Grill Guards; Correct Undertray Panels; What's That Black Box?

BUT the ERay is much more involved because of some air ducts, and that means that four undertray panels need to be removed, so this job requires lifting the car in some manner. Luckily, I have a friend who lives nearby with a lift in his garage that he let me use. He's also done the job before on his Z06, which is basically the same procedure, so it was great to have his help and company!

Two types of fasteners on the undertray panels are involved, T15 torx screws and 7mm bolts, and there are a lot of them. My purpose here isn't to teach you the whole procedure, as that information is easily found elsewhere, but I do want to highlight a couple of things that were unexpectedly encountered during the installation of my grill screens that I zip tied in. Other products may install differently, but I didn't want to remove the entire front bumper, and I was able to hide the zip ties well enough that nobody will ever notice them... at least, nobody ever said anything about the zip ties on my Stingray.

Once the four undertray panels have been removed, it's possible to wriggle the screens into place and zip tie them in. While I was in there, I saw a black box that I didn't recognize, and my friend said he didn't think his 2023 Z06 has one (it doesn't). Once again, Harlan Charles, Corvette Product Marketing Manager, came through for us and identified it as part of the cooling system for the front drive unit. Thanks, Harlan!

Actually, I should have realized that myself, but it just doesn't look like part of a radiator to me. However, because of its placement on the left side, right in front of the larger radiator that's next to it, that should probably have told me what it was. Here's a photo of the box from underneath the ERay (the one with the large, braided hoses) and a couple close-ups of the vertical radiator that cools the power electronics that feed power from the drive battery to the electric motor, and that's done with a glycol and deionized water mixture (according to Josh Holder, Corvette Chief Engineer).

When I was taking off the undertray panels, I made mental notes of how they were installed so that I could put them back the same way. Unfortunately, they were incorrect to begin with, so I put one panel back wrong! There's also a company that sells grill guards with an installation video on their website explicitly telling people the WRONG way to install this panel, and I'd watched it twice before doing this job, so that reinforced the idea that I should do it the wrong way. I've since corrected the problem, but I hope by posting this I can save some of you from all the hassle I had to go through.

Below are photos of first, the wrong way, with the panel on top of the one in front of it and only one center bolt holding it on. This causes it to sag down on both sides of that bolt and create gaps that could allow foreign material in. Even though that didn't seem right to me, I mistakenly convinced myself to copy the way it was when I picked up the car and also to follow that video, thinking maybe it was for air flow or something... NO! The second photo shows the panel properly installed underneath the panel in front of it so that it's tucked up in there nice and tight with no gaps.

And, finally, here's what the front of my car looks like with the grill guards installed. You can also see the oval air duct that makes this job a little more difficult, but really it wasn't as bad as I expected — except for having to correct the undertray panel... grr.

Bonus Photos! Who doesn't like bonus Corvette photos? Nobody I know!

The first one shows an aluminum undertray panel with a tab welded to it that — as far as I know — is not on 2023 Z06s. I don't know if that's different because this is an ERay, or because it's a 2024, or something else. You can see the placement of this panel in the above photos with a wider angle. The second photo shows the center tunnel that houses the battery pack. Look at all of those bolts!