isis

iTrader: (1)

JayRolla

Damn man that's a crazy eventful day. Nice looking V. Just picked me up a silver 04 like yours. Was going to do the cam, exhaust, heads, header route but decided a little 150 shot would be easier and more fun. Just hope the diff will stay together.

thatkevinc

Funny enough, I just spent 2 months telling myself to pick up a nitrous set up over winter. Priced out every single part needed, even bought a nice switch plate to start haha.. But just last weekend bought a new daily (300c pictured in last post), and now I don't think I'll be going with nitrous. Might just enjoy the car for another season as it sits and go from there.

JayRolla

I really like the srt8 300s. I think with your current setup your pretty good. If adding a 100 to 150 on top of the cam you would really need a new rear diff and maybe some forged pistons.

thatkevinc

The weather has been pretty shitty the last few weeks, normally by the middle of March the "fun" cars are on the road. I ended up putting on the road last week, but only drove it one day. Changed the oil on the weekend, nothing exciting.









I've been thinking of picking up some coilovers in the next month or so, tired of it being stock height. I only really want like an inch, maybe and inch and a half drop. The problem will be the cutouts sit too low, so I'm going to be taking them off or maybe moving them (currently after the header). Decided to pull the mufflers off to see what it sounded like with a "muffler delete."



It's definitely a lot different than coming out the cutout, the extra few feet of exhaust and x pipe really make a difference. I still can't decide on what I'll do but I don't have to change it until the coils come anyways.

thatkevinc

I've been looking for a base cts with nav, but there hasn't been any at the local scrapyard. Most of my buttons are faded/chipped and it's way too expensive to order new ones. I did finally pull the top piece to replace my sunroof ****. I pulled just the **** on one, but the springs came with it and I didn't know where they went exactly, so I just grabbed the whole thing. It was only $5 haha.



The new one had different tabs though, so I had make them work. I clearly don't have a steady hand.

thatkevinc

Picked up some peasant parts over this past weekend. Megan Racing EZ Street coilovers, and a set of Achilles ATR Sport 2's in 245/45/18.





I don't know when I'll throw the coils in, as I need to relocate/remove the cutouts before I can lower the car. I also figured I should check out the front end to make sure every thing is still good. If not I'd hate to find out later, after I had installed coils and done an alignment haha.

I needed to replace my rear two tires (Indy 500's), and these Achilles ones were literally the same price for all 4, as 2 of the 500's. I decided to take the chance on them since everyone seems to swear by them. Worst case I can take them off and sell them, and go back to the 500's.

BaMaDuDe87

Did you have to pull the headliner to grab that sunroof piece?

thatkevinc

No, it just pops in and out.

kra86

Interested in your opinion of the new tires vs the old tires when you can update, please do.

thatkevinc

The Achilles didn't last long. Put them on May 15th, Took them off July 6th.





Picked up another set of Indy 500's after 8 weeks of the Achilles. They did not like to turn. Hooked well in a straight line, but came out too often, and ridiculous amounts of understeer (felt like I was in a fwd car again). They were quiet, and drove smoothly, I wouldn't hesitate to buy them for a daily driver, but definitely not something I would recommend for spirited driving, let alone anything competitive.



I've been enjoying the car as it sits. Coils haven't gone in, still waiting to remove the cutouts. Random picture dump.





Decided to clay, seal, and wax the car tonight. The paint was starting to feel rough and the water wasn't beading as nicely.



The hood and trunk needed to be polished. The roof too, but too much work for me haha.









The clutch is also starting to grab higher and higher, so I've priced out the LS7 "kit" and either at the end of this season, or in the spring I'll have to do take care of that. No slipping (as of now).

thatkevinc

Battery finally gave up on me, no idea how old it is, but after some searching decided on a group 78 to replace it instead of the 101. Pretty sure whatever was in here was maybe a 75? Good ole Kirkland/Costco battery. They've never given me any trouble in the past and have a great warranty.





