I am an Expat working and living in Italy. I arrived in 2007 and shortly after realizing it really wasn't half bad living here, I brought my '04 Lemans Z16 over. That's another story for another forum. However, I am looking at retirement and wanted something to keep my hands busy tinkering with. I have always wanted a C3, almost buying a 76 in 1980. For over a year I have been looking, though not seriously enough to make a deal. However, in January one caught my eye. A 1978 base model that has been highly adjusted we'll say. Only two previous owners. I have 95% of the original parts, spare motor, 4 speed, rims and tires, plus a ton of extras he bought in his learning curve of American muscle and iron. 

I have started working on her and am slowly making my way towards a daily driver capable car. My main objective is to de-euorize the car, specifically the wiring harnesses. The previous owner was an aircraft mechanic and you can tell. The harnesses are fully loomed and sheathed to include heat shrink from the sheathing to the connectors. Too bad I can't see the colors of the wires and must peel back some of his work. I wouldn't need to do this if the car wasn't euroized. As my grandmother would say "Bless his heart", but this electrical system is scary.

I am making headway by pealing the heat shrink rather than starting over. Now I just need to find a source for the original crimp on pins and plastic connectors. My enjoyment is in the details of doing it myself. I found the main feed for the Power Accessory circuit above the glove box powering the turn signals. Only problem was that it was intended to be the main power feed, so in reality there was not power being fed.  I should have power accessories this weekend. I also use an ample helping of dielectric paste in all of the connectors to prevent and eliminate corrosion. NO air, No moisture, no corrosion.

My LeMans CE Z16 at LeMans and the newest member of the family.  Both well above 400 HP and happy to run.

Welcome to C3VR and congrats on finding your "new love".  It sounds as if you will be able to keep your hands busy for a bit. 

Jim Olson 

"The Toys"...!!!  Save the Wave!

Where I've been in a Corvette...!!!

Finished installing electric actuators for the headlights. I went with the system which uses the C5 actuator system and controller. Nice easy install except I want the complete functionality of the C5, ie headlights only raise when headlights are activated, not when parking lights are on. Since I have a C5, I will research this and see if I can figure out some of the logic. I may be able to design something to provide the Exclusive OR function of Headlights low or High activation only. 

    I did remove all of the vacuum hoses, but I may just rerun the main chassis tank as a reserve for the rest of the car because the cam is a thumper and does not make vacuum. Couple of fittings and check valves should do the trick. Let me just say that a smoke machine is priceless on a vacuum centric car like these C3's. I had to get another cold snack and sit down when I saw the amount of smoke coming from leaks. Of course this was also aggravating the EFI system trying to maintain a desired idle speed and AFR.  I saw aa youtube video where a C3 owner used a cannister from a camaro mounted in the passenger wiper tray area. It resembled a tennis ball tube container in size.  Using what must be attached for it's intended function and repurpose it makes more sense to me.  IMHO. 

My LeMans CE Z16 at LeMans and the newest member of the family.  Both well above 400 HP and happy to run.

Sounds like you’ve been busy. You have also convinced me to make sure my motor doesn’t have a big cam in it. First time I have ever torn a motor down to de radicalize it. I hope you have good luck figuring out your lighting system.

Living and driving in Italy presents a problem of awareness for the other drivers realizing what my indicators are telling them. Because the C3 rear turn signals are red and in combination with the brake lights it could potentially be mistaken for braking when in fact I am signaling to turn. Also in the front the turn signals are amber, but also are the running/parking lights. The running/Parking lights are generally white over here, but by law turn signals must be amber. To solve the front color issue I installed switchback LED's and this problem was solved. The rear was just a little more difficult, but very similar. The biggest hurdle to over come was to retain the factory lens, but include the color scheme I need. My fix is to use the reverse lens as both the reverse white light and the amber turn signal. To separate the brake and turn signals I installed a 2 wire to 3 wire interface normally used to connect a trailer wiring circuit to a trucks lighting circuit. This interface provided separate brake and turn signals, but required me to run new wires for the turn signals since the old wires are now dedicated to brakes only. The final modification needed was to replace the stock reverse bulb sockets with two more brake/turn/tail bulb sockets. These sockets needed to be adjusted to fit into the original reverse lens. 5 minutes with a sharpe knife and Ta-Da. Factory lenses, factory brake lights, factory running/parking lights, factory reverse lights, and amber turn signals using the reverse lens and switchback LED's.

This new lighting scheme was not required as the car is alredy tagged inItaly by way of Germany. However, now all other drivers will see the normal color scheme of all other cars and understand instantly what my intentions are. I had to also add load resistors for the LED's. For a nice neat install I added weatherpack connectors to the resistor/2-3 wire interface box. Then mounted the resistors and interface on an aluminum L bracket which I bolted to the cross support behind the gas tank. All connections were soldered and heat shrinked to prevent corrosion in the future. I also saved all orogonal pieaces for potential return to factory original configuration. I also installed LED's in all sockets to minimize the current draw through the light switch, thusly reducing any heat build up.

My LeMans CE Z16 at LeMans and the newest member of the family.  Both well above 400 HP and happy to run.

A bit of work but a GREAT resolution.  I've heard that Italian drivers are a crazy bunch as it is so no need to add to the craziness.  As far as brake/tail lights and turn signals go I had to do just the opposite to my bride's Toyota RAV4 in order to pull a converted fishing boat trailer we use for bikes, canoes and kyaks.  Fortunately I found a solution on etrailer.com that took the 6 wire mess in the car down to a 4 wire that the trailer uses.  Hopefully there won't be any Italian drivers following too close as the amber turn signals still operate on the car...!!!   🤪

Jim Olson 

"The Toys"...!!!  Save the Wave!

