New England B.S. Thread

I know I vent too much, so I apologize in advance, but I cannot win with my stupid, stupid car.

I put a C6 Z06 shift assembly in the car earlier this summer. The C5 and C6 models used the same design shifter between generations, but the C6 version is much upgraded and very much in-line with an aftermarket C5 unit. It was a reasonably straightforward swap based on DIYs I've seen. Unbolt / rebolt. The shift assembly in that car had always stunk and was the first car in nearly 20 years of driving stick where I'd miss gears, or have wonky things happen when grabbing first, etc. This solved 99% of the issues outside of a reluctance to go into 1st, which was not uncommon in these cars, even when they're new. It was truly like driving a different car, shifts felt positive, less clunky and gave me a much better feel of what I was driving. It reminded me more of my STi with upgraded shift bushings, or my Accord with the Neuspeed short shift adapter and bracket flip.

Today I was enjoying a leisurely drive to the beach. Roof off, stereo up, etc. I pulled out of a side street and had no one around, so I did a bit of a 1-2 pull and when I shifted into 3rd I noticed it didn't seem to move fully forward and engage, so rather than risk a bad shift, I threw it in 4th. I then dropped the RPM and put it up into 3rd and it was fine. I wrote it off as a one-time issue. I was at a stoplight and I couldn't get 1st gear. It's not the first time that this happens, so I released the clutch in neutral, clutched in, went into 2nd and back into 1st and it took fine. So at the next light rather than sitting in neutral, I kept the clutch in and in 1st and it ground / popped out. I started in second and when I went up into 3rd it popped out. I went to a parking lot and basically found out I didn't have 1st, 3rd, or a positive feel in 5th or reverse. 2nd, 4th and 6th all felt okay, albeit long.

Luckily the car has enough torque I just started in second and raised the RPMs before going into 4th (it'll cruise in 6th at 800 RPM and 40 MPH, so I'm not worried about bogging too much). When I left the beach and was moving the shifter around with the car off it just felt like there was no connection between the shifter and the car.

The only thing I can think of is the shifter assembly is slotted and allows play fore and aft. I had to have not set it correctly, or not torqued the bolts right. Rare for me, but I just used my electric impact and let it kick. Reading some forum stuff it appears the car is sensitive to where the shifter sits as well as the tightness of the clamp to the rod to the transmission. I guess I'll be resetting everything and seeing what I can do.

I've been modifying everything I've owned since I was 16 including the wife's car and my Mom's car. Even at my most inept, I've never failed so consistently as I have with this car. Every single modification I've done has backfired in some way. High end retrofitted HID projectors? Nope, they will bounce too much and not raise the headlights and turn on if the car's been sitting for more than a day or two. Upgraded seats? Nope, massively uncomfortable. CarPlay HU? Goodbye any/all bass and panel fitment. Clear roof? Enjoy a never-ending rattle. JDM Broadway mirror? Hit a bump and watch it nearly fall off the car. HID fogs? - clearly those won't work on the first try. Now the shifter - who needs gears?

Maybe I need to go back to the Honda / Subaru world. They had their flaws, but things worked.

 

Thanks man!

 

I did the badges on my wives 4runner like 3 years ago, covered with that as a clear coat, still in perfect condition.

I don't want to be a dick, but when did you think buying that car was going to be trouble free? There new ones aren't even trouble free.

You are going to have issues with that car forever and the more you mess around with it the worse it will get. Getting a classic and changing everything about it makes no sense to me either. Like, what did you like about the car? Why do you want to change everything? With old cars, the focus should be getting everything OEM as fuck or doing a big ol' restomod IMO.

Just my .02 even though it might not be worth even that much.

 

Sounds like it's time to retire from the bowties... The more I read about them, the less I want to own one. I'm like you, I like to modify vehicles and the one Chevy I owned was the one that was the most difficult to modify. I tried changing the head unit, lots of other things stopped working and I had to buy a few hundred dollar module to correct. Their ECU's are locked down pretty tight and tough to mess with where as Ford's you just download a free app and go to town.

 

I’m done with this car. Maintenance and driving it once I sort these remaining issues. It’s a nice car to drive when everything works.

It’s a 99, not a 69 Tri-Power big block with a chalk mark restoration. They made 250,000 of them between 97-04. It will never be worth anything as it’s got too much mileage and there’s too many sitting in garages under tarps with on delivery mileage on it. It’s a 20 year old Chevy, nothing more, nothing less.

What did I like? RWD, 6MT, removable roof. I hate that it’s a Corvette. The owner group and I have zero in common. It’s nice to drive in the summer with the roof off.

My goal was to fix the glaring flaws in the car, namely the dangerous at night headlights, the lack of Bluetooth calling, the sloppy shifter, etc.

I figured a few well chosen, very well reviewed pieces wouldn’t give me headaches, and they have. Like the seats, everyone said they were the best thing they changed in the car, they were the least comfortable seats I’ve ever sat in. I gambled on them because I couldn’t find a set to sit in locally and I lost. I rebuilt and recovered a set of stock seats and they’re fine and better than what came in the car condition wise, but it was an expensive endeavor.

