What's your ultimate vision for your ZR-1?

[Aurora40]

Originally Posted by tomtom72

I rebuilt the suspension, brakes, cooling, motor, trans, rear, and A/C sys & heat in my 72 for less than $5,000.00 back in 78.

$5,000 in 1978 is the equivalent of $15,276 today.

[Patton]

That's like almost $10,000.00 and I'm not saying it's a bad price...

I am!! Who the hell prices this shyt? They have such unreasonably high prices because there isn’t much demand for them so they have to make a killing with every sale, AND they know the majority of ZR-1 owners aren't counting pennies... being in the minority freakin sucks.

I wonder how precise you have to be when porting,... I know anybody can polish their own stuff, just get a dremmel and a nice accessory kit with bendable arms and such. But I wonder if porting is feasible for your average gear head.

And don’t get me started on the headers,... a couple of SS pipes welded together for $1000? Give me a goddamn break, highway robbery is what it is... If someone competed with these guys, he could make a killing. The problem is to compete like that and sell less expensive solutions you have to sell a crap load of them to come out on top and there arent enough ZR-1s to support that... sooo we end up exactly where we are. At least we dont have to pull the engine and spend 10k to change the belts! Poor ferrari owners...

[tomtom72]

Originally Posted by Aurora40

$5,000 in 1978 is the equivalent of $15,276 today.

I was thinking about inflation, that is a heep o cash but I was young, stupid, single, etc. Now I'm the same except for the young part. I just paid the car off about three months ago. I hope I can use it awhile before my second childhood makes me look for stuff for the Z to spend more cash on. If I get some spare cash I'd like the 400 rwhp package from Haibeck, that would be nice.

[tomtom72]

I hear ya Patton! It's like you said...a small group of cars to work on so the stuff is like custom stuff...pricey for sure.

I have taken a dremel to old sb cast iron heads back in the bad ole days. I'm not so sure I'd be brave enough to do it to stuff ya can't get in any junk yard. I mean sb stuff used to grow on trees & was about as cheap! I'm not so sure I'd have the stones to mess with LT5 stuff except to use a cotton swab on it!

I port matched my LT-1 exhaust manifolds because no body made headers for a sb vette that took the A/C mounting brackets! Talk about needing a brain tune up! Man what a dunce I was but I swore up & down it made a difference!

[bobbyhi]

I have to disagree with Patton somewhat. I do not have the knowledge to do some of the work on my Z. I know knowledge is learned by doing but being not too mechanically minded I have to turn to others for most major mods. When Marc works on my car I have the confidence that he knows 110% of what is right and what is wrong. I cannot do all of the things I would like because of budget restraints but look forward to the day I bring my car back to Marc.

Watching your posts and replies it is apparent that you have the moxy to be able to do what you do. I sometimes wish I had the know how that so many of the members have. I have been very impressed with the answers to many of the tech posts. Sometimes I don't have a clue what you guys are talking about but it is enjoyable to read. My hat is off to all of you!!!!! Thanks for all of the, maybe sometime, information that I might use.=D>

[Aurora40]

Originally Posted by Patton

I wonder how precise you have to be when porting,... I know anybody can polish their own stuff, just get a dremmel and a nice accessory kit with bendable arms and such. But I wonder if porting is feasible for your average gear head.

You basically just explained why it's expensive. A person has to develop a product first, then sell it. So the fewer you sell, the more R&D cost you have to put on each unit. It's not like it's a bunch of money-grubbers selling this stuff.

I'm sure you could port your own stuff if you knew what you were doing. One thing is the risk and cost associated with that risk. A new TB from GM is about $1,900, a plenum is $1,300. At least the IH's aren't so bad. So if you mess one up, you aren't going to save much money. Compare that to having Marc port those for $2,800 including a chip for your car and the labor, and it's about how much risk are you willing to absorb.

For headers, I guess it seemed to me that $1000 is kind of par for the course for a lot of cars. 4-banger headers seem to be around $400 or so, multiply that by 2 for a V8. I dunno... It's not cheap, for sure, but at the same time it's not way out there.

