Time for a little update again.
The adaptors came for the C6 Z06 brakes along with everything to rebuild them. I bolted them up to test fit and sadly they hit the spokes of the wheel before it got anywhere near the hub. I borrowed some spacers from a friend but it needed 1 1/4” to clear the caliper and that was obviously a no go. If I didn't have the Speedlines put together then perhaps I would have gone for a more big brake friendly wheel but I love the deep dish and this time it's form over function. I sold on the brakes and rebuild parts for what they owed me in short time. I still have the adaptors, I could get base C6 brakes which are apparently still a decent improvement over the C4 13” brakes. With a different abutment bracket you can have 13.4” discs. I would retain the stock rear brakes too so there would be no need for an expensive adaptor on the rear.
The C6Z calipers
Always neat to see how dainty the aluminium wishbones are on a C4
The C6 base brakes by comparison, with some nice coilovers in place of the leaf spring too.
The Pirelli P Zero tyres on the rear were already down to the wear bars (oops, that's only about 7 months driving) and I had bought older DOT code ones from eBay. To be honest, they were dire in the wet and I was looking to go to a slightly narrower tyre to see if I could run less rear camber. I found a great deal on some 295/35/18 Michelin Pilot Super Sports and had those fitted. As the car was lowered to the ground there was a bit of an oh well moment, they seemed to be just as wide as the 315/30 pirellis! Driving home however the traction was very impressive. So much so that I thought it was best to get the diff sorted at last, before it went bang!
Newport transporter bridge on the way home
I ordered an SKF complete rebuild kit for the Dana 44HD diff along with poly mounts for the “batwing” diff mount. Also on the list were new UJ's for the half shafts and poly engine mounts to hopefully eliminate the movement in the gear stick. The diff is connected with a C beam a bit like an MX5 so the drivetrain is only mounted by 2 points on the engine and 2 on the diff, there's no gearbox mount. By having both of these poly I hoped I would eliminate any play and really firm things up. The other item I had to fit were some nice ceramic coated long tube headers to replace the cheap ones I bought first time around. My usual guy who does all the big horrible jobs was busy and it was agreed I'd go somewhere else. I tried a different garage which seemed to have a good reputation and plenty of interesting cars in always on their instagram account. Well, it went smooth as a hedgehog. It took them 2 weeks to even start and 8 weeks and 16hrs labour later my car was back. I'd missed a big portion of summer. They couldn't get the headers to fit, the starter interfered with them. I dropped off an aftermarket mini starter which is clockable but that wouldn't fit either apparently so it was back to the original starter and headers. When I eventually got the car back it pulled to the side, well one tyre was on 10psi! It got a bit hot on the way home. They'd removed a coolant sensor from the cylinder head and left the radiator half empty and overflow bone dry. Finally the starter motor struggled, I put a new battery on but no change. I got petrol and the car wouldn't even start. I took a look underneath to see the wiring against the headers. Unbelievable!! I told them I'd drop it off my next day off for them to sort. Well the owner wasn't even there at the time and the mechanic seemed surprised to see me. I explained the issues and he seemed perplexed when I turned the car off and it wouldn't even crank from the heat soak, loose connection, improper shimming etc. Later that day I called by to pick it up, where it obviously hadn't moved and they offered to fit a new starter for free. I just drove off. There was no problem with it before they touched it and after the timescale for such shoddy work I wouldn't leave anything with them again. If it was a back street garage where you paid cash for a day at a time I would be a little more patient but this was a professional outfit with £70ph labour rates. Dire. I'm just hoping the diff rebuild turns out to last but if they can't shim a starter and think wires should go next to hot manifolds I'm not filled with confidence.
I'm going to take it elsewhere to get the starter fitted properly and then call by with the invoice for them to pay. After that I'll post on an honest review on the trusted garages website they put on their paperwork.
In the meantime I got a bargain with some new seats. The seat foam alone is $360 and the covers about $700 before postage and duty. I snapped up a set from Canada for £450 all in. I got red ones as I wanted to change the interior and always wished it was the flame red on black. With the amount I saved on the seats I could get the carpets and other little bits of trim. Only one problem when the seats arrived, I got two different types! One sports seat (fully adjustable) and one standard seat (100% leather whereas I opted for vinyl on the sports seats) Luckily it was ebay and I used Paypal so the seller would have to sort it out. I said I'd be happy to return them for a refund (but he would lose postage costs both ways, pretty much what he sold the seats for) or he could send me the missing sports seat. I said I'd be happy to return the other one at his cost, but again that would be expensive so he just told me to keep it. A pair of leather standard seats is $1300! I promptly put the spare seat on eBay and if it sells I'll recoup the cost of the seats. Since the drivers seat is always first to wear I'm confident someone will buy one for half the price.
I'm going to order up the other items to redo the interior now, I'm going to change the centre console to red, red carpets and dye my door cards black since they're in good condition and I think it might be too much red otherwise. It should flow nicely with the black dash too then and set it apart from the factory colour options.
I met up with my friend Vesa and his LT1 auto C4. His car is a later model with 300bhp factory whereas mine left with 250. With my modifications though I imagine it's an easy 300bhp now. We drove over the Bwlch and Rhigos mountains. My car feels very tight now, really drives the best it ever has.
