Speaking of C4 Corvettes...

This one showed up at my house Saturday:

It's kinda funny. The car was located 8 hours away from me, but the owner has relatives near me that he was already planning on visiting. After a fairly long phone discussion about the condition of the car, I agreed to buy it if he brought it to me.

The car's a 1996 LT-4 six speed car with the Z51 handling package. It has a lot of miles on it (157k), but the engine and transmission seem sound. I've already ordered a new optispark since it is showing signs of immenent failure. After that, the front suspension needs going through. It clunks loudly over every little bump in the road.

The car came with the wheels shown as well as the original sawblades.

I feel like I got a pretty good deal at $6,000. Current plan is to make it safe and reliable, then autocross it every chance I get.

SCORE, Had it not been a z51 Or an LT4 or well they all had a 6 speed by then, Great Score,

Was that one FS on Corvette Forum forever? It was a good-looking car. Congratulations on your handsome new ride, the LT-4 is great fun and Z51 is the way to go.

conesare2seconds wrote: Was that one FS on Corvette Forum forever?

That's the one.

Wow, the late LT4 powered C4s were good cars. Isn't that like a low-13 second 1/4 mile car? For $6k, that seems like a great deal.

Welcome to the club

i keep finding worn out slappers in the early 80's for 5k... nice job.

Well bought. Best of luck with it. These cars are really good bang for the buck.

Me likey!

Engine porn please! I've never had a chance to play with a LT4.

I did some more reading on them and the claim is that the factory rating of 330hp was very under-stated. Some (very few) have dyno'ed as high as 390hp at the crank. Most dyno around 350-360hp. They're often faster than the first C5s were, with LS1 power. Impressive!

That's a great deal!

Crackers wrote: Engine porn please!

Looks a lot like an LT-1 with a red intake.

I've always loved the under hood shots of C4s, with the exposed wheel wells.

Seems very well bought. Conga rats!

I managed to get the optispark and water pump changed out today.

I also replaced the anti-rattle clips that were missing from the front brake calipers. It sounded like the front end was about to fall apart. Now it sounds like it should.

Overall, I'm very happy with it so far.

Those vredstien tires are ok above freezing. They get scary as berkeley at half tread in the rain, or below freezing. They also seem to survive reasonably well on track.

At least they look like vredstien tires from the tread in the engine bay picture.

Dusterbd13 wrote: At least they look like vredstien tires from the tread in the engine bay picture.

The fronts are. That's what was on it all around when I got it, but the rears were bald. I replaced them with some Michelin Pilot Sport AS3s I was able to get cheap. I have a full set of Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 ZPs to put on it for the track.

Wow, that looks like a steal...those seem to go for 10-12k or more around me, in that kind of condition.

So this one's got me a little frustrated.

When I got it, it pulled hard to redline, but sometimes wouldn't start (no fire). Also, the tach would sometimes quit and I'd get the 'service ASR' light. All signs of a failing optispark.

After I replaced the opti, it always starts easily, the tach always works, and I don't get the 'service ASR' light. However, it seems to be running on 7 cylinders most of the time, at least at idle and full throttle. During normal driving, it seems fine.

I've since changes the plugs, and I have plug wires to install. If that's not it, I think I may replace the opti again. The cheap Ebay ones have a bad rep, but I thought they either worked or didn't.

That's a lot of car for the money to be sure. Great buy!

dorri732 wrote: So this one's got me a little frustrated. When I got it, it pulled hard to redline, but sometimes wouldn't start (no fire). Also, the tach would sometimes quit and I'd get the 'service ASR' light. All signs of a failing optispark. After I replaced the opti, it always starts easily, the tach always works, and I don't get the 'service ASR' light. However, it seems to be running on 7 cylinders most of the time, at least at idle and full throttle. During normal driving, it seems fine. I've since changes the plugs, and I have plug wires to install. If that's not it, I think I may replace the opti again. The cheap Ebay ones have a bad rep, but I thought they either worked or didn't.

Sounds like a bad Plug Wire to me. Put a set of Quality wires on it. I recently put a set on my LT1 equipped RoadMaster Wagon. I was pleased with the quality of the NAPA brand wires. They fit as they should.

Oh, and stay away from cheap ebay parts. The Opti is a ROYAL pain to replace, so buy a good one and you'll get tens of thousands of miles out of it. I'd also replace the coil while your doing the wires.

Nice ride and very well bought! Congrats

And I'll just put this right here to help you out:

I literally got my wires crossed when I replaced them, so I had to go digging and found this illustration.

Adding on to the Opti info dogpile, make sure yours is "vented" with vacuum hoses to the intake which are supposed to keep the moisture out. Make sure those lines are actually clear by testing the open ends for vacuum with the engine running. The water comes from the water pump, whose leaky shaft seals are directly above such a sensitive piece of electrical equipment. Nice one, GM. There is a water pump mod out there that involves drilling a weep hole near the shaft seal of the pump and putting another vacuum line on it.

Also LT-1 plug wires love to commit suicide on the hot exhaust parts they are routed so close to. Check for cracking in the wires and ground-outs. I constantly chased grounding/burning plug wires after installing headers, but they don't play nice with stock exhaust either.

Indy-Guy wrote:

That was very helpful. Thanks.

I just changed the opti (again) and put new plugs and wires on it and now it runs like it should. Before, it would sputter real bad above 5000 rpm. Now it pulls cleanly all the way to the rev limiter at 6400. It would also ping badly under load below 2000 rpm and now that's gone, too. I can use 6th gear at less than 80 mph now.

Woo!!

maschinenbau wrote: Adding on to the Opti info dogpile, make sure yours is "vented" with vacuum hoses to the intake which are supposed to keep the moisture out. Make sure those lines are actually clear by testing the open ends for vacuum with the engine running. The water comes from the water pump, whose leaky shaft seals are directly above such a sensitive piece of electrical equipment. Nice one, GM. There is a water pump mod out there that involves drilling a weep hole near the shaft seal of the pump and putting another vacuum line on it. Also LT-1 plug wires love to commit suicide on the hot exhaust parts they are routed so close to. Check for cracking in the wires and ground-outs. I constantly chased grounding/burning plug wires after installing headers, but they don't play nice with stock exhaust either.

I did use a vented opti. I replaced the water pump when I got the car a couple months ago, so hopefully it won't leak any time soon.

I was careful to route the plug wires away from anything that gets hot. I used the factory separators where I could, but I didn't route the driver's side wires the way they were. I don't know how they did that. It looks like they started with those four wires, then built the car around them. I cut the ends off them to pull them through the tiny opening they were routed through.

If it makes you feel better, I spent 3 nights trying to route wires through that same BS on my 9C1. Madness.