|
LS1/FD Build Thread (the most detailed build thread on Earth)
12 Attachment(s)
This is my original build thread of my car. This build thread is ~3 years old and there is a lot that has been changed since then. I'll see if I can find some of those posst to update. Well here goes. This is gonna take a while to post it all up.
I have a 94 Touring model. I bought it from Maryland. It has 30k original miles on it. It ran perfect when I pulled the rotary and sold it. For anyone curious, I sold the engine/tranny for $3k in perfect running condition. I purchased the car for the sole purpose of swapping it. I have an 04 GTO LS1/T56 that I'm putting in. I'll try to make this a picture documentary. First off, here is the car before I tore out the rotary. Attachment 712122 Attachment 712123 Attachment 712124 LS1/T56 from Cleveland Pick A Part. Its an 04 GTO engine with 14k miles on it. Attachment 712125 Attachment 712126 Car up on stands getting ready. Attachment 712127 Attachment 712128 Car shimmed level front to back, and side to side. Gotta have a solid platform to work and measure from. Attachment 712129 Cutting up stock subrame. Attachment 712130 Boxing in control arm ends. Attachment 712131 Attachment 712132 Attachment 712133 |
12 Attachment(s)
Attachment 712134
I needed to make custom subframe hoist points because the rear stock one stuck out too far into the firewall. I decided to use a 4 point system for a more level pickup, as opposed to a two point. I used the stock front one, and added another front one on the other head, and made both rears. This now allows me to put the engine as far back it it hits something else. No longer the pinch point. Attachment 712135 Attachment 712136 Attachment 712137 Test fitting. Those covers don't even come close to fitting under the hood. Attachment 712138 More test fitting. Attachment 712139 Boxed subframe ends in the car. Attachment 712140 More trial fitting Attachment 712139 Attachment 712142 Attachment 712143 Attachment 712144 Place where heades hits passenger side firewall/floorboard/tunnel Attachment 712145 |
12 Attachment(s)
GTO shifter assembly. Looks like this works a bit better than an F-body setup. No cutting necessary, as least most likely not.
Attachment 712146 Got a portion of the front subframe tacked in place. There were several things I had to consider when making the subframe. Steering rack input shaft had to be able to clear everything. Steering rack placement. Engine removal, I wanted to be able to remove the engine/trans as a unit, and the subframe has to allow that. The oil pan on the LS1 hangs pretty low, and I wanted the lowest point to be the subframe, not the oil pan. I put the lowest part of the subframe about 1/2 to 3/4" below the lowest portion of the oilpan. Here are some pics of that. Attachment 712147 Attachment 712148 Attachment 712149 Attachment 712150 Attachment 712151 Nothing exciting today, but I did make some brackets for the steering rack. The simplest things take a good deal of time. Attachment 712152 Attachment 712153 Attachment 712154 Some progress today. What I just did today was probably the most painstaking part I've done so far. I was extremely precise when placing the steering rack. With the brakets tack welded where they are I have 5/16" clearnace between the rack and oil pan, and 1.75" lower than stock. Chance are I'll move the entire subframe up 3/8" here in the near future, and that will leave me at only 1.375" lower than stock. I made some small spacer pieces to get the rack to the height I wanted. Here I used a magnetic holder thing. I'm going to be corner welding the bracket. In my previous job, I learned that corner welds are the most desirable type as far as fatigue and strength go. Attachment 712155 Tack welded together. Attachment 712156 Tack welded to the subframe. This part too forever. I must have measured and adjusted the rack and brackets 2000 times before I put my first tack on there. Some people will question why the brackets are higher than the subframe, and my answer is this. I didn't want the oil pan hanging down below the subframe, and that is the reason the subframe isn't tucking up closer to the oil pan. The subframe is 3/8" lower than the oil pan. Attachment 712157 |
12 Attachment(s)
Here is the picture of the support gussets that will be welded in place. I still need to cut them out. If you have a good imagination you'll be able to see how they fit in place. Also, on the drivers side bracket I'm going to put some gussets to the side in addition, because the driver side bracket takes all the side to side load from the rack, and you want that part as sturdy as possible, with little to no flex.
Attachment 712158 Put on some of the gusseting brackets on the steering rack mounts. I've got a bunch of PMs about how I cut the metal. This is usually how I cut sheet metal at home. I use a scroll saw then clean up the edges with a combination belt/disc sander, or possibly a bench grinder. Here is the saw I use. Its pretty shitty, but it gets the job done. Attachment 712159 Cutting brackets.... Attachment 712160 Brackets tacked on. I'm leaving it all tacked for now, till I finalize everything, just in case anything needs to change. Attachment 712161 Attachment 712162 I made some engine mount U-Brackets the other day. The bolt is there to prevent the U-channel didn’t warp inward from the heat of welding. I corner welded, as well as the inside corner for good measure. The bolts used as spacers did the trick. Attachment 712163 Attachment 712164 Working on the engine mounts to the subframe. First task: Get the engine supported vertically. Oh yeah, I moved the engine and subframe up ½" Attachment 712165 Task two: Put in support tubing to the rear control arm mount. This was required for the next motor mount brace I was planning to add. Attachment 712166 Attachment 712167 Task three: Put in motor mount bracing to make it rigid in the front to back direction. You’ll see why the tube is cut like this in a minute. Attachment 712168 Attachment 712169 |
12 Attachment(s)
Task four: Add bracing to make the motor mounts rigid in the side to side direction. I used ¼" sheetmetal for this task. I made them symmetrical, even though the passengers side was able to fit a better brace, but I didn’t think it was necessary.
Attachment 712170 Attachment 712171 This is as far as I’ve got so far. The front subframe is almost done with mockup, and I’ll be fully welding it soon. Just a few things left, put on some steering rack mount gussets. In light of the Hinson suframe failures I’ll be adding some material near where the main subframe tube meets the control arm mounts. I caught myself on fire today cutting those plates out with a cutoff wheel. I stopped to see my progress, and what do I see? FLAMES. I was wearing leather gloves so I started to pat it out, but that didn’t seem to work very well. Then the flames started to travel and get bigger, so I made my way to the fire extinguisher. Ended up getting it patted out. Hahahah Attachment 712172 Got my Delrin bushings today, thanks TireSmokin7. Attachment 712173 Attachment 712174 It got a little smoky in the garage with all that burning underbody coating. Attachment 712175 I made the crossmember so I’d be able to change the driveshaft angles by shimming the transmission up or down. It can currently go down ¼" or up ½". As it currently sits, it should be prefect 1.5 degrees at each joint. Here is how the crossmember turned out. Attachment 712176 Attachment 712177 Attachment 712178 Attachment 712179 Attachment 712180 Attachment 712181 |
12 Attachment(s)
Plenty of room for my 3" dual exhaust to run over the crossmember. It hangs down only 3/8" lower than the stock floorboards.