The adaptors came for the C6 Z06 brakes along with everything to rebuild them. I bolted them up to test fit and sadly they hit the spokes of the wheel before it got anywhere near the hub. I borrowed some spacers from a friend but it needed 1 1/4” to clear the caliper and that was obviously a no go. If I didn't have the Speedlines put together then perhaps I would have gone for a more big brake friendly wheel but I love the deep dish and this time it's form over function. I sold on the brakes and rebuild parts for what they owed me in short time. I still have the adaptors, I could get base C6 brakes which are apparently still a decent improvement over the C4 13” brakes. With a different abutment bracket you can have 13.4” discs. I would retain the stock rear brakes too so there would be no need for an expensive adaptor on the rear.
The C6Z calipers
Always neat to see how dainty the aluminium wishbones are on a C4
The C6 base brakes by comparison, with some nice coilovers in place of the leaf spring too.
The Pirelli P Zero tyres on the rear were already down to the wear bars (oops, that's only about 7 months driving) and I had bought older DOT code ones from eBay. To be honest, they were dire in the wet and I was looking to go to a slightly narrower tyre to see if I could run less rear camber. I found a great deal on some 295/35/18 Michelin Pilot Super Sports and had those fitted. As the car was lowered to the ground there was a bit of an oh well moment, they seemed to be just as wide as the 315/30 pirellis! Driving home however the traction was very impressive. So much so that I thought it was best to get the diff sorted at last, before it went bang!
Newport transporter bridge on the way home
I ordered an SKF complete rebuild kit for the Dana 44HD diff along with poly mounts for the “batwing” diff mount. Also on the list were new UJ's for the half shafts and poly engine mounts to hopefully eliminate the movement in the gear stick. The diff is connected with a C beam a bit like an MX5 so the drivetrain is only mounted by 2 points on the engine and 2 on the diff, there's no gearbox mount. By having both of these poly I hoped I would eliminate any play and really firm things up. The other item I had to fit were some nice ceramic coated long tube headers to replace the cheap ones I bought first time around. My usual guy who does all the big horrible jobs was busy and it was agreed I'd go somewhere else. I tried a different garage which seemed to have a good reputation and plenty of interesting cars in always on their instagram account. Well, it went smooth as a hedgehog. It took them 2 weeks to even start and 8 weeks and 16hrs labour later my car was back. I'd missed a big portion of summer. They couldn't get the headers to fit, the starter interfered with them. I dropped off an aftermarket mini starter which is clockable but that wouldn't fit either apparently so it was back to the original starter and headers. When I eventually got the car back it pulled to the side, well one tyre was on 10psi! It got a bit hot on the way home. They'd removed a coolant sensor from the cylinder head and left the radiator half empty and overflow bone dry. Finally the starter motor struggled, I put a new battery on but no change. I got petrol and the car wouldn't even start. I took a look underneath to see the wiring against the headers. Unbelievable!! I told them I'd drop it off my next day off for them to sort. Well the owner wasn't even there at the time and the mechanic seemed surprised to see me. I explained the issues and he seemed perplexed when I turned the car off and it wouldn't even crank from the heat soak, loose connection, improper shimming etc. Later that day I called by to pick it up, where it obviously hadn't moved and they offered to fit a new starter for free. I just drove off. There was no problem with it before they touched it and after the timescale for such shoddy work I wouldn't leave anything with them again. If it was a back street garage where you paid cash for a day at a time I would be a little more patient but this was a professional outfit with £70ph labour rates. Dire. I'm just hoping the diff rebuild turns out to last but if they can't shim a starter and think wires should go next to hot manifolds I'm not filled with confidence.
I'm going to take it elsewhere to get the starter fitted properly and then call by with the invoice for them to pay. After that I'll post on an honest review on the trusted garages website they put on their paperwork.
In the meantime I got a bargain with some new seats. The seat foam alone is $360 and the covers about $700 before postage and duty. I snapped up a set from Canada for £450 all in. I got red ones as I wanted to change the interior and always wished it was the flame red on black. With the amount I saved on the seats I could get the carpets and other little bits of trim. Only one problem when the seats arrived, I got two different types! One sports seat (fully adjustable) and one standard seat (100% leather whereas I opted for vinyl on the sports seats) Luckily it was ebay and I used Paypal so the seller would have to sort it out. I said I'd be happy to return them for a refund (but he would lose postage costs both ways, pretty much what he sold the seats for) or he could send me the missing sports seat. I said I'd be happy to return the other one at his cost, but again that would be expensive so he just told me to keep it. A pair of leather standard seats is $1300! I promptly put the spare seat on eBay and if it sells I'll recoup the cost of the seats. Since the drivers seat is always first to wear I'm confident someone will buy one for half the price.
I'm going to order up the other items to redo the interior now, I'm going to change the centre console to red, red carpets and dye my door cards black since they're in good condition and I think it might be too much red otherwise. It should flow nicely with the black dash too then and set it apart from the factory colour options.
I met up with my friend Vesa and his LT1 auto C4. His car is a later model with 300bhp factory whereas mine left with 250. With my modifications though I imagine it's an easy 300bhp now. We drove over the Bwlch and Rhigos mountains. My car feels very tight now, really drives the best it ever has.
