07 speed3*
i think that in his case it is operator error.
Awafrican
Moderator
no surprise there
aaronc7
Greenie Member
Finally dug into the water pump swap project. Everything is apart, now I just need to put it back together when I get the time.
I also got a new cold pipe, moved the IAT to the intercooler end tank (should give more accurate reading/not affected by heat soak and won't skew fueling calcs based on water/meth injection).
Been thinking about getting a QuickJack for quite some time. Finally bit the bullet and got it from Costco-- $999 and free shipping. Love it so far (I had borrowed and used one before). Great especially I think for low cars and getting them quickly up in the air. It's also nice that you can adjust the height of the car easily and quickly during a project depending on if you're working on the car from the top or underneath, etc.
I also got a new cold pipe, moved the IAT to the intercooler end tank (should give more accurate reading/not affected by heat soak and won't skew fueling calcs based on water/meth injection).
Been thinking about getting a QuickJack for quite some time. Finally bit the bullet and got it from Costco-- $999 and free shipping. Love it so far (I had borrowed and used one before). Great especially I think for low cars and getting them quickly up in the air. It's also nice that you can adjust the height of the car easily and quickly during a project depending on if you're working on the car from the top or underneath, etc.
Would you recommend the quick jack over a two post lift? I’m about to build a house and will have the space to install a two post in my garage which is the way I am leaning but I would be interested to hear your thoughts
aaronc7
Greenie Member
I did a lot of research and thinking about this... here's my thoughts.
I think a 2 post lift will always be better, even a short one like the MaxJax. Rolling around on a chair under the car would still be way better than on your back or a creeper.
Portability: Quickjack wins, especially the 12v model if that's something you think you'd ever do.
Garage space: Quickjack you can hang them on or up against the wall, the pump is a small....very small footprint and pretty painless to setup/put away. A 2 post lift will turn a 3 car garage into a 2 car garage or a 2 car into a 1 car etc... unless some sort of weird oversized garage, it's going to take up space/prevent you from fitting an extra car in. The MaxJax advertises easy removal with wheels etc but those things are heavy and you have a bunch of bolts you have to install/remove in concrete...not exactly an easy every day process.
2 post lift usually introduces some unknowns like concrete condition or thickness... in your case with a new house you would know that going in or could make sure it's up to the task.
Price difference between quickjack, maxjax or a more standard height 2 post lift isn't that huge..... if you have a tall ceiling I would definitely be leaning towards a standard 2 post lift, that's going to be hard to beat.
That said the Quickjack with both rubber pads lifts approx 24", which is a great height to roll around on a creeper and still have lots of working room. For almost all jobs this is enough space... a little tight for some, but doable. I did a clutch swap with a friends quickjack years ago (clutch swap on a C5 involves dropping the whole driveshaft, rear cradle as a single piece because transaxle setup).
Quickjack is also super low profile, which makes it really handy for low cars. My process the raise the corvette before involves 3 separate floor jacks.... it was a big pain. The quickjack just slides right under, line up the pads, connect a few quick-connect hoses, lift.
In my experience using full size 2 post lifts...getting my corvette up was still a massive pain. The pads wouldn't fit under the car, so I would have to jack up the front/back, set wood blocks under the tires. And then hope I have the front/back alignment just right so the lift pads can reach the jacking points. If not, then I have to lower the car back down..move forward/back, try again. In a home setup, you could mark the floor or something to make it easy I guess, but still,-- generally a little more tricky.
In my case my house is a rental and I will continue to move around (military), so the portability was the big selling point for me and the compact garage space footprint was a big plus too. We have a 3 car garage and it's nice that we can still park all 3 vehicles inside (frequent hail storms here).
To me it wasn't the ultimate solution.... just a good one that I hope can serve me the next 10+ years. Once I'm in my forever home I would love to have a detached garage/workshop, with space for a full size 2 post lift.
It sounds like we are on the same page. I was looking at offset lifts with the garage being a few feet deeper than normal I think I can install it far enough foward that with my ms3 I can barely pull into the garage and be able to get in and out without any hassle.
