Softening up my GXP

[Slizzo]

Your ears may just be more sensitive than mine then? My hearing at certain levels is not so great (having your head right next to a 120mm mortar will do that) so I suppose that's possible.

[Doug Hilliard]

I'll have to check and see if Doug has his old GT axlebacks.

Flowmaster is another option, actually.

I do still have my stock muffs and you are welcome to try them and see what you think. I want to do a full 3 inch exhaust at some point and Rick has had good results with the Magnaflow Tru-X mid muff. It's basically an x-pipe inside and enclosure and the pipes are perforated. It gives a deep tone and no drone with muffs out back. You might want to go for a ride in Troy's car if you are willing to spend a little more to get that kind of result.

[ghodge]

I can't wait to hear your impressions on the Lovells spring/shock/strut combo. I reckon your shock/struts may be different than mine when production starts but I'm still curious to see what you think. At one point I was thinking about replacing my Lovells springs with Eibach pieces just to see how progressive springs feel with the Lovells dampeners.

[Eidolon]

Alright, time to report in with a bit of work. First, some replies...

Your ears may just be more sensitive than mine then? My hearing at certain levels is not so great (having your head right next to a 120mm mortar will do that) so I suppose that's possible.

I think I am being picky. Listening to it again yesterday, it really isn't bad. But it IS just loud enough that if I have passengers in the car, I'll downshift to 5th to keep the engine at 2000 RPMs.

I do still have my stock muffs and you are welcome to try them and see what you think. I want to do a full 3 inch exhaust at some point and Rick has had good results with the Magnaflow Tru-X mid muff. It's basically an x-pipe inside and enclosure and the pipes are perforated. It gives a deep tone and no drone with muffs out back. You might want to go for a ride in Troy's car if you are willing to spend a little more to get that kind of result.

Alright, so for those that are wondering, Doug and I met up yesterday and tried out the GT mufflers. Upon starting the car, we couldn't hear NUFFIN. Seriously, WAY too quiet. I would also almost swear I could hear the GT mufflers choking the flow. So those are out.

So after the GT axleback experiment and hearing Troy's car at Cars and Coffee that same morning, I think Doug's suggestion of Troy's setup is probably the best going, even if it means hacking up the ARH set. I plan to order the Solo axlebacks at some point. I'll probably try them for the heck of it until I can get a mid-muffler, too. I'll just have to roll my car out of the garage before I start it so I don't make my neighbors too mad.

I can't wait to hear your impressions on the Lovells spring/shock/strut combo. I reckon your shock/struts may be different than mine when production starts but I'm still curious to see what you think. At one point I was thinking about replacing my Lovells springs with Eibach pieces just to see how progressive springs feel with the Lovells dampeners.

After riding with Doug yesterday in his car, I'd forgotten how stuff the FE3's were, but also how good the Eibachs felt over bumps. It really is an EXTREMELY capable setup.

Do you have the Lovells spring/shock combo, then? Thoughts?

Also, I don't believe the Eibachs are a progressive spring. The two different windings on the spring consist of the actual spring coils and then "dead coils". In short, the coils that are wound very close together are intended to collapse and sit on top of one another. It's how the spring achieves a drop in ride height, yet remains seated in the shock/strut when you jack up the car: the dead coils expand back to fill the space when the shock is at full droop.

EDIT: Looking at Eibach's site, they claim it's a progressive spring. So I'm not sure. The OEM's certainly are, at least.

[Eidolon]

Alright, now the update.

Fog Lamps
Swapped 'em in a jiffy. Squeeze the tabs on the lamps in and the fog lamps pop out. In this case, I was removing the HID bulbs. Turned out the right ballast had come loose, which likely explains why it burned out: trauma from being slammed around all weekend at the track.
The halogen fogs look good and just work. So unless I swap them for LEDs to trade looks for function, I'll stick with the halogens.

MGW Shifter
Great success! Sort of. Details follow.

Here's the new bracket versus the old. New on the left, old on the right. As you can see, the bushing area on the new is much larger. The rubber is also a good deal softer.




Here's where it mounts up, just above and behind the transmission. The holes seen are where the bracket will bolt through.


Thoughts after installation?

Noise transmission into the body transmission tunnel is significantly reduced. It used to be I'd get on the throttle and hear it in the transmission tunnel, with the vibrations running strong enough to rattle the rear air vents in the center console. With the new bracket, the vents remain silent and I hear the exhaust instead. The sound of the shifter going into gear is also not transmitted into the body.

Downsides? There's three.

1. The new bracket appears to cause the rear of the shifter to sit just a hair lower. So when shifting into 2, 4th, and 6th, the shifter now hits the plastic of the center console. So I need to see if I can adjust the shaft to clear the console.
2. It might be TOO soft. The shifter attaches rigidly to the transmission and doesn't allow much lateral movement. It is allowed to pivot fore and aft, though, which is where the bracket comes in: it stabilizes the shifter fore and aft, which happens to be the same direction you're moving the shifter shaft when going into a gear. So it affects the feel when going into a gear. Unfortunately, the rubber is soft enough now that the gates feel spongy, and it actually takes a little more effort to get the transmission to go into gear, especially when it's cold. I'm not sure if that's just the nature of the Tremec and the rubber's too soft, or if the synchros in my transmission are on their way out, or a combo thereof. It may be worth it to get the slightly higher durometer rubber insert for the new bracket, though I'll have to ponder whether I want to make the tradeoff for noise.
3. The transmission gear whine transmitted into the shaft in 5th and 6th is still present and unaffected by the new rear mount bushing. I didn't figure it would be, though the MGW tech said differently. Turns out I was right. I may unfortunately need to swap out the solid metal shaft and acrylic shift ball for something made of rubber, which should act as a natural damper for such transmission.

So there's your updates! Let me know if you've any questions.

[Slizzo]

I can tell you the Tein S.Techs are progressive, and are very nice springs. I helped Lazarus put his on his GXP last month (well, the rears at least) on one of the rare warm November days.

[GXPaycheck]

There's a set of used Solo axle backs for sale on the other board.

[Eidolon]

There's a set of used Solo axle backs for sale on the other board.

Yeah, they weren't in the best of shape. For now I'm going to hold off on changing the exhaust until AFTER I get a cam, since it does have an effect on exhaust flow. No point changing it now when the engine it's connected to will change later.

[Eidolon]

Alright, today's work: the MGW shifter, addressing the 5th/6th gear whine in the shifter shaft.

Speaking with the tech at MGW, they do have shifter knobs that are made of rubber or other software materials that wouldn't transmit the noise so well. This I knew, and I was calling to place such an order. Before doing that, though, he recommended wrapping the transmission shift rod in a layer of Dynamat. So that's just what I did.

I ordered a small roll of Dynamat on Thursday, it got here on Friday, and then I wrapped it around the transmission shift rod today. It was just a small 4"x2" piece, so there's not much there. I'm not hopeful, but we'll see how it does. It's wet and nasty out here today, so the test will be driving it tomorrow.

I doubt that I have enough room for a second layer, so... Fingers crossed!

Downside, it turns out they don't make a stiffer bushing for the rear bracket for the Camaro shifter. So it's either this newer, softer feel or else back to the older noisy bracket that I removed. Given that choice, I'll stick with the newer, quieter bushing.

[BigV8]

Kevin, sorry to hear about the Pedders coilovers but I know what you mean when you get on a bad road. We went to Hilton Head last week and hit a bump on I95 and the GPS almost bounced off the dash (I had the bean bag style mount).They are great on a smooth road, but suck on bad ones. I'll be checking in on your posts about the Lovells.