Where I've been in a Corvette...!!!

Hello Again. I have been busy and simply haven't updated the registry here. 

As for the Camshaft swap - Well, it was almost as expected. I didn't realize that they were going to grind in a 4 degree advance from the get go. I bought the Howards cam p/n HRS-110245-14. It is a respectable cam making 20 inches of vacuum at idle making the EFI system very happy with no overlap. Now the O2 sensor is reporting actual data not biased by the extra fresh air. To overcome the 4 degree advance I retarded the cam 4 degrees with a Summit Cam/Crank gear kit capable of 4 degrees of change. I also changed the head gaskets to GMPP 0.051 compressed thickness.  These changes reduced my static compression ratio from 10.3:1 to 9.8:1 and my dynamic compression ratio from 9.1:1 to 8.3:1. Running aluminum heads I can only hear some spark knocking on WOT accelerating. The lift is 500 int / 510 exh with duration of 225 int and 231 exh. This makes for a very healthy responsive 383 motor that has increased fuel efficiency dramatically tuning the EFI system.

The electric headlight conversion wasn't as functional as I actually wanted. The kit had me use the parking light 12vdc signal from a front parking light to actuate the headlight actuators. This raised the headlights when the running lights were on. I prefer to have the headlights raise up only when the headlights are on. I like the look of driving around with just the running lights on. It also provides for DRL's. To provide this functionality I designed an exclusive OR circuit control module. It is pretty simple using two relays and diode isolating the inputs to be only inputs and not power out paths. I used the input of Low beam headlights to activate relay #1 which then provided a 12vdc signal from the alternator power to then actuate relay #2 which is combined with the High beam 12vdc signal input thus providing the exclusive Low OR High Beams as an activation signal to actuate the electric actuators.  I diode protected the High Beam input signal so it could not flow current out to the headlights. To connect everything I used same color wire to Tee into the low beam signal, the High beam signal within the wire harness next to the Alternator.  Installed a pigtail of red power and black ground signals at the alternator and finally extended the headlight module activation wire to reach the back side of the wheel well. Put my new harness together into a female Weatherpack connector as well as wire the relay mounts into a male Weatherpack connector. I used a square plate of plastic to mount the relay mounts and wiring harness as a replaceable unit. Then mounted it to the back side of the left front wheel well. The relays mounts are not weathertight so I filled them with dielectric paste before plugging in the relays. The relays are 10Amp relays which are overkill for the circuit, but should never have any issue.

My rear tail light conversion did not last very long as I discovered a major flaw with my design. Using the 2 wire to 3 wire adapter for trailers only worked for the turn signals alone. If I activated the 4 ways the converter could not decipher the turns from brakes. To correct the design I had to remove the 2 wire to 3 wire converter all together. I ran a white 18 ga wire from right rear brake light to the left rear brake light and up to the brake light switch at the brake pedal. I de-pinned the connector removing the original white wire giving 12vdc to the turn signal switch, heat shrinked it and tye wrapped it back on itself. I pinned my new white wire from the brake lights with the correct female spade and soldered as well. I installed the new female spade in the brake switch connector. Then connected the yellow and green wires from turn signals to new 3 wire light sockets modified to fit into the stock reverse light lenses. I did not want to modify the lens, so I can return to stock if so desired later.  I installed the switchback LED's in the new turn/reverse sockets and problem resolved. If I want to return to original configuration, I just reinstall the original white wire and reconfigure the light sockets. In summary, I removed the brake signal from the turn signal switch. Removed the turn signal bulb from the brake lens. Combined the turn signal and reverse lights into a dual filament socket (same as the brake turn socket), then installed switchback LED's to enable dual circuit operation giving priority to the turn signal. So, if for example I am backing into a parallel parking spot, I will pull ahead of the parking spot put in reverse and both reverse lights will actuate. The brakes will be on all the time the pedal is pushed. I will then actuate my turn signal for the side the parking spot is on. At this point the switchback controller will deactivate the reverse led's and activate the blinking yellow leds.  When I turn off the turn signal the switchback controller will reactivate the white reverse leds. If you're not familiar with switchback LED's the controller is built into the light. looks just like a regular led 1157. 

While I had the engine apart and the radiator out, I swapped in an aluminum radiator. I got a great deal on a fully welded aluminum radiator from Poland for less than $300. I am keeping the old copper and brass radiator just in case. I did this as insurance on all this money and work I am putting into the engine. Once I get a good understanding about the performance and reliability of the aluminum radiator I will add electric fans.  Step by step. I have also learned that it is better to use an open designed fan shroud electric fan mount. Since I have a TIG machine, I plan on building a frame with integral mounting points for the electric fans and relays. I can then put flaps over the otherwise unused areas of the shroud. These flaps will allow moving air to flow front to back on its own. For example while moving, but the fans are not energized yet. However, they will prevent air moving back to front allowing the engine to heat the radiator. 

Thought I would share the journey and information. Hopefully its entertaining and informative. Cheers!

Looking at swapping out the TH400 for a TH700r4 or maybe the TCI 4L60E 6 speed. Hmmmm. 

My LeMans CE Z16 at LeMans and the newest member of the family.  Both well above 400 HP and happy to run.