Woody's Black Z71 pic history

[sewlow]

These brand newPOS Napa tail light circuit boards have been pissing me off. They are junk. So I just did the stop/tail/turn mod a little differently than most.

I cut a board out of 1/8" ABS sheet stock on the CNC and used 96-98 Grand Am tail harnesses to hardwire my own. Cut the circuit board plug off and crimped, soldered & heat shrunk the connections and taped it all together. Plenty of wire to remove the tails and get to the lights. I'm happy.

I'm going to cut another board with the keyway for a headlight bulb in the reverse spot and see if I like it. I can run it with a relay to take the load off the wiring, but it might not even need it considering the short amount of time the reverse lights are generally on for...

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I'd be very interested in a set of those boards, too!

 

[woody80z28]

Haven't played with the tail light boards yet. Been busy with other stuff. Just bought the wife a new car. haha I will get to it though.

 

[woody80z28]

Doesn't seem that long ago I welded this exhaust up...not even 4 years. My welds held, but the "Thrush welded" didnt. I guess that's aluminized in NY...

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So this time I bought stainless. I got a universal Magnaflow muffler & truck tail pipe.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/mpe-13259
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/mpe-15003
Fitment was actually awesome. Amazingly good for universal...I didn't even have to turn on the welder. I just used hangers from the parts store with u-clamps. One in the stock location and one on the leaf speings eyelet bolt.

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It's really smooth and quieter than I expected. I'll have a better idea of how I like it in a week or so. I'll post a vid, too. The Thrush was a lot beastlier sounding. haha

 

[TylerZ281500]

whered you get the exhaust hangers?

 

[woody80z28]

Napa. But I'm sure all the other stores have them too.

 

[woody80z28]

The wife and I bought a new 2013 Cruze back in January. It's an "Eco" 1.4L turbo/6spd manual, 42mpg highway. It's only rated 138hp/148tq, but the power is down low and feels a lot stronger than her 2.5L Subaru 5spd was. There are plenty of people on cruzetalk.com getting over 50mpg with them straight highway. We will find out in May when we drive to Tennessee for a wedding.

Here are some pics. I swapped the intake for a K&N and blacked out the chrome the first week we had it. She likes the to hear the turbo spool and the recirc valve blow off on shifts. Stock tires were awful in snow so we put some Blizzaks on it and got some summer wheels for the stock, rock-hard "eco" tires. Doesn't look bad now...and it's a fun little car with the 6spd. Window tint is up next. Probably OEM fogs, too.

There is a tune available that ups the power by like 30% by modifying the electronic boost controller...but there is still like 95k left on the powertrain warranty so I should probably hold off. haha

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[96-1500]

Looks like a nice ride. I quite like the new Cruzes. If I was looking for a new car they would be at the top of my list.

 

[woody80z28]

We like it so far. Chevy just announced the new diesel will be available...makes me want to trade this one in already. But for now the diesel is only available with an auto, so we'll have to wait for the stick version to come out.

 

[Barrymaxx]

Needs more chrome

 

[94Sierra4x4]

Needs more chrome

Lol @ this joker!

Woody, I re-read the build thread. Love it... Moving onto your engine build thread.
had a quick look at the GEARHEAD Dezigns link in your sig, I saw your Camaro and Beretta.. Is this your business or?

I know I read something in here that I wanted to ask you about lol but I've gotten way offtopic already.. anyway..
Haven't been able to get a solid answer on a fuel pressure gauge for the TBI trucks.. wondering if you had a link to one that I can install as a permanent fixture either behind my intake or in the cab? Any insight on this would be appreciated, thanks man.

I'm sure I'll be hammerin' some questions towards you, didn't realize you had completed pretty well the exact same swap I am looking at until you posted in my thread.. which was MUCH appreciated. Thanks again man.