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She runs well except for the fuel pump. Took it for a drive late yesterday afternoon and after running a bit, it start to cut out just off of idle. If you kept you foot into it she would run. Just need to replace the muffler and fuel pump on the short list.
Visited the Knoxville, TN Pull 'A' Part this past weekend. RIP, '91 Caprice for donating it's serpentine components, so that one day my IROC-Z will live on spinning only one belt motivating its front mounted ancillary parts. I got lucky and they had a '91 Camaro that was already missing the engine, but the AC compressor and hard lines were left in place (score).
Picked up these valve covers from Brian to proceed with my Corvette theme. I plan on upgrading the front brakes to use the C5 caliper that have the "CORVETTE" letters raised on the caliper with the gray body. Will tie in well with the gray accents/decals on the car me thinks...
Starting tackling the exhaust this week. I removed the old muffler, cleaned up the prior tips with a cupped wire wheel, and decided to remove the catalytic converter to check on it's condition (on the outside it doesn't look promising). You can see some of the precious metal(s) that fell out of the cat to the right on the lid cover.
Sweet car & nice along the way updates!! I changed out my fuel pump....CRAZY difficult on these cars!!! I made a hinged "trap door" on the trunk/hatch area bottom. If I ever have to do it again, it will be much easier.
Trying out an "off-road" pipe in place of the old cat, topped off with the Magnaflow 12266 muffler. Magnificence! Car pulls to redline, amazing. It sounds perfect, not loud at all. Just enough of a rumble to remind you there's a V8 under the hood without an annoying drone.
I get a Code 43 today. Opened the hood and saw some light smoke from the passenger side exhaust manifold... Time to check the knock sensor plug/wiring.
For the love of god, just drop the axle to get to the tank the pump. Dont go cutting holes in things.
Not always that easy to just "drop the axle".....
If done properly, with hinges, then insulated, sprayed with undercoating & then carpet over the top, you have a well done job that is nicely hidden by the rear area carpet. I'm not implying that he do a "hack" job....just giving him an idea that if done well, is very practical.
For the love of god, just drop the axle to get to the tank the pump. Dont go cutting holes in things.
I also have to comment on this. This forum encourages people to swap in bigger engines, rip out factory wiring and accessories, change the entire interior over to a 4th gen, blackout taillights so they can barely be seen during the day, and cut holes throughout the engine compartment and the rest of the car to clear turbos or just to save weight. Then we turn around when someone wants to add an access panel to facilitate a fuel pump change or drill a hole in an inner door panel to change a window motor or do something different than the purists think it should be done and we have a fit. Most of these cars will never be worth more than we put into them and are daily drivers that need to use the ease of maintenance tricks to ensure that they are not going to be parked behind the garage, left to the elements, scrapped, or otherwise abandoned. Granted, historic and rare cars should be considered exempt from changes like this and should be kept as pristine as possible. It's the owners car and it's up to them to do it the way they want. As long as it done safely for the people inside the car and out, I really don't care. I just want to see it on the road.
I also have to comment on this. This forum encourages people to swap in bigger engines, rip out factory wiring and accessories, change the entire interior over to a 4th gen, blackout taillights so they can barely be seen during the day, and cut holes throughout the engine compartment and the rest of the car to clear turbos or just to save weight. Then we turn around when someone wants to add an access panel to facilitate a fuel pump change or drill a hole in an inner door panel to change a window motor or do something different than the purists think it should be done and we have a fit. Most of these cars will never be worth more than we put into them and are daily drivers that need to use the ease of maintenance tricks to ensure that they are not going to be parked behind the garage, left to the elements, scrapped, or otherwise abandoned. Granted, historic and rare cars should be considered exempt from changes like this and should be kept as pristine as possible. It's the owners car and it's up to them to do it the way they want. As long as it done safely for the people inside the car and out, I really don't care. I just want to see it on the road.
Thank you, well put!!!!
My intent was never to suggest a "hack" job as I stated above. All have opinions & I respect that. I was just trying to be helpful, off course at the end the OP, can do as he pleases. I went thru it & I had a very hard time, so if I can do anything to help someone else have less of a hard time, I always try to help.
