Corvette: Breaking It In & Breaking It

As of a few days ago I have gone for several “real” drive around town (I’ve put about 200 miles on the car so far). I think all of my initial impressions were pretty spot on and I don’t think I have much to complain about.

I’m getting the hang of the clutch now (you have to engage it quickly at a higher RPM), but getting it rolling – especially when the car is cold – is still tricky.  I’m still impressed by how quiet it is compared to my last clutch. The pedal isn’t really an issue for me anymore- I’m getting used to it and I really like the lighter feel. Shifting is much quicker with the lighter flywheel.

The sound is definitely unbearable. Even cruising around town the drone is too much. I ordered a B&B Fusion exhaust so I can (hopefully) eliminate some of the drone on the quieter setting. Not cheap, but I’m think this will be a good upgrade.

Since it’s so cold out I haven’t really been able to floor it in lower gears, but in third and fourth I really think the car pulls harder than it did before. With the turbo upgrades I feel like power is more immediate.  Also – and this isn’t related to performance –  I can hear the turbos spool down when the car is shut off and it’s a really cool sound. I can’t wait to see how high we can boost. I can almost taste the 1000hp.

To be honest I am really surprised by how smoothly things are going so far. Of course it’s not perfect. When I flipped the methanol switch it blinked and then seemed to short out and then a few moments later the car began running really rough and the MIL illuminated. I limped the car home and pulled the codes (p0202, p0204, p0206, p0208). The passenger side injectors were all malfunctioning.

Turns out I had blown a fuse. Not a big deal, but it may mean there is a wiring issue. Quick reference below. Circled fuses. Left = odd injectors. Right = even injectors.

And when I test drove the car after replacing the fuse I got a P0455 code. I’m not sure if it was related to the injector issue, but I tightened my gas cap and cleared the code. Earlier today on a short errand I got the error again. There have been a couple of times when the gas cap wouldn’t screw on properly, so I went all in and bought a new one. After clearing the code a time and driving around a bit the MIL was still off. I even checked pending codes and so far so good. Hopefully the fix is that simple. [update: Solved! It wasn’t the gas cap – one of the engine hoses had been capped instead of vented back into the engine].

I’m really hoping I can finish breaking the car in and get the final tune done before the weather gets really bad. But if not I’ll probably survive (probably…). I know, I know… my life is so hard. I’ll shut up now.