C5 Corvette Full Build

69 min readAug 6, 2020

I still remember it clear as day. My dad and I were driving to the Flea Market from our apartment. Passing the UHAUL, I noticed that there was a car show across the street; my dad saw it too. Upon returning, he turned into the parking lot and that’s where I saw her for the first time: a red C5 Corvette. In fact, the entire lot was full of them. I immediately told myself that one day I’m going to own that car. I was about 13 at the time. Fast forward another 13 years and I’ve been married to my wife for about 6 years; we have a son that’s 4 months old. I wanted to make sure that he always remembers this car being part of his life. My wife was the one that found her. I went to the dealership and fell in love. A few hours later, she was mine.

I snapped a few pictures and sent it to my wife. She was as excited, I think, as I was. She knew what this C5 meant to me and how long I’ve talked about owning one. She might have just wanted for it to end already, or for it to begin. Looking at the photo, I can still picture myself sitting there. People have advised me to test drive it before I bought it. For me, there was no need. I knew that I was going to own that car and I had a gut feeling that everything would be perfect. In hindsight, I believe I test drove it just to make sure that the engine wouldn’t fall out. I remember just admiring everything about the car when I drove it the first time. I knew it had some quirks but just like all other cars, I was going to make this one unique and completely to my liking.

After the car was in my possession, I drove it home and did what all other Corvette owners do: parked it inside the garage. I remember feeling nervous like I just did something illegal. I think the combination of anxiety, adrenaline, and the realization that I just bought my dream car at 26 was overwhelming. My wife and son came out and took photos alongside it. Yes, son, you have a photo of you with the car since you were 4 months old.

And finally, here I am taking it for a quick spin the first time since it’s been home. I don’t know if anyone else felt it their first time, but I had to keep telling myself to calm down and drive cautiously.

Looking back on it now I really liked the stock wheels. They fit the car nicely and were clean. But they’re gone and in place are the XO Verona 19x9/20x10.5 staggered wheels. I do have a set of XIX X15s in 19” staggered setup that I’m going to test fit and possibly use.

I hate convertibles but love T-tops. That’s the one thing that I always wanted in a car. For some reason, in my head anyways, you just look like you’re less of a mid-life-crisis driver when you’re rocking the T-tops.

I ended up removing the side-molding. The car just looks cleaner. However, the passenger side was repainted and someone did not take the time to remove the side molding before. It’s a drastic difference underneath. The final portion of this build will be to repaint the entire car.

The next picture is how I remember seeing that red Corvette 13 years prior to buying this one. It had the roof off and when I looked into it all I noticed were the Corvette seats and the 6 speed manual transmission. The interior will be redone completely. I don’t understand GM sometimes. How does it make sense to put truck parts into a sports car (they seemed to finally understand this question now and their answer was the C7/C8)? The steering wheel has got to go as well as that radio. The A/C controls will be relocated to the glovebox and an aftermarket double-din player installed. If you’ve ever driven a Corvette with a short shifter and one without, you’ll realize that a short shifter install has to become a priority upgrade. The center console lid is broken so that will have to be replaced as well. After driving it for some time, the seats could use more support: Corbeau seats will be installed.

There are even a couple of videos of my first drive after bringing it home.

DISCLAIMER: Just a quick note, I’m a software developer, and a car enthusiast. Everything I’ve done so far was with the help of the service manuals, YouTube videos, and forums like the Corvette Forum. I’ve never done anything this extensive and going into it actually kind-off terrifies me, but we’ll see how it goes. Just wanted to throw that in there since I may say some stuff that’s just flat out wrong.

It didn’t take long before the upgrades started. I wanted it to sound just a little bit louder so I opted for the dual intake. I may or may not change this later. Vararam sells the VR-B2 intake for the C5 and it looks really well designed. It’s officially been added to the part list.

My son always did love playing in the Corvette.

And yes, he does have a Corvette of his own.

After I bought my wife an X5, I was stuck driving the automatic 550i. Whereas before I drove 30 to 50 miles per day just for fun, I found myself not enjoying driving whatsoever. Whenever my wife would ask me to go for a drive, I would pass on the opportunity. She finally said it one day, “Just go and get yourself whatever you want; you clearly hate that car.” It didn’t take much convincing. I thought it was the automatic transmission that was killing my soul so I started looking at M5’s (I know BMW). I would repair it constantly for that M5 sound, but for some reason I wasn’t 100% sold on it. I was about to go and see one of them when I got a text-message from my wife; it was a 2007 Corvette in Lemans Blue. It was lowered, had 19/20 staggered Cray wheels, a Hurst short shifter, and a double-din player. The price was cheaper than the M5 I wanted to go look at. I immediately turned around and went to the dealership. Long story short, I got a 2007 Corvette as well, but that’s a story of its own. Now, I got two. It’s only been a few months.

I took the photo below since I wanted to capture my feeling of opening up the garage door. It definitely puts a smile on your face when you see two Vettes sitting in the garage. Sometimes I laugh thinking that I must be crazy but I then I realize that this is me; there’s no reason to hide. I love Corvette’s and this garage describes me perfectly.

I desperately wanted to start working on the 2003 Corvette but I decided to wait. Some of the happiest moments of my childhood were going with my dad to his work and cleaning his toolboxes and seeing all of the different cars that were there. Being that my life revolved around cars I wanted this to be a special time when my son and I can go to the garage together and work on the car.

So, I waited until December 24th, 2016 to begin. Harrison just turned 3 and was (and still is) completely addicted to cars. I love walking into the house and he’s casting “Supercars Accelerating” onto the tv from his phone (yes, he has a phone). I can see how much he enjoys walking into the garage with me and taking apart the car with me. Of course, he can’t do much, but I make sure that his hands are on the tools and he’s getting exposed to it all. I truly hope that one day this becomes part of his earliest memories.

It’s almost time for the tear-down moment.

Looking at the floor underneath the C6 there are oil spots everywhere. No that’s not from the Corvette, but instead from that 550i that used to leak from every single gasket before I spent $5,000 in repairing it. But I don’t want to think about that car anymore. The floors were a disgrace for the two Corvette’s to be sitting on. I got that resolved too. Since I’m trying to keep this as chronological as possible, I’m going to wait to show you the floors and garage transformation. That has to be one of my favorite upgrades I’ve done to the house so far. We’re still in 2014 so just be patient.

The next section begins in 2015.

Before the tear-down, my son would regularly play inside the C5. It’s almost as if half of my genes were apart of him. Who knew he would like to play in the trunk of his dad’s Corvette just like I liked playing in the trunk of my dad’s Stojadin? I knew, that’s who. I sent the photo to my parents just to get them emotional :).

October 29th, 2015: two days before my favorite holiday of the year, Halloween, the XO 19/20 staggered wheels came in. I felt like the only place to put them was on the kitchen counter. The chrome wheels were for my 2002 GMC Sonoma (eventually it will be bagged and might be sitting on those 22’s). I kept seeing these XO wheels on the C7 Corvette but nobody had them on the C5.

After the install, I can say that they truly look made for the car. The photo was taken immediately after placing wheels on so the suspension didn’t have enough time to settle. A couple of drives later, the gap narrowed.

At his point, it desperately needs to be lowered. But all in due time. I put the wheels on October 31st, 2015: Halloween. It’s not that I didn’t try; it’s the fact that the bolts are completely rusted and almost fused to the leaf-springs. Oh well, the C5 will be converted to independent suspension anyways. Bye-bye leaf springs.

I took these photos in front of my parent’s house on purpose. I think my constant talk of Corvette’s rubbed off on my dad and he started mentioning that he wanted to buy one too. Being the good son that I am, I offered to show him how great a Corvette would look parked in front of his house.

But she had to return home and I needed to get some photos of her in my driveway too.