Testing out a process to clean/treat and protect existing fasteners and metal brackets. I have soaked a bunch of screws holding the fog lamps and various fasteners by soaking them in acetic acid (distilled white vinegar), then cleaning them up with a wire brush, rinse and then soaking in a product call OSPHO (main ingredient is phosphoric acid).
This way the parts are cleaned up, treated and ready from any further immediate corrosion, then ready for a quick blast of paint from a spray can to bring back the freshness.
I am loving the new exhaust. Not loud or annoying at all, just a wonderful symphony of eight cylinders.
I also have to comment on this. This forum encourages people to swap in bigger engines, rip out factory wiring and accessories, change the entire interior over to a 4th gen, blackout taillights so they can barely be seen during the day, and cut holes throughout the engine compartment and the rest of the car to clear turbos or just to save weight. Then we turn around when someone wants to add an access panel to facilitate a fuel pump change or drill a hole in an inner door panel to change a window motor or do something different than the purists think it should be done and we have a fit. Most of these cars will never be worth more than we put into them and are daily drivers that need to use the ease of maintenance tricks to ensure that they are not going to be parked behind the garage, left to the elements, scrapped, or otherwise abandoned. Granted, historic and rare cars should be considered exempt from changes like this and should be kept as pristine as possible. It's the owners car and it's up to them to do it the way they want. As long as it done safely for the people inside the car and out, I really don't care. I just want to see it on the road.
I gotta say, I LOVED reading that, HILARIOUS.
But since you were addressing me I will mention Im kind of a stock ****. Some of it I learned the hard way. The purists and the modders are usually different people, and often the modders area ll modders in different ways, not always all advocating the same extent and number of crazy mods and chrome fake vents and so on.
As someone who has dropped the axle on several occasions... it's just not that hard. I dont see what the issue is. Why cut a hole when it's not that hard? Maybe all your bolts are rusted up or something? The only tricky part is dealing with the torque arm (again, not that hard) and the brake lines. I like to use vice grips to clamp off the brake line and just disconnect everything and roll it out of the way. Trying to get out of doing the extra work to just pull it out of the car makes it that much harder.
In the efforts of tackling the vibration coming from the rear end of the car at speeds around 70mph, I decided my plan of action is replace the u-joints on the driveshaft. With some more thought and considering I have the steel driveshaft, I started to play with the idea of replacing the driveshaft all together with an aluminum unit, complete with u-joints. After some searching for the driveshaft 12559525, I found one at Craigs Motors out of Napa, CA. I will post pics once it arrives.
Finally got a chance to check the fuel pressure at the rail with a working gauge loaned from my local AutoZone..... With the engine cold, 48psi solid. Once the engine thoroughly warmed up, pressure dropped to 35psi at idle, and would spike occasionally to 40psi under throttle after idling, but would then quickly go back down to 35psi. ACDelco EP241 on order from Amazon.
ordered the following parts from Amazon.com:
- ACDelco TS4 Fuel Pump Strainer (1)
- ACDelco TR11 Fuel Sender Cam (1)
- ACDelco EP241 Electric Fuel Pump (1)
- ACDelco G10 Fuel Sender Seal Kit (1)
- ACDelco 25004553 Fuel Pump Mounting Kit (1)
- ACDelco GF652 Fuel Filter (1)
I was able to finally break the right rear wheel free. Took a few pictures of the corrosion "flakes" & "dust" left inside the wheel center and axle.
**** Took a look at my Magnaflow muffler since I was poking around underneath, and there is scattered corrosion present. Sad. It looked like a decent quality stainless unit. Last time I am using/considering Magnaflow, simply unacceptable.
Got the pump out..... Measured the sender, ohmed from 8 to about 108 full sweep. Now it's time to clean things up, paint some thing and start re-assembly of the tank and so on....
