Took the 'Vette to a local RR......

Lashout_UK

Lashout_UK

Lashout_UK

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Joined
2 Mar 2004
Posts
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Location
SE England
As you know I not long ago picked up my new daily, an '86 Corvette. I've done a good few hundred miles in it now and it's great fun, handles fantastically and makes all the right noises!

I'd recently been trying to diagnose a little idle stumble that it'd had since purchase and as such had been cleaning the idle air valve, butterflies, resetting the throttle pot and so on. Ironically it was one of those really frustrating problems, with the car being absolutely spot on the majority of the time, then occasionally turning into a stumbling beast at idle.

It did give me the opportunity to find I've got a brand new TPS, IAC and a recent MAF though so not all bad!

Eventually, I traced it back to a worn throttle bush, or shaft - either way effectively requiring the replacement of the body. A shiny new bored out one is on the way, which should combine nicely with my new K&N and new filter box to up the power a further 10BHP and 12ft.lb, as that's what the forum dynos show......Anyway!

However, whilst I was there, I was interested to see how the power was holding up after 21 years on the road, so I rang up a quite well reputed RR near me in Bletchley and headed on down.

......and it made pretty much bang on factory figures! Air/fuel, emissions, all spot on!

Huzzah! So all is well in Corvette land!

Some pics:

c1.jpg


c2.jpg


c3.jpg


And the dyno graph:

websheet-1.jpg


A total result of 230.6BHP at the crank, 185BHP at the wheels and 436NM of torque (320ft.lb!).

Certainly feels it, hell, even the early 'just' 200BHP ones did 154MPH flat out!
Not bad for a 21 year old car, so she's doing quite well for her age.

The curves reflect the driving feel as well, once it starts singing in 2nd and 3rd at about 2500RPM it just goes, below 70 it tends to feel like it's not really trying.

So more than happy with that really. If anyone's in Beds or MK, I can highly recommend Marlin Motor Engineers, it's a really good place and the dyno is excellent! One of the receptionists is extremely pretty as well!

Here's a vid of the dyno - should have had my tripod but didn't really think, ah well!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pgA27hTfRdE

:)

Tempted to buy a Supra TT next....Fancy a bit of boost!
 
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Around 4k will see you one in very fine fettle :)

Oh yea, they're right about dynos - they make 3000rpm sound like 7000 and 5000 sound like ten! Could be quite excruciating if you weren't prepared for it :p :D
 
Yea, more performance is cheap. These were some of the fantastically smogged 'performance' engines to come from the States at the times with hideously inefficient 70's 3-cat systems on them. A set of de-cats, new ECU (cheap PROM), K&N, filter lid mod and a few other little things usually frees up 50-60BHP and an additional 60ft.lb, at which point they really start moving

Hell, even a set of high-performance, fully built heads are "only" $800 :D

Very easy to tune, due to the fact they did everything they could to stop them making power - but L98 engines aren't the best of the bunch though, the LT1 and LT4 were the ones to have.

Still, does 60 on the G-meter in 5.6 seconds, so packs a fair punch. Not fussed about tuning this up though, plenty quick, handles ace and factory refinement :)
 
Whats the fuel consumption like out of interest? 0-60 seems plenty quick for the power, I guess it doesn't weigh as much as I'd expect?
 
It weighs just 1400kg, bodyshell's all composite plastics. Fuel consumption, about 18-20mpg but all my stuff's mostly around town at the moment, so it's not quite a fair representative.

You can average high 20s cruising at 70/80 on the M-ways :)

It was 47 quid for the power run, including an oil top up and a diagnostic test on everything to check it working within spec :)
 
I know you're quite local so would love to take a peek at the vette at some point (if you'll let me :P)

I had no idea there was an RR in Bletchley either! I may have to go down there soon to get a graph done before my bits are ordered and in place so I can get a good idea of any gains.
 
Cool stuff mate, my brother had one last summer, we had a lot of fun in it. They light up rather easily :D
 
Hi there

Don't think I've commented on this car yet but just wanted to say what an ACE car. :)

Thats American reliability for you when a car that old still has so much power on tap and is in such good condition. Loving the dash and the sound.

It will certainly be quick with a bit of tuning done. :)
 
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