I got all my exhaust components. Attachment 712182 After much deliberation I also decided to go with a cobra rear diff. I decided this for a few reasons. Gear ratio selection, LSD/Spool options, easier mounting with the tabs on the front, etc. Attachment 712183 Attachment 712184 I also started the wiring with help of Dan. Attachment 712185 Little update, no pics this time though. I'm working on getting the cobra diff mounted. I'm using an explorer rear diff cover. I'm going to mount it with poly bushings on all 4 corners. For the poly bushings I need to have shells made to press the bushings into. I bought a piece of 2.375" OD, 1/4" wall DOM. I'm having the ID bored out to 1.935". The bushing that I'm using has an OD of 1.950". This should give me a sufficient press fit. My good friends at Kordenbrock Motorsports (www.kms-fab.com) are doing the machine work to bore out the tubing at their family owned machine shop, Kordenbrock Tool and Die. I made some exciting purchases as well. I bougth this stuff: Magic Stick 4 camshaft (Texas Speed and Performance) .649/.609 lift with 111 LSA PRC dual springs Ti retainers Spring seats Seals Hardened Chromoly pushrods LS2 Timing chain GM cam gasket kit Ported LS6 oil pump shimmed a touch ARP rod bolts Porterfield R4-S front and rear brake pads Brembo slotted and zinc plated rotors SS lines Motul fluid I just got done spending a lot of time on the cobra rear setup. I’m very happy with how it turned out. First, I decided to use the Ford Explorer rear differential cover instead of the cobra cover for two reasons. One, they have a tendency to break. Two, mounting would be easier, and have a better hold on the rear end, and I think will lead to less/no wheel hop. I made some brackets and for the bushings to press in, and to mount to the subframe. Attachment 712186 Then I needed to do some modifications to the rear subframe to allow for the cobra diff to be mounted. To determine the location of the diff I kept a few things in mind. The axles need to be equal length, so the output shaft machined “flanges" must be equidistant from the centerline of the car. The diff must also be parallel with the centerline of the car. The axles must also be on the same plane along the distance of the car. This will keep the correct axle joint angles. One thing I did think about was the height of the axle outputs. I was attempting to keep them at stock location or up to 1 inch above. Moving the diff upward would help get the axle joint angles back to stock when the car is lowered. I ended up settling for 0.75" higher than stock, which seemed to work out well. The last important think to consider is driveshaft angles. Both angles must be within 0.5 degrees from of each other, and both must be between 1.5 degrees and 3 degrees. The minimum of 1.5 degrees is for bearing lubrication. 1.5 is the recommended min angle for IRS cars. I shot for 2.0 degrees and hit it within 0.1. Both angles are identically 2.1 degrees. Perfect! Here are a few pics of the rear subframe modifications for mounting the cobra diff. I basically welded in a piece of square tubing to the rear of the subframe. Then I welded mounting tabs off that. I had to notch the square tubing in two locations, one for the rear sway bar, the second for the fuel tank hangers. I also welded the remaining parts of the subframe that were only stitch welded from the factory. Attachment 712187 Attachment 712188 Attachment 712189 Attachment 712190 Attachment 712191 Attachment 712192 Attachment 712193 |
12 Attachment(s)
Attachment 712194
Attachment 712195 For mounting the front of the diff I thought about many different ideas, over a period of probably a week and had one of my engineering friends come over and help with brainstorming. He ended up coming up with the winning idea. It is simple, easy to remove (for diff removal in the car), easy to fabricate, and should prove to be very strong. Basically its just a cross member that attaches to the subframe. On the subframe I needed some strong attachment points since it will be a highly loaded member. I boxed in an area of the subframe. It consists of three plates welded to the subframe, giving three planes for load distribution. The bottom plate I welded nuts to the backside. Here are some pictures of the boxed area of the subframe. Attachment 712196 Attachment 712197 Attachment 712198 I tried to keep the subframe as high off the ground as possible, which lead to the current design. The V part looks low, but it is in fact higher than many stock parts of the car. The subframe is 2" x 1" tubing. It attaches to the subframe on the ends, and near the middle, it attaches to the floorboard of the car. The part where it attaches to the floor is a strong area. The Japanese FDs come with rear seats, and right in that area is where the stock rear seatbelts attached, so that area is reinforced with thick sheet metal. It is also on a corner, which increases strength. One thing I still need to do is seam weld the sheet metal in that area because its only spot welded from the factory. The attachment to the body in those spots is what I think really makes the cross member strong. Here are some pics of the cross member. Attachment 712199 Attachment 712200 Attachment 712201 Attachment 712202 Attachment 712203 In the middle of the cross member there are pads for mounting the front of the diff. You can see that they are extra wide. Half of the pad is for the bolt, and main bushing to go through. The second outer half of the pad is for an upper pinion brace that is not made yet, but it will bolt to that portion of the pad. The cobra diff mounting is done, and only minor modifications still remain. For exhaust routing I intend to go under the cross member, and made some round-oval-round conversions so that I don’t go any lower than the stock floorboards. Finally, I put the final touches on the front subframe. When I originally did the finish welding on the front subframe I had a lot of warping, and the lower rear control arm mount point no longer lined up with the bolt hole. I cut the mounting ears off, and re-welded them back on. I also added a small piece of square tubing to help stiffen that leg up, which I think will help considerably. Now it bolts up nicely, and the control arm fits great as well. Attachment 712204 Attachment 712205 |
12 Attachment(s)
I just finished up my exhaust. It consists of 1.875" long tube headers. 3" collectors, to V-Band flanges. Ceramic coated. 3" stainless to a stainless 3" x-pipe. Then 3" dual all the way back to two stainless Magnaflow mufflers.
Its just straights and mandrel pieces cut and welded to fit. I used approximately 8’ of straight, and 6 90s for the entire thing. I used 7/16" 304SS hanger material. The rubber isolators are from AutoZone. Its fully TIG welded. I backpurged the entire thing when welding, so the interior of the pipe is perfectly smooth. This was a major pain in the ass, but I think it was worth the extra pain, and cost of argon. Enjoy! Attachment 712206 Attachment 712207 Attachment 712208 Attachment 712209 Attachment 712210 Attachment 712211 Attachment 712212 Attachment 712213 I want to make sure you get real familiar with this view. LOL. Attachment 712214 Attachment 712215 Attachment 712216 Attachment 712217 |
12 Attachment(s)
Thanks. It wasnt' too bad once I figured how how much to flow in the backpurge. It took some experimenting, but the results are amazing!
Over the past few days I've been working on chassis wiring. So far I've just been stripping wires out that I won't need from the engine bay body harness. I've removed: Both fuel pump relays and associated wiring Fuel pump resistor and associated wiring EGI relay and associated wiring All 4 fan relays and associated wiring Air pump relay and associated wiring A/C relay and associated wiring Cruise control and associated wiring Data Link connector and wiring MAP sensor wiring Both yellow stock ECU harness plugs I swear wiring of this magnitude gives me nightmares. Here is the pile of wire removed so far. Attachment 712218 Well I missed my self-imposed March deadline, and it looks like I’ll overshoot it by quite a bit. I’ve been doing a bunch of random things on the car recently. I got my wheels. Enkei RPF1s in 17x9.0 + 45 front, and 17x9.5 +38 rear. I have Falken Azenis RT-615s to put on them, in 255/40/17 front, and 275/40/17 rear. Attachment 712219 Attachment 712220 Attachment 712221 Attachment 712222 I got my SPEC stage 3+ clutch this week. Looks nice. Attachment 712223 I pulled the rear subframe and things to do some painting and welding. I welded the body mounts for the diff cross member. I fully welded around the seam, and then primed, underbody coated, and sprayed with Montego Blue. Attachment 712224 I also made a bracket to mount the parking brake cables, since the factory bracket was on the diff. Attachment 712225 I also painted the interior of the floorboards where I welded the plates in for the trans cross member. Attachment 712226 I painted my axle parts, both joint housings, and the actual axle itself. The axles are custom from The Driveshaft Shop. Attachment 712227 Attachment 712228 Some better pics of the modified rear subframe while it was out. Attachment 712229 |
12 Attachment(s)
Attachment 712230
Attachment 712231 Attachment 712232 I halfway mounted the radiator. I had to slightly massage the insides of the frame rails with a mallet to get the radiator to fit. The radiator was 28" wide, and the frame rails were exactly 28" between them. I have 1/8" of clearance on each side now. Attachment 712233 Attachment 712234 Attachment 712235 I wanted to isolate the radiator from chassis flex, to ensure a long life for the radiator. What I had to do was weld tabs (angle aluminum) to the side of the tanks. Then I drilled and tapped those tabs for a 8mm bolt. The bolt is used as a locating pin. I drilled some large holes in the tops of the frame rails. Then I used a rubber bushing to insert into the holes. Then the locating pins (bolts) fit right into those holes. It’s a very factory like installation. To keep the radiator from tipping forward/backward I’m going to be using shroud. There will be an aluminum sheet that covers entire space forward of the radiator. It serves the purpose of mounting the top of the radiator, and directing air through the radiator instead of around it. I’m also planning on making a belly pan, or whatever you call it. Its going to go from the front edge of the bumper cover, and extend to at least to the radiator. This will also function to direct all the air entering the bumper, through the radiator. Attachment 712236 Attachment 712237 Attachment 712238 Attachment 712239 Attachment 712240 I just made the upper fan mount/shroud. It doesn't have all the bolts holding it down yet, I need to get some longer bolts and spacers for some of the holes. Attachment 712241 |
12 Attachment(s)
Attachment 712242
Got my subframe back from the paint guy (Dale - t2fastalon). I did some welding for him in exchange for the paint on the rear subframe and crossmember. He did an excellent job on it, especially considering the difficulty of the part. Attachment 712243 Attachment 712244 Attachment 712245 Attachment 712246 Getting started on my dual intake pipes. I'm going from the throttole body, which is 4", to a dual 3.5" setup, with a filter in each bumper cover opening. Attachment 712247 Attachment 712248 Attachment 712249 This fitting was a total motherfucker to make. Getting the 4" fitting both planar, and round took forever. It was built from sheetmetal. Turned out pretty nice. out of practice, but its comming along nicely. Its been a while since I've welded aluminum, so I'm a bit oth the inside and outside to make it nice and smooth. On the big end I plan to weld on a 12ish degree 4" elbow. On the small ends I plan on welding a 45 degree elbow to make a complete 90 degree bend, then go from there. In case you totally don't understnad what I"m talking about doing, here are some pics of the beginning of the intake. Note: The long straight portions on each end will be cut off, this is jus the beginning till I get some more elbows in the mail. Attachment 712250 Attachment 712251 My subframe is all assembled, ready to install. Yea!!! Attachment 712252 Attachment 712253 |
12 Attachment(s)
Well amist all my wedding stuff, I was able to get some work done on the car this weekend. I got the rear subframe assembly installed in the car for the final time. Everything fit up perfect and the install was a cinch.