It looks so much cleaner without the side molding. The C5+ Corvettes and a few other vehicles have that timeless good look. Take a look at a 1990 NSX and you can picture that same model being built in 2020; the same goes for the Corvette. I can see it looking great 20+ years from now.

Yeah, my son got a Corvette bed too. Good God, we’re completely obsessed. After two years of sleeping in the bed with his mom and us trying every trick in the book to get him to sleep on his own, he went to his new Corvette bed; on December 27th, 2015, he slept in the bed by himself. There was no begging, trying, tricking him, nothing, he just came into the room, got his blanket, said “night-night,” crawled into his new bed and went to sleep.

The exhaust came in and was installed April 2nd, 2016. I opted to go with the Flowmaster straight-pipes. The reason for this is because I’m planning on upgrading the cam and a few other engine components. I believe it’s going to sound even more ridiculous then. The C6 has a different Borla exhaust with an actual muffler.

And now onto one of my all-time favorite photos ever. I’m sitting in the C6 and my son in the C5 and we’re just looking at each other.

I think the next photos are relevant because the floors were put in and the Corvettes rest on them. I found a really good deal on Amazon. Took a couple of days to do but on August 18th, 2016, I was done with the install.

And yes, I’m very meticulous. I’m very proud of these corners that I was able to cut out around the stairs. I mean, to the millimeter.

The garage is complete. Added the Husky cabinets and filled them with my tools. Getting ready for that time when I start working on the cars with Harrison.

When I was younger I found out that my dad was throwing away all of the emblems that he had to replace. I told him to keep them for me from then on, and he did. I made decorations out of them. You would think something like this would be easy to do, and it is, but it’s extremely time consuming. I believe that each board took me anywhere between 3 and 6 hours to do, and currently there are 7 in the garage. I have the emblems necessary and I need to finish the last one soon.

As you can see, so much better than the BMW oil-dripped disgrace that used to be called the garage floor. The last thing that I need to finish are the stairs themselves. One of these days.

Took me a while to finish the other five boards, but here they are as well. Installed and ready to go finally on September 21st, 2016.

Let the modifications begin

We finally get to the moment of truth. It’s almost 9:00 pm on December 24th, 2016. I go into the garage and place it on jack-stands. It’s time to begin.

And off come the wheels.

What better thing to do on Christmas evening than work on your car with your son. That’s exactly what we were doing at 7:00 pm December 25th, 2016.

It’s about to get real. After a few bolts were removed, at 8:30 pm the rear end was off completely.

He had to work on his too. On December 29th, 2016, the front end came off. That was an accomplishment. I knew that there was no turning back now. I underestimated my school over the next semester so there was not much progress over the next few months. But summer was just around the corner.

I was trying to get myself pumped up over the next couple of months to restart working on it, so I would go in and clean the gunk that was underneath the fenders: it had to be done anyways.

6/24/2017

So I finally started working on the Corvette. After procrastinating and cleaning the garage, I started to work on the rear. Took out the rear sockets and the largest one happened to be a 32 mm. I figured that would be sufficiently large enough to remove the rear axle nut: it wasn’t. I went across the street to my dad’s house and he didn’t have anything as large either. It was time for a trip to Advance Auto Parts. After almost leaving the store thinking they didn’t have it, the 33 mm and larger sockets have been separated into their axle section. The total socket cost was $15.89 ($14.99 + $.90 tax). I jumped on it again and decided to see the power of my electric impact wrench I bought from Harbor Freight tools. A lot more powerful than I expected. It instantly loosened it.

Since they’re one time use nuts, I placed the order through Amazon for two new ones.

For the next part, make sure your e-brake is down. I started removing the rear caliper and again a nice problem. It needs a 16 mm wrench and 15 mm socket. I didn’t have the 16 mm because all of my wrench sets conveniently skip the 16 mm. Are you kidding me? Well I had to use the universal wrench.

After removing the rear caliper, the next is the caliper holder. It used a 21 mm socket. Needed to use a torque wrench to have additional grip to get them lose…and yes, they were really tight.

I heard something being dragged across the garage floor. Harrison brought out his chair, grabbed the wrench, and started working on the front rotor. He sat there banging away for quite some time.

There were two holders on the wheel bolts. I removed those with some needle nose pliers and unscrewed them once they were loosened. The rotor slid right off.

I proceeded to remove the brake line from the caliper and of course dropped the caliper. Brake fluid everywhere. I’m glad for these plastic floors. After a few minutes, the floors look like new. I zip-locked the brake line and tucked it away; I’m probably going to replace it.

I disconnected the brake sensor and tucked it back.

I removed the lower shock bolt and placed a jack underneath the lower control arm to be able to remove it without any issue. To remove the bolt, it requires two 24 mm sockets: one on each end. I also needed an impact wrench (again electric) to loosen it.

Next were two 13 mm bolts up top. Once they were out, I was able to remove the shock from the assembly.

I removed the tie-rod end. I used an Allen wrench size 6 and a ¾ inch wrench.

There’s a spring behind the wheel bearing. It’s held with two bolts. I removed the top but held off on removing the bottom. It’s actually perfectly okay to remove both right now and tuck away the spring.

6/25/2017

Next was removing the upper control arm ball-join bolt. This one was difficult since you have to use an Allen wrench again and an 18 mm wrench. The Allen wrench was a 3/16 size. It felt snug but I was worried that it would slip at any moment. I had to PB Blast it because it just wouldn’t loosen easily. After letting it sit for a few hours I went back to it and after getting the Allen wrench jammed in this crevice (check picture) it finally started to move. It finally came off. If you’re going to remove the entire suspension, remove the lower control arm first. It’ll be easier.

6/26/2017

The stainless-steel braided brake lines came in. Wow they look and feel great. I can’t wait to install them.

6/28/2017

The stainless-steel rotors and brake-pads came in. They’re going to look great peeking through the wheels. I decided to test fit one. The entire suspension will have to be painted to match the look of the rotors.

It’s about 7:45 pm and Harrison doesn’t want to go to sleep. After my wife said “OK Harrison, sleepy time,” he turned to me and said, “Dad, garage.” Who can resist that? We’re in the garage now; I was going to work on it anyway.

The top two bolts of the upper control arm came out pretty easily: you will need a torque wrench or something similar in size to get them loose. The socket is 18 mm. After a few minutes, the upper control arm was out.

Now it was time to remove that spring from behind the wheel bearing. Since the top bolt was already removed, I just needed to remove the bottom bolt.

I was able to wiggle out the axle and move it to the side so that I can get to the lower control arm bolt. I used the electric impact wrench and a 22 mm socket on a ball joint to get the correct angle. It came out like a charm. Then I needed to beat it with a hammer a few times (no more than 5) and the joint separated. I took the wheel bearing out.

Finally, I rested the lower control arm on the jack. Now that I have a pretty good view of everything, I can see that removing the leaf-spring should be a no-brainer.

Harrison was there, of course, the entire time. He’s exhausted but fights it. He was supervising from the chair.

6/30/2017

The center console came in. It looks great. The swap was easy. I just needed to remove the latch from the old one and position it on the new one. The latch is held by two screws. I proceeded to attach the new lid cover to the hinge by screwing the 4 screws into it through the hinge openings. It took about 10 minutes to install.

I’m thinking about wrapping the rest of the center console in leather now too. Later that night, I went ahead and purchased the seats from Corbeau. I ended up getting 2 of the Sportline Evolution X with Black Vinyl/Carbon and Red Stitch seats with the necessary mounting brackets. I also upgraded the brackets to have the double locking sliders. I think the only thing left to do will be upgrading the radio and the interior part list is done.