Just my thoughts. Of course I wish stuff were cheaper too, though. Especially regular replacement parts. Some of those prices are insane.

[tomtom72]

You are right A! People have to make a profit, this isn't a communist system. You guys that have kept up with the car stuff over the last 20+ yrs are used to the numbers. I've been away so it's more like sticker shock at the numbers, without taking inflation into the mix. If you take inflation into the mix the prices are about the same. I remember back 20-25 yrs ago sb headers came in two types: those that worked & those that were BS! Ya got what ya paid for, as always. I remember back in the 70's that machine shops that had flow benchs were few & far between!

I would only add one thing to my Haibeck wish list, send the my car to zfdoc for the tranny blueprint. So now I gotta really save my nickles to do my wish list. Can't beef up the motor without the tranny getting some work.

Would you attempt the headers & exhaust by yourself in your garage? How do you feel about just taking the plenum & I/H's & sending them out for a P & P? The headers & exhaust look a bit tough to do to me. I guess I'm not used to working on a C4. The old C3's were a bit easier, or at least it seemed that way.

Bobbyhi, I am envious of you! You live within reasonable distance to one of the ZR-1 wizzards. I'd give one of my n#ts to have Mr. Haibeck work on my Z!
Thanks for putting me in with the owners that know how to work on these cars. I'm just a graduate of "plenums 101" though! I did the most elementary operation an owner can do, it's like Jeff said..."hey guys, this isn't brain surgery!" I did my work out of necessity...I figured that why let some one work on my LT5 who never has...I never have so what makes them more qualified than me? I felt if some one is gonna cut their teeth on an LT5 it isn't gonna be my LT5...heck with all the knowledge here & the shop manuals I thought I should try. It could have turned out bad or I could also fix my troubles. It was a simple repair, complicated in steps due to the sheer number of little things in the way. In the end it was just like Jeff said, not brain surgery. The best part was that I need to see things & put my hands on them to really understand what's going on, and by doing a simple thing I learned by seeing. I now have a better understanding of at least one of the systems on a ZR-1. I feel it was time well spent for me. Ya know if I lived close to Mr. Haibeck's shop the "neighborhood play rule" would have come into effect..."ah heck while you've got the plenum off, you might as well just do...." Then I'd be in debt up over my nose!


Tom

[Aurora40]

Originally Posted by tomtom72

Would you attempt the headers & exhaust by yourself in your garage? How do you feel about just taking the plenum & I/H's & sending them out for a P & P? The headers & exhaust look a bit tough to do to me. I guess I'm not used to working on a C4. The old C3's were a bit easier, or at least it seemed that way.

I'm not sure who you were asking, but I'd try headers and exhaust myself. I think the exhaust wouldn't be that hard, usually the hardest part is removing the old fasteners. Having a propane torch usually helps a lot. The headers, I'd probably try it. I suspect they are like the plenum, the idea isn't really hard, there is just a lot of stuff in the way.

I actually am probably going to send my plenum and IH's out to Marc. I can't for the life of me get my idle thing fixed. It seems definitely the TB because if I pop the hood and press hard on the throttle assembly to close the butterflies, the idle will drop from about 1500 down to 1200-1000. I don't know why it won't drop to 650 unless it leaks and sticks or something... Anyway, I've pulled it twice and can't noodle it, so I'm going to send it off. I'll do the injectors at the same time.

I guess I'll be running the stock exhaust for a while then...

[cuisinartvette]

Yup, specialty work/parts is never cheap, they get paid for what they know. The sticker shock is there, but that's to be expected when you own one of these cars. Trying to do as much of it myself as I can, but sometimes these things are best left in the hands of experts who do it everyday. I have no fear of diving into an intake or a set of 2v heads, but I'm not familiar with the LT5 heads, and would hate to discover a water jacket by accident. Not like you can just go pick up a new casting at the parts store...Its all relative.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by Jeffvette

You going to get a yellow one for Anne?

Maybe a turq!