Attachment 712254 Attachment 712255 Attachment 712256 Attachment 712257 I put on one side of the rear suspension and a wheel, to determine where I want to drill my control arms for zerk fittings for the greaseable delrin bushings I have. I also did some test fitting of my wheels. I had no shock/strut installed, so I just jacked up the wheel to the desired height of 25" from the ground to the fender lip. It appears that at that ride height I'll need some fender rolling. Got started on the my dual intake setup a little bit. Ended up getting the drivers side about halfway done. Welding the aluminum elbows was kinda tough on the outside of the bend because the material is so thin from the bending process. So far its welding pretty good. Could be better, but its sufficient. Attachment 712258 Attachment 712259 Got my upper intake pipes done. Now I just need to get the lower part finsihed and get the filters behind the bumper cover openings. Attachment 712260 Attachment 712261 Attachment 712262 I finilized my intake setup today. I've placed the filters right behind the side openings in the bumper cover. I feel that will be the best way to get maximum air into the engine, regardless of looks. I might call K&N and see if I can put some black dye in their oil to so they don't stand out as much. I believe this might actually almost the end of fabrication on this project. I must say, I am very relieved at this fact. The build has been extremely time consuming thus far, and I'll be happy to focus on getting the last few things plumbed up, and wiring completed. Attachment 712263 Tonight I nearly finished my lower radiator shroud. Now the radiator is completly boxed in from the front. This will cause all the air that enters the bumper cover to travel through the radiator, for good cooling. The only thing left to do is put a rubber strip on the back edge. On the 1" turned down edge, I will be attaching a 1/4" thick, 3" tall piece of rubber. This should create a lower pressure area behind the radiator for improved cooling flow. Attachment 712264 Attachment 712265 |
12 Attachment(s)
Attachment 712266
Attachment 712267 I finished up my intake piping. I think it should flow really well. Still unsure of where I'll put my IAT sensor at the moment. Attachment 712268 Attachment 712269 Attachment 712270 Attachment 712271 I also mounted my battery. I decided to put it on the opposite side of the gas tank and driver to try and balance out the weight some (that and it fit well there). Its an Odyssey PC680MJT. Attachment 712272 Attachment 712273 Well I got married a month ago, then went on a honeymoon, which was great. Then came back from a great week in Maui to a flooded basement. A fitting on my toilet had cracked and leaked for a solid week, thus soaking the carpet and padding beneath. I've been working on getting that back in order, and going much needed yard work, so the car was put on the back burner for a few weeks. Well I'm back at it now. I made a few fuel lines up, nothing too fancy, and no pics of them yet. Dale has my front subframe and tranny crossmember for a quality paint job. Then I removed every last thing from my engine bay to prep for paint. The paint in the engine bay wasn't the best, and the factory coverage left some to be desired. I have the bay all prepped and ready for paint now (well, as least to my knowledge, Dale will tell me if its good enough). Attachment 712274 Attachment 712275 I also removed the clutch on the 14k mile GTO engine. I'm not sure that the clutch is stock. There are still machining ridges on both the pressure plate and the flywheel, adn there is very little dust inside the bellhousing. The clutch disc also looks to have little to no wear. Anyone know if this is a stock 2004 GTO clutch? It says LUK on it stamped in a few places. Attachment 712276 Attachment 712277 |
12 Attachment(s)
Much more to come soon. The clutch line, power steering line, and fuel lines should be finished up soon.
Finally, some progress that is picture worthy. Its been a while since thats happened. I turned my garage into a paintbooth as best as I could. I took probalby 4 days to remove all the metal dust from the fab I've been doing, and once that was gone I mopped the floor 3 times to ensure it was a dust free environment. I made an air filter insert for my back door of the garage, all out of home HVAC filters. That was the intake for the garage. For exhaust I bought three box fans and tied them together. I cracked my garage door enough to fit the fans underneath, then covered the rest of the gap with cardboard. I tapped the cardboard down, and sealed up any other possible air leaks w/o going way overboard. This worked really well to remove the fumes and overspray. Surprisingly well actually. Attachment 712278 Attachment 712279 Then I needed to get my air supply in order. My painter (Dale, t2fastalon, if your reading this on a local forum) told me that my compressor should flow enough to keep up well with his HVLP spray gun. To ensure a dry air source I did a bit of research and came up with a fairly cheap solution. I purchased a craftsman water trap to put inline, however, those only pick up liquid water, not water vapor or moisture in the air. So I made a homemade air dryer. Its a 20' piece of 1/2" coiled copper. I submersed it in ice water. The idea here is to remove the moisture from the air traveling through the coil. The moist air condenses on the cold walls of the copper tubing in the ice water, then turns into liquid water. I put the air dryer right before the water trap, so the water trap could pick up all the condensate. This worked great, today was not a humid day in the least bit, but I still managed to pull out a complete bottle full of water out of the water trap. Again, I was amazed with how well it worked. Attachment 712280 Attachment 712281 Now the pics...... Here is some of Dale putting on the base coat. Attachment 712282 Attachment 712283 A few pics after the base coat, but before the clear. Attachment 712284 Attachment 712285 And for the pics after the clear has dried. To help dry the paint, I attempted to bake the paint with my heater. I was able to get it up to 115 degrees, and left it there for 2.5 hours. Then I took these pics. I'm very happy with how it turned out. A big thanks goes out to Dale for doing such a great job! Thanks Dale! Attachment 712286 Attachment 712287 Attachment 712288 Attachment 712289 |
12 Attachment(s)
Attachment 712290
Attachment 712291 Attachment 712292 Attachment 712293 I finally tore my motor apart to install the new parts. The LS1 motor is all new to me, pushrod motors in general really. I really never understood how they worked till I took it apart and saw for myself. Pretty simple really. First thing I did was remove the oil pan. I take the pan off, flip it over and this is what i see. Something is definately wrong here. Attachment 712294 I'm definately going to have a talk with the place I bought the motor from. They switched the pan, pickup, and windage tray to that of a F-body, from the GTO setup. The GTO is front sump, the F-body is rear sump. Aparently some douche dropped a bolt in the pan before they put it together. ASE certification, aparently that doens't mean too much. Then I started removeing parts. I removed the timing cover and valve covers. Attachment 712295 Attachment 712296 Then I removed the rockers, pushrods, and cam. To remove the cam I didn't use any fancy lifter retaining tool, I just put the motor upsidedown and let gravity do the work for me. Attachment 712297 Attachment 712298 I also put the new cam in, all lubed up and ready to go. Lubing up my bumpstick was fun. Should have the rest of my parts in a few days. I got the cam in, put the cam retainer plate on, and torqued it all down. Then I took off the windage tray and put in my ARP rod bolts one by one. You have to torque them down three times to 40 ft-lbs. I put those in, then put the windage tray back on. I got the timing chain back on and all lined up as well. Then I put on the ported and shimmed LS6 oil pump. I made sure to pour a shitload of oil in the pump to get it all nice and lubed up. Then I decided to call it a day. I plan on doing the spring swap probably tomorrow. Only one pic this time. I was in progress of putting the rod bolts in. Attachment 712299 I worked some more on my engine tonight. I have PRC dual springs, which are compatible with the high lift of the cam I chose. The kit came with Titanium retainers, spring seats, valve stem seals, and chromoly pushrods. Here is a comparison picture between the two springs. Attachment 712300 Here I took a picture after doing only two springs, a comparison of springs/retainers installed in the cylinder head. Attachment 712301 |
12 Attachment(s)
All the springs swapped, it was easy once I got the hang of it and felt more comfortable with doing it. I just put some assembly lube on the pushrods and dropped them in their holes.