7/2/2017

I went to Advance Auto Parts and purchased all the paint for the suspension and brake job. I purchased 1 can of primer, 2 cans of Total Prep, 1 gallon of Lacquer Thinner, 3 cans of epoxy suspension paint, and 2 cans of silver high heat paint. I took the upper control arm, caliper, and hub bearing outside to clean and paint. After about 10 minutes I had to rush back inside because I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes and flies.

I needed to get the wire brush attachment for my Dremel tool anyway since trying to remove 14 years of debris with a steel brush was proving to be a challenge. Later that night I was looking up the attachments and talking to my wife about the overall cost of the project. She was asking me questions about the engine modifications and I was trying to explain everything that’s going to be going into it. She stated that “I just need to purchase everything since it’ll drive me to finish it sooner than later.” After looking at parts that I’ve already previously picked out, I placed the order for most of the parts. This was a huge purchase!

The items purchased were:

Eckler’s Premier Quality Products 25–102805 K&N Hose Cover Kit, Universal, Stainless Steel, With Red Clamps 7492 Corvette
ACDelco 252–846 Professional Water Pump
ACDelco 15–11057 GM Original Equipment Engine Coolant Thermostat Water Inlet Assembly
2 of ACDelco 12589226 GM Original Equipment Cylinder Head Gasket
2 of Fel-Pro ES 72173 Cylinder Head Bolt Set
Continental Elite 4060802 Poly-V / Serpentine Belt
ACDelco 38196 Professional Automatic Belt Tensioner and Pulley Assembly
Gates 38194 Belt Tensioner Assembly
Vararam 97–00 Corvette C5 VR-B2 Ram-air Intake w/ Powerduct
NEW OEM GM A/C Air Conditioning Belt 1997–2004 Chevrolet C5 Corvette 19172680
Camshaft: Street Heat Stage 3 “POLLUTER V2”
Valve Spring Type: Tick/PAC #TP660DVSK (for stock rocker arms)
Pushrod Length: 7.400" Pushrod Set
Timing Chain Upgrade: #HME-G68V-2 Katech C5-R Chain
Oil Pump Upgrade: #32586665 Ported & Blueprinted
Replacement Gaskets: GM Camswap Gasket & Bolt Kit

The tools that I purchased today were:

Dremel 532–02 Stainless Steel Brushes (2 Pack), 1/8"
Dremel 689–01 11-Piece Rotary Tool Carving and Engraving Kit
Dremel 530–02 Stainless Steel Brushes (2 Pack), 3/4"
Dremel 531–02 Stainless Steel Brushes (2 Pack), 1/2"
Pushrod Length Checker
COMP Cams LS Valve Spring Compressor

Like I said, almost everything that I’ve wanted to do to this car. The only other items that I wanted to upgrade were the intake manifold, throttle body, fuel rail, and injectors. I’ll get around to it eventually but right now I’m sort of overwhelmed and that anxiety has kicked in. I’ll be back to normal after a few days of letting this settle in: way too much money has been spent this weekend.

7/3/2017

Short shifter came in! And that’s where my excitement seized. Underneath the box was a message from USPS stating that there was another item that they couldn’t leave in front of the door since the sender placed a “Signature Required” option with the shipment. I went inside the house and look for it on eBay: it was my Momo steering wheel. My wife went to pick up Harrison from school earlier that day and missed the package delivery by 5 minutes. Now I have to wait until the 5th of July to pick it up, well for my wife to pick it up.

Later that night, the water pump came in. I couldn’t believe how massive that piece was. It comes with the entire assembly.

7/5/2017

My wife went to pick up the Momo steering wheel. It was worth the wait. A few more parts came in today too, like a couple of tensioners, head bolts, NRG steering adapter, thermostat, axle nuts, and belt. I’ll have an entire parts list of everything purchased soon.

7/6/2017

Hose dress up kit arrived (I actually never used it).

7/7/2017

Corbeau Seats are in. I can’t believe the quality of these seats. I’m glad I spent a few hundred more to get something that feels like this. Highly recommended.

Harrison approves of them too.

And a few more parts are in, cam, valve springs, timing chain, intake, etc. I can’t believe my wife allowed him to play like this considering she’ll be cleaning it up afterwards. But boy was he happy!

7/19/2017

I opted for the BC Racing Coilovers. Saw nothing but good reviews on them and couldn’t really beat the price either. It took about a month to get them in; I ordered them on June 27th, 2017. Like I mentioned earlier, this car will be riding on independent suspension. Having driven my lowered C6 (on stock bolts) I can truly say that the ride comfort is nonexistent. It truly feels like you have no suspension whatsoever.

Here’s a photo of all the parts that I got so far. Boxed up and stored in the trunk.

8/3/2017

Time to get the steering wheel replaced. This had to be one of the most painful things I’ve done on the car so far but it’s doable. I was also a nervous wreck thinking the airbag was going to explode at any minute. You’ll need a torx set to get started removing the airbag.

The photo below shows the location to access the bolt that you’ll have to remove to get the airbag out. It’s on the back of the steering wheel.

Once that bolt is out, you can start removing the airbag.

And like magic, the airbag is out. Take your time disconnecting the connectors.

Time to remove the main nut from the steering wheel. You’ll need a 21 mm socket.

Then it’s time to attach the steering wheel removal tool. I can’t believe it, well actually I can, but my dad had one laying around the house.

There’s really no other way to remove that. Work really slow since that tool will slip on you if you don’t have it perfectly positioned. I have seen videos of people beating it with hammers for hours to get it to budge. It took 10 minutes with the tool.

And after losing approximately two pounds to sweat, the steering wheel is out.

I have no idea where the photos went but like magic, here’s the MOMO steering wheel installed. The process is not too complicated. You do have to put on the steering wheel adapter. I also purchased the quick release, so that was installed too. Just follow the instructions that are included. There’s really no way to mess up. I did have to add a 2-ohm resistor to trick the airbag light from not coming on. Here’s a good write up on that:

How to turn off your steering wheel air bag light | Fast Car

The dreaded airbag light has always been the modder's enemy when fitting an aftermarket steering wheel or seats on any…

www.fastcar.co.uk

After some painful attempts, I had to get my wife to help me to place the quick release into the steering wheel adapter. It’s way too snug and will probably not be doing any quick-releasing any time soon.

Quick note, the NRG steering wheel adapter is quite snug with the plastic on the back and you’ll hear it ever so slightly when you turn. I may take that plastic off eventually and sand it down slightly to eliminate the noise.

Here are the parts used:

8/26/2017

Time to start painting some of the parts that I took off. This took forever. Not only did I have to clean off all the grease that was on these suspension components (my fault PB blasting it), but I also needed to remove the dirt and oxidation that accumulated on them. A steel brush isn’t going to do the trick. I spent days with the Dremel tool and wire wheel attachments working on it. It was even worse when it came to the calipers. But after some time, a hundred Dremel wheel wire brush attachments, a gallon of Lacquer Thinner, and a few bottles of Prep-All, it was time to start painting.

9/24/2017

Quick note: don’t paint the suspension components with the suspension paint that you can buy. It will chip like mine did. I painted some with primer and others without and they both chipped. I had to sand it all down and repaint all the components with caliper paint. It was the brush on kind and not the spray-can kind and it worked like a charm.

9/29/2017

Today I decided to remove the rear leaf spring and do some painting.

Took out the bolt attaching the leaf spring to the lower control arm.

I had to disconnect the tie rod end so that the leaf spring can be slid out. It’s under a lot of tension.

After that, I took out the bolt on the other side that holds the leaf spring to the other lower control arm and slowly removed the brackets from underneath the car that hold it attached to the frame. And out comes the leaf spring.

I proceeded to strip down all the excess rust that had built up in the wheel well. I used rust to black primer and let it sit for about 8 hours for it to do its thing. After that, I used black caliper paint and brushed it on anything that needed it. I also removed the brake line since most of the brake fluid had drained at this point.

