Well, I’ve officially had my Corvette for 7 days and it’s kept me pretty busy.  The day after I got it home my son and I got in the car to take it to my parents to show it off.  Turn the key, click, no starting for you! 😦  After some troubleshooting and research, turns out the starter is bad.  I thought this might happen as the previous owner had an issue starting it initially when I looked at it. 

 

After about 8 hours, lots of cussing, bruises, ruined clothes, and money spent on tools, the starter is now swapped out and she started right up.  Luckily the neighbor across the street from me was able to help since he worked on LS1’s in the past, this was a huge help. 

 

The main problems I had with swapping the starter were:

 

1) I’ve never swapped a starter out in my entire life.

2) I didn’t have very many tools.

3) The fuel lines ran right over the starter.

4) Long tube headers made this working in tight quarters to say the least.

5) The wires for the starter were way too short. I had to hook up the wires when it was bolted in and the whole to get my hand to the wires was smaller than my hand.

 

I noticed after driving the Corvette a couple times the idle is a bit rough.  Today I cleaned out the throttle body, it was pretty nasty.  I haven’t driven the car since the cleaning but I image throttle response will be a bit better now.

 

Next I plan to powerwash the engine since it looks like crap but I need to finish the baby room first!   I’ll post some new engine pictures once I have it cleaned up.

 

I also have some ideas about the projects (short and long term) that I would like to do in the Corvette:

 

Exterior:

1) Full Zaino detail to help with the swirls in the paint.  Polish the wheel wells.

2) Blackouts for all lights.  I am still thinking about this one.

3) Bring back the personal license plate "Mowpow".  I had this on my 2001 Camaro SS.

 

Interior:

1) New seats.  All controls work fine but the leather looks terrible and is quite worn.

2) Minor dash/control repairs.  There are cracks in the plastic facings on the dash but the top is in good shape.  The driver side window switch is damaged but still works (part on order).  Carpet needs to be cleaned. 

3) Upgrade the radio.  I don’t have any tapes anymore :).

4) Replace the steering wheel.

 

Engine:

1) Powerwash and detail.

2) Reseal oil tank.  Not leaking majorly but did notice some ooze when I was replacing the starter.

3) May need a new AC compressor.  Strange clicking noise when AC is on but it still blows cold air.

4) Turbo.  ~6-8 psi boost.  Add some power to the top end and raise HP to the 500’s.  This is definitely long term hehehe, $5 grand at least :).

 

I’ll take some new pictures of the exterior once I get it Zaino’d up.

 

Jake