Visited the Knoxville, TN Pull 'A' Part this past weekend. RIP, '91 Caprice for donating it's serpentine components, so that one day my IROC-Z will live on spinning only one belt motivating its front mounted ancillary parts. I got lucky and they had a '91 Camaro that was already missing the engine, but the AC compressor and hard lines were left in place (score).
the blue one? I scored the perfect pass side seat!
For FYI.... I was trying to verify the correct flexible brake lines for the rear axle that comes with the disc brakes.
The ACDelco 18J289 (chassis to axle) is a perfect match, and so is the ACDelco 18J491 (axle to caliper). I need to replace the LT side line running across the axle, so I am also going to be using another ACDelco 18J491 like on the right side, and bend a custom brake line for the left side.
Just a few photos addressing the most recent updates/repairs completed.
- Founders Adjustable Torque Arm
- Founders Lower Control Arm relocation brackets
- Founders adjustable lower control arms
- Founders Panhard relocation kit and adjustable panhard bar
- installed aluminum driveshaft
- installed reman rear calipers and brake lines
- installed AC Delco fuel pump
- Raybestos High-Performance rear rotors (x-drilled and slotted)
- HAWK blue pads
- some minor painting of the fuel tank, undercarriage and rear axle housing
- painted exhaust system (cat back), flat black (addressing rusting of Magnaflow muffler
- replaced rear axle bearing seals
- refurbed my OE fog lamps (used ducting tape to refresh reflector, Permatex adhesive to re-adhere glass to body), and yellow plastic film to alter color of lamps and protect glass from further damage
Made some more updates.... Finally I seem to have figured out my, @ temp, throttle tip-in stall. Thought it was the ICM on the distributor, so I replaced it with an MSD that I bought. I had to replace the MSD ICM with a new one as it was faulty. Ended up doing some more diagnostics in regards to fuel pressure to just check. Sure enough with a new fuel pump, injectors and fuel pressure regulator from SouthBay Injectors, found out my pressure at the rail when everything got hot was wayyy too low (29-36). Pinched the return the check the pump or regulator, and pressure immediately shot right up...
Replaced the fuel pressure regulator cap and diaphragm with the Holley unit 512-501. Set pressure to 40psi. Immediate difference. Went out for a long drive to get everything nice and warm, all Good! Never would have thought that the spring on my fuel pressure regulator would have been faulty. It was one of the first replacement/mod items that I performed to the car after I bought it.
Figured I would post a brief update. Car has been running better, but I would still incur random stall/want to stall when car has been running for some time when come to a stop. Idle had been rougher than I would like, warmed up and waiting at a light.... Never once did I have an SES illuminate.
I had replaced the ECM and MAF with AC Delco reman units, no noticeable improvement.... Here was the true culprit, mind you, these had already been replaced before and spliced in via butt connectors. The MAF power relay connector had seen better days. The burn-off and adjacent fuel pump relay connectors weren't in much better shape. Once replaced, I couldn't believe how smooth the engine ran, and it wasn't bad before.
Better off saving your money (10k+) forget the LS-BS in a GTA sell the GTA, buy a '67 Camaro, install a nice old school 350 along w/ MSD EFI throttle body....like I did.
Or selling the GTA and buy a 3rd gen ..like my '87 IROC Z28 5.7
that I stole for $1500 last week from a dealer...Check Hagerty Valuation..IROC-Z28 5.7 are going thru the roof in value>>8k to 27k nowadays.
Better off saving your money (10k+) forget the LS-BS in a GTA sell the GTA, buy a '67 Camaro, install a nice old school 350 along w/ MSD EFI throttle body....like I did.
Or selling the GTA and buy a 3rd gen ..like my '87 IROC Z28 5.7
that I stole for $1500 last week from a dealer...Check Hagerty Valuation..IROC-Z28 5.7 are going thru the roof in value>>8k to 27k nowadays.
Ummmm the GTA is a third gen genius. Now let's stop hijacking the man's thread.
Sorry bud I usually don't get caught up in mess like that. Nice work so far on your Iroc! My GTA was rough, sat in a field for around 10 years. I was 8 when they came out and wanted a black ttop then. Lol 30 years later and lots of elbow grease and I finally got me one. Keep up the good work. Suscribed.