9/30/2017

I think it’s about time to start putting some components back on. Things start moving fast from this point on since I finally got some time to relax. Let’s start with the BC Racing Coilover and the stainless-steel brake line.

Of course the family’s here.

In goes the upper control arm.

Slowly but surely other pieces start making their way back.

Harrison started working on his own Corvette.

After bolting up a few things, here it is.

Time to put the rotor and caliper on.

And here’s the finished product, only three more to go…

I guess it’s about time to start working on the other side.

10/1/2017

I spent a good portion of the night painting and getting the parts ready to install. Time to start putting the other side back together.

10/2/2017

I got a little ahead of myself and took the front passenger side off. This one was a bit more painful considering I had to remove the shock as well. You’ll have to get access to it from the top and of course it requires a special tool to hold it from spinning. I got some locking pliers and held it in place while I unscrewed it from the top. Very painful process without the right tool but the shock is going in the garbage anyway.

10/7/2017

Front passenger side suspension components removed and ready for some deep cleaning and oxidation stripping.

This process takes the longest. It honestly takes me days to get everything cleaned and ready for paint.

10/9/2017

Everything in the front passenger wheel well has been painted and reassembled.

10/13/2017

Working on the last wheel well. Again, time to strip all the oxidation and paint.

Here’s an example of just how much work is done on each part. Below you’ll see the before and after photos of cleaning the caliper.

10/14/2017

The last wheel is done. It does feel good.

I ended up stripping the rust off the rear bumper and painting it too.

10/15/2017

The day has come to start putting the body components back on. I got the rear done today and will do the front tomorrow. Once it’s complete it’ll be time to start working on the interior.

10/16/2017

Time to put the front end back together. The one thing that I forgot to do, even though I bought it previously, is changing the gear in the headlight motor since it’s grinding when the lights flip down, so I guess I’ll be taking apart the front end soon again.

And she has officially been put back together again.

It’s been some time since I’ve seen her sitting on the floor like that.

10/20/2017

The suspension has had some time to settle. I think I’m going to lower it even more (just slightly). I did take her for a spin and there’s a piece of plastic at the bottom that helps direct the air into the engine. The car is too low, and it scrapped like crazy, so as soon as I got home I took that piece out.

10/21/2017

Didn’t take too long for me to start working on the interior. Time to gut it and start fresh. I started off by creating the wiring harness for the Kenwood Double Din player. This was a process but luckily there were some helpful tutorials online to get me through it. I got the following parts for the radio.

97–04 Corvette Car Stereo Aftermarket Radio Install Wiring Harness Plug Bose.
Kenwood DMX7704S Double 2 DIN Media Player Android iPhone HD Radio Bluetooth
Kenwood DMX7704S Night Vision Color Rear View Camera — Black Metal Frame
Kenwood DRV-N520 Drive Recorder Dash Cam HD Camera DMX7704S Collision Warning

That way, since I already have most of the interior out, I can do the front dash camera and rear view camera too.

And the seats are out.

10/22/2017

Okay, got the blade and time to do some cutting.

The player fits and bolts up decently.

It’s about that time to install the Hurst Short Shifter. Pretty simple install.

I was even able to reuse the old boot.

Now it’s onto the most difficult, in my opinion, part of this whole thing: getting the center trim to fit perfectly around the double din player. I thought about buying a pre-made one online, but for the price I thought I’d give it a shot and see if I can do it myself. Since I’m going to be relocating those hideous HVAC controls to the glove box, I just needed to get rid of that plastic piece in the middle. Here’s what it came out looking like.

After sanding it down the first time, it came out looking decent. There was still more work to be done.

10/27/2017

The Corbeau 5-Point Harness came in today.

Harrison was having a blast with it.

10/28/2017

After looking around the house for something that I can use to help finish manufacturing the center trim, I stumbled upon a storage bin. The lid had plastic that was thick enough and easy to cut. I kept measuring everything out until I came up with this.

It was time to put some bondo on it and get to sanding later.

11/12/2017

Today Harrison and I worked on the HVAC wiring. Needed to extend it. After I soldered everything, he came in to help me hold the flashlight.

The wiring was run behind the dash and out towards the glove box. The best part is, there is a plug in the glove box that you can remove and push the wiring through. The bad part was that I already soldered all of the wiring to the connector. I had to cut the wires again and re-solder them in order to get the wires to fit through that plug. I also put the center trim back in; fits like a glove.

11/13/2017

The HVAC Controls have been successfully relocated to the glove-box. Word of caution, if you plan on doing this, and you have a 5-point harness, you will not be able to reach your glove-box unless you release the tension from your harness. I did have to cut the mounting plastic pieces off of it to get it to fit like that.

11/14/2017

The harness bar arrived so I decided to install it, install the harnesses, and install the seats in order to complete the interior. I removed the existing seat belts and tucked them underneath the carpeting. While everything was still torn apart, I ran the wiring for the amplifier in the back.

After struggling with the seat brackets a little, I finally got the seats in.

11/15/2017

I finished with the wiring in the trunk. The amp and sub are done. I can officially say that the interior is fully complete.

12/29/2017

It’s been snowing so finally got some good weather to take the Corvette out and take some proper pictures

03/29/2018

Time to do some engine stuff. First things first, time to lift her up. It really started when I noticed that the Harmonic Balancer needed to be replaced.

03/31/2018

Off comes the hood.

03/31/2018

I decided to start recording the whole process from this point on. This is the first video. I’ll have pretty detailed videos from this point on.

04/02/2018

Day 2 of working on my 2003 Corvette LS1 engine. Took off the intake and saw that the condenser was on top of the radiator and in the way of a clean camshaft install.

8/15/2018

Continued taking the engine apart. Removed the AC condenser cover, drained the coolant and removed the passenger side coils on my 2003 Corvette.

8/16/2018

Started off with removing the coolant lines connected to the radiator. Removed the radiator, fan, serpentine belt, alternator, and driver side coils.

8/18/2018

Today I removed the fuel rails and intake manifold.

08/20/2018

Corvette thermostat, water pump and power steering reservoir have been removed.

8/24/2018

Steering rack has been removed. This was probably the most painful part of the project so far. Not that it was difficult to remove, it’s just the fact that you have such limited space to move around in.

8/25/2018

I got the headers out. A few bolts ended up snapping off and it was at this point I decided to buy new headers and an x-pipe. Good thing since the cam that I got requires that you get new headers.

08/31/2018

Headers came in. I ordered the Maximizer long-tube headers and x-pipe since it had good reviews and wasn’t as expensive as the OBX system; also, it looked like the OBX system. When I opened the box, there was the OBX warranty registration paperwork. I guess they either own Maximizer or build systems for them. The system looks good and is made from stainless steel. I’m just a little worried on the welds; I think those things will rust. I’ll definitely paint the entire exhaust soon.

09/03/2018

I saw a cool paint job done on the harmonic balancer, so I decided to do something similar. I painted the outside flat gold and the inside red. First, I primed it, then applied silver engine paint to the inside, and then the red paint so that red would pop. Then I masked it off and painted the outside gold.

09/04/2018

I waited about 24 hours before applying the gold. I ended up not using any tape since I know it would take off the red. So, I just cut a manila folder in half and stuck it in, holding it from the inside and preventing the gold paint from spraying onto the red. It came out pretty good.

09/05/2018

Time to paint the headers. I cleaned, primed and painted the headers, catalytic converter, and x-pipe black. Initially I thought it was 6:00 pm when I started painting; turns out it was 7:30 pm. Well I guess into the night we go. At 9:10 pm, I’m working on the headers and I see that I’m about to run out of paint. Thankfully Auto Zone was still open and after a quick trip I came back home and completed the job at 10:15 pm.

