Daily driving a ZR-1

[8cam]

Yes it is!

[edram454]

Originally Posted by 4cam

Thanks Scott, I hadn't seen one in a long time and I wasn't sure where to get one. I like it a lot. This one is painted black, with a heavy metalflake in the letters, really looks great in the sun.



That looks much better.

Your plate looks great. I bought one from that guy on ebay. He sends them really rough. they need to get worked over with filler and sanding before they can be put on any zr1. I did mine and it came out great. After the plate, labor and paint, it wasnt too cheap but it looks first class. He gave you a real nice gift.

ed ramos #3028

[lakemeadzmonster]

I have been doing a yearly 2000 mile road trip around 27 mpg loaded with toys and I turned mine into a daily driver last year, now that we have solar shade parking structures at work, sun was my biggest worry prior to that drove it more during winter, but it did come to life after making it a daily driver. I'm still below 60,000 miles. Insurance, license all reasonable.

[8cam]

I figured it was time for a daily driver update. The biggest headache was getting the car through Atlanta emissions, which I finally accomplished. After sitting for 15 years, a bunch of little things just weren't quite right and took a lot of time to sort, some by the PO and some by me - injectors, plugs, coil packs, vacuum leaks, O2 sensors, cleaning the TB, adjusting the TPS and resetting idle, and probably a bunch of other things. It all boiled down to a PASS, finally. And that's the last time I'll have to do it, since next year it will be 25 years old and exempt.

The O2 sensors are the most recent replacement, and besides helping emissions, made a big difference in fuel economy. This morning on my normal morning commute (5 miles back roads, 17 miles freeway) I averaged almost 22mpg. That's a 5mpg improvement over what I had been seeing, which is really welcome.

Then there's the clutch. I had to drive to the airport last week, and only got about 2 miles from my house when the clutch went to the floor. At 5am this isn't something you want to happen. I made it back home with a combination of creeping up to stoplights praying for green, and then simple brutality when I was forced to stop. Not a good morning. But this weekend with the help of my wife on the pedal, I cleaned out 25 years of black sludge from the reservoir and lines, ran a whole bottle of DOT4 through it, and now it's higher and tighter than it has ever been. I'm keeping an eye on it because I suspect I might still have an internal leak, which will mean rebuilding the slave.

In the meantime, it sure is running and driving beautifully. Yesterday was gorgeous and we took the top off and went for a drive, meeting some friends for dinner. I think my wife might finally be warming up to the Z.

[Roadster]

Mark, great write-up....but excuse me for asking (still early in the AM) what was the actual cause of the problem? Was it the injector gaskets after all?
Glad you are up and running again.....
Just purchased my 94 Z on April 5th, really enjoying it alot.....although not my daily driver, I have the 82 for that duty, I would not hesitate to use it if I needed to.......

Tom

[8cam]

Hi Tom. I can't say what the actual cause of the emissions issue was since we fixed so many different things. Everything made an incremental improvement, and I must have run it through the emissions test 7 or 8 times before I got a pass. The biggest items were injectors, vacuum leaks and the O2 sensors, but everything else made a difference too including running a can of seafoam through it, injector cleaner, detergent fuel, hot testing, you name it. Definitely an ordeal I don't wish to repeat. It's all really the result of letting a car sit for a long time. This car just sat in a warehouse from 1998 to 2013, not really stored properly for long term, and never started in that time. So you get lots of little issues that pile up.

Of course you also get relatively low mileage and a perfect interior, so it's a good trade as far as I'm concerned!

[Roadster]

Mark, thanks for the reply......excuse me for asking, but besides of the improvements that you made to get it to pass, what was the actual cause of the coolant to leak? Was it one specific item or a number of things that lead up to that? I may have missed that in an earlier post when it at your brother's shop.
My 94 has almost 59k on the engine, so it has been driven, and from what Graham (another member) noticed is that mine may have been in the "captured test fleet" back in the day.....sounds interesting.
I really enjoy driving the Z, as you have indicated, it is a fun vehicle to drive....

[We Gone]

Mark.

Great the hear your enjoying your ZR-1. The clutch slave is most likely the issue with the clutch. I have replaced 2 on the 91. They can be rebuilt Can't remember who does it. I have an old one that needs re done if you need a core so you won't have down time, just give me your old one to put back in stock for future needs after you replace it.

http://www.powertorquesystems.com/

[8cam]

Originally Posted by Roadster

what was the actual cause of the coolant to leak?

Oh that problem. Luckily the coolant wasn't an issue after all, which made me very happy.

Originally Posted by We Gone

Mark.

Great the hear your enjoying your ZR-1. The clutch slave is most likely the issue with the clutch. I have replaced 2 on the 91. They can be rebuilt Can't remember who does it. I have an old one that needs re done if you need a core so you won't have down time, just give me your old one to put back in stock for future needs after you replace it.

http://www.powertorquesystems.com/

Thanks Steve, I've already bookmarked that site for if/when I pull the slave. Really appreciate the offer and I just might take you up on it. I'll be driving the car for a little while, monitoring the clutch to see if everything is ok or a rebuild is needed.

Mark

[8cam]

Now that the big stuff seems to be sorted, I can start taking care of the little things. Steve's cleanup thread has me feeling guilty, so I'll start tackling the engine bay first and see if I can restore some of the shine. There are three rattles in the interior that are driving me nuts. First, the plastic trim around the base of the hatch is missing a couple screws, and vibrates like hell - easy fix. Then the interior mirror has something loose, took me a while to realize where that one was coming from. Finally the clear plastic instrument panel buzzes at certain rpms. Fixing all three will really improve things.

I also have a new vacuum pump coming from a fellow forum member (mine is DOA) which should help smooth out the secondary engagement. And now that emissions are done I plan on ordering a chip upgrade from Marc. I also need to get his pin fix for the steering column, since mine has that down-n-left play from someone pulling on the wheel.

It's the little things.