obZidian

iTrader: (2)

well, wats the word?

as for my update, i pulled the valve covers off and BAM!!! four broken valvesprings!!!! Ferrea was really cool about it and replaced them at no charge, asked why this happened and they explained that they had a "weird" batch go throught there cracks. THey are doing everything to fix the situation. REally cool guys, would recommend them to anyone.

Anyways, i havent taken her to the dyno yet but the the shutters are gone up top....and she nows pulls strong...really strong. Well, as strong as she can with the stock TB and LS1 intake!!

Anyways, i still have a knock issue, some on top and some a lot when the tc locks in gear...oh and at idle...well, pretty much everywhere!! These 98'z suck!!!!!

Mark A. Rogalski

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the patience everyone. I have not driven the car much, basically lost interest in it. It sets 2-3 weeks at a time out of disappointment. I have it scheduled to go back to McCabe Racing (exhaust fabricatior) the end of September. I'm having him remove/replace the cats with oval pipe. I need to get this done before it goes into the tuner again just to make sure this hole thing is not possibly a rattling cat.

Anyways the list just grows to make it a nice car:

1) Clutch pedal is now slow to release and getting harder to push. Midyear I had it all replaced with Z06 and updated hydraulic everything.

2) Going back to OEM springs, taking all the Bilsteins HD off, and put on Koni. The front hits to hard on bumps and the rear bottoms out alot.

3) Need to add the vert subframe connectors. Hopefully this will make the suspension take more of the bumps and **** instead of the chassis. The Bilsteins are just to stiff in the front for me.

4) I put Red Line sythentic tranny fluid in last year. Need to replace that with regular Dexron III as the gears started grinding occasionally soon as I went to sythentic.

5) The Lingenfelter diff cover is leaking bad around the fill and drain. The shop that put this on did not use any sealer or plumbers tape.

6) I now have vibration between 45-49 in the front end. Earlier this year I had all the wheels and tires road force balanced. This strated before I had the enging mounts replaced.

7) After having all new engine and tranny mounts installed at the dealer the car now has a "boing" effect when you hit the brakes or when you dump the clutch. Hard to explain. Have taken it back twice. I know they had to lower the subframe.

8) The new OEM torque arm and bushings just came in. I'm replacing the Spohn arm to get the vibration out that it added with the Poly bushing. It might be causing other vibration issues by pinion not being set good.

9) The driver power window is making loud noises when it hits all the way to the bottom, and when it starts up from all the way down. Had both window motors replaced last year.

10) The vert top is now slow in the middle - going up or down. Probably just fluid.

mrr23

iTrader: (3)

thanks for updating us. boy, you start off with one little issue. it snowballs from there.

Viper

iTrader: (6)

Update?

Mark A. Rogalski

iTrader: (1)

Sorry for the delay.

GOOD NEWS -
Performance was erratic and getting worse. Had to feather the gas pedal quite a bit when taking of from a stop. I noticed a noise that sounded like and exhuast leak. Took it to the muffler shop and discovered both cats had disintegrated. Chunks were all through the exhaust and in the muffler. Replaced both cats. Funny thing, he stethascoped for leaks an could not find any so as a last attempt I was in the car revving up on the lift. He was just getting ready to lower it and a mechanic coming back from lunch noticed big chunks flying from the top of the garage door out into the parking lot. If it wasn't for him...

Car ran amazingly smooth (no wonder) and good power, BIG DIFFERENCE, like the olds days. I was convinced this would fix the tripping of the knock sensors and that timing retard. Then......

I launched into the median jumping the curb to avoid an accident a couple weeks later. I bent two rims and some underside ****. The body shop shipped rims out to HRE Wheels to have them rebuilt (nice part of having a 3 piece wheel I guees). It took them forever as they refinished all 4 wheels for me. It has been tied up on the body shop for 9 weeks.

Monday I got the car out of the body shop and took it right to Extreme Motorsports to have new headers installed (Pass side caught that curb) and again retuned.


BAD NEWS -
This morning, in person, Chad said the sensors are still picking something up and retarding the timing 4-5 degrees....they did however have it up to 325 HP. I suggested Dyno it with open headers to see if it's something in the exhaust past the headers was causing it. He did not think of that.

This afternoon I was shooting pics for ebay and look what I noticed on the old header. See the black spot on the outer tube?

It was RUBBING! I stoped down to show them this pic and have them notch the K-member. Should have asked why the hell they were not or had not noticed this!!!!!!!!!

Darryl called this afternoon and said the "knock went way down", with open headers. I could not get details on what that meant since they run relay on information (mechanic to counter person to call you). Darryl also said there is a half inch gap of space in that area of the header. He could not tell me if the gap was while under load or if they were still going to notch the K-member.

Seems like since thier GM Mike left things have declined in trouble shooting this car or customer service. In fact, Darryl called me Tuesday at 4:45 PM not to tell my car was done, but to ask if they could keep it till FRIDAY. 4 days for a header install and tune after a appointment made 2 weeks ago. I asked why, Darryl standard answer "I don't know, I am just doing what Chad asked me say". So of course I drove down there 1st thing this morning to see if it fell off a lift or something.

