8 cams are better than four!
 

New owner jumping in. I just bought this '90 ZR-1, brought it home tonight and I'm looking forward to really getting to know it better. This is my first Corvette, let alone a Z. Always been a euro guy, but this car is just flat amazing. I've liked them from the time I saw the original MT article and now I've got one in e garage. Black/gray with 43k on it, has a few needs which I'll be documenting, but it's 100% original and the underside is clean clean clean. Came with the pizza box and receipts for a lot of recent work.

The original owner bought it new and drove it daily for three years, then bought a 93 and parked the 90. Drove it sparingly for the next five years and then parked it for good. So there it sat until January of this year, didn't move for fifteen years. The guy I bought it from picked it up then and brought it back to life. Now it's my turn to take the next step, and I'm really looking forward to bringing it back to #1 condition and driving the hell out of it. :D

Oh and if you can't tell, I'm a big 4-cam guy. The Z is in good company! Better pics coming soon once I get out in the daylight.

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

308 or 328?

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

Welcome and enjoy the Permagrin!! Show us some good pics when you get a chance!!!!!!!!!!

Brett

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

Welcome and congrats.. Nice to see another ZR-1 in the Atlanta area. post some more pics looks to have 91 wheels on it?

Steve

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

i think it's a 308 quattrovalvole

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

possibly 93, they look polished vs painted

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

Do you mean four cams are better than two :p

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

Welcome 4 cam. My Z is blk/gray too and has 56,000 mi. This ZR-1 forum has great people and outstanding info in it. The ZR-1 net registry has good info of what to do next concerning possible issues with an original car. Because of these folks I feel very confident that I can fix any issues on this car which makes driving it a real pleasure. Like blue flame says ... Permagrin is what they call it.

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

Welcome onto the boards there.

You know how to navigate DataMaster? :mrgreen:

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

It is either a late model 308 or an early model 328. The early model 308 had a very large front crash bumper and the late model 328 did not have the rubberized crash bumper. Either way I am sure he is going to have 3x the fun in the ZR-1.

BTW welcome to the group.

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

looks like A 308 to me.welcome aboard 4cam.If you have any questions just ask
your amongst A good crowd.



AL.

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

There's a Cam in my Watch???


:confused:

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

euro '85 308 GTB QV. Totally different sort of fun, and my baby. I will probably be buried in it.

Good eye, yes they are 93 wheels. I know where the original wheels are and I'm going to see if I can get them. Always good to have multiple sets. The glass top is in the same place, going to try to get that back too.

Maybe I should have said 64 valves are better than 32? It's kinda funny that I doubled the number of cams and valves in my garage, but almost tripled the displacement!

Nope, that's a new one. I definitely need to collect some American-centric resources. Everything I have speaks with a euro accent. :)

Depends on the watch. :D

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

The PO did a nice job getting it back on the road, replacing anything that fuel touched, belts, hoses, etc. All injectors are new, brand new tires, and some other stuff. It drives strong, and I'm really surprised at the quick turn in considering the size of the lump up front. Didn't expect that. But it sat for fifteen years and you can tell. The paint desperately needs a good cut and buff, and the car just needs a really thorough cleaning. There's dirt in every little nook and cranny.

That said, this will not be a show car other than some local fun events. It will be my almost-daily-driver and will definitely see autocross and possibly track time. That also means I have to address a couple things immediately if not sooner. Open to any suggestions!

1. There's a pulley up front that is screaming. My current guess is the tensioner or water pump. The tensioner has a distinct wobble at idle so it needs to be replaced anyway.
2. Water temp creeps up at a stop light, too high for my comfort. I suspect the fan switch isn't working.
3. High idle, very high. Like 2k. And when my wife followed me home last night, she said the car smelled really rich. I'm guessing vacuum leaks somewhere might cause both issues, but I really have no idea where to start.
4. Climate control refused to turn off for a while. Then mysteriously the Off button worked. Weird. But it worked just fine, cold a/c, warm heat, and it maintained the interior temp like it should.
5. How the hell do the high beams work? I thought Ferrari had a bizarre headlight switch, but I couldn't figure this one out in the dark. :) Oh and I'll be looking into a light upgrade - the headlights are pathetic.

I'm sure there will be more, but this is a start. I'll probably use this thread to track stuff if that's ok. Sun is coming out, I'll have some better pics by lunchtime!

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

2) The second fan doesn't turn on until the temp gets almost to the hash mark, used to scare the hell out of me.
Marc H (http://www.zr1specialist.com/index.html) has a chip that will address what temp the fans come on at, and addresses some other common issues. Highly recommended. Look Marc's site over, there is a wealth of info on it. -Steve

Welcome to the forum, and congrats on the purchase.

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

Oh and I have got to disable that damn 1-4 skip shift. The first time it happened I thought something broke, scared the hell outta me. Then I realized what happened (and saw the idiot light on the dash), and scared became irritated. I know if you push 1st a little harder it's not an issue, but I will be driving this car in heavy traffic and it's going to drive me completely nuts.

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

Already found that site. Very dangerous. Very. Dangerous.







and yeah he's getting a call.

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

efnfast, just posted a link to all your fixes, If you look into Marc's site it will address the 90 prom issues with idle and give you the info. the see what prom you have. Marc's chip will fix that and the temp. The stock prom cuts the 1st fan on at around 225 and second fan around 235.