Attachment 712302 Then I put the rockers back on, and got everything torqued down. Everything went pretty smooth once I got a valve spring compressor that worked well with the LS1 and the dual springs I have. Cam/springs/pushrods/oil pump/rod bolts are all installed. Only thing left to do is put the oil pan back on and the timing chain cover, and the motor will be all buttoned up. Attachment 712303 Attachment 712304 I got the motor all buttoned up. I was delayed because I had to make a crank pulley install tool. I prefered this method over simply using a bolt, as I don't think there would be as much stress on the crank threads (heat from friction and whatnot). Attachment 712305 I also installed my front subframe and put in the steering rack to check a few cleanrances. Attachment 712306 I finished up my fuel lines today. My fuel system consists of a 255 lph high pressure walbro pump, removed stock fuel filter, stock hard lines (5/16") up to the engine bay. I cut off some of the stock hard lines and used industrial compression fittings, said to be good to 3000 psi. From there I used adapters to go from pipe thread to a male AN -6 fitting. I run a -6 to an Aeromotive fuel filter (10 micron), then to the Aeromotive FPR. From there I run a -6 to the engine and use a quick disconnect fitting on the rail. I also have a -6 plummed for the return. All these components can accept a -10 fitting, so upgrading the fuel system will be as simple as running larger lines, the filter and FPR can stay in the same location. The return line I ran under the steering column and as the shaft turns, I have 1/4" clearance at the tightest portion of its rotation. I had to rework part of the stock hard lines to move them further away from the header pipes. Before I reworked them I had maybe 1" of cleanrance between of them, and now I have increased that cleanrance to probalby 3". And for some pics as always. Overall shot: Attachment 712307 Closeup of filter and regulator: Attachment 712308 Top view: Attachment 712309 Threading the needle. Running the line under the steerin column. Attachment 712310 And a funny looking shot lookin up at the bottom of the regulator to see routing of the return line. Attachment 712311 I can't really say when it will be done, I'm busting ass so whenever it ends up being done. I'm definately on the final stretch I'd say. Small progress, but any progress at this point is good. I've been getting bogged down lately with lifes other adventures. Anyhow, I finally decided what I'm planning on doing for a clutch line. I'll be using -3 line and fittings. The bleeder screw (long piece pictured) would be hard to reach in the car, so I decided I'd make a remote bleeder. Here are some modifications that I've done in order to acheive this. I drilled a hole in the tip of hte bleeder screws, so fluid can always pass through the old bleeder screw, even when tightened. Attachment 712312 Then I realized that the small hole on the side of the bleeder would allow fluid to pass through it, and leak out the threads. So I welded the hole shut and filed it down by hand. Now the fluid can only pass through the shaft of the old bleeder. Attachment 712313 |
12 Attachment(s)
From there, I'll be connecting a flex line (-3 AN) to a remote bleeder. For the pressure side I'll be connecting to the clutch master cylinder wiht a banjo bolt and a -3 fitting. I'll run a -3 flex line to the pressure side of the slave cylinder. I need to extend the pressure side fitting to be the same length as the old bleeder. This should allow me to disconnect it with the tranny still installed on the vehicle.
Attachment 712314 I was having a hard time deciding between -3 and -4 sized line, and ended up choosing -3 because that is what the OEM hard line most closly relates to. If anyone has any reason -4 would be better, please let me know asap. I don't have any experience with custom clutch pressure lines. I installed my SPEC 3+ clutch, and fidanza flywheel. Attachment 712315 I had to put the engine back in for maybe the final mock-up, to get clutch lines made. I wanted to put it in with the header on and check clearnace on a few things to be sure. Hopefully it will only come out one last time. Attachment 712316 Attachment 712317 Attachment 712318 Attachment 712319 I finished up the power steering pressure line. I went the the braided stainless for this line to handle the high presusre that the host must endure. I was still able to use the black fittings that I like so much. I put in a little extra length to compensate for engine movement and not stress the hose too much. Attachment 712320 Attachment 712321 I made some more progress worth taking pictures of recently. I modified the pressure line and bleeder line on the clutch slave cylinder. I extended the stock feed line so it would exit the bellhousing and I could tighten my AN line to it. I also added -3 male fittings to both the feed and bleeder. I wanted to be able to bleed my clutch easily, so I made a remote bleeder setup. Attachment 712322 Attachment 712323 Attachment 712324 Then I began to disassembly my transmission to fix a leak that I thought was comming from the seam between the transmission case, and the tailshaft housing case. Here is the nasty underside of my 14k mile GTO trans............(not happy about this) Attachment 712325 |
11 Attachment(s)
So I removed the rear case, here are some pics of that.
The GTO shifter plate that moves the shifter input rearward. Attachment 712326 Attachment 712327 Then I removed this piece, can't recall the name of it right now. Attachment 712328 Then cracked the case loose. Attachment 712329 Then pulled the case and here are some pics of the insides of the trans. Attachment 712330 Attachment 712331 Inside the tailshaft housing. Attachment 712332 And now heres the kicker, the seam was not the source of the leakage, THE CRACK IN THE HOUSING is the source of the leak. Aparently some ape got ahold of a wrench and started crankin down on the drain plug and cracked the case. Attachment 712333 Attachment 712334 I'm not sure what I'm going to do about this. I'm going to call Cleveland Pick A Part tomorrow and see what they say. From the film on the underside of the trans, this is clearly an issue that has been long term. I know I'm past my warrenty, but I'll see what they say, since I have proof that the trans has been sitting unused since the time I bought it. I could replace the rear case, but then I'd have to reshim the bearings, and I don't know that I have the tools required for that. I could weld hte case, but chances are the threads would melt away on since the material is so thin right there. I could bore the hole out, and then drop in a smaller pipe half coulping, then weld around the top of that to seal it to the case. I'm not sure where to go from here, but I'm at least going to talk to Cleveland Pick A Part first. I think I came up with a solution. The tapped hole that cracked is approximately 0.710" diamter. It believe its 1/2" NPT. Since the transmission uses Dextron III fluid, which is really thin, I think I can get by with a smaller drain. A 1/4" NPT half coupling has a 0.75" OD. With a slight bit of grinding on the original threads, the 1/4" NPT bung will drop down inside. I can just weld the perimeter of the bung. Grind the crack down some, then weld the seam there. I think that a 1/4" NPT hole will be fine to drain the ATF. Depending on sizing, I may do the same thing I just described buy with a 3/8" NPT bung as well. I just ordered both sizes and I'll see what works best. I ground out the crack with a carbide grinder. The crack was completely through the part as I suspected. If you look closely in this picture, you can see the hairline crack. I grinded it out so i could weld the crack with 100% penetration. This way the material would be repaired in the stress path, not just welding over top of the crack and changine the stress path. Attachment 712335 Then I slightly ground out the first few threads so that my new 1/4" NPT bung woudl fit in flush. Here is the item all mocked up. Attachment 712336 Then I thought it would be a good idea to clean the case with brake parts cleaner. So I used about an entire can of cleaner on the case, which was sitting on my work bench. Here is where the huge mental brain fart occured. No less than 5 seconds after I got done dousing the part in brake parts cleaner, I thougth it would be a good idea to heat the crack, to burn out any left over trans fluid that may have been stuck in the crack. So I get my MAP GAS torch and touch the flame to the case. BOOOM, my entire work bench is on fire, good and tall flames, probalby 2 feet tall. So I jump back, realizing how stupid I had been. I decided to risk my arm hair and quickly push my trans case out of the fire. That didn't work, it just spread the fire even more. I grabbed the fire extingusiher, and contmeplated if i should use it for about 2 seconds. Then.....another brain fart occured, I tired to blow the fire out by.....blowing on it. Hahaha, blowing on a raging fire. Quickly realizing that it wasn't working, I decided the fire extinguisher was necessary and gave it a good spray. Put the fire right out with the quickness. My bench and wall are both all black from the flames about to catch them on fire. My trans case was all covered in black soot, right after I cleaned it. LOL. Well I'm retareded, what can I say. After that fiasco, and some cleanup, I was ready to weld the trans drain plug. It turned out pretty nice I think. Then I thought I clean the weld off a bit before I took pictures, so I grab my trusty can of brake parts cleaner that already proved to be dangerous. Another moment of stupidity occured. I was not wearing my safety glasses like I almost always have on, and bam, the entire stream of brake parts cleaner went right into my eye. Fuck that burns, then 15 minutes of rinsing it out with runnin water. That fuckin can of brake parts cleaner is possessed! https://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l...eanerineye.jpg |
12 Attachment(s)
Theres how it turned out.
