Daily driving a ZR-1

[geezer]

Re: Water leak left side. Test the area on the front plenum ( bottom of windshield & below the lt. wiper shaft) from plenum screen to outboard corner of plenum panel. Reseal as reqiured with flexible, paintable sealer.
Most likely suspect area.

[8cam]

Originally Posted by We Gone

I got 27+mpg on my trip to Chicago back in Aug. at 75-80mph you can get a new clutch slave here or have yours rebuilt, I have a spare that needs to be done but unfortunately its a 91 so of no help to ya. Unless they are interchangeable maybe someone who knows will post in. If so we can work something out so you wont have any down time.

http://www.powertorquesystems.com/Co...lave_89_90.htm

I'll find out just how good the mileage can get when I head down to Thomasville on Tuesday and pay SGC a visit. My guess is I'm not getting anywhere near what it's capable of, and Aaron is going to help me sort it out. Of course I'm actually from Thomasville and Mom still lives there, so it's a great excuse to head down.

Oh yeah one other daily driving thing - that 6th gear is like falling off a cliff! I drive on the highway almost every day heading to work, but around the city where you're always accelerating and decelerating, even at 70mph, it's pretty much useless and I leave it in 5th. On a longer trip 6th is ok and I'll see how good the mpg gets on the trip down. The cruise control works very well, but I'll never understand why GM standardized on that awkward multi-function control stalk. The euro-style single function cruise stalk is so much more intuitive. Of course the cruise in the 308 consists of the floor mat getting stuck under the accelerator pedal, so it could be worse. 1st world problems.

[8cam]

Originally Posted by geezer

Re: Water leak left side. Test the area on the front plenum ( bottom of windshield & below the lt. wiper shaft) from plenum screen to outboard corner of plenum panel. Reseal as reqiured with flexible, paintable sealer.
Most likely suspect area.

Thanks for the tip! I'll check it out.

[8cam]

Originally Posted by mike100

I used to daily drive my LT1 powered C4 and did enjoy the carefree nature of a car that wasn't going to lose a lot of value from the mileage, but my 91 ZR is a little too nice to leave outside and I have invested 50% of what I bought it for fixing it up...so there is some apprehension for driving it a lot.

The car does get driven a lot nevertheless, but I had decided some time back not to drive it to work in traffic as that was not a worthy use for the car as is the increased chance for a fender-bender.

As far as the suspension- yes, it is older chassis technology, but there are a few way to get decent improvements on performance there. I would suggest rebuilding the FX-3 shocks to be a little stiffer. You ought to be able to feel a difference on the adjustable settings. I have also found that the Doug Rippie trailing arm brackets change the rear geometry enough to limit the nose diving nature under braking. That with good tires and an alignment should pretty much get the car to what i would consider a better compromise for street driving and performance driving without having to pop for coil overs etc.

Believe me I understand not wanting to put the miles on a car. In my case, this ZR-1 has almost 45k miles now and while it's 100% original and in very nice shape, I'm not an NCRS kind of guy. I will maintain it thoroughly, and continue to drive it every day. I do believe these cars will go up in value, so I have no intention of selling it. If/when I get another daily driver, it will become a fun weekender alongside the 308 (another car I believe is primed to go up). In the meantime I'm discovering that dailying a Z has very few compromises - it's an excellent car for the mission.

Good suggestions on the suspension. Mine seems to be in pretty good shape, but I would prefer a little more compliance for city driving. But that's really minor. I wonder if the hobby-horse effect comes from the leaf spring setup? It does have me considering coilovers, but that would break the originality and like I said, I do believe these cars are going UP. So I really have no mod plans, other than maybe an exhaust upgrade.

[Franke]

Originally Posted by 4cam

Believe me I understand not wanting to put the miles on a car. In my case, this ZR-1 has almost 45k miles now and while it's 100% original and in very nice shape, I'm not an NCRS kind of guy. I will maintain it thoroughly, and continue to drive it every day. I do believe these cars will go up in value, so I have no intention of selling it. If/when I get another daily driver, it will become a fun weekender alongside the 308 (another car I believe is primed to go up). In the meantime I'm discovering that dailying a Z has very few compromises - it's an excellent car for the mission.

Good suggestions on the suspension. Mine seems to be in pretty good shape, but I would prefer a little more compliance for city driving. But that's really minor. I wonder if the hobby-horse effect comes from the leaf spring setup? It does have me considering coilovers, but that would break the originality and like I said, I do believe these cars are going UP. So I really have no mod plans, other than maybe an exhaust upgrade.

I did the exhaust upgrade based on Marc Haibecks report on stock exhaust restriction in my 1990. When I removed the resonator I was really surprised to see the whittled down inside pipe at 1 5/8 inches. There had to be a lot of standing wave backpressure at that inlet. I went with Corsa 2 1/2 inch. I am happy with it and like the sound much better than stock.

[alnukem]

Early this year I had the injectors replaced in my Lingenfelter 90, I also had the top end reported & a new tune........Wow, what a difference. I have drive this thing everyday. I did put it away once they started using salt on the highways. Do yourself a favor.......get 4.10 gears installed & a set of coil overs, you will love it!

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by alnukem

Early this year I had the injectors replaced in my Lingenfelter 90, I also had the top end reported & a new tune........Wow, what a difference. I have drive this thing everyday. I did put it away once they started using salt on the highways. Do yourself a favor.......get 4.10 gears installed & a set of coil overs, you will love it!

mines been away since Halloween

[8cam]

Originally Posted by alnukem

Early this year I had the injectors replaced in my Lingenfelter 90, I also had the top end reported & a new tune........Wow, what a difference. I have drive this thing everyday. I did put it away once they started using salt on the highways. Do yourself a favor.......get 4.10 gears installed & a set of coil overs, you will love it!

Sounds great, good to hear the difference it makes. Right now my plan is to keep it close to stock, maybe with a few sensitive mods. The frame stiffener is my current leading candidate, since it is getting such good reviews and I do notice the shake and vibration, especially over bumpy roads. If I pull the trans to replace the pilot and throwout bearings, I might do the rear end at the same time, but I think the coilovers will be too much of a change from stock.

[WARP TEN]

Originally Posted by 4cam

Couple more observations. The back has plenty of room to hold suitcases for two people with 10 days' worth of stuff. My wife and I traveled to SFO a couple weeks ago and it swallowed her bags and mine without a problem. I will say lifting suitcases over the bodywork is a long reach, but that's life with a sports car. Oh and yes my ZR-1 spent 10 days in an uncovered airport parking lot. The horror!

It did point out that I really need to flush and bleed the clutch. After those 10 days, it engaged almost on the floor, coming back up after a few miles/uses.

The original hatch gas struts are pretty much useless, barely popping it up. New struts coming in from Ecklers should fix that and I understand they will open it right up just by pushing the button? That will be nice.

The wiper blades are old and crusty, so I tried to find some auto parts store specials...no go with that hood. So they are also coming from Ecklers, should make a big improvement here in the rainy south. Which reminds me. All this rain we're having has shown me I have a leak, somewhere over my left foot. I'm guessing a drainage channel somewhere is clogged.

On wiper blades, I had the same problem. Marc Haibeck gets true originals from Rock Auto. If you email him he will give you the the part number. I had it but can't find it right now. I got them and they work fine. And they were real cheap as I recall. --Bob

[Vetman]

For me, my stock 90 with the 345's, 70 MPH in 6th is great. It will pull any hill at 70 in 6th, however, I drop a gear just because I feel it is better for the engine. 28 MPG is not bad either.