The AC controls. This may help
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c4-g...on-repair.html

High-beams are on the turn signal lever.

You can unplug the 1-4 skip shift its on the trans driverside if I remember.

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

Marcs chip also gets rid of the 1-4 skip shift too. I love it.

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

Welcome to the forum ! Browsed here a long time until I picked up my z recently. Awesome site and so much help /info when needed :)

I'm a bit of a Ferrari fanboy. One day I'll get my 512TR, and slam it on HREs !!

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

Thanks! And please say no to the HREs. The 512TR is a seriously amazing performance machine that will run 180mph all day long....sounds familiar. Slam it, and it won't.

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

A friend of mine has a 89 RedHead and a 87 (I think) 328 he's been letting me drive lately. What fantastic cars! I haven't really had a chance to wind out the RedHead yet but I that should be soon.

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

Welcome to the ZR "dash"1 Corvette Family. We are glad to have you with us.

Let me know if there is anything I can do to assist you.

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

I also have a black/grey 90 that had the same high idle problem.Got Marc's chip--problem solved with increased performance.

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the 308's sure are pretty, but imagine an LT5 in one.

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I took a quick nap and had a dream of a 415 in a 512 TR lol .

I'm sure we can get along :) I love HREs for many reasons but don't worry .. It won't be so much a rediculous looks only slam, more like lowered with nice offsets and reduced fender gaps. The 512 is fairly low as it is. My z is pretty low but don't worry I've already tried topping it a few times and there's only more stability !

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my buddies TR is the only car i've had to bend down to open the door.

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

Sacrilege! If you've ever been in a 308 ripping at seven grand, you wouldn't want one in there either. No the power isn't the same, but it's a very light car and the sound is something else.

Just like I wouldn't put a Ferrari engine in a Corvette...just wrong. :)

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

Here's a better pic out in the sun. Going to give it a nice bath and then I'll post some better ones. Second pic, you can see what I'm dealing with in the paint. Those swirls are mostly dirt, but once it's clean it will need some serious work.
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/b...psb938fbed.jpg

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/b...pse3cc7dba.jpg

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

I have a 82 308 and a 95 355. So I have 12 cams!
haha
If I add them all up it gets disturbing.
68 corvette 437/400
79 Porsche 930
82 Ferrari 308
90 ZR-1
95 Ferrari 355

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

Add one more item to the list. Driver's window stopped working. And of course it's down, which means no washing today. Passenger window works fine, so it's not the circuit breaker. Now I have to do some digging. I think my first purchase is going to be the factory service manual, unless it's available online somewhere?

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

Get it off of eBay. If you go with the eBay .pdf download, be careful of what you're paying for - some of the .pdf downloads don't amount to much more than Chilton's / Haynes / Clymer's, and they're good for only one thing:

1) Hang it in the 'library', where the seat has a hole in the middle ;).
2) Tear off a page
3) read
4) wipe,
5) flush,
6) repeat if necessary
3a) between 3, and 4 (krinkle if you're tender in the hindquarters :bootyshak ).

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

you know there's a reason I hate seeing you post on facebook.

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

The high idle is almost surely the result of a common vacuum leak. there are a couple of tubes under the plenum that are highly likely to be the cause. (Popped off)

The hot coolant temp is classic C4. Probably the radiator is partially plugged. If not with actual garbage and paper, then with fine dirt which can be sprayed off. An aftermarket chip also can address this by commanding the fans to come on sooner. You can also force the fans on with a/c.

I found the early climate controls different than the later ones (like on a 95 C4). keep playing with it- some people report dirty button contacts- these can be taken apart and cleaned.

The LT5 tensioner has become difficult to find new- I bought one two years ago, but the quickest solution would be to see if Marc Haibeck can rebuild yours. new pulleys and bearings are easily bought though- if the spring part isn't bad.

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

Thanks Mike. I was sure the fix for a high idle wasn't a chip, since I doubt the factory intended a 2k idle! I'll know more this morning, when I finally get a chance to do a little work on it. Yesterday got too busy, but today is pretty much open and I'm giving myself the day off. :)

Quick question before I break anything. I'm going to find the problem with the driver's window too. Does the switch panel simply pop off? Otherwise removing the door panel looks pretty straightforward (yes I found the screw behind the lock bar).

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

I had the problems with window switches and AC. Go to Dynomite's Solutions (top of page-sticky), Electrical and then "AC and Wndow switch connections". The AC is more often than not the long prong connector between the switch face plate and the control head body. Needs cleaning. On windows I found the switch contacts arced over a bit. The switch panel comes out with 2 screws. Good luck. --Bob

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

Hey I was unemployed for a while. Don't hate!

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you deserve it buddy. keep safe

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

Well it's not the switches, definitely the motor. I pulled the switch panel and they are working fine, and I can hear the motor clicking as I push the switch, without actually turning. Time to dig further.

Oh and the noise up front is definitely the water pump. Tensioner bobbles a bit but it is not the source of the noise. I suppose this is bonding. :)

Re: 8 cams are better than four!
 

I'm bettin' his high idle is the chip problem (although could be both goin' on there)...

Doesn't vac leak cause loping in RPM's? Are you gettin' any loping in RPM's there 4cam?