I'm currently in the middle of remodeling the master bedroom in my house, so I'm not doing much with the car until that is done. However, I did take a little time this weekend to fiddle with the intake on my car. Currently, I have an Evolution V-Flow on the car. One thing that has annoyed me about it is that there is no air straightener screen before the MAF, which I had a suspicion was at least partly responsible for some of the smoothness issues I've been chasing. It has a provision to add the screen from the OEM intake, but it apparently wasn't installed with mine and I haven't been able to find one. So, I ordered some universal mesh that I found online.



It slipped right into the V-Flow with a nice firm fit, and since the MAF tube starts at 3.8" and necks down to 3.5" I'm not worried about it getting sucked in or anything. I made a little tool to help me push it in straight.



Initial observations are that it made a noticeable difference in the smoothness of the car, especially at low speeds and part-throttle. The car had a really weird hiccup at around 2100rpm during part throttle acceleration that seems to be gone now.

$25 well spent.

 

^ Nice work.

 

I took the long way home from work last night and got to push the car a bit to try out the MAF mod. WOW. What a difference. It's like a totally different car now. So much smoother with more predictable power delivery.

 

So that screen is a part of the stock intake?

 

Nearly all cars that use a MAF have a screen a couple inches before the sensor to straighten out the airflow going past the MAF sensor so it can get a more accurate reading. If the air is tumbling it will throw off the reading, which seems to be the issue I was having.

The V-Flow does have a provision for the screen from the factory MAF housing, but it was missing from mine.

 

Wouldn't going maf-less also address this concern?

 

I was going to wait until later this winter to start on the stereo, but I had some free time over the last couple weekends and needed to keep my hands busy so I got started early. The car has what was at one time (2006) a very high end stereo in it with a Pioneer AVIC D-1 nav unit, MB Quart component speakers, and a hardwired Escort radar detector. However, that stuff is all 13+ years old now and all the work was done by Car Toys, so I don't really trust the quality of the install (as evidenced by the door cards that are missing half the clips and don't even sit flush on the door because the speaker pods they built are too large). So, I started by removing as much of the old stuff as I could. I'm leaving the speakers for now because I want to re-run the wiring for them while I have all the interior panels out later this winter for the carpet swap.

Here's what I got done:

Converted to a 996.2 center stack with cupholders. This was a bit more work than I was anticipating and now that it's done I probably wouldn't do it again. I had to modify the heater ducting quite a bit to make room for the cup holder unit. It was one of those projects where in the middle of it I was thinking to myself "Darrick, why did you think this was something you needed to do? You never used the cupholders in your other 996s and this one isn't really much better than the ones that were already there..." In the end, it looks like it was always there and everything functions as intended.

I wrapped the horseshoe/bezel with some "carbon fiber" vinyl wrap as an experiment to see how it looks. It's pretty cool stuff and actually looks pretty convincing, and is fairly easy to work with if you have experience working with vinyl wrap. I don't think I'm going to keep it though, I already have some real carbon on the car and I can't bring myself to have fake stuff mixed in with it.

Kenwood DDX396 head unit. Good price point, all the features I was looking for, and most importantly to me: the buttons can be made orange to match the factory dash lighting. It's a huge pet peave when the buttons on an aftermarket head unit don't match the dash lighting. I drilled a hole into the blank switch below the PSM button and mounted the blue tooth mic into that. I used the Metra kit for install, which worked out okay in the end, but I actually had to modify the stereo a bit so that it would fit in the metra "cage" by filing down around the edges of the face plate (which is totally hidden once it's installed). This kit is definitely intended to be installed in a 996.1 though, as it took a decent bit of modifications to get it mounted securely in the 996.2 stack.

And finally, a "Retro" shift **** from www.ixigears.com. Technically they are made for 997s since the **** is separate from the boot on those, but if you are willing to sacrifice your OEM **** by cutting it off the boot these work great. Overall, I'm very pleased with it. My only quibble is the anodizing could be better, but for the price point I'm not upset. Also, if you decide to order one yourself, I found a few bits of feedback online saying that the laser etched shift pattern isn't done very good and you should skip that option when ordering.