We shall see we have to break ground on the house first and then I have to buy all of my wife’s interior decorating before there will be garage money. I will be putting some extra reinforcement in the garage slab in the area where the lift would mount
We shall see we have to break ground on the house first and then I have to buy all of my wife’s interior decorating before there will be garage money. I will be putting some extra reinforcement in the garage slab in the area where the lift would mount
JohnnyTightlips
Motorhead
BUMP
aaronc7
Greenie Member
@JohnnyTightlips
I don't remember exactly where I left off but.... I was never able to fully fix the belt issues on my own and I was at the point of being so fed up and frustrated with it, i ended up taking it to a shop to work it out. It's a pretty good LS/domestic speed shop, so a little pricey but they had the equipment to actually do it right and were familiar with the kits and setup etc. They also have a dyno and I requested lots of testing/runs done post "fix" to make sure it was indeed fixed, as the shop is about 2 hours away so I didn't wanna deal with driving back and forth and doing more troubleshooting.
Knock on wood, but happy to report that after multiple dyno pulls and me beating on it the last few weeks.... SC belt shows zero signs of wear or issues. They milled down several different pulleys to get things lined up and used a laser alignment tool.
On a separate note, the day I dropped the car off at the shop, I discovered that the AEM water/meth system wasn't working.... awesome. I knew they were going to throw it on the dyno eventually so I quickly made a new tune that added fuel and pulled a few degrees of timing and hoped for the best lol. AEM is still going to warranty the pump even though I'm a past a year, so that's nice at least.
With that never tested tune it made 691/638 on their mustang dyno. Since I've got it back I added the timing back in and have been running a really mild E20 mix which bumps my 91 octane to about 93.
Future plans include swapping over to a 525 pump and adding return line/rail mounted regulator so I can run more ethanol. Right now my shit is still regulated at the pump in the tank and fuel pressure dips into low 50s by redline (58-60 normally). I don't think the pump is maxed out, just it's getting less pressure at the rail due to pressure drop and delays in the lines from tank to rail. The swap above is pretty simple other than dropping the tanks.
Don't feel like jumping into another project for awhile so I will stay with current setup for the time being. I have not seen a single instance of knock yet (ran it up to 140+ the other day....) and duty cycle is around 80, so not terrible, but not a lot of headroom either.
I don't remember exactly where I left off but.... I was never able to fully fix the belt issues on my own and I was at the point of being so fed up and frustrated with it, i ended up taking it to a shop to work it out. It's a pretty good LS/domestic speed shop, so a little pricey but they had the equipment to actually do it right and were familiar with the kits and setup etc. They also have a dyno and I requested lots of testing/runs done post "fix" to make sure it was indeed fixed, as the shop is about 2 hours away so I didn't wanna deal with driving back and forth and doing more troubleshooting.
Knock on wood, but happy to report that after multiple dyno pulls and me beating on it the last few weeks.... SC belt shows zero signs of wear or issues. They milled down several different pulleys to get things lined up and used a laser alignment tool.
On a separate note, the day I dropped the car off at the shop, I discovered that the AEM water/meth system wasn't working.... awesome. I knew they were going to throw it on the dyno eventually so I quickly made a new tune that added fuel and pulled a few degrees of timing and hoped for the best lol. AEM is still going to warranty the pump even though I'm a past a year, so that's nice at least.
With that never tested tune it made 691/638 on their mustang dyno. Since I've got it back I added the timing back in and have been running a really mild E20 mix which bumps my 91 octane to about 93.
Future plans include swapping over to a 525 pump and adding return line/rail mounted regulator so I can run more ethanol. Right now my shit is still regulated at the pump in the tank and fuel pressure dips into low 50s by redline (58-60 normally). I don't think the pump is maxed out, just it's getting less pressure at the rail due to pressure drop and delays in the lines from tank to rail. The swap above is pretty simple other than dropping the tanks.
Don't feel like jumping into another project for awhile so I will stay with current setup for the time being. I have not seen a single instance of knock yet (ran it up to 140+ the other day....) and duty cycle is around 80, so not terrible, but not a lot of headroom either.
Nice numbers
Can't you just buy bigger injectors instead of dicking with meth?
Can't you just buy bigger injectors instead of dicking with meth?
