My 1981 CHEVETTE Mods Page

My 1981 Chevette Mods (1988-1994)

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THE MODS

SWAY BARS

1.) Factory GM 26mm Front Swaybar

Later 1 1/4" Front Swaybar with homebuilt aluminum billet front bar mount with 1/8" replaceable rubber sleeve using stock frame bolt holes

2.) Rear 16mm F41 Swaybar with custom built axle attachment points using muffler clamps with 5/8" washers welded on....

SHOCK ABSORBERS

3.) 28-1104 and 28-1103 Koni gas adjustable Shocks (designed for Isuzu Impulse - Long ago discontinued)

Shock absorbers make the biggest difference on this chassis...(and MANY others) HARD shocks are not necessarily good for ultimate cornering grip...A controlled...large reservoir...cool running shock is optimum...with pressurized Nitrogen gas a benefit in preventing aeration of the hydraulic oil...Currently the American shock companies don't make a good shock for the platform as they usually weld a too stiff full sized car shock onto mounts that FIT the 'T' car...I MISS the Gabriel '3 way Adjustable Striders' ...they worked great on my '79 Chevette! KYB and Tokico make good shocks but I yearn for an American replacement! The KYB has been the best of the 2 ....the Tokico didn't last well for me...

WHEELS and TIRES

4.) For Racing Use...A set of '83 Pontiac Aluminum wheels for 175/70-13 008R and later 185/60-13 Yokohama 008RTU and 008RSII racing radials...

5.) For Street Use....A set of '84 Isuzu Impulse 14X6 Aluminum Wheels and fitted with NOW discontinued Dunlop D60M2's in size 185/60HR-14...BEST street tires EVER!!! I developed over 1.02 G steady state on these Street Radials on a Valentine G-Analyst...

6.) Later for D Street Prepared SCCA Autocrossing...A set of custom built 13x7 Steel Silver powdercoated dirt track wheels with 225/45HB-13 Bias Ply Hoosier Autocrossers(These early Diamond Circle Track Wheels were a Disaster..out-of-round and unbalanced)....AND

7.) Later...a set of custom built 13X8 Chromed circle track wheels from Paulsen Wheels in CA with 215/50HR-13 BFG R1 racing autocross radials...Steady state lateral acceleration was 1.25 L and 1.23 R on the G-Analyst and exceeding this begins to show deficincies in engine oiling and the height of the narrow body...but it still exceeded many early econoboxes by a wide margin....AND most expectations of Nationally known autocrossers..

HEADERS

8.) First - a Shorty header from Pacesetter with a 2" exhaust and Walker DynoMax super turbo muffler and....when I went to replace it in 1994 after it rusted out J.C. Whitney still had one of the last of...

9.) A....Long style Pacesetter Header with a custom 2 1/4" exhaust and Walker DynoMax super turbo muffler...Neat sound with engine at Full tilt....SINCE then a HOOKER header has come and gone...in production for the 1.6L Chevette engine....

IGNITION

10.) First an MSD 6AL ignition module and coil....The rev limiter didn't work well and it never ran nearly as smoothly as the Allison or the Jacobs...

11.) NEXT a Jacobs Ignition Team Computer CD ignition and Coil along with a Jacobs Timing Master -Adjustable Timing and Rev limiter control.....

An interesting note....The stock GM ignition module and coil would run out of decent spark at around 4000 rpm in a V8 but in the 4 Cyl. it works to nearly double that speed because the duration between sparks is halved...In reality it is good to in excess of 6000....

12.) Against the experience of a lot of others my best spark plug was a toss-up between stock R42TS AC's and the Split Gap Splitfires...also trying Champion, Autolite, NGK and Bosch Platinums....I have tried the New Performance AC Delcos in my other vehicles and liked them and am going to try them this year (2001) in the Pontiac 1000...

HEADS

13.) Various early(pre'82) and mostly later Swirl port '82 up heads....which had much better low end grunt but lack upper end...finally a mildly ported '79 head...with a port matched '79 intake manifold..with blocked EGR port...The EGR interface into the intake and exhaust ports is a cause of much turbulance and uneveness in port flow....

BATTERY RELOCATION

14.) Moved the battery to the spare tire well...right side...over the right rear tire under the trunk floor in a marine battery box...gives better corner weights...compensating for my fat a - - !! =;-)

ELECTRIC PUSHER FAN

15.) Put in a thermostatic controlled pusher fan.. with a manual bypass switch...(and later a bypass overtemp sensor...after a MAJOR meltdown!)...went back to stock plastic fan for hillclimbs...after reliability problems...