Attachment 712337 Attachment 712338 Then I began to modify the little part above the oil filter for my oil pressure gauge. Its not welded yet, but this is what it will look like. It should tuck the sensor up against the motor pretty tight. Attachment 712339 What......Kevin used JB Weld. The world is going to end soon. Hahah I broke off the hold-down for the MAP sensor, so I JB Welded it back on. Attachment 712340 Then....I used it again. I'm on a roll. I needed to seal up a hole in the firewall. The hole is from there the AC lines entered the passenger compartment. I just used a piece of aluminum to seal the hole up, and what a better way to attach it than JB Weld. Seems like it was a good idea, hope it proves itself to be true. Attachment 712341 Attachment 712342 I made a jumper to bypass the clutch starter interlock switch. This will let me start the car w/o pressing the clutch in. The most bearing wear occurs during starts, and with a stiff clutch there would be a lot of pressure on the thrust bearing during starts. And having the engine sitting for so long w/o running I think the oil film will be next to none. I think this should help out on first start, and maybe I'll leave it like this long term, I havn't decided. This little guy plugs right into the clutch interlock plug. Attachment 712343 Now you see it: Attachment 712344 Now you don't: Attachment 712345 So yeah, I got working on my cooler installation. I've got the oil and power steering cooler mounted. I am using Earls coolers and earls prolite 350 hose and anotuff fittings. -10 lines for the oil cooler, -6 lines for the power steering cooler. I am using a Mocal high-temp oil cooler, fully open at 200 deg F. I also removed the foglights for improved airflow, and I didn't really like the way they looked anyways. Coolers mounted to my lower radiator plate. I used aluminum tubing as spacers to get the coolers into the airflow, otherwise the lower bumper cover obstructed the airflow to them. Attachment 712346 Installed in the car with the radiator. Attachment 712347 Oil thermostat and lines ran from that to the oil cooler. Attachment 712348 |
12 Attachment(s)
Attachment 712349
I made my coolant surge tank today. I made it from 0.065" wall 3" tubing. Then I also made a bracket to hold it to the passenger side head. I have probalby 3" above the steam vent. I still have to weld on some half couplings before its complete. I'm very happy with how this turned out. Only about 8 hours of work in it. The radiator cap piece welded from the inside. Attachment 712350 Endcaps welded on. Attachment 712351 Bracket to hold it to the head. Its made from 1/4" 6061 T6 aluminum. Attachment 712352 On the bracket. Attachment 712353 On the engine. Attachment 712354 Attachment 712355 I'm definately gettin close. But I can't really say how close I am. I got my oil cooler install all finished up. I ran -10 lines, a mocal oil t-stat, and earls cooler. I put some DEI fire sleve over the lines where they go into the adapter block. Its good to 500 degrees constant, and 2000 intermittant. I used a Lingenfelter oil cooler adapter block. I had to grind the corner of the block down for clearance for the header. There was probalby 1/32" of clearance before I ground it down. I will be putting that gold heat reflective stuff on the block, and around the 90 degree fittings to help protect those. The headers are also ceramic coated inside and out, so it might be overkill as usual. Attachment 712356 Attachment 712357 Attachment 712358 Attachment 712359 Attachment 712360 |
10 Attachment(s)
Attachment 712361
Attachment 712362 Attachment 712363 And Roxy, she won't leave me alone when I'm under my car working. Too cute. https://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l...xy2months2.jpg Gotta have some gold in the car just so I can say its worth millions. I remade my oil cooler adapter out of solid gold. I also made the hose ends out of solid gold as well. Errrr. I put some of that super badass racecar gold reflective film on those pieces. The hose itself has that silicone coverd fiberblass sheath. I think that should successfully block enough heat. Attachment 712364 I also finished my power steerin cooler install. Attachment 712365 Attachment 712366 I got a new IAT sensor that threads into an NPT bung, unlike the stock one which pushes into a grommet. I had to do a comparison of the calibration curves to make sure they're the same. Here is what I found. [img width=775 height=465]http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l55/Kevin_Doe/RX-7/IATCalibration.jpg[/img] Welded some aluminum bungs in my radiator and my coolant surge tank. Attachment 712367 Attachment 712368 I finished running and connecting the cooler lines. I also protected the hoses from the raw edge of the aluminum plate. I used that door edge stripping. Attachment 712369 Attachment 712370 |
11 Attachment(s)
Then I went to the radiator hose store (Autozone) and picked out some hoses that I thougth work work well. Then brought out the razor blade trying to make the fitment perfect. Always take a little at a time. You can alway cut more, but can't add it back on.
Attachment 712371 Attachment 712372 Then I welded a bung into my exhuast for my Innovate LC-1 wideband. Attachment 712373 Then I welded wrapped my exhaust. I did it to keep my driveshaft cool, and to keep the tunnel cool as well. Attachment 712374 I installed the oil cooler adapter block. Attachment 712375 Then I made up a small flex line for the oil pressure sensor. It runs VERY close to the header, so I put a condom on it (protection). Attachment 712376 And installed Attachment 712377 Then my shipment from Tein showed up. They offered me a partial sponsorship, and I accepted their terms. I ended up getting the brand new Tein Mono Flex. Its similar to the Flex, but its a monotube. Its made to bridge the gap that was between the Flex and the Super race. They're single adjustable, ride height/corner weight adjustable w/o changing static spring preload, etc, etc. They have 14kg/mm front springs, and 12kg/mm rears with helpers in the rear. They look to be of VERY good quality. So far I have the rears installed, and I'll be putting the fronts on tomorrow. Attachment 712378 Attachment 712379 rear comparison Attachment 712380 Attachment 712381 I've been working on getting my car to a runnig state. I have been struggling with EFI Live. I"m very much a DIY kinda guy, so I'm trying to learn all the EFI Live stuff and I've been struggling. I can tune well, but only if the car is drivable enough to log data. So far the car isn't drivable with the current tune. I think I made a mistake on one of the parmaters in the tune, putting me into a ultra backup mode where the PCM doesn't use MAP or MAF, basically a completely fucked up tune that runs at like 20:1 AFR and accepts absolutely no throttle. Some guys on EFI LIve forums took a look at my tune and notified me of the issue. I'm going to give it a try tomorrow, and if it works, I'll be gettin an alighment and corner weighted friday night. 2MCHPWR, care to share your alighment specs? Do you run differnet specs for autox and TT? I'm so new to FDs, I don't really know what they like on the courses. You seem very experienced, so I'd like your input. |
11 Attachment(s)
A little bit of an update.
In closed loop mode, the car runs pretty good on stock tune. However you can't really map the VE table with this tune. And like I said above I have been struggling to properly get the car into open loop, speed density, but I think I know the solution. Hopefully so, tomorrow will tell all. Running in closed loop speed density. http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l5...-7/th_Revs.jpg Then I decied to be Sussie Homemaker and do a little sewing, only it was man sewing. No thread and needle here, no cotton thread. Fiberglass cloth and stainless wire for thread. LOL. I wrapped my exhuast, but the X-pipe didn't seem like ti was going to wrap that well. My exhaust and x-pipe comes probably within 1.5" of my driveshaft, so I didn't want my aluminum driveshaft absorbin all that heat. The wrapped pipes took care of that, but I needed to do somethin with the X-pipe. I decided to make a little covering custom style. I bought a big sheet of DEI's heat blanket stuff. I started cutting to shape, marking, and sewing the edges to make for a clean look. Attachment 712382 Then I measured for the lenth, and sewed the ends up. I was using 0.032 stainless safety wire to sew with. i reinforced the ends pretty good with the wire as well. Attachment 712383 And wrapped around the X-pipe, and safety wired in place for a nice snug fit. Attachment 712384 Attachment 712385 An axle failure kept me from making it to the cruise. I should be back up in runnning in probably a week. A broken axle didn't stop me from cleaning the car up and taking some pics though. Attachment 712386 Attachment 712387 I'm building a custom roll bar setup for my car. I didn't like any of the available kits, so I decided I'd build my own. I don't/won't race in any sanctioned event where the cage needs to meet any specs. I will run test and tune drag events, and autox, and mainly HPDE/TT events. None of those need a spec'd out cage. I designed it so that it will hopefully meet those requirements, but if not, I don't mind too much. I want the cage for two reasons. Safety, and rigidity, safety being the most important. Here is my best attempt at describing the design. Its going to be a chromoly setup, tig welded. Rob at Rigid will be bending and notching the tubes for me. 1. Main hoop. 2. Harness bar. 3. Diagnal through the main hoop. 4. Door bars, rigid bars, no swingouts here. 5. From the main hoop where the door bars intersect, to the front of the shock towers. 6. From the top outsides of the main hoop to the front of the shock towers. 7. Shock tower bar that goes between the two towers. 8. From the top outsides of the main hoop to the insides of the shock tower, possibly onto the very outsides of the tower bar. 9. Possibly a bar from the main hoop floor mount, to the middle of the door bar. The door bar will extend to the same location where my heel rests, but outside the clutch petal a few inches. The main hoop will attach to the stiffening brade that runs right under the front of the rear buckets. Not all these tubes will be 1 5/8" 0.083. They will be smaller where allowed to save weight. So far all I have done is the rear shock tower plates. They're HRPO 10 gauge (1/8" basically) steel. First I started out with the virgin towers, then welded the seam at the top. Then banged out some pieces to wrap most of the way around the towers. I don't have any such tools to bend this thickness of metal, so I laid it in the dirt, and just started pounding away with a 2 lb hammer till it was taking the shape I wanted. I had to make it out of two seperate pieces so it was easier to work with. Then I TIG welded it all down after I wire wheeled the paint off. Attachment 712388 Attachment 712389 Attachment 712390 Attachment 712391 Attachment 712392 |
12 Attachment(s)
During the mockup stages of the design. I was doing this since the clearance between the seat and door pannel was so tight. I also wanted to make sure I could get in and out of the car with the bar where it was. With a friend holding the tube, I was able to get out with a bit of dexterity, hopefully its gets easier with repetition. The steering wheel really makes it tough with the way the seat is so low. The tube crosses my arm right betwene my shoulder and elbow as it should. Ignore the other green tube, that is just there to hold the door bar up, that is not how the main hoop will be.