Ordered the LS7 clutch and flywheel. Might wait until Spring to throw it in. Was also thinking of picking up a truck starter to do at the same time. I still need to buy the Tick Performance upgraded slave line.





Random picture with an E39 M5 and a V2.



It looks like I'm just stock piling parts right now and will eventually getting around to installing everything. I was also planning on buying the GEN1V diff brace and trailing arm brace, but Mark has announced he will no longer be making them and the diff braces are sold out. Might look into having one made on my own.

thatkevinc

The car that makes me hate mine.



Fresh oil and filter, along with some high temp brake fluid.





Took the V for an open lapping session, and it did much better than I expected.

LQ4-E39

iTrader: (7)

I didn't know you were close to TMP. Really fun track, I take my LS3 C5 there. What did you end up running?

thatkevinc

I wouldn't say close, since it's 200 km away. No idea on times, I didn't time myself. It was definitely more so to try it out and see how the car moves.

As much as I love these seats for every day and long driving, they don't hold you well at all. I was all over the place haha.

LQ4-E39

iTrader: (7)

I see you holding on for dear life in that last pic!

thatkevinc

Earlier in the summer I got the common oil temperature issue. I ignored it as it didn't come on too often, only on hot days and spirited back roads driving. Last week at the track, it was super annoying though, as it came on almost immediately. Decided I needed to add a ground to hopefully solve it, as I didn't want to cut the wire for it. I'm not sure if the temps displayed are accurate, but I drove the **** out of the car and it didn't reach warning temps once. It still got pretty hot, after 4-5 laps it was displaying 145 C (293 F), but my regular driving was sitting at 112 C (233 F). So I think it may be reading a little higher still. Last week, I wasn't pushing the car as hard or as long, and it was displaying 165 C (330 F). At least there is no extreme premature warning anymore.







Speaking of something else that probably isn't accurate, this is what the car says I pulled.





I downloaded TrackAddict, set the course up, and actually tracked my times. Started off with a 1:36.9, and after roughly 25 laps, I managed to get it down to a 1:31.2.

There is a lot of room for improvement for sure, but I'll continue to work on it.

LQ4-E39

iTrader: (7)

Nice work! No surprise that the oil gets that hot. I was seeing 280F+ in my C5 with no cooler. If you're doing any prolonged lapping you'll really benefit from an oil cooler.

What is the theory behind the ground strap? How does that alter the signal of the oil temp?

thatkevinc

Insufficient grounding on GM's part. There are probably 30+ posts/threads on the V1 facebook page about it and it basically says to clean the 4 main grounds, add an additional ground where I did, and/or add a ground directly to the sensor. After all that, it may not even solve the problem, or it might end up solving it temporarily.

I cleaned up 2 of the grounds when the issue first came up, and the readings dropped slightly, but not enough. Funny enough, if you turn off your headlights and/or radio the temps drop drastically. Which helps diagnose that it's a grounding issue and not true high oil temps.

thatkevinc

Decided to finally put the coilovers on the V. Did the rears only today, and during the week will be removing the cutouts so that I can do the front.

















I'll see where it sits once the fronts are in and it settles. Then adjust the height from there. I have the strut bodies centred for now, I'll have to figure out the right spot for them as I drive it.
__________________

Some not so great news.. a few days ago I noticed some oil on the ground in the garage after taking the V out. Looks like it's leaking from the back of the driver head. It's not the biggest deal, but I'm taking the car to Ocean City, MD in 3 weeks, so I need to take care of this asap. Which means I don't have the time/money to do heads, or port mine.



Ordered all the parts. The plan is to pull the heads next weekend, have them milled during the week, then put it all together the following weekend. This allows time for the parts to arrive as well. This also gives me a week buffer before I leave for OC. I made sure to buy some GM Performance LS7 lifters and new trays, because there's no way I'm pulling these heads to just have a lifter fail a month after haha.

and, a rando pic from earlier in the week.