December 2003 � Exhaust
I hacksawed the rusty Monza mufflers off and stored them with the Bose stereo. They never lined up right, and are cheaply made. They�re advertised as producing a �European V8 sound� but that�s complete bullshit. They�re glass-packs and make your sportscar sound like a ratty old chevy pickup, which is a good thing in my opinion. I replaced them with straight pipes (muffler eliminators), and installed a dynomax Y-pipe and new tips. I used a Carsound universal cat. They are about $50 and flow as good as the Random Tech cats that cost 5x as much. Now my Corvette sounds like a ratty old chevy pickup with a cam.

Here's how to cut back and index plugs. Mark the ceramic with a sharpie so you know if it's lined up. You can use thin shims, or you can buy two sets of plugs and just stick them in every hole until the gap points up on most of them, as all the threads are cut a little differently. Also notice I cut the ground strap shorter to unshroud the spark. This will reduce plug life and probably won't show any gains at the dragstrip either.

March 2004 - Custom Digital Dash
The factory instrument panel always draws a lot of attention, but some say it looks dated. I updated it with some new colors and bulbs. Sometime around 86, GM switched from the 882 bulb to the 194 bulb. The 882s are brighter with higher wattage but tend to cook the circuit boards.

April 2004 � Power steering cooler, Camberbrace
San Luis Obispo county has some of the best twisty roads in the world, and I�ve explored every mile of them by now and the car is starting to whine about it. So I installed a power steering cooler, which suprisingly wasn�t even an option from the factory. I also installed a camberbrace by R-D Racing. It�s a very stout piece. It made a HUGE difference (in the time it takes to change the serpentine belt) and gave me an extra 20 lbs of downforce (because it weighs 20 lbs).

June 2004 - Fuel Injectors
I sent the fuel injectors in to CruzinPerformance.com to get them cleaned and flow tested. They came back looking new. They said the 85 injectors (rated at 24 lb/hr) were worth keeping. The later design multecs however, are garbage. I bought a set of 8 that failed while sitting in the box. The ohms across each injector were good, but two didn't flow and two had no spray pattern. I would have never found that out without testing them on the car. With half of the fuel rail upside down, you can check them by cranking the motor over.

September 2004
After I destroyed the Kumhos I replaced them with Yokohama AVS ES100s. It had great ratings on TireRack, and was cheap like me. It was comparable to the Kumho for traction, and quieter, and probably would have lasted longer than 8,000 miles had I not done so many burnouts on them.

October 2004
I put together a stainless allen bolt kit for the TPI. The factory torx heads are a pain to work with. With allen heads, you can use a "ball-tip" driver allowing you to get at the bolts from any angle. S-K Tools makes these.

I also polished the tuned port pieces by hand. I would rather polish a box of styrofoam peanuts than do this again. It matches up well with the vintage 1960 valve covers.

December 2004 - Wilwood
I began exploring Santa Barbara and Ventura county, and the Santa Monica mountains. The Santa Monica mountains are a playground during the work day. Keep in mind, the work day for a banker/lawyer that can afford to live there is from 10am-3pm, with a two hour lunch, so don't expect clear roads too often. I learned the hard way that the factory 11�� stock brakes don�t have enough heat capacity to handle Tuna Canyon, or Highway 33.
I was running hard into cliff-top hairpin turn and experienced complete brake fade. I pushed so hard on the pedal I thought I�d break the seat mounts, and they still weren�t grabbing. I saw God. Fortunately I was able to scrub off speed by downshifting and throwing the car sideways to stay right side up. God said to buy Wilwoods, which I did the following day. Wilwood does not make a kit for the 84-87, so I conjured up some custom adapters to use a C5 Wilwood kit. It comes with massive 2 piece 13.1�x1�� rotors and 6 piston calipers. The 2-pc rotors optimize rotational inertia and reduce heat conduction into the hub and wheel bearing. The brake lines are assembled from Earl�s parts. I also used shrink wrap over the stainless braided hoses to prevent dirt from chaffing the fragile teflon lines beneath. After all this, they performed worse than the stock brakes. You see, when you put giant rotors and calipers on the front of your car, they grab way before the rears can do anything. So you get premature front lockup, and almost no rear braking. The system needed to be dialed in. I put in a 110-lb bias spring to get more pressure to the rears, which improved my stopping distances to 60-0mph in less than 120 feet. Stopping distance is good for checking your bias, but the main goal was greater heat holding capacity. Anyone who spends this much just to improve stopping distance is misguided.