Teh Official "Dude Where's My Forum?" Thread, Brought to you by the minds of Box, and her fiancée, Lorelei Options

[Box]

Oh yeah, guess it'd make sense there'd be a forum for that. I know there's Candle Power? forums, but I think they're mostly dedicated to halogen. I know the NB1 has the "advantage" of having a H4 reflector housing, so going D2S would be stupid easy. Just so much that'd need done to it as well minus suspension.

I did come across some cool ballasts from Profile/Morimoto though that switch from 35W to 50W, I could replicate halogen! Especially since I'd want to use 4300-4500K bulbs.

[Bitter]

Candlepower forum is dedicated to exactly following the exact letter of the law for vehicular lighting, no exceptions allowed at all.

[Box]

I've seen some exceptions researching halogen stuff in the past, like they low key approve of using 9011 and 9012 in 9005 and 9006 housings even though that's technically illegal. That and ECE conversions for sealed beams, yet that is also technically illegal in the U.S. because the D.O.T. is stuck in the past.

[Box]

Found a nice tunnel video of the KL V6:
https://youtu.be/VfS3GHT2bFA?t=20s

Sounds so glorious, and so slow.

[Box]

The McLaren F1 just isn't working out as my dream car, being as I'll never get one short of winning some multi million lottery. It's depressing and disheartening and makes me want to give up on cars. In my defense when I fell in love with them they weren't the $20M cars they are now, more like $500K. $500K is still a lot, but at least within the realm of possibility with enough hard work and saving over a lifetime. $20M is just untouchable unless I find myself in 1% of the population with 99% of the wealth. I can't think of anything else though, so back to giving up on cars... I'll buy a Prius and start condemning all of you and every other car enthusiast to deal with my bitterness and rage, seems like a legitimate solution if you ask me and will make my life considerably easier.

Plot Twist; self righteous hybrid owners are actually repressed car enthusiasts that can't afford what they want.

[Bitter]

Found a nice tunnel video of the KL V6:
https://youtu.be/VfS3GHT2bFA?t=20s

Sounds so glorious, and so slow.

Sounds just like my Celica.

[Box]

Hmm it's sorta like the 2ZZ-GE, but fuller sounding with less rasp. Which as far as naturally aspirated I4 in cars I think the 2ZZ-GE sounds best, maybe the Honda F20C a close second.

[Bitter]

I meant how slow it is

[Box]

Ahh, well that's your fault for getting the auto.

[Bitter]

Ahh, well that's your fault for getting the auto.

And unmolested auto was better than a beat up manual, and shockingly it's not lost nearly as much value since I bought it as I'd thought. I've seen some 7th gens with similar to slightly lower miles lately going for about 500 less than I paid almost 10 years ago for mine which is probably a good sign going forward and maybe at some point it'll stop loosing value, though I doubt it'll ever gain in value.

Also, was not super confident in my ability to drive a tight close gated 6sp without breaking the car. I probably still aren't too confident but much more confident now than I was then, I'd gladly get a stick in it if it didn't mean gambling on a good working C60 which are, like an auto GTS, an uncommon commodity. And really it's not that slow, it outpaces a stick shift 6th gen GT fairly easily (which isn't an accomplishment, I know). It's just that it's also not fast, but it's a ton of fun to drive with the tires, brakes, and suspension that I've got on it and it makes nice sounds without being so obnoxious that I attract unwanted attention.


Oh that Firebird came back again, twice. The dipstick tube broke at the weld for the bracket and was dumping oil onto the exhaust on the highway, repaired that, then it came back a week later for crank no start. I found a myriad of problems...too lean for both banks and a P1371 code for too few 4x low resolution pulses. Normally that means the optispark unit is dead. This time it means the hill billy redneck cousin ****er who "fixed on" the wire harness under hood (likely was some fire) could install butt crimps but couldn't understand to not have 4 inches of bare copper separated by only an air gap. The low res signal was shorting to power, and I found that wiggling the harness and hearing stuff come alive under hood like when you start cranking the engine because the 12v dropping into the low res signal line was going up and down past 5V causing a trigger to happen. Temp fixed that, that cleared the P1371, both low and high res signals looked fine cranking on the scope, found a dead ICM, now it starts, now I need to replace/repair some ****ed up plug wires and repair the wiring and make sure no other faults are there either. With the vacuum leak fixed it runs a lot better too, that was just a rotten evap elbow. It's fuel trims are funky though, B1 is fine now, B2 is normal-ish at idle but off idle goes way positive adding fuel, may be a bad AIR check valve or something, need to pinch that tube off and see if they go normal.

I think in addition to the headers and exhaust it's got some performance heads, non stock head bolts for sure and the heads look cleaner/shinier than the rest of the engine. It sure rips hard like it's not breathing like a stock LT1. Maybe he'd be willing to part with the car and you can swap the engine into your 6spd car for some real fun! He is looking to selll.....

[Box]

I've given up on the notion of having a fast car, it's pointless on the street since you can't use anything over 300 horsepower all of the time legally anyway. Hence the stock LT-1 was more than enough, it makes nice V8 sounds and I can go up a hill in 6th with the A/C on so what more can you want? Independent rear suspension and a smaller and lighter car, that's what I want. Any who once it's fixed it's being sold, and already have someone that wants it so I'd feel like a tool changing my mind again.