FACTORY GM GAUGE PACKAGE

16.) Installed '79 Chevy Van gauge package along with neccesary wiring minor harness mods to allow use of GM temp and oil pressure senders ...mostly involved popping pins from speedo cluster electrical plug and snapping the pins back into different holes....I'll be publishing a 'How-to-Do' article on this in the future....

STEERING WHEEL ;-)

17.) Installed a Vega GT horn center on the steering wheel...'GT' looks better than 'Chevette' ......(I wished it said 'Chevette GT ' !!!)

CARBURATION

18.) Changed from computer controlled 6510C Holley to 38DGAS 'synchro geared' Weber using same bolt pattern...Stock jetting for early '80s Australian Ford Capri 3.0 L V6 that the carb came with was the best overall...although 'Valve Spring PROBLEMS' masked many improvements during this time period....1990-1994...

I am currently using a Weber designed conversion on my '83 Pontiac 1000..It is a DFAV style 32/36mm with an electric choke and was designed to replace the Holley 5210 in the '79 Chevette (pre-computer)...I was talking to the proprietor of Watts Carb Service in Cincinnati Ohio recently and he straightened me out on the power valve operation and the reason mine was getting such rotten gas mileage...I had been thinking that the problem was related to it and it was great to hear it confirmed by such an expert! I haven't had much drive time since I repaired the slightly folded vacuum diaphram in the power circuit but from the Throttle response change I would say that the problem is fixed!

HEAD GASKET

19.) LEARNED not to use factory head gaskets...ALWAYS blow out above 6000 rpm!!! Fel-Pro Permatorque(tm) is the ONLY way to go after many different Brand tries...I swapped in junkyard dog engines and the only thing that always fails is the head gasket even when run to 6500rpm with no other mods...

SUSPENSION SPRINGS

20.) Replaced broken stock Suspension springs with Monroe Cargo Coils(Fronts have been discontinued).....All the way 'round...and cut the fronts 2 1/2 turns off from the top and the rears 1 1/2 turns from the bottom...

REAR END

21.) Installed a 4.11 ratio carrier and shimmed to make it work ....after the original spider gears SHATTERED on the launch line(taking the ring and pinion gear with them) in North Park....Pittsburgh in 1991 after 125,000 'EASY' miles......... ;-)

I found through extended use...that the stock ring gear setup is much stronger than many give it credit for..but the COLLAPSIBLE SPACER that preloads the pinion bearing has a tendancy to collapse the rest of the way and allow the ring and pinion to push away from each other and operate on the tips of the gears. The tips of the gears taking the entire load doesn't last long until gear pieces are fed through the assembly detoothing the rest of the gears....Shimming the pinion gear is a much stronger and better way!

HILLCLIMBS (FUN!!!!)

22.) For the 1992 Hillclimb season.. I .installed a 6 point 'Cam-Lock' belt system....One of 2 Roll Bars obtained by a friend in Erie PA from the Archer Brothers mid 80's Shelby Charger racing efforts and bent ever so slightly to fit the wheel well arches in the rear seat area.....A drivers window net and attaching hardware ....and lastly installed a Halon Fire Extinguisher...on the driveshaft hump....

UNTIL...1 AM the morning of my first PA Hillclimb Association hillclimb (Rose Valley- Trout Run PA 1992) and then Flat-towed at Warp Speed starting at 5AM ...100 miles to event in untested tow vehicle...towbar combo...made it in under 2 hours...AFTER losing the hitch three times..AND HEAVILY TESTING THE SAFETY CHAINS!...the last time on turn into parking at hill....BOUGHT A NEW 2" ball that evening....

Currently...in the new Millenium...IT IS now January2001 and 6 years since the '81 Chevette has seen competition and it now has 175,000 miles(almost 100,000 added since I bought it for $500 in May 1988...What Memories!!) and plans are underway to revamp it for Solo 2 use this year especially since finally finding the valve spring problem 3 years ago on the '83 Pontiac 1000 (that has the original engine from this '81 in it currently)....

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I discovered a REALLY GREAT Chevette web site in 1999 when searching through the online search engines...which I hadn't done in eons....because of my new job...The Site Owner seems to be the originator of a resurgence in interest in the Chevette and Pontiac T1000 in the 1990's and the new Millenium.....

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SEE

http://chevetteperformance.homepage.com/

IT IS THE BEST!!!

Thanks Jeff!

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