09/15/2018

This high heat has been relentless. I’ve been working early in the morning most of the time so that Harrison can be out in the garage with me. Seeing that it’s not going to let off any time soon, I went and got a portable AC unit and wow does that make a difference. Although the garage is insulated, most of the time it’s about 85 degrees in there in the afternoon. With the AC running, it’s at about 77 degrees, which is quite comfortable especially with the additional fan going. I didn’t even break a sweat last time and more importantly, neither did Harrison.

Today I’ll be working on removing the heads which requires the removal of the valve covers, rocker arms, push rods and lifters.

At this point the valve covers are off and I’ve started removing the rocker arms. The rocker arms are torqued down tight so be ready to wrestle with them. I stored each rocker arm and push rod in its own zip-lock bag and numbered them from 1 to 16 starting from the driver side rear (1) and working my way to the driver side front (8) and then moving over to the passenger side front (9) and working my way towards the rear (16).

The passenger side head is off. Took a breaker bar to get the head bolts lose. The top 5 are 10 mm bolts. The internal 5 are 15 mm bolts. The one first and fifth ones are smaller than the rest of the remaining bolts. The five bolts beneath the valve cover are also 15 mm. There was also a clip that was disconnected in the back to remove the head completely. Then I proceeded to remove the lifters which are held by two 10 mm bolts. I pulled all 8 lifters with the lifter retainer cups attached.

For the driver side head, there are two bolts attached to the rear. The first one closest to the driver side fender is a 15 mm bolt; it’s attached to a ground. The next one is a 13 mm bolt and is attached to the air tube bracket. I just loosened that one and the bracket slipped out. At this point I removed the air tube completely. Unfortunately, the power steering pump/alternator bracket is attached to the front of the head so that had to be removed as well. It was only attached to two more bolts. Once the power steering reservoir was removed, by disconnecting two hoses, I was able to reach one of the bolts in the back effortlessly.

The same process goes in removing the bolts from the driver side: 5 small ones up top, 2 short ones inside the head at position 1 and 5, and the rest are long. Once the head was off, I removed the lifter retainer cups and lifters. Again, the lifter retainer cups are just held in place by two 10 mm bolts.

The section where the lifters go has been taped off so that no debris can go inside the engine.

Although today I removed the harmonic balancer as well, I’m going to separate that into its own video.

9/15/2018 Part 2

Now the tough part: getting the harmonic balancer off. Removing the pulley itself is pretty straight forward, but removing the crank pulley bolt is quite a challenge. Once it was out, I attached the harmonic balancer removal tool and got to work. It turns out it was too small for the larger bolt that I purchased so I ended up using the stock bolt. I threaded it back in about 8 full turns and got to work. I continued to unthread the bolt until I reach about 2 full turns. Towards the end, I didn’t feel comfortable unthreading the bolt any further, so I had to figure something else out. I’m sure a rubber hammer would have done the trick; however, I had another tool at my disposal. I ended up using it along with the longer bolt. The harmonic balancer is now off.

9/16/2018

Today’s a big day. I removed the oil pump, timing chain and cam. First, I started by removing the timing chain cover. It has 10 x 10 mm bolts. There are 8 visible from the front and 2 from the bottom. I took the tensioner off to get access to the bolt behind it. Once the cover is off we need to set the engine to top dead center by aligning the cam gear with the crank gear. The cam bear should be facing down and crank gear facing up. Next is removing the oil pump. Simply undo the 4 x 10 mm bolts holding it in place and unscrew the 1 bolt that’s attached to the pickup tube. Rotate the oil pump slightly towards the driver’s side and it will dislodge the pickup tube. Gently push the pickup tube into the oil pan and the oil pump will be free to remove. Next, remove the 3 x 10 mm camshaft bolts and take the cam gear out. Then remove the cam retainer plate by taking off the 4 x 10 mm bolts and start removing the camshaft. I attached 3 x 10 mm bolts from the water-pump since they give me a little bit more leverage. Rotate the camshaft while taking it out. If you haven’t removed the AC Condenser, like I haven’t, you’ll hit it with the camshaft. Angle it downwards to pull it out completely.

The time has come to start cleaning everything. While cleaning the engine bay and the engine itself, I’ll also be removing and sanding all the ground wires that I can see. After I finished cleaning the passenger side, I applied Rust to Black Primer to get rid of majority of the rust over there.

9/16/2018

And here’s the second part of the video for 9/16/2018.

9/18/2018

Today I continued cleaning the engine compartment. Got majority of the stuff cleaned. I applied the rust to black primer to the driver side frame and painted the passenger side frame with black engine high heat paint.

9/19/2018

I finished painting the driver’s side frame and cleaned the cylinders and pistons a little bit more.

9/21/2018

Painted the cradle silver. Took about 3 hours total to clean and paint. I ended up using the brush on caliper paint since it was the easiest to apply. Turned out pretty good. At this point I just have to remove the remainder of the exhaust, replace the valve springs and start putting it back together. It doesn’t help that I got sick today. We’ll see how long this holds me.

9/25/2018

Today I cleaned the filthy heads and installed new spark plugs. The new spark plugs were torqued down to 11 lb ft.

I was going to do the valve springs but decided to hold off on it since I decided to purchase a new tool. Unlike the stock valve seals, the Brian Tooley valve seals are a bit more difficult to install. The tool is going to get here in less than a week so I’ll continue on with it then.

09/29/2018

I cleaned the timing chain cover and painted it silver.

Just when I was about to call it quits for the day, the Brian Tooley Racing Valve Seal Tool came in. I used the comp cam valve spring compressor tool to compress the valve springs. Once compressed, I tapped the spring slightly with a hammer to release the locks and used my magnet to extract them. Next, I removed the comp cam valve spring tool and the valve springs. I used some pliers to extract the stock valve seals and proceeded to install the new ones. The Brian Tooley valve seals come in two pieces, so I placed the metal part in first and after lubricating the seal, placed it on top next. I then used the Valve Seal Tool and pushed them on. Finally, the new springs were installed with the Comp Cam Valve Spring Tool and one of the heads was complete.

09/30/2018

Installed the valve springs on the other head. The alternator was vibrating when I spun the pulley so I decided to replace the alternator; turns out that it was $202 after the core. I continued to remove the remainder of the exhaust which came out pretty easily.

9/30/2018 Part 2

I spent about 3 hours cleaning the intake manifold and painting the throttle body, alternator bracket and a couple of pulleys.

10/2/2018

Finally started to put the 2003 Corvette back together. I began by lubricating the camshaft with the cam and lifter lube from Comp Cams. I slowly inserted it in and attached the cam retainer plate using the three bolts that were covered in loctite. I then proceeded to line-up the cam gear and reinstalled it with the timing chain. The cam bolts were also covered in loctite before tightening them down. The oil pump came next. After fiddling with it slightly, it came on and I popped the oil pickup tube into it. The pickup tube got a new o-ring. I finally reattached the timing chain cover but haven’t tightened it yet. It’ll be tightened after the harmonic balancer gets installed.

10/4/2018

Today starts off like a cooking show. I preheated the oven to 250 degrees and inserted the harmonic balancer in there for roughly 25 minutes. I placed the harmonic balancer onto the crankshaft and used the installation bolt to push it on there a good distance. I exchanged the installation bolt with the old crankshaft bolt and tightened it down to 240 foot pounds. I then removed the old bolt and installed the new one. I first torqued it down to 37 foot pounds. I drew a horizontal line on it and rotated it a 140 degrees. Harmonic Balancer Installed.