Attachment 712393 Cut out the main hoop plates and welded the driver side plates down. All TIG welded. Attachment 712394 Then I made a tape cage (coolnicks idea), to help me visualize my plans. I'm very glad I did that. I relaized that I had gone overboard on the planning. I after seeing this I decided to remove the rear X. I think that should clear up a lot of clutter, and the shouldn't really affect the function too much. Attachment 712395 Finished up the last of the floor plates tonight. I did the plates where the door bars will hit the floor up in the footwells. Since I didn't weld onto two or more planes, I made sure the plates I used would distrubute the load over as large of an area as possible, so I used two 1/8" plates, and made the top plate smaller than the bottom plate. I TIG welded the two plates together, and MIG welded the plates to the floor. So far this was the only MIG welding I've done on the plates, and will be the only MIG welds on the whole cage. I didn't feel like removing parts of hte dash, and pedals to get the TIG torch in there, and dind't feel like being contorted like a circus freak trying to get my body up in that tiny ass spot and TIG weld. After I got done MIG welding them in, I was reminded why I hate MIG welding. It looks like shit, and splatter, I hate that. Oh well, it should be plenty strong, and serve its purpose quite well. Attachment 712396 I've made some good progress on the roll bar. I originally talked to Rob at Rigid Race Cars about the car. We agreed that I would do everything besides bending and notching the tubes. Basically I took my car to him with the interior all stripped, and the floor plates welded in. He was going to just bend and notch all the tubes, then I was giong to take it home and do the welding myself. Once I got there, and things started progressing well, I decided to have him do the welding as well. I was there with him most days helping as much as I could w/o getting in his way. I had the design of the cage 90% complete, and Rob had some nice suggestions for small changes. We planned it out pretty well, then got to work. I want to really thank the crew at Rigid Race Cars (Rob and Justin) for doing a fantastic job. I am extremely impressed with how it turned out. Rob really has some great ideas and is a great fabricator. I'm a hard guy to impress as far as quality designed and fabricated stuff goes, and Rigid has definately impressed me. I would recommend Rigid Race Cars to anyone who needs custom fabrication done, they won't do you wrong. Now for the good stuff. The first pic is during mockup, and the rest of the pics are of the roll bar finsihed. The next steps are welding on some tabs for various things, then painting it with Por-15. Then a little more interior trimming, and putting the whole interior back in. Attachment 712397 Attachment 712398 Attachment 712399 Attachment 712400 Attachment 712401 Attachment 712402 Attachment 712403 Attachment 712404 |
11 Attachment(s)
Attachment 712405
Attachment 712406 Attachment 712407 Attachment 712408 Attachment 712409 Attachment 712410 Attachment 712408 Attachment 712412 Lately I've been working on getting the interior ready to go back in. I had to split several pannels. Both rear quarter trim pannels had to be split to go around the roll bar tubing. The rear bucket had to be split in half to fit in the car. With all the tubes, it just wouldn't fit into the car at all. I also had to make some cuts in the pannel to get the main hoop and diagnal to fit around it. The quarter pannels I split, and will be reconnectin them with aluminum rivets. On the back side there is a piece of sheet aluminum that the rivets go through. Here are a few pics of that. I will be puttin some rubber edge molding (bulb style) on the quarter trim pannels where the roll bar tubing goes through it. I think that the molding should seal the gap I have and look pretty nice. This is when it would pay off to have a black interior. :( Attachment 712413 Attachment 712414 Attachment 712415 The car is way too loud on the inside, so I removed all the factory sound deadening, ~12 lbs. I replaced that with 20 lbs of dynamat extreme. I dynamatted the entire trunk area, rear bucket area, tunnel, and floorboards. I will also be addin some dynaliner to the tunnel, and a dynapad to the trunk area. I'll add another 12 lbs with all that stuff, but I don't really care. The car was just way too loud to enjoy as a daily driver. And some pics. |
12 Attachment(s)
Attachment 712416
Attachment 712417 Attachment 712418 I also added mounting points for the 5 point harnesses. I added mount points for the lap bents and anti-submarining straps. For the shoulder belts I just wrapped them around the harness bar of my cage. Here are some pics. Inside lap belt plate. Attachment 712419 Outside lap belt plate. Attachment 712420 Nut welded to the back sided of the plate. I'm using 1/2" grade 8 fastners. Attachment 712421 I guess I didn't snap a pic of the anti-sub belt mount this time. I'll get a pic of that later. For the antisubmarining straps I needed a hole in teh seat, so I took my seats to a local upholstery shop (Edgetech Upholstery), and he did a very fine job on them. Pics. Attachment 712422 Attachment 712423 Attachment 712424 8 hours, 16 purple scotch brite pads, and tired ass arms later the roll bar is prepped for paint. I removed all that dark grey coating. Por15 sticks best to bare metal. All clean silver looking metal, scuffed ready for the por-15 process. Attachment 712425 Attachment 712426 Attachment 712427 |
10 Attachment(s)
whew, I'm pooped out.
Today was fun filled with sound deading stuff. Since I don't have a spare tire anymore, I needed to fill that void in the trunk. I plan on making a custom carpet piece back there, so it must be flat. I decided I'd take advantage of that large area, and stuff it full of a sound deadening material. Sound absorbing foam was my choice. 1" thick. I bought it from McMaster. It has a NRC of 0.75. I layreed it 6 pieces deep, and cut them to fit inside the spare tire well. Then I used 3M spray adhesive to glue them all together. Here is what it looks like. Attachment 712428 Attachment 712429 On top of that I will put another layer of 1" foam over the entire trunk for additional sound deadening, and to level out any countours and whatnot. Then on top of that goes the DynaPad. Then on top of that an ABS plastic piece wrapped in nice plush black carpet. I think that should effectively make my car feel like a caddy on the inside. And hopefully my ears will thank me on those long drives. The foam is so light, its not even worth considering the weight gain. All the foam I'm going to be using is less than 3 lbs. Then I started dynamattin the floorboards and trans tunnel. I'm going to the od the entire tunnel, then line that with DynaLiner to keep the tunnel heat off me. Attachment 712430 I added a layer of 1" sound absorbing foam to the entire flooroboard. I made some relief cuts on the underside to help level it out, for items that were sticking up a little. Then I cut the DynaPad to cover the entire floor. It acts like a sound barrier, and is supposed to really help with low frequency noise. There is a solid core, sandwitched between foam. The core absorbs the sound waves, vibrates, and it absorbed into the surrounding. Aparently its the shit, or so I'm told. Attachment 712431 Attachment 712432 Attachment 712433 Coat 1: Check. I'm impressed with how it looks. Just like I remember it. Took like 2 hours just for one coat though, and I've got three more to to before its all done. Attachment 712434 I put the next layer of sound deadening over the trans tunnel and in the buckets behind the seats. I used DynaLiner, 1/2" thick. It is also a thermal barrier. I wanted to put it to the test before I used it. Attachment 712435 Attachment 712436 Here is the link to the info sheet for DynaLiner. http://dynamat.com/download/specs/22..._Dynaliner.pdf I was extremely bored, so I decided to make a video of my testing, and play around with the windows movie maker thing since I've never really used it before. Here it is. http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l5...nerTesting.jpg Cut holes in the carpet for the roll bar tubes. Rear hole Attachment 712437 |
12 Attachment(s)
Front hole
Attachment 712438 I made a cover for the shifter hole in the tunnel. Its 4 layers. 1. 3/16" thick neoprene rubber. I'm using this as a gasket. 2. 1/8" thick aluminum 3. Dynamat extreme 4. 1/2" thick Dyaliner. I made the hole in this smaller so it would hug the shifter boot well and make an "air tight" seal. The dynamat is on the aluminum in this pic. Attachment 712439 and installed Attachment 712440 I put 1/4" dynaliner on the inside of all the rear pannels. Attachment 712441 Then started stuffing the 1" thick sound deadening foam into every space available. Attachment 712442 I'll definately be out and about. And the rear has reached completion. Well, mostly. I got the carpet cut and fit in there. I just need to take it to the upholestry shop and get some edging sewn on. Looks nearly stock other than the battery, and I left that exposed for easy access. I think some black powercoating on the bracket might be in order. Attachment 712443 Attachment 712444 Mo progress. I got the interior mostly in. Just finishing up a few last things till the seats and center concole go in. Attachment 712445 Attachment 712446 I'm also making some door bar covers for the door bar tubing. The covers serve several purposes. 1. Padding to prevent elbow shattering. 2. Prevent paint from looking like shit in 1 month. 3. Keep the cold bars off my arms when its cold out. So I went to my mother seeking sewing lessons. She taught me out to do a few stitches and how to adjust the machine for my application. I am using a Rave brand vinyl, which is very leather like. Very soft, very durable. I purchased from Miami Rubber Corp. I also purchased some UV resistant black nylon thread. Its much stronger than standard cotton thread. Under the vinly will be a 3/16" piece of neoprene rubber. I made quite a few practice pieces and basically taught myself how to sew in a day or so. Then onto the actual pieces. Cutting out the piece and marking lines to fold on. Attachment 712447 Folded over and sewed. I made two passes on each side for extra strength. Attachment 712448 Excess trimmed off, and edge folded over and sewn down. Attachment 712449 |
4 Attachment(s)
Slits cut and metal rods inserted.
