Daily driving a ZR-1

[8cam]

BTW those two Mustangs behind me were FAST, seriously cool machines. A Shelby GT500 and a Boss 302 Laguna Seca. With better tires I could take the Shelby - he got me by 0.8-ish, running new Pilot Sports...more practice and I might get him anyway. But the Boss was on another planet. Two-and-a-half seconds faster...the combo of track setup and very sticky tires was way too much. And what a sound, just incredible bouncing off the walls. I have got to wake up my exhaust, just way too quiet.

[edit] Ok they just posted the results and the Shelby's last run was quicker than that, about 1.2 seconds faster than I was. I still think I can catch him with more practice and better tires!

[haber rj]

Mark great write up sounds like you are having a great time

[edram454]

Glad you are doing do well Mark. Hope you can kick that leguna seca stangs butt too. Loud exhaust is a must. It is the new thing now is having a healthy sounding car is almost as important as the actual performance. long tube headers, no cats, no resonators and tiny mufflers. Maybe a corsa cat-back or x pipe back system. I am removing my resonators next week and just running long tubes through an xpipe into 2 chamber flowmaster mufflers and I hope its really loud and really droney.

Keep up the good work and representing the zr1 so well.

ed ramos #3028

[8cam]

The sound that Boss made was absolutely incredible. They have a pretty trick setup, and I'm sure this guy had removed the restrictors. I've always preferred a screaming, multi-tonal exhaust to a deep flat sound, and that's what I want from my car. To do that you need all 8 pulses working together, which means an x-pipe at a minimum, but a full crossover is really the best. I also want to clean up the back end because the stock tailpipes are just plain ugly...what were they thinking anyway? The Corsa tips look the best, but I would love to hear some sound clips of various configurations. Time to start doing research.

[BigIke]

I toss my Raegan (7yr old) in the hatch all the time!

[8cam]

Haven't updated this thread in a little while, because the car had been driving very well. Then I had an issue (detailed in the tech section) where it was running really rough. This ended up being bad coils and led to my first plenum pull. Four new coils, new wires and new plugs, and the car just screamed again, better than it has ever run in my ownership. Just awesome. And I was back to driving my Z and just about to roll 50k.

Until....I started hearing a giant hissing from under the throttle body, idle was parked at 2k+ and fuel mileage hit a new low. Crap. My first thoughts were, what in the world did I miss in pulling the plenum? What did I forget to reconnect? It was acting like the IAC failed and somehow sprung a leak. A quick pull and check, and the IAC was just fine so the problem was elsewhere. I've had the sticky throttle body problem for a while and knew that needed to be done, so off it came. And the problem was immediately obvious.

Apparently my plenum pull (where I left the intake horn and throttle body connected), put some stress on the *very* original throttle body gasket, enough that it was now BADLY blown. There's the hissing noise, skyrocketing idle, and bad mileage, all rolled into one. I KNEW I should have replaced those gaskets when I did the plenum, almost ordered them from Jerry when I bought the other stuff. Oh well, good excuse to do things right.

The throttle body needs going through anyway to fix the sticky problem, so it's headed to Marc to get rebuilt and I think I'll get his upgraded chip at the same time. New intake horn and tb gaskets coming from Jerry. The 308 is getting DD duty for a little while, things could be worse.

[8cam]

Marc turned my throttle body around quickly and it's back on the car, along with a new set of gaskets from Jerry. My idle problems are gone and the transition to the secondaries is smooth and strong, just like it should be. It's a new car! Everyone should check those gaskets. Mine were original and shot, which allowed unmetered air into the intake. Replacing them went a long way to restoring the factory smoothness and consistency. If you have issues with idle or seem to have a vacuum leak you can't track down, check those gaskets! They are inexpensive, and will make that last difference...at least they did for me.

Back to piling on the miles.

[Billy Mild]

I pulled my plenum and before I pulled it, the car idled solid. After I put everything together it seems to have an idle that wonders occasionally. I also have a sticky throttle.

How long did it take for the rebuild?

[XfireZ51]

Originally Posted by Billy Mild

I pulled my plenum and before I pulled it, the car idled solid. After I put everything together it seems to have an idle that wonders occasionally. I also have a sticky throttle.

How long did it take for the rebuild?

Did u disconnect the throttle cable?

[Billy Mild]

Originally Posted by XfireZ51

Did u disconnect the throttle cable?

Yep.