I continued the installation process with the AC belt tensioner. I torqued it down to 37 foot pounds. I installed the new AC belt. After the belt, I applied some Cam and Lifter Comp Cam lube to the lifters and placed them back in with the lifter retainer cup. After applying loctite to the bolt that holds the lifter retainer cup, I torqued it down to 8 foot pounds.

I continued with the installation. This time I started off by attaching the head-gaskets onto the block. I proceeded to install some of the new coolant hoses next. I didn’t cut out too much out of this video because I wanted for people to see relatively how long certain things take to install properly. But I promise, heads are coming up in the next video.

I started by placing the passenger side head onto the block and re-attaching the wiring harness to the back of the head. I initially bent the metal bracket down and slid it underneath the wiring harness. I positioned the passenger side air tube and got it ready for install. Next, I placed the driver side head onto the block. After some wrestling, I was able to position the metal bracket from the passenger side air-tube onto the back of the head. It’s held down by a 13 mm bolt. After tightening it down, I also re-attached and tightened down the ground that goes to the back of the driver side head. It’s a held in place by a 15 mm bolt. I then torqued down the head per spec: first hand tightened, then torqued down bolts 1 through 10 to 22 foot pounds. I then drew horizontal lines on each bolt and tightened bolts 1 through 10 90 degrees (i.e. the horizontal lines are now vertical). For the third pass, I torqued down bolts 1 through 8 an additional 90 degrees and bolts 9 and 10 an additional 50 degrees. The smallest bolts, 11 through 15, I finally torqued down to 22 foot pounds. Probably the most exhausting part of the install so far.

10/5/2018

My mission for today is to get the push-rods and rocker arms back in. I applied assembly lube to the tips of the push rods and slid them back in. I then applied assembly lube to the tips of the rocker arms and slid them back in place. I hand tightened each rocker arm and torqued them down to 22 foot pounds. I then rotated the engine 2 full rotations (720 degrees) and inspected the valve springs and rocker arms. Once I saw that everything was good, I spun the engine an additional rotation (360 degrees) and again inspected the rocker arms and valve springs. I also checked to make sure that each rocker arm was still tightened down to 22 foot pounds.

After the rocker arms were installed, I continued with a few more things on the to-do list. I started off with installing the coolant cross-pipe. I torqued the bolts down to 9 foot pounds. Next it, was time to start working on the intake manifold. I reconnected the knock sensor and laid the intake manifold on top of the engine. I proceeded to swap out the coolant lines that are connected to the throttle body. I then re-inserted the intake manifold bolts and torqued them down to 44 inch pounds the first time and 89 inch pounds the second time. There is a specific sequence that you have to follow when torquing the intake manifold down.

10/6/2018

Now that the heads are in, time to get some of this wiring and hoses reconnected. I started by reinstalling the evap system. I then plugged the fuel injectors back in on the driver’s side. I reconnected the coolant temperature sensor, even though the plastic was damaged. Later I’ll have to replace it completely since I really damage the plastic with the header installation. I then proceed to plug in another connector from the wiring harness into the throttle body. I route the MAF connector under the throttle body and will plug it in after the intake install. I then move over to the passenger side and plug in all of the injectors there and the last connector on the wiring harness gets plugged into the throttle body. I proceed to plug in the vacuum tube into the throttle body and tighten it down to the coolant cross pipe bolt. Next, I connect the small coolant hose from the throttle body onto the coolant cross pipe. Although I continued doing the steering rack the same day, I decided to leave that off for a video of its own.

Time for the steering rack install. My steering rack was sticking out the passenger side wheel well so I just pushed it back through towards the driver’s side wheel-well. I made sure that the holes on the steering rack lined up with the holes on the cross member and then reinserted the bolts through the holes. Overall, the process took roughly 20 minutes. The passenger side bolt went in first, and then the driver side bolt. The ABS bracket needs to be aligned as well so that the main bolt and two smaller bolts can be inserted through. The main bolts have to be torqued down to 74 foot pounds. I reattached the tie rod ends and placed the bolt on but did not tighten since I still needed to reattach the power steering lines on the steering rack (since I ended up taking those off). The reason those were re-attached first is because if you start turning the wheels, you’ll start spraying power steering fluid everywhere. The lines that come from the steering rack, that are closest to the harmonic balancer are 16 mm or 5/8’s and their other end, closest to the driver side wheel well, are 12 mm. The two larger ones that are closest to the driver side wheel well (one comes from the power steering pump) are 18 mm. Once those have been tightened down (not the power steering pump line since its still removed) I proceeded to tighten down the tie-rod ends and positioned the wheels to point forward. I then reconnected the power-steering intermediate shaft onto the steering rack and torqued the bolt down to 25 foot pounds after applying some loctite to it.

I continued today by finishing the header installation. It didn’t take too long but it was an extreme pain. I thought I was going to give up a few times but saw some hope each time and pushed through until it was fully done. I started by removing the ground wire that’s connected to the engine block and driver’s side frame. I then ran the Oxygen Sensor extension wires. I started by attempting to install the long tube header on the passenger side. The paint on the header got scratched like crazy but I was able to touch it up after the installation process was finished. After much huffing and puffing, I got the passenger side header to slide through. I pushed the dipstick tube in between the tube closest to the front and the second one from the front. At this point the header was just suspended there. I reattached all 6 bolts and the 2 gaskets that came with the Long Tube Headers. I attached the dipstick to one of the header bolts but quickly realized that that was a mistake. I torqued each header bolt to 18 foot pounds. I moved over to the driver’s side. I disconnected the intermediate power steering rod and took out 2 middle spark plugs. The fit was still extremely tight. I went underneath the car and realized that the header was actually stuck on one of the panels below. With a crow bar and a hammer, I beat it past that point. The driver’s side is 10 times more difficult to install than the passenger side. The driver’s side took me roughly 30 minutes just to get it to drop through the top of the engine. I added the gasket and torqued the 6 bolts down to 18 foot pounds as well on the driver’s side header. I reinserted and torqued down the power steering intermediate shaft to 25 foot pounds. I then reinserted the 2 spark plugs that I ended up removing. I noticed that I damaged the coolant temperature sensor so that’ll have to get replaced in a later video.

10/7/2018

Today I started off with reinstalling the power steering fluid reservoir onto the power steering pump bracket. I positioned the three bolts to slide into the three holes on the engine and tightened them down. The power steering tube goes underneath the steering rack and plugs into the steering rack itself (the only hole left that’s close to the power steering intermediate shaft). I reconnected the power steering rubber line to the power steering reservoir. I left the steering rack bolt and two smaller ABS bracket bolts relatively loose before so now I’ll tighten them down. The steering rack bolt will be tightened down to 74 foot pounds. There is a connector on the steering rack that needs to be plugged in as well. You’ll find the other end pretty close by and it’s the only one that looks like it should fit. Next, I installed the new thermostat and the new belt tensioner onto the new water-pump. The thermostat housing was torqued down to 11 foot pounds and the accessory belt tensioner was torqued down to 37 foot pounds starting with the lower bolt first. I positioned the thermostat back onto the front of the engine and re-inserted the gaskets behind it. The water pump requires 6 bolts that need to be torqued down to 11 foot pounds and then to 22 foot pounds. After all bolts were torqued down, I proceeded to reconnect the two coolant hoses onto the thermostat. Since that was done, I took out the oxygen sensors out of the old headers with a 7/8’s wrench and reconnected the ground wire that goes from the engine block and hooks onto the driver’s side frame.