Attachment 712450 Last edge sewn shut, and metal rods are now stuck inside. Attachment 712451 I'll be using the metal rods to tighten this down on the rubber/door bar. I did a few trial pieces and it held it in place very strong. I'll probably have it installed tomorrow and pics will follow. Once those are on, the seats and center console go in. Then I'm done. Side note, I added a circuit to my tach wiring and now it works. Yay! I got the reminder of the interior installed today. Such a weight off my back. Attachment 712452 Attachment 712453 The little strings hanging off roll bar padding will be cut off. I'm waiting a few days for the material to stretch, and retighten before I cut them off. *Note the retardedly tall shifter. I HAVE to do something about that asap! LOL. This build thread is ~3 years old and there is a lot that has been changed since then. I'll see if I can find some of those posst to update. |
12 Attachment(s)
I purchased an MGW shifter for an F-body, to retrofit onto my transmission (GTO trans). After swapping the offset lever in the trans, the F-body shifters bolt up no problem. Here are some pics of this shifter. Looks like a high quality piece for sure. Here are some pics from my point and shoot.
This is the entire thing. Normally on an F-body the goldish colored piece is offset towards the left (drivers side), but for my application I'm going to clock it downward (toward the rear of the car). Attachment 712454 Main shifter piece with the offset piece removed. Attachment 712455 Underside of the shifter showing the actual lever ball that inserts into the transmission. Attachment 712456 Offset block with bushing shown. The bushing is a pretty high durometer rubber (maybe 60, can't recall what the tech said), and is very stiff. As you can see, it fits into the gold offset block. Attachment 712457 Rubber bushing on the shifter. When you install the gold offset block onto the shifter with the bushing in there, its a pretty decent interference fit, so much so that you have to pull it in with the top bolt (not shown). The rubber is very compressed, and you can't even tell there is rubber there, it feels solid. However even a small bit of high durometer rubber does wonders to NVH. Attachment 712458 Offset block and shift lever. As you can see the shift lever has a stop when you insert it into the offset block. Then you tighten down the two bolts on the block. For my application, I'm going to have to turn that shift lever down about 2.25" shorter. Attachment 712459 Attachment 712460 And the shift knob that I ordered as well. Its an MGW knob, the "Mustang Composite Race Knob". I actually ordered the "corvette race knob" but this came and I really like the way it feels, I think I may keep it. It fits the 12mm threads that are on the shaft. You can also request 16mm threads if you want. Attachment 712461 Attachment 712462 And some more closeup pictures of the gold offset block. I'm not sure that this offset block will put the shifter back as far as I need it. If it does not move it back as much as I'd like, I'll have to get a custom offset block made, with more space betwen the shift hole, and the bushing hole. If anyone works at a machine shop and would like to take a look at this for me, I'll likely need to have one made. And of course I pay, but dont' want to pay an arm and a leg. Let me know if you can help me out. Some closeup pics to see more details on it. Attachment 712463 Attachment 712464 Attachment 712465 |
3 Attachment(s)
Finally, installed, kinda. Its not sealed up, but the mockup is done. If it weren't a custom application it would have already been done.
Here is the difference in the offset levers between the GTO and the F-body one. The GTO is on the right, F-body on hte left. That is teh piece that the actual shifter sticks into. Attachment 712466 As I said before, I needed more offset to get the shifter to where I wanted, and I also wanted to shorten the shift lever. I was going to machine a new offset block, and also turn down the shift lever. Instead of all that machine time I decided to just get the job done by modifying the shift lever itself. I chopped it and offset it, using some 1/8" stainless plate, boxing it is. Super strong, and does the job. Its 1.5" further back, and 1.5" shorter than before. Looks kinda shity in my opinion, but it was free and I dind't have to spend like 10 hours in a machine shop making a new block. The washers are welded together, and onto the shaft to make a large enough diameter for my boot to attach to. The washers are around the actual shaft, its not just a bunch of washers stacked up to make a shaft, lol. I dind't feel like making another custom shift boot again, so I ghetto fabbed it up. Attachment 712467 And all done with the boot on. Attachment 712468 |
4 Attachment(s)
Well I was getting kinda bored with nothing to work on lately so I've been thinking of stuff that I could make for my car. I ended up ordering some parts to start making a front underbody pannel and splitter. While I'm waiting on those parts I figured it start mocking up a front strut tower bar.
I'm mocking it up with 1" schedule 40 PVC. It ends up being 1.33" OD and 0.133" wall thickness. I'll probalby end up using 1" sch 40 AL pipe, or maybe sch 80, not sure. I also used some 1/4" foam board for the tower mounts but that will end up being water jet cut from 1/4" 6061-T6 1/4" plate. I started the mockup using 1.5" aluminum tube but it ended up being too large of an OD. As it sits now, I have ~3/16" clearnace from the hood at the closest, and 5/16" clearance from the LS6 manifold. at the closest point. For the firewall connection I'm going to be using a pretty large 1/4" aluminum plate to spread the load out, bolted to the firewall using nutserts and bolts. The pictures show the PVC being cut and taped. On the real version this will be a bent tube. The main tube has two 15 degree bends in it to avoid hitting the webing under the hood, and I cannot go less w/o hitting the hood. The bars going to the firewall have a 10 degree bend in them, and that is to clear the fuel rails. Nothing is set in stone right now, so if you have any ideas on places to improve let me know. And pics: Attachment 712469 Attachment 712470 Attachment 712471 Attachment 712472 |
4 Attachment(s)
So the plates are all done, and fit well. Time to start some fabrication work on this bitch.
The cutout on the firewall plate is to clear the VIN boss, and make the plate sit flat on the firewall. Dave (JuicedH22) and I machined them, well I basically did, but dave reminded me how to use the mahince since it has been a really long time since I have used a milling machine. Attachment 712473 The RB28TT was a joke to make fun of someone on my local forum. http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l5...7/97d8b590.jpg Attachment 712474 Rob @ Rigid bent up my pipe for me, and it turned out really good. Its some heady duty stuff. The pipe is not crushed on the inside of the bend, the dies just made the surface shiny so it appears to be dented. Attachment 712475 Attachment 712476 |
3 Attachment(s)
Today I made up the strut tower bar from the real deal. It took 10x longer than with the PVC, but all went well. No wasted pieces so thats a plus. All ready to weld tomorrow. I'm gonna have to do some thinking on what order to tack/weld the thing together to prevent warpage and bolt hole misalignment. I only made one change and that was to have the firewall tubes somewhat intersect each other. And onto the pics.
Attachment 712477 Attachment 712478 Attachment 712479 |
8 Attachment(s)
Got it all pretty much finished up today. The only thing left to do is get it coated if I decide to. I"m thinking annodized black, err something. Maybe powercoated satin black. I dunno.
Right now I just brushed it out with some scotch brite pads. Turned out pretty much fantastic. The first two pics are of the measures I took to prevent flange warpage during welding. If I had not used those, the plates would have wanted to curl up. Attachment 712480 Attachment 712481 Attachment 712482 Attachment 712483 Attachment 712484 Attachment 712485 Attachment 712486 Attachment 712487 |
1 Attachment(s)
Gotta keep them slicks hot at the autox
Attachment 712488 |
3 Attachment(s)
I started this little project for a few reasons. One reason was to improve the aerodynamics of the underbody of the car. The stock RX-7 came with a pretty similar undertray which I was unable to retain. The second reason was that I can easily attach a splitter to it for racing. The third reason was because I wanted to block off the volume surrounding the air filters. Right now I have the air filters right behind openings in the bumper covers where the stock oil coolers were located. I had nothing to cover the underside, so any high pressure air from the front of the car was lost under the car. With this undertray I'll be able to contain the air and hopefully pick up some manifold pressure at WOT (even if a few kPa I think it would help).
JuicedH22 Davey came over to help with some brainstorming, and to pick up the largest piece of foam board in the world. Getting that thing in the car was awesome, and it rested on Dave's head all the way home. I am tucking the front edge of it up in the lip on the lip. I will probably attach it to the front of the lip with a few pop rivets to secure it in the front. On the back I'm thinking about using those sweet ass 1/4 turn racing things (can't remember the name for the life of me), and attaching it to the subframe. Mockup was started with poster board since its only $0.30 a sheet. Once I got the coutour of the front edge done I transfered over to the foam board. And kazam, all mocked up ready for some metal to be cut and bent. I'm going to be using aluminum, most likely. Attachment 712489 Attachment 712490 Attachment 712491 |
1 Attachment(s)
|
7 Attachment(s)
I previously had my battery mounted in my trunk, recessed in the plastic trim pannel. I had an Odyssey PC680MJT. Over the last two years I've realized that that battery was not all that great, especially after I raised the compression with a set of aftermarket heads. That said, I decided that a lightweight battery doesn't really have a place in a daily driven car.