I will camp on there tommorrow till it gets on a lift and try to figure it out myself. More then likely, just get it out of there to take to someone else. Hate to **** away the $495 they charged fme for the tune by paying that over again somewhere else.

BTW - LS1 headers on ebay

zo6vetteman2003

iTrader: (1)

That's valvefloat. It's the Crane 1.8 Rockers and valveprings that are the problem. Switch your springs out for a Comp 918, and the valvefloat will be eliminated. You will be able to take it to 6800rpm no problem.

BrentB@TEA

your car is lean imo that is why it is killing the cats

zo6vetteman2003

iTrader: (1)

That is exacly it. Valvetrain harmonics will be picked up from the knock sensors. They use knock sensors to detect valvefloat.

zo6vetteman2003

iTrader: (1)

Ask Slowhawk and he will agree with me when he sees the rockers and dyno sheet. I know this first hand, look at my sig.

Mark A. Rogalski

iTrader: (1)

Vinci Hi Per and family highly disagree as expected since they seell the Crane products. They have been involved since the original install.

If that is the case (springs) then why would disconnecting the exhuast, running open headers, almost eliminate tripping the knock sensors.

zo6vetteman2003

iTrader: (1)

I emailed the tech. over there about the SS red pick up article with the Crane Gold Race rocker article in Chevy High Performance Magazine. I told him if he went to a Comp 918 spring he would eliminate the valvefloat above 6000rpm about 2 months ago when we discovered this in 5 dyno tuned Corvettes using dual valvesprings. Mine was the only one that didn't have valvefloat with these rockers. I had the Comp 918's already.

Here is my email

Hello Greg,

I have some information you may find useful regarding LS1/LS6 Corvettes running Crane 1.8 Gold Race rockers, dual valvesprings and with valvelifts over .600". It doesn't work as you may already know, valvefloat occurs at over 6000rpm and power drops off at that point. I've found this using Crane or Comp dual valvesprings in conjuction with the Crane 1.8's. I believe that the valvelift does not matter, just the fact that +.600" lift puts you into a dual valvespring specification. I was reading the "The Red Dog Plan" article in 8/05 CHP and noted that VHP did the work and you did the install with Shawn. I installed my 1.8 rocker kit around the same time on my 03 ZO6 and found Crane's valve lash adjustment instructions lacking. I went online and found the VHP instructions well written and useable. I forwarded a thank you email to VHP soon after. Basically that is why I'm sending you this info. I found that you can install the Crane 1.8 Gold Race rockers on LS1/LS6 Corvettes, but you have to limit the lift to slightly over .600" and use a single beehive valvespring similar to a Comp 918. This will take you to 7000rpm no problem without valvefloat. You do not get the insurance of a dual valvespring, but you get maximum rpm and usable power. I hope you find this interesting, and it's my way of thanking you and VHP again.
Todd Griffith
Todd L. Griffith Engineering
Braintree, Ma.

mrr23

iTrader: (3)

z06vetteman2003 - and xtrooper will come in and tell you he replaced the springs he had with the crane duals and his so called 'valvefloat' went away. and this was with the 1.8 accelerated lift rockers. and i don't have the 'valvefloat' issue in the wife's car. i've taken it to 6800 rpms on the dyno. it's not the rockers. or the springs.

let's see, mark has issues with knock retard. disconnects exhaust, picks up power. later on, finds out both cats were coming apart. replaces those. shows pics of where old headers were hitting the k-member.

now reports this today
so, had knock. disconnects the exhaust and goes way down.

mark - glad it's starting to come together for you. keep us posted. my offer still stands, by the way.

zo6vetteman2003

iTrader: (1)

If that's true, that is great! I would like to see the dyno sheet and cam specs. so that we can note that there has been a successful install without issues.
I posted a thread awhile back looking for people that didn't have this issue with the dual valvesprings and the Crane Gold Race 1.8 Rockers. I was looking for specs. on the installation and a dyno sheet post from anyone.

mrr23

iTrader: (3)

there are many that have no issues at all. find me your original post. i'll post up all of my dynos. most recent is the vinci 062 cam i just put in the wife's car.

to name a couple offhand
mrr23
vettenuts
xtrooper
redline2k

zo6vetteman2003

iTrader: (1)

Here is the link.http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...482&forum_id=7
Sorry not an LS1tech.com thread. Do me a favor and post sheet anyway.

mrr23

iTrader: (3)

no problem. i'm a member there also.

zo6vetteman2003

iTrader: (1)

https://ls1tech.com/forums/generation-iii-internal-engine/306932-crane-rules.html A friend emailed this to me. LOL! small world. I saw post number 15 too.

BlueSix

I still don't see the "drop" at 5200 that everyone is talking about...

What i see is power climbing, i see the TQ and HP curves crossing at 5252 rpm, and i then see power peak at 5500 and then the power falls off....just like a stock cam would.

Mark A. Rogalski

iTrader: (1)

zo6vetteman2003

iTrader: (1)

I hope you find the solution and you are happy with the way it all turns out.
Todd