10/8/2018

My goal for today is to install the radiator and fan. I started by attaching the fan to the radiator but decided to take it apart later on and install one at a time. I reinserted and tightened down the coolant drain plug. I proceeded to remove the coolant hose that was on the radiator and will replace it with the HPS high heat silicone hose later on. I attempted to install the radiator and fan assembly together, but was not successful. After removing the fan, I was able to slide the radiator in place and reattach the large coolant hose on the passenger side portion of the radiator. I then proceeded to reinstall the fan. After the fan was reinserted, I reattached the two fan connectors and the large ABS connector from the wiring harness. Next I connected the thickest coolant line to the thermostat. I then reattached the new HPS coolant line from the radiator to the water pump. The alternator, belt, and valve covers are coming up next.

To continue with the last few steps, I started with the new re-manufactured alternator. I inserted it back into its bracket and pushed the bolts through. I torqued those bolts down to 22 foot pounds. I then reconnected the plug on the top of the alternator and reconnected the wire on the back. The bolt was tightened until it felt snug. Next, I routed the belt according to instruction. Then I installed the coolant line that comes from the top of the radiator onto the water pump. After that, I ran the two small coolant lines from the throttle body and coolant reservoir onto the top of the radiator (passenger side).

10/9/2018

The last day hopefully of working on it. I started by placing the new valve cover gaskets and rubber seals around the bolts that tighten the valve cover down. This process was surprisingly tedious. On top of that, the gasket that I ended up placing on the driver’s side was just bad so I had to buy another one later on. The vacuum tube that goes around the engine and sticks out right next to the firewall was re-inserted into the back of the valve cover. The bolts were torqued down to 8 foot pounds. I proceeded with installing the passenger side valve cover, which was exponentially less difficult. I re-inserted the two vacuum tubes onto it as well. Next, I reattached the coils on both valve covers and tightened them down to 106 inch pounds. I finally plugged in the main connector on both coils.

I continued by installing the air-tubes. The driver side air tube is connected in 3 places. The first place is behind the driver side head. The metal piece plugs into a rubber hose behind the head. Next is right in front of the brake booster. There’s a rubber hose there as well. The third piece is on the header itself. This piece requires a gasket and the two bolts need to be torqued down to 15 foot pounds. The passenger side air tube is easier; you only have to attach the two bolts onto the headers and insert the gasket. Those have to be torqued down to 15 foot pounds as well. After both sides were done, I reattached the fuel line on the driver side and screwed the fuel pressure release cap on the fuel rail. Next, I applied some silicone to the inside of the spark plug wire boot. I then inserted that boot into the metal piece that clips around the spark plug. I pushed each of the spark plug wires onto the spark plugs and actually heard a small click when they hooked. The other end of the spark plug was plugged into each corresponding coil; when inserting those, you’ll actually hear 2 clicks. I reattached the top Corvette plastic engine covers. Finally, I inserted the plastic that goes around the battery; it’s held by two clips.

Next was the Vararam B2 intake install. Vararam has a great tutorial on this so I figured if anyone wants to see it, they can.

I removed the 2 plastic pieces around the fog lights by disconnecting the wiring harness that’s attached to them and unscrewing the 3 bolts on each side that were holding them in place. The two intake tubes just slide in and are screwed together in the middle. A rubber piece is attached over the intake and the piece that holds the air filter is attached to rest of the intake. Next, I reattached the existing MAF and opted not to install the Power Duct, but use the stock one instead. The smog tube was then plugged into the air filter box. The AC condenser protective plastic was pushed from the bottom and put into place. The ambient temperature sensor on the passenger side was pushed through the small opening inside the protective plastic at the bottom. I then screwed in the 7 bolts that hold the protective plastic in place. The radiator shroud was installed next by tightening the 4 nuts that hold it in place (2 on each side). I proceeded to plug in the MAF connector and tighten down remainder of the intake down. At this point, I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but the engine is done! I just had to install the remainder of the exhaust, put the fluids in, and crank it up. So, moving underneath the car, I attached the front two oxygen sensors to the extension wires. Then, I inserted the two doughnut gaskets and attached the catalytic converters. There was another small piece of piping after the catalytic converters that had the holes for the other two oxygen sensors. Those two were installed as well. The X-Pipe was next. I attached it to the top two spring bolts and to the Borla Muffler Deletes; that required new gaskets. Moving back to the engine bay, I placed in the new battery, added coolant, power steering fluid and engine oil. After letting it settle, I reattached the wheels, and for the first time in a long time, took the car off of jack stands.

After working on my C5 for months, it’s finally time to see if it’ll start. My brother helped me push the car outside. I didn’t want to start it inside the garage and something unexpected happen. Once we were away from the house, I told my wife to take Harrison and watch the start up from the street. My mom, who lives across the street, came out to see it too (my dad was on a business trip). It’s right after 7:30 pm. I was hoping to be done by 6:00 pm but didn’t want to rush the final few steps. After a couple of tense moments, it cranked up. The video does it no justice. It’s probably one of the loudest, if not the loudest, cars I’ve ever heard. I turned around a couple of seconds later and saw my mom b-lining it for her house. I’m staring at the oil gauge making sure that the oil pressure holds like it should. It shot up to 50–55 for a couple of seconds but stabilized around 40–45. I’m also holding the gas down slightly, keeping the RPMs around 1200. Every time I let off, it seemed like the car was about to shut off since it dips to around 500 rpm. After about a minute, the car started smoking and here comes my brother running up to tell me that the car was about to explode. My wife was the one that calmed him down telling him that it was supposed to smoke due to all the paint, grease, etc. I prepped her prior to the start so that she doesn’t freak out. Another minute passes by, and I slowly let off the throttle. The car started idling around 800 rpm. As I was getting out, I noticed that my police officer neighbor was standing next to my son and wife. I walked over there, and he was grinning from ear to ear saying how awesome it sounded. His wife asked him if I bought a chopper. He told her, “No baby, that’s his car!” He has been following the build regularly, stopping by frequently. He continued, “When are we going to start working on my Jimmy?” We laughed, and I went to turn the car off. I pulled it into the garage and was surprisingly calm. My brother came up to me and said, “Man, I thought he was coming down here to arrest you. I guess I didn’t know how good of a relationship you guys have.” I cleaned up the garage and went inside the house. For the next hour or so, Harrison asked me about 10 times if I heard that. He also mentioned that Corvette was gonna backfire. Right as he went to bed, my dad calls me. He said, “Glad to see the car turned on. I was getting worried. That was a lot of work.” I said, “Yeah me to. Did mom call you?” He said, “No, the security cameras turned on when you turned the car on and I was able to listen to it.” I went to bed around 3:00 am the following morning. The adrenaline seeped in and I must have watched this video about 30–40 times that night.

10/25/2018

After I installed my Long Tube Headers, I noticed that I cracked the plastic on my coolant temperature sensor. I didn’t think much of it, however, once I started driving the car, I noticed that the temperature gauge was swinging wildly. I knew it was time for a new coolant temperature sensor. First, I disconnected the negative terminal from the battery. I removed the plastic engine cover from the driver side. I removed the serpentine belt and then removed the alternator and at that point I could start working on removing the sensor. I was under the impression that only a little bit of coolant was going to spill, however a lot of coolant came out. I quickly inserted the new coolant sensor and tightened it down to 15 foot pounds. I then reattached the connector to it and placed the alternator back on, reinserting the two bolts on the alternator bracket, plugging in the connector to the alternator from the top, and reattaching the power cable from the back. After everything was tightened, I reattached the serpentine belt, refilled the lost coolant, and reconnected the negative battery terminal to the battery. After cranking it up, I noticed a smooth temperature rise; the gauge was fixed

I decided to take the car out for a quick spin and it dies on me. After a couple of miles, I decide to step on the gas just slightly above 3000 RPM. Just as I reach 3000 RPM, the car turns off on me. I get stranded in the turning lane. There’s a bunch of college kids that keep pulling up behind me even though I have my hood up and hazard lights on. I tried to fix it on the spot, but couldn’t. I end up getting it towed home using Barrow Wrecker Service. The guys came out and loaded my lowered Corvette in about 5 minutes. They took me home and dropped the car off in the garage. I started thinking about what the issue could be and decided to fill it up. The car still had a quarter of the tank left, but the last time I filled it up was about a year ago. After putting some fresh fuel in there, the car cranked right up. Moral of the story, don’t drive on old gas. I’m just happy it wasn’t with anything that I did.