Oh, and I added some Dido Tuning gauge rings too.

I didn't take any "before" or "during" pics, but I found this one of my son playing in the car which shows off the before pretty good:



And here's what it looks like now:


Next up is going to be new tires. The car needed new tires when I got it, as the Pilot Sports on it were installed in 2011 (or so I thought). But the car was stored indoors and there was no cracking or anything so I just drove the car gingerly the last couple months (also, I've put minimal miles on it so far). However, now that summer is over and it's cooled down considerably (and started raining again), they are definitely not safe to drive on. The final straw was a couple weeks ago when I finally took a look at the date codes on the tires and realized that they aren't from 2011... they are from 2007. Yeah, I'm not driving on these anymore.

 

I finally bought new tires, which means the Work VS-XX wheels I bought SIX years ago are finally going on a car! When I bought these wheels they were in pretty rough condition: all four were curbed, tons of brake dust caked on them, the paint on the faces was scratched and chipped, and the bolts were pretty rusty. They were going to go on my C4S, but I ended up selling it and these sat in the corner of the basement for years before I decided to finally get them refinished. Now they have brushed lips with high gloss clear powdercoat, matte anthracite faces, and new gold bolts.

The fronts fit perfectly without needing any extra work, but the fitment for the rears is a bit aggressive for how much my car is lowered, so I needed to roll the fenders so they don't rub:







I decided to try out the General G-Max RS tires as they are receiving a lot of good reviews on the Corvette and BMW forums. Additionally, the price point on these tires made them extra appealing.

My first observation about them is they run a bit narrow compared to the Pilot Sports that were on the car before (which I was expecting since the Pilot Sports are known to run a bit wide). This worked out in my favor though as I needed the room to make the wheels fit, and I like a bit of the "stretched" look on my tires. However, I kinda wish I would have gone with 305s instead of 295s since there is room for a bit more tire in there. Next time.

I'll report back on how I like them once I get to actually drive on them. Why can't I drive on them yet? Two reasons: 1, I haven't rolled the passenger side fender yet; and 2, I can't start the car until my replacement part arrives. What replacement part?

Well...

I took advantage of Markski's Black Friday sale and ordered a new tune for the car. The car has an unknown tune on it at the moment and it just doesn't feel "right", so I wanted to get a proper custom tune to get the most of the FVD K24s that are on the car. Before ordering the tune, I wanted to confirm if the car has a 5-bar fuel pressure regulator or not so I could order one if needed. So, I took the car apart to get in there and pop the FPR out to see which one I have. Unfortunately, I managed to drop the clip that holds the FPR in and after TWO HOURS of searching, I still couldn't find it. So now my car is sitting until the new clip I ordered arrives.

 

Those wheels look awesome, the came out very well. I also like the way you rolled the fender - did it crack the paint?

 

In fact, I may have said this before, but I also like your epoxy floor - it looks good.

 

No paint cracking. I used a heat gun to soften the paint and make many small passes with the roller. I've rolled a lot of fenders in my day.

I love the epoxy floor, I'm really glad I did it. My only regret is I probably should have gone with a gray instead of white. The white isn't super good for people who actually work on stuff in their garage as it shows all the scratches you inevitably put in it, and then they get dirt and grease in them they stand out even more.

 

Your discs appear to be steel. Was the car ordered with the yellow calipers? If so, its the only one besides mine I have seen that way.

 

Still easy to clean - and yours look like it bonded well. Mine did not bond very well and every time I park something on it, little bits of epoxy stick to the tires; this was after sanding and acid washing a virgin floor - it was very disappointing.

Yes, I forgot - you like the oversized tires - I could see why you've rolled a lot of fenders; I'm happy to see you're not using a bat...

 

They were painted yellow by the original owner. There are a few chips in them and I can see red paint under the yellow.

I had two things going for me with mine. One was that the epoxy was applied over brand new concrete, so it never had a chance to be contaminated. The other was that I was able to get my hands on an industrial grade epoxy intended for use in aircraft hangers thanks to a friend in the construction industry.

 

Very nice - I will remember that for next time...