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View Full Version : A few small updates on my car


Aurora40
08-22-2005, 07:27 PM
Well, when I bought my car in May, it drove real nice. But the engine was hardly nickel-balancing smooth. It wobbled back and forth a good bit, which I think contributed to some flywheel and gearbox rattle.

I have since changed the plugs (they weren't original, were Autolites) with some Rapidfire #5's. And I ran some Techron fuel additive through it. The engine feels much smoother at idle now and the engine is pretty smooth, though still not quite nickel smooth.

I believe the injectors leak, as fuel was evident on a few plugs when I changed them, and the car had sat for about two days prior to me pulling the plugs.

I also have a sendary leak, which initially resulted in the pump coming on every 5-8 seconds for an instant. Now it comes on every 2 seconds or so. I got the white racing kit and will tackle this soon. I think I will also send the injectors to RC Engineering to have them all rebuilt at the same time. Hopefully that, and maybe some new plug wires, will smooth the idle out perfectly.

The car is a lot of fun. It has over 22,000 miles on it, and I probably put about 800-1,000 of those on it. I've had to replace the brake switch, it needs the reverse switch done, the ABS may or may not work properly, the a/c doesn't work (suspect just a pressure switch is bad), and I probably paid top-dollar as it seemed at the time to be in excellent condition (not that it isn't, but I expected to change fluids, etc, not to fix things initially). But all in all it's a blast. These prices are all relative, and at about any price the car is a performance and exotic bargain. Look at what a Ferrari 308 or 328 goes for and the ZR-1 is a no-brainer.

Anyway, just thought I'd let you all know how it's coming along. :) I also wanted to thank RKreigh for his insights into the choppy idle and reassuring me that it probably wasn't anything serious. Plugs and fuel system cleaner helped a lot, as he suspected.

rkreigh
08-22-2005, 07:49 PM
thanks for posting. my bet is that once you get the injectors checked out and the under the plenum vacuum tight you will be back to smooth as silk.

it's amazing how well these cars respond to driving em hard and a bit of TLC.

keep the faith, your ZR-1 will reward you many times over with more grins per mile than other options.

Nick
08-22-2005, 11:25 PM
Be careful of the Rapidfire #5 plugs! :thumbsdo: They are not for a car that is aggressively driven. I ran those in mine for 1,500 miles and the car pinged and the temps rose. Changed the RF5's out for Autolites and its been smooth, powerful motoring ever since. :thumbsup:

Jim Jones
08-24-2005, 12:11 PM
Be careful of the Rapidfire #5 plugs! :thumbsdo: They are not for a car that is aggressively driven. I ran those in mine for 1,500 miles and the car pinged and the temps rose. Changed the RF5's out for Autolites and its been smooth, powerful motoring ever since. :thumbsup:

What makes the difference?:icon_scra What are the original plugs?

Aurora40
08-24-2005, 01:09 PM
The original plugs are ACDelcos, but no longer made. So far the Rapidfires have worked for me. I used to use them on my L98 too, though they had a pretty short life of about 10,000 miles or so.