YYCZ06

Hi, my name's Jay and I'm from Calgary, Alberta. These threads are popular on the Jeep SRT8 site I belong to and I wish now that I'd started one back in 2009 when I purchased and started modifying my Jeep.

Here's how the Jeep sits now. Its got a blower, headers, meth injection, Nitto NT-05s, its been lowered, and I've done a bunch of powder coating too. Think I'll leave this one alone for a while and focus my attention on the new to me Z06 I picked up a couple days ago.



Took delivery of the Corvette this past Wednesday. The older gentlemen I purchased it from delivered it to my house. She's a completely stock, low mileage 2008. I like my vehicles black, so I was happy to stumble across this one.



First item on the list, pull that NPP fuse. It was easy and free.....can't beat that. I've seen some great threads on this forum for wiring up an on/off switch so I may do that down the road, but for now, I'm happy with the way she sounds.

meanjoe

I think maybe I should have stopped with this fuse mod also. It was the first thing I did too.

Mark2009

Masochist

Congrats on the beast

YYCZ06

Pulled the wheels this morning and gave those a good cleaning. The barrels were in pretty bad shape. If I had to guess, I'd say they'd never been cleaned before.









While I had them off I noticed the rear tires were well past the wear bars in a few places so I went ahead and ordered up some Nitto NT-05's. I've run two or three sets of these on my Jeep and like them a lot. I went with 285/35/18 for the front and 335/30/19 for the back. They should be here in a week.

SteveDoten@ARH

Congrats on the Z

Mark2009

Man, I had a wheel off today and cleaned the pretty gross barrel before I put it back on, but I didn't get it anywhere near that clean. Quit making us slackers look bad

YYCZ06

I won't lie, it took me a while to get them looking like that. I ended up sealing and waxing them too so hopefully that helps.

YYCZ06

Thanks Steve!

YYCZ06

Last night I gave all the stock bolts a good shot of rust release penetrant. They were all in pretty good shape but I didn't want to have any issues when I lowered it this morning.



This was surprisingly easy to do and the whole process only took about half an hour. I used a couple jacks, some 2X6, and a 10mm ratcheting wrench.





Not sure if it will settle a little more but it looks better than it did yesterday.

jnv255

Congrats on the new car, you'll really enjoy it... Rides better than you thought it would doesn't it? I run the NT05R's on the back of my car, but it's not stock either.

I'm sure I'm probably about to start something, but I wanted to give you a heads up, if the car is under warranty, do not tune (and make sure it hasn't been if possible) the car as it will void your warranty (unless you're lucky like I am and still have warranty work done on a car that's cammed along with a lot of other things.)

Now my car still has another 2yrs on warranty, but I went ahead and got my heads fixed as it wasn't worth the risk.... (to me!). Bronze valve guides, Manley SS valves, Ti retainers, 750 lift dual valve springs, Lunaiti high rev lifters, cam, intake manifold, intake, headers and quite a bit more on my car now, but I think you get the point, it's far from stock.... But like I said, I can still have warranty work, (friends in high places)

If you read threw the forum you will see quite a few LS7's that were stock, never raced , and were just cruising when they dropped an exhaust valve, or valves with some motors under 5000 miles. The debate will go on forever, but one thing I think (most people) agree on is the stock valve guides suck and have cost quite a few people an engine as the exhaust valves tend to break and cause all kinds of havoc, (which usually requires a completely new engine!!)
Some will say, just fix the valve guides with bronze and use factory exhaust valves, others will say use bronze valve guides and stainless steel valves (I went the SS route).... It's a never ending argument between the two and some people claim the exhaust valve issue is all internet hype. When my heads came off, there was deff more play in the valves than there should've been and for all I know, I caught it just in time.
If it's out of warranty, I would fix the issues right away, even if it only gives you a peace of mind as it did for me along with more power.
After 1 year of the SS valves and building the top end (and I don't drive like a little ole lady on the way to church) I had the top end torn down again (mainly for more porting and to mill the heads) and everything was still in spec and looked brand new, like it should....

Not trying to scare you at all, not saying the SS valves with bronze valve guides are the way to go over bronze valve guides with factory valves, I just want to make you aware of you were not already of the only fairly common issue with the LS7. Even though I was under warranty, I wanted to be proactive, not reactive and after the machine shop said they were fairly out of spec, I'm glad I did.

Enjoy your car, you'll love it...... And I'm in no way trying to scare or make you worry, just giving you a heads up..
Stay safe

YYCZ06

Thanks for the heads up. I did a fair bit of research before I pulled the trigger on this car and knew what I was getting into with respect to the heads. My plan was to simply enjoy it this summer then do all my research and come up with a plan of action over the off season.

So is this all I need?

Bronze Valve Guides
Manley SS Valves
Ti Retainers
750 Lift Dual Valve Springs
Lunaiti High Rev Lifters

I enjoy working on my cars and did all the modifications to my Jeep myself, however, one thing I've never done are the heads. Is it just a matter of removing them, shipping them off to have them beefed up and then bolting them back on? How much does the above noted work typically cost? I'm guessing a guy should also have them ported and polished at the same time.

YYCZ06

Price was right so I picked these up this evening. Think I'll powder them black and put the Nittos on when they get here.

YYCZ06

Loaded up the wheels yesterday and took them down to the powder shop. I had to pick up a set of wheels for the Jeep so it worked out well. I'll be doing these ones in the same color.



These are semi-gloss black.

YYCZ06

Bunch of stuff came in the mail yesterday too.

Black Gorilla lugs:





TPMS sensors along with black sleeves and caps:



CUB TPMS Trigger Tool:

YYCZ06

Wired up a switch for my exhaust this weekend. Thanks to wstaab for the DIY thread.

I decided to hide the switch behind the ashtray door. Seemed like a good spot and easily accessible while driving.

Removed the ashtray then popped out the backing with a trim tool.



Drilled a 3/4" hole for the switch then cleaned up the edges with a round file. I'll probably get another Laser Interceptor for the Z06 so I left room to add another switch on the left.



Secured the flag connectors then fed the wires through the hole.





Ran the wires behind the carpet then made all the connections.

YYCZ06

Steamrollers arrived today. One of the best looking tires in my opinion. I went with 285/35/18 for the front and 335/30/19 for the back.

silvrhand

Be careful on the gorilla lugs, the ones I got don't have near the surface area to sit against the rims that my stock ones had, I was worried that they would break/not snug as tight.

silvrhand

Call Jason at Katech and talk to them, it's either Katech or WCCH to do your heads.

YYCZ06

Thanks! I'll watch out for that.

I've poked around the WCCH website a couple times. I'll give Jason a shout sometime too. Thanks!

YYCZ06

Wired up an auxiliary input for my iPhone last night. Thanks to Gearhead65 for this one.

I ordered one of these from Digikey - part number is 839-1040-ND. It has a nice slim 3.5mm connector that works well with my iPhone's case.



Located and removed the XM module from the back of the car.



Unplugged the connector then cut the green/white, brown/white, and tan/white wires.



Soldered all the wires as per Gearhead65's instructions then protected them with some heat shrink.



Ran the wire under the carpet to the back of the centre console, drilled a 1/4" hole, then passed the wire through.



This was very easy to do and the sound quality is excellent.