Want to know what a "worst case" journey with a C5 Corvette is like? Well we've got the journey for you! Our staff writer Shred Jesse went and picked up a 2001 C5 Corvette 6 speed manual for a whopping $9000. That's a steal... or was it?
This is part 1 of a who knows how many part series of saving a C5 Corvette that nobody wanted and most folks would consider dead. Whether you're looking at a used C5 Corvette and wonder just what could go wrong when shopping for one, or if you're wondering what maybe you should be aware of on your own C5 Corvette, there's something for everybody in this series!
The Beginning - Just What Did We Get Ourselves Into
Here it is... in all of it's glory. The 2001 C5 Chevy Corvette that Jesse picked up for $9000. For those following along, this year of C5 corvette for that price in a 6 speed manual is a pretty sweet deal... but it was priced this way for a reason.
Somebody at some point totaled the car, so it has a rebuilt title. Inspecting the front end, the front crash bar is dented in pretty good, the hood doesn't line up, and a lot of small bits are missing up front. This car was wrecked, somebody got it and half-assed putting it together. The motor ran well enough though with good pull and great oil pressure, though a whine at certain RPM's gave all previous buyers pause and left us with a hair of doubt. The transmission however felt great, shifted solidly, and hey even reverse was easy to get into, that's a win for an older C5 Corvette! The car had a litany of warnings and stored codes that we could see (check out our article on how to get these yourself in car) but we also could see most of them were "Held" (H) not "Current" (C) so a code clear would get the instrument cluster to calm down.
The stickers tell a familiar story. Young dude gets a Corvette, mods it up himself… suddenly he’s got a bucket of problems and a pregnant girlfriend… better take the money and run on this fun experiment.
Why This C5? The Details That Were Right
So generally speaking as non masochists, we don't go out and seek crappy unsalvageable cars to punish our knuckles and wallets with. This car had plenty wrong with it, but a lot right.
First, as far as Jesse's initial vision with the car, he wanted a street-able car to get to and from events in comfort, where he'd be competitive enough in some modification limited classes. Basically he wants to drive it around town for fun, pop into a few autocross events and feel like the car isn't holding him back, and possibly drive to some track events with the air conditioning running.
This 2001 C5 Corvette sits in a sweet spot for autocross. The C5 Corvette base models qualify for B Street in autocross, and with a few reasonable modifications they compete very favorably in B Street Touring. Street Touring limits the modifications to a few reasonable upgrades and keeps the ceiling reasonable so you aren't getting your doors blown off by $70k+ builds. From there, the 2001+ C5 Corvettes compete favorably as they come with the upgraded heads and intake manifold that the LS6 got, giving them greater peak power than the early C5 Corvettes.
So max power and yet OEM reliability... Check!
Upgrade to a pretty high driving potential without breaking the bank on huge upgrades... Check!
Now that's a lot of generic information about the C5 Corvette in general... but what about THIS specific C5 Corvette?
Well right off the bat, the price was right. Pretty rare to find an 01+ C5 Corvette with a 6 speed manual for under $12k, with most cars selling around $16k despite a bunch of crazy folks asking as high as $25k. The damage to the car all largely appeared reasonable to fix, and with this car being functional first, a lot of the minor stuff could be lived with. Throw on some Silvers coilovers and man oh man... we've got some potential to shred with this car now.
Thus Jesse purchased the car... and the Shred to Dead revival series has begun!
Initial State of The Dead to Shred C5
The first thing we did was pull the Corvette into Jesse's modest shop and get it up on QuickJacks. While we'd prefer a 2 post lift, we're height limited in Jesse's shop and the QuickJacks more than make the job quite reasonable to do. With the car adequately in the air we were able to assess the mechanical situation.
The previous owners surely left us plenty to do. A quick assessment of initial issues showcased that we'd be busy for quite some time. Here's a quick list of initial issues we'll be churning through.
(Video of engine whine to come)
Right off the bat, the engine has a whine. It becomes less noticeable as the car heats up, but it's still there and mostly shows up at lower RPM from 2500-3500. We suspected a belt at first, so we put the car up on QuickJacks, removed all the belts and ran the car. Unfortunately for us the whine remains. That'll be our first thing to track down.
The EBCM is toast. When we pull up comms on the digital instrument closter, TC says "no comm". That means we've got no traction control (not a big deal) and no ABS (we consider this a bigger deal). When we pulled the unit there was evidence someone had been in there before, and then when we looked the essential repairs weren't performed. It's likely our unit is dead... but we'll surely be digging into this.
Our first suspect for engine whine... the unfinished Air Injection Pump Removal. The air injection pump was "removed" but all of the downstream components connecting the pump to the intake manifold and the exhaust header were still there. This can sometimes cause a whine, and even if it isn't causing a whine it's pointless clutter so it's going to go!
Another key problem area... we need to figure out the radiator support. While the car sports an awesome aftermarket aluminum radiator... The radiator was just free floating in the Corvette, held in place mostly by the radiator hoses and resting very loosely on the radiator support bracket. This isn't a recipe for success, so we'd be dealing with that for sure.
A big problem we needed to navigate was the interior light amp draw. With the car turned off and the key removed, the lights stay on for a bit and the interior chimes endlessly. Our first suspect is the busted interior light dimmer. When this is turned all the way to the right and clicked on it'll keep the lights on even when the key is removed and the driver is out. This will draw power, and given ours appears damaged and non functional, we're betting it's stuck in the "on" position.
Then of course there's the missing radiator ducting. On our long highway test drive home, the car got quite hot. While the previous owners figured opening the front end up as much as possible would get air to the radiator... they clearly didn't know how a C5 Corvette works. It's not about getting air to the radiator, it's about getting air THROUGH the radiator. So we need to add the ducting and the bottom air dam, which is critical as it creates a low pressure zone behind the radiator that air wants to fill by going THROUGH the radiator.
At some point, this car is going to have to drive at night. We love DIY around here... but this sleepy-eye install was a pretty janky DIY effort. To turn on the headlights, you had to start the car and turn on the lights. Then, you had to get out, pop the hood, plug in the headlights, close the hood, and get in the car to go where you want. To turn the headlights off you had to do all of that in reverse. We like mods, but we like our mods to work without so much constant input, so we'll be going back to the factory flip up headlights more than likely.
We're going to need some front blinkers for sure. These were removed at some point, but were provided for us in a box of parts that go with the car. We'll be wanting to figure out how to get these back in and working, as a sports car is already asking to be pulled over, let's not give them an easy win by us missing essential requirements like blinkers!
Lastly, we need to get the suspension sorted out. Ride height on this car is really low, which not only ruins handling but man oh man is it uncomfortably harsh. We're going to raise the car's height to a functional level, one where we can get jacks under the car reasonably and get over speeds bumps without dragging our tailbone over them... but we're not going to go all the way up to factory sky high height either.
Other General Maintenance
So somebody somewhere is surely screaming about doing fluid changes on the whole car... and they're right. We updated our list later down the line but felt we should focus on diagnosing the engine noise before getting much further. Trust us though, we're going to tackle the basics!
Next Step... figure out the Engine Whine
We’re going to work through this car just like any of you would, and the first priority is making sure the engine itself is healthy and happy. There’s no sense chasing comfort items or cosmetic fixes if the car isn’t going to stay on the road for much longer.
In the next part of the Dead to Shred series, we’ll start digging into the engine whine and narrowing down what’s actually going on.
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