When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
What have you seen fail on these rears? Ive seen control arms snap and drive shafts spin up but nothing else
The snout flexes and breaks...
These are pretty common with D44's and manuals...the casting is pretty porous and not strong enough when you put serious torque/horsepower through them.
I don't intend to make that my weak point...at $1500 a pop to find one someone is willing to sell (very rarely), it will cost 2x what a Viper D44 can be had from eBay.
There was a place that got started on a billet case for them all CNC'd, but they dropped it when they figured out how much machine time it would take on a 5-axis mill coupled with the expense of a HUGE solid block of aluminum to start carving it out. It would make it hideously expensive...
The Viper version is MUCH beefier in all the right places, and the tabs on the snout allow you to hard mount them to the chassis. This is one of Street Shop Inc. custom frames...shows it pretty well.
The theory about the C4 Corvette version is the "C" beam twists under torque. They originally had a box beam from the trans to the DANA in the test mules and had a drivetrain vibration they couldn't get under control. The "C" beam fixed it...at the cost of weakening the DANA 44. For "stock" cars and street tires...not a problem.
For modified cars and drag radials or sticky race tires...carnage.
Thanks...did everything myself except painting the walls.
I carefully figured out how wide that top sill needed to be on the wainscoting so I can set a beer down on it without fear of it falling off.
The floor was a week of hell...just laying the bloody thing out took 2-3 days and more rolls of tape than I cared to count.
If you are going to have a room to play in...might as well be comfy while you do so. I used to have a standard 2-car garage...this place I can almost get lost in.
If you want I can send you a 10 page doc of various C5 road race cage designs (may be close enough to the C4 chassis to be of value) that I used to work out my final design with my cage builder.
Being that I am waiting on a call back from a cage company, any way I could get you to send me a copy of that?
OP,...GREAT idea on this build...just whatever you do, get a good drysump oiling setup for the car, especially if your slicing and dicing through the corners mostly with it. Looking forward to watching this build. Also, i don't know if you mentioned transmissions,....but maybe consider a TR6060 for a V series caddy or new camaro with one.
I've been thinking about grafting the C6 rear suspension (at least) into this car for the last month. The design is much better...and the half shafts won't be a stressed member anymore.
Not too sure if I can use the C6Z06 diff/trans in it though. Until I actually have the donor car and strip everything out of it...I just can't say. I do know that the C6 wheelbase is 10" longer...how much of that is actually a longer overall driveline will be difficult to figure out without some measurements.
I've been keeping an eye on the insurance auctions...so far I've seen 5 Z06's with heavy front end damage sell for anywhere from $8500-$10,500. The ones I'm really watching closely are ones like this:
I'm hoping that because there isn't a chance in Hades that it is in any way going to be salvageable as a driver the prices will be closer to $5k-$6k...
I've just signed onto this auction site a few weeks ago...and the LS7 cars that look like the one above are still awaiting an auction date. I have 6 of them being watched. Have a friend who is a car dealer and licensed so he'll buy the car I eventually decide to get.
This poor 2006 has less than 9000 miles on the odometer...
Nice thing about the Corvette Forum is sometimes you can find out specific stuff about these cars.
This particular one:
I was told by the owner it has <10k miles on the motor...and has a head/cam package on it. He replaced the exhaust valves with stainless ones for peace of mind.
House construction continues and I can't wait for it to be done. I have no room to do any work on the car as my work space is covered in boxes of household goods & furniture. I had to move the car to the barn to keep it under cover...and I ain't workin' on gravel floors. Got a bonus check this week...so I might go talk to the frame shop about getting that done very soon.
Talking (and emailing) some custom frame shops in Texas to see what the chassis work would cost to farm out. I can do a lot of things very well...but grafting a C6 suspension into this isn't something I really want to handle myself. I'll never say I'm an expert in that department...and considering this beast will be clipping along around 200 MPH in West Texas, I want it to be right and to be SOLID.
I CAN do it...but it'll take me 10x longer and I'll always wonder if I got it 100% right. There are some pretty reputable custom frame shops down here...this shouldn't be too far off course for them to handle.
This build is getting more badass by the day! Smart thinking re farming out some of the time consuming work. If your going to build a chassis something like that Greenwood it'll be cake to graft that thing in there. Id use the most reputable place you can though. It'll be worth it in the end to have the foundation tight and right
my dad has vette's, a 77 L82 and 93 zr1, the zr1 is a crazy car in its stock form I cant imagine it with a ls7, im deff keeping an eye on this thread! great work!
Been working my *** off for one of our big clients...had to use my shop space to build diagnostic & test equipment in all last year. What a PITA...
Took the chassis to one of the best around these parts in San Antonio...they took a long, hard look at it and said not a chance. It was twisted AND bent and they wanted nothing to do with it.
After crying over it for a day, I called one of the Corvette salvage yards. One of them had a '90 ZR1 that was in a flash flood...body perfect and frame never touched. He said we could "trade" it for mine plus $1500 for the frame.
I went and picked it up last weekend...got a bunch of interior and body parts as well for NOTHING!
SCORE!!!!
I've taken it to Winding Road Racing for a cage evaluation...they are doing the research to make sure it will fit all the requirements for the events I want to do. I spent this past weekend clearing out wiring harnesses and getting stuff out of the way so they have plenty of room to work.
The windshield is delaminating...so it will come out and give them even MORE room to do the forward tubes. I found the information for the 2 previous owners of the car while cleaning it out...so that could be handy to have down the road.
Hopefully...in the next few weeks the cage will be done and I can start on other items needed before the really fun stuff begins.
01-07-2013, 08:36 PM
