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2018 - Engine Rebuild (#3) and TKO-600 5 speed transmission

Submitted by shredjesse on Thu, 08/23/2018 - 10:55

Information will be updated here as it is compiled. I am also still awaiting the small claims court case completion.

General information for the time being: Worked with Tom's Performance to Install TKO-600 purchased from Silver Sport Transmissions, dual friction clutch from Silver Sport Transmission, and I also had the engine rebuilt after a second catastrophic failure, making this the third rebuild in my 4 years of owning this Corvette. Other updates include a new alternator, a new steering box, and some other generic updates throughout.

Overall impressions at this particular point in time are positive, however one thing I've learned from this entire experience is that initial impressions do not necessarily reflect long term viaibility.

Overall though my gut feeling is far better with this Corvette build, and I'm quite excited for it.

Specifications and/or Invoices Relative to All Aspects of 2018 Paid Install Work

500 Mile Review

At this point now I've had the new engine for a hair over 500 miles, which is the break in period for the engine per Tom. I'll be returning it there sometime this week hopefully for a review. Overall, I think it's a significant imporvement in nearly all fashions. The overdrive transmission is absolutely excellent as well, although truth be told the jump between 4th and 5th gear is a bit huge, making me wish I'd spent the extra time and money to get a magnum 6 speed. Unfortunately ,installing that would require modifying the body which is not something I was willing to do.

A few things aren't quite dialed and hopefully we'll get through them.

  • The car wanted to overheat once in slow traffic, which I avoided by pulling over and giving it time to chill while my girlfriend an I had cool drinks. It was 65 degrees out so nothing all that special either.
  • The car has a high idle of 900-1000 rpm once heated up. That's just not going to fly and could have been a contributing factor in the overheating situation. It was just reving too high.
  • The tuner went with no vacuum advance and a high initial vacuum, minimal mechanical advance. I prefered the vacuum advanced based tune I had on the previous engine. I think this high initial vacuum meant it had too much advance when trying to pull 5th gear in lower RPMs and in general made it a bit tired reving the engine for gear matching, etc etc. This could play a part in the overheating as well since at idle with no load there would be an extra 15 degrees of vacuum advance, which with a base ignition timing of 12 degrees would yield 27 degress of vacuum advance in favor of the base 18 degrees the tuner went with. This will yield a superior burn I've read and improve how it idles and runs.