10/30/2018

Quick video of the C5 getting tuned.

I know that I’ll be asked this question, so here it is: Cam Specs.

Polluter V2 (239/244 .635”/.610”)

Total Project Cost

This is going to be fun, and scary at the same time.

PARTS

Brake Line Kit (Qty: 4) — $96.62
Brake Rotors and Pads (Qty: 4 rotors and 8 pads) — $158.36
Axle Nuts (Qty: 2) — $8.34
Coilovers (Qty: 4) — $995.00
Momo steering wheel (Qty: 1) — $269.95
NRG Steering Wheel adapter (Qty: 1) — $99.00
Steering wheel quick release (Qty: 1) — $16.89
Short Shifter (Qty: 1) — $228.60
Center Console Cover (Qty: 1) — $178.99
Borla Exhaust (Qty: 1) — $473.99
XO Verona 19/20 wheels w/ Toyo Tires (Qty: 4 wheels and 4 tires) — $2000.00 (approximately)
Kicker Subwoofer (Qty: 1) — $75.00 (approximately)
Kicker Mono amp (Qty: 1) — $100.00 (approximately)
Skip Shift Eliminator (Qty: 1) — $16.45
Push button start (Qty: 1) — $29.95
Headlight motor rebuild with gear (Qty: 1) — $49.95
Vararam VR-B2 (Qty: 1) — $369.00
Accessory Drive Belt Tensioner (Qty: 1) — $44.78
Air Conditioning Belt Tensioner (Qty: 1) — $57.62
Serpentine Belt (Qty: 1) — $27.17
Air Conditioning Belt (Qty: 1) — $23.00
Cylinder Head Bolts (Qty: 2) — $45.72
Cylinder Head Gaskets (Qty: 2) — $71.36
Thermostat with Assembly (Qty: 1) — $33.23
Water Pump (Qty: 1) — $100.78
Stainless steel hose kit (Qty: 1) — $63.81
Corbeau Evolution X seats (Qty: 2) — $901.55
Corbeau Seat Brackets with Sliders (Qty: 2) — $250.00
Camshaft Package: Cam (239/244 | .635”/.610”) , Brian Tooley valve springs, push-rods, Timing Chain, Oil Pump and replacement gaskets (Qty: 1) — $1049.91
Maximizer Long Tube Headers and X-Pipe (Qty: 1) — $837.04
Kenwood Dash Cam (Qty: 1) — $199.00
Silicone Radiator Hose Kit (Qty: 1) — $308.75
Kenwood Rear View Camera (Qty: 1) — $78.88
Aftermarket Radio Wiring Harness (Qty: 1) — $35.00
Kenwood Double Din Player (Qty: 1) — $393.98
Valve Cover Gaskets (Qty: 2) — $50.07
Corbeau 5-Point harness (Qty: 2) — $198.00
Harness Bar (Qty: 1) — $509.99
Engine Assembly Lube (Qty: 1) — $7.96
Spark Plug Wires (Qty: 8) — $39.78
Harmonic Balancer Bolt (Qty: 1) — $11.99
Harmonic Balancer (Qty: 1) — $83.78
Header Bolts (Qty: 12) — $11.99
O2 Sensor extension wires (Qty: 2) — $17.99
Loctite (Qty: 1) — $24.28
Air tube gaskets (Qty: 2) — $13.18
Front Engine Cover Seal (Qty: 1) — $17.04
Spark Plugs (Qty: 8) — $45.36
Alternator (Qty: 1) — $202.45
Fuel Filter — NAPA Gold (Qty: 1) — $59.35
Tune at MTI Racing: $600.00

Total Parts Cost: $11,580.88

There are also tools that I specifically bought just for this build. This also includes items like paint. I didn’t include all the other tools that I already owned.

TOOLS

COMP Cams LS Valve Spring Compressor (Qty: 1) — $92.71
Dremel 531–02 Stainless Steel Brushes (2 Pack), 1/2" (Qty: 1) — $6.99
Dremel 530–02 Stainless Steel Brushes (2 Pack), 3/4" (Qty: 1) — $10.72
Dremel 532–02 Stainless Steel Brushes (2 Pack), 1/8" (Qty: 1) — $5.99
AVANTI PRO 3/4"END BRUSH GP 1/4SHANK (Qty: 1) — $6.27
AVANTI PRO 4" CRIMPED WIRE WHEEL (Qty: 1) — $5.27
AVANTI PRO 3"WIRE CUP BRUSH GP (Qty: 1) — $5.17
AVANTI PRO 2" CRIMPED WIRE WHEEL GP (Qty: 1) — $3.67
3M PROFESSIONAL FACE SHIELD (Qty: 1) — $13.97
20 Pc 1"/25mm Cup Wheel Brush Mini Wire Brush for Dremel Die Grinder Rotary Tools (Qty: 3) — $26.87
POR-15 42606 Black Caliper Paint — 8 fl. oz. (Qty: 2) — $28.20
POR-15 42506 Silver Caliper Paint — 8 fl. oz. (Qty: 3) — $42.30
Enkay 115-C Flex Shaft with 1/4-Inch Chuck, Carded (Qty: 1) — $25.25
Dremel 530–02 Stainless Steel Brushes (2 Pack), 3/4" (Qty: 1) — $5.99
TEKTON 15356 1/2-Inch Drive by 24-Inch Breaker Bar (Qty: 1) — $15.00
Performance Tool M834 1/2" Dr. 6-Point Impact Socket, 24mm (Qty: 1) — $8.08
ARES 71002 Harmonic Balancer Puller Set Remove Damper Pulleys (Qty: 1) — $35.16
LS Harmonic Balancer Install Tool LS1 Pulley Installation 551141 ICT Billet (Qty: 1) — $19.99
GearWrench 81911 6 Piece Flex Flare Nut Wrench Set Metric (Qty: 1) — $97.52
Throttle Body Cleaner (Qty: 1) — $6.35
VHT Paint Engine Metallic, Gold Flake, 11 oz, Aerosol (Qty: 1) — $9.95
Red Engine Paint (Qty: 1) — $9.95
VHT Paint VHT Flameproof High Heat Coating Paint — Primer, Aerosol (11 oz.) (Qty: 1) — $10.48
VHT Exhaust Paint Flameproof, Flat Black, 11 oz, Aerosol (Qty: 4) — $41.92
VHT Paint Wrinkle Finish, Black, 11 oz, Aerosol (Qty: 1) — $11.01
Duplicolor Engine Enamel, Cast Coat Aluminum, 12 oz. Aerosol (Qty: 1) — $7.73
Duplicolor Engine Enamel, Gloss Black, 12 oz. Aerosol (Qty: 1) — $7.73
Duplicolor Lacquer Thinner, 128 oz gallon (Qty: 2) — $44.07
Purple Power Industrial Strength Cleaner/Degreaser (Qty: 1) — $5.29
Simple Green All-Purpose Cleaner and Degreaser (Qty: 1) — $8.47
6.5 Quarts of Mobile 1 5w-30 plus Mobile 1 M1–107 Filter (Qty: 7) — $36.03
Prestone Dex-Cool Extended Life Antifreeze/Coolant, 1 Gal. (Qty: 3) — $80.52
Valvoline Power Steering Fluid (1 quart) (Qty: 1) — $5.82
Brian Tooley Racing Valve Seal Installation Tool (Qty: 1) — $9.99