Should be able to see casting marks on the heads, the only common improvements I know of are the LT-4 heads but that also requires the LT-4 intake. The factory LT-1 heads are aluminum, so it'd looked cleaner and shinier than the iron block in most any instance. A stock LT-1 goes plenty fine when it's in good condition with 93 octane and backed by a 6-speed, it's a lot better than the Z28 A4 my father had and constantly ran on 87 in addition to solving oil leaks just by adding more oil and Bar's Leak...

[Box]

So the Noble M400 apparently uses the Jaguar AJ30, but puts in high lift cams and twin turbocharges it. I wonder how hard it'd be to find the cams... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-cDfx-QU_Q

Not many videos of Nobles out there apparently, so that one has to do.

[Bitter]

I've given up on the notion of having a fast car, it's pointless on the street since you can't use anything over 300 horsepower all of the time legally anyway. Hence the stock LT-1 was more than enough, it makes nice V8 sounds and I can go up a hill in 6th with the A/C on so what more can you want? Independent rear suspension and a smaller and lighter car, that's what I want. Any who once it's fixed it's being sold, and already have someone that wants it so I'd feel like a tool changing my mind again.

Should be able to see casting marks on the heads, the only common improvements I know of are the LT-4 heads but that also requires the LT-4 intake. The factory LT-1 heads are aluminum, so it'd looked cleaner and shinier than the iron block in most any instance. A stock LT-1 goes plenty fine when it's in good condition with 93 octane and backed by a 6-speed, it's a lot better than the Z28 A4 my father had and constantly ran on 87 in addition to solving oil leaks just by adding more oil and Bar's Leak...

I know how aluminum heads look when they're 21 years old and these heads do not look 21 years old, the bolts are certainly not. The intake manifold is red, so that's an LT4, right? I wonder if someone just swapped in a whole LT4..? It really rips hard and doesn't feel like it runs out of breathe up high like a stock LT1 does. I want to figure out whats in the car because they're selling it and they're clueless. How would I tell which block and heads it is without tearing stuff apart? Either someone swapped a whole LT4 in, swapped a set of LT4 heads and intake, or painted their intake red.

[Box]

Here are good sites going over the differences: https://www.grandsportregistry.com/lt1vslt4.htm https://www.nookandtranny.com/Info_LT1.html

It's not uncommon to put LT-4 heads, intake, and cam on the LT-1 though and leave it at that. Also it's possible someone has changed the rear out on the car since 2.73 was standard on automatics or you could get 3.23, all manuals were 3.42 though aftermarket goes up to 4.1 or so. That and if they put in a shift kit that'd help a lot with the 4L60-E. The only definitive way to know if it's a LT-4 is to look at things specific to it like the pistons, that or find the VIN number since LT-1 are P on the 8th digit and LT-4 are 5 on the 8th digit. I'm leaning towards it being a LT-1 with LT-4 add ons as the LT-4 only came in '97 SLP F-bodies or the '96 Corvette with a manual, in total only some 6,500 LT-4 between them all.

[Box]

If you're thinking about buying it to sell it'd only be worth it if you got it for next to nothing. LT-1 A4 cars aren't worth anything, and just now the manual ones are because the T-56 is worth more than a whole LT-1 A4 car and all the LS-1 M6 cars have been smashed into a tree or guardrail and had their drivetrain put into something else. So for those that want a manual V8 F-body the LT-1 cars are now looking good even though they were the ugly stepsister up until now. Or for some reason it's a true LT-4 it might be worth parting out, but even then I'm not sure how much of a market there is as everyone has their head up the LS.

This post has been edited by Box: May 27, 2019 - 4:37 PM

[Box]

So in finding my "realistic" dream car I decided to go over the things that're important to me in a car, and compile a list:
Manual transmission
Double wishbone or multi-link suspension front and rear
Rear wheel drive
Limited slip differential
Under 3,000 pounds
Under 180" long and 70" wide, preferably
Cool sounding engine with character, motor sporty

I think that more or less covers everything. One car comes to mind that meets all of those stock and isn't a McLaren F1, the FD RX-7. The first gen Acura/Honda NSX is also close, just a bit heavier though Type-R variants were well under 3,000 pounds. Also the Honda S2000 meets all of those as well, as does a KL/Duratec/AJ swapped Miata. The TVR Griffith 500 does all that too, but those were only sold in Europe or even just the UK. Can't really think of many other cars that meet all of that though, maybe whatever years Lotus Elise we got with the 2ZZ-GE. Maybe a Corvette with enough weight reduction? From what I can find the C6 is the lightest generation and close enough in Z06 form, only 100 or so pounds over the 3,000 mark. Hey I'm feeling better already.

Yes, I'm mental.

[Bitter]

I don't want to buy it, I want to give the owner all the available info so they can get the best price. I bet it's LT4 top end, not sure if there's a shift kit but when you get on it in first it doesn't upshift till the tach needle is buried well past the indicated red line. Possible they got a LT4 computer too?

[Box]

They could've gotten the factory one chipped, since I doubt they found one out of 135 or so SLP F-body LT-4 computers.

[Bitter]

97 would be chippable?

[Box]

Well that or flashed in that instance; '94+ are flash based and '93 and earlier were chip based.