The clear roof is an OEM piece but the latches are all out of adjustment. It’s not something I can’t fix, it’s just one of those things that should just drop in, but it didn’t.

The car already had a full custom stereo installed circa 2007 in it when I got it, I just wanted a head unit which had CarPlay, or simply the ability to do Bluetooth calling. My friend had a Pioneer NEX he gave to me. There is something about that specific head unit that killed the bass output. I’ve got a 5 channel amp and dedicated sub channel. I should have more bass than I do. I’ve done tons of stereo installs over the years, amps, subs, head units. I’ve never had something like that happen.

It’s not a case of not expecting problems, it’s a 20 year old car, I get that. It’s that every single thing I touch goes to hell thats frustrating because as I’ve noted across 20 years of modding I’ve never had so many fails in one single car. My Accord was taken apart and put back together so many times by my inept mechanical self at roughly the same vehicle age and more mileage and was fine.

Hell, the shift assembly is all GM and it’s just a generation newer (similar to how 2G/3G parts interchange). There’s hundreds of forum posts about how fantastic it is (it really was). It’s just like there is no room for error on these cars and it keeps biting me.

I had the factory harmonic balancer replaced by a dealer and it failed in less than 2 months. I had it replaced again under warranty and the replacement part was worse than the original. I ended up going aftermarket but an indie shop.

I just needed to yell into the void for a night. I’ll get it sorted, and I’m done touching anything on the car, but it sucks to fail like this so consistently.

 

I get it, at this point I'd burn the thing and throw a party if it isn't gonna get you any money selling it...maybe a part out first.

That sounds like a nightmare, and its what has kept me from going too far from stock on my 1st gen. I have had a few similar, but less frustrating experiences before and I was worried I'd end up hating the truck if I messed it up too much.

Sorry about your issues, but if there is any place to come vent about anything, this is it IMO. Hopefully you can find some sort of happy middle ground, maybe someone wants to trade for another project you are interested in.

 

Thank you all for the birthday wishes. The Half-Baked VT Adventure was a success. I have some modifications to make to my route files and then I'll share it for anyone else who wants to check it out. We'll have a picture dump soon.

 

Heckin' right @BadDNA that was an awesome trip. I have never seen some of those parts of VT, even growing up in NH. Now....we doing it again next month?

 

Morning peoplefaces. Happy f*cking Monday.

 

I hate Monday. Hello everyone.

 

Most people do

 

Well, this IS a support forum

 

Any of you guys up on emissions legality? I’m trying to figure out if it’s legal to vent a crankcase to the atmosphere. I know you can’t just straight vent it out, but if I put a catch can on the end so any oils would be caught before it gets vented, is that kosher? Anyone know where to even start looking for this type of info? Asking for a friend

 

My gut says anything non-stock is a no-no, but they typically don’t do a visual, and if you’re not throwing a code you’re ok.

 

I’m in R.I. but I haven’t gone since before they started doing the video recording shenanigans. R.I. is doing that too. But yeah they aren’t going to test into it. When I went last time in R.I. the guy didn’t even turn my lights on. He started it up, plugged it in and 2 minutes later all good. My tires were nearly bald.

 

There would be no codes. I’m not sure the actual reason why you can’t vent to the atmosphere. If it’s dropping oil, I would think a catch can would solve the issue and make it so I don’t leave oil drips. Technically, I know, it’s not carb compliant but I want to keep oil out of the intake because that whole set up is just a stupid f-in idea...

Alternatively, there is a catch can kit made by Mishimoto but it’s a bitch of an install. It’s still carb compliant though but expensive as hell and again, complicated install when a simple hose with a filter seems like a no brainer.

 

My 96 Cummins 12 valve had a breather tube that vented to atmosphere. Basically the size of a heater hose hanging down so that the air passing under the truck created a vacuum. Oil drips are a side “benefit”. The 24V motors had a similar system but there was a bottle on the bottom to catch the drips. Aka puke bottle.

 

In theory if your catch can is doing it’s job, any entrained oil should come out, so you’re just venting crankcase blowby air back into the intake. Are you trying to keep it fully clean?

I had one in my Accord using a simple air /water separator for a compressor and some fuel injection hose.

As far as venting to atmosphere, it has to fall under the venting any engine related air without treating it. I suppose there’s always the fire hazard if you got enough oil coming out the breather and it hits an exhaust manifold.

 

That’s sort of what i’m thinking, puke bottle!

Yes, it’s all about keeping oil out of the intake. Ferd uses a shitty CCV filter that doesn’t do a fantastic job. The way it’s set up, it’s not just a simple hose, it attempts to filter the oil out and drop it back to the crank case and ‘clean air’ to the intake. The problem is, the design taps into 3 spots and they’re not standard type taps so not easily replaced or side stepped. The catch can is the easy part, the plumbing is sort of a pain...