I bought an Optima battery, a 34/78 I think is the number. Its got 800 CCA, and 50 AH reserve, as compared to the Odyssey's 210 CCA, and 17 AH. The Optima was a full size battery, and would not fit where the small battery was. I needed to find somewhere else to mount it. There is a lot of flat space in the trunk, but the floorboard is pretty high in the trunk. I ended up deciding to put it in the passengers side plastic bin. Its about 12 or so inches lower than the trunk which is good, and its also in front of the axle, so closer to the center of the car by about 24"-30" which is also good. I was able to remove a decent bit of weight, which helped offset the additional weight of the battery. I was able to get rid of 5 lbs of 1/0 cable, and cut the bottom of the bins out which saved ~4 lbs total. Added up with some misc. stuff, I pulled out ~8 lbs. The battery was 22 lbs heavier, so I ended up adding 14 lbs. But its lower, closer to the center and will make the car actually start reliably, so its definately worth the added weight to me. Here is where the battery was mounted. Attachment 712493 Here is the new Battery Tray/Bracket Attachment 712494 Attachment 712495 And the hold down closeups Attachment 712496 Attachment 712497 And all installed with wires routed. I'll put the lids on the bins, just left them off for pictures. When its all finished you won't even know its there. Attachment 712498 Attachment 712499 |
1 Attachment(s)
Took a day off work today and did a bit of dyno tuning. Didn't make any huge changes really, but they made a decent bit more torque than the baseline tune I came in with. Dave Blundell helped me a bit with the tune and some suggestions, and operated the dyno. I did it at TPR on the dynapacks, in 4th gear.
All in all, I'm a happy camper! 487 hp - 435 ft-lbs Attachment 712500 |
7 Attachment(s)
This a bit out of order here, but oh well....
The idea here it to cut reliefs into the piston to obtain adaquate piston to valve (PTV) clearance. The tools used were purchased from Lindy Tool Company. The tool installs into the valve guide just as a valve would. Instead of a valve head, there is a cutting head. You set the cut depth, attach a drill and cut till it hits the depth stop collar. I will have in depth explanation on all of this with pictures as I progress. Attachment 712501 Attachment 712502 To be on the safe side, I obtained a scrap head (thanks BES_Stroked_Nova). This prevents me from damaging the valve guides in my good set of heads. The heads I'm installing are PRC Stg. 2.5 5.3l heads, GM casting number XXX. The sprap head casting number is a GM 706, which is alos a 5.3l head. To be sure the heads would serve as an appropiate guide I measured valve angle, and a few other things. Now, my good PRC heads have been milled down to a 59cc combustion chamber, and the junk heads are of unknown milling status. To maintain proper geometry, I need the centerline axis of the valve to be co-linear between the heads. Here is how I have done so. I made a fixture to hold both heads (the good one and the junk one) in the same location in respect to the alignment dowels. I installed the junk head with the new valves onto the fixture. When doing this procedure you must use the same set of valves on both heads. Then I pushed on the valve until it hit the aluminum plate. I spun the valve by hand, sort of grinding the edge of the valve into the aluminum. This made score in the aluminum. I did that for alll 8 valves. Then I put on the good head on did the same thing. If the centerline of the valve guides were co-linear then the marks would be in the same exact spot. As suspected, they were not in the same location. Attachment 712503 Attachment 712504 Attachment 712505 To have accurately located flycuts in the piston I need the valves in the both heads to contact in the same spot. Now I must determine how much needs to be milled off of the junk head. To do this I employed two techniques, and used them as a reality check to make sure they both agree. 1. First I measured the distance between the two marks for each valve. Then I averaged them. I came up with an average of 0.0102" for all 8 valves. Then I measured the vavle angle to be 14 degrees. Knowing the distance between the two marks, and the valve angle I can determine the amount to be milled off of the junk head using some trig. I came up with 0.0409" to be milled off the junk head. Attachment 712506 2. Second measurement was to put both heads on a flat surface, and put a straight edge across the top both heads. Using feeler gauges I measured the difference to be 0.037". Attachment 712507 The two types of measurement differ by only ~0.003" so I'm satisfied that its correct. The more I think about it, the more I wonder how much different the answer would be if my measurement was off by 0.001" or 0.002", or my valve angle measurement was off by +/- 1 degree. If my measurement was off by 0.002 I could have an answer of 0.034". If I was off by angle, it could be 0.0388". Those very closely agree with my measured 0.037 height difference. Because of that I think I will mill off 0.035" I will mill 0.035" becasue more milling would provide more clearance because only that side of the valve would contact the piston. In addition, the cutters have a 0.040" radial clearance for the valve. After i mill the head, I will reattach it to the fixture and make a new set of marks. The marks should be in the exact same spot as the PRC heads. If this is the case, I will proceed to the next step. I'll keep this thread updated as I go. |
7 Attachment(s)
After a much awaited arival (damn UPS theives) my second set of heads finally arrived. They are from Texas Speed, aka Precision Race Components (PRC). They are their stage 2.5 CNC ported 5.3 liter heads.
Intake flow data: .300 208 .400 257 .500 290 .600 312 They sure are pretty. Combustion Chamber Attachment 712508 Attachment 712509 Attachment 712510 Looking in the intake port form the valve side Attachment 712511 Looking in the exhasut port from the valve side. Attachment 712512 Looking in the intake port from the intake side. Attachment 712513 Looking in the exhaust port from the exhaust side. Attachment 712514 |
7 Attachment(s)
Ok, scratch milling the junk head. I just got off the phone with Jason at Texas Speed. He said they mill 0.040 off the heads to get a 59cc chamber. So my measuring technique was pretty much right on. But, he did say that he does things a bit different. He uses an unmilled head, and no head gasket. On LS1s the piston comes out of the bore slightly. He suggested bolting the unmilled head on the block, and then rotating the piston around till it pushes up against the head. This will keep the piston in a positive position, and you don't need to worry about getting TDC, since ti will automatically be pretty much there. This will also keep the piston preloaded, and prevent it from rocking and chattering when cutting the reliefs. I think I'll use that method instead.
Well I finally decided to get to work installing these things. I removed the stock heads and I was pleasantly sprprised how clean everything was. Looks like I had it running pretty good afterall. There isn't any carbon buildup anywhere. The valves look greyish/white, as well as the header primaries. Not real sure why they're that color. Looks almost as if I was running race gas, but that is not the case. The spark plugs even looked nearly brand new. The heads are infinately easier than removing the head on my late 4G63 engine. Cylinder walls still look like new, crosshatch and all. Although with 18k miles I'd expect nothing less. Attachment 712515 Attachment 712516 Attachment 712517 Attachment 712518 Attachment 712519 After I removed the heads I thought I'd save some money and swap the springs over myself instead of taking it to a machine shop. I made it out of a few thinsg laying around. Worked like a charm and was quick and easy to do. Little bit of DIY action in full force. Attachment 712520 Then I made a bolt to clean out all the factory thread locker that is all up in the head bolt holes. I just chucked the bolt in my drill press and milled down the side. Works pretty good. Cleans them right up real quick. Attachment 712521 |
8 Attachment(s)
I started fooling wiht the flycutting a bit today. I test fit the cutters into the head and realized they dind't fit, so I had to do a bit of "deshrouding" with my carbide grinder to make them fit. Then I also realized that the intake cutter protruded past the surface of the head, so that wasn't gonna work. I cut out the valve seat and gringed the shit out of that area to make it fit. So much for using the Lindy tool on a good head. There may have been a better, or different way to amke it work but I didn't care since the head is junk anyhow.
Attachment 712522 Attachment 712523 I had to make a ferrous plate to bolt in the head so my magnetic base dial gauge could stick to something. Attachment 712524 Then I installed the cutter, and used the dial gauge to determine the highest point on the cutter. Once I have the cutter at its highest point I can set the cutter depth. I used a tip form another forum member. Once the cutter was at its highest point I slid a collar down and snugged it. Then I slid another collar on. I put a stack of feeler gauges, 0.040" worth, between the collars. Then I tightened the shit out of the top collar. Then I removed the feeler gauges. Then I loosened the bottom collar so it would be snug, but still allow me to plunge the cutter down. This effectively limited my feed rate, and controlled the cutter better. Attachment 712525 Attachment 712526 Then I made 4 practice cuts. I wanted to make sure I could consistantly cut the reliefs to a depth, and the depth that it cut was the depth I set. After I made the cuts I would check the depth with the feeler gauges. Another way to check is to measure the length of the cut. A small difference in depth would show up as a difference in cut width. I used both methods to make sure the cuts were consistant. Attachment 712527 Attachment 712528 Attachment 712529 |
7 Attachment(s)
Well since I didn't really want to cut vavle reliefs in my pistons high on prescription meds I figured I'd so something less risky (herniated disc pressing against my spinal cord). I started looking at port matching my LS6 intake manifold to the heads. I bolted them on, looked through the combustion chamber with a mirror to see how much material had to be removed from the manifold. It was approximately 1/16" all around. There was also a squared off edge near the injector boss. I decided to round that off to help prevent some turbulance.
Manifold all marked with white paint marker, and line scribed in to mark where I was going to port to. Attachment 712530 Squarted off edge I wanted to round. Attachment 712531 All ported up and rounded. Attachment 712532 At the inlet of the manifold there was this brass fitting protruding slightly. There was also a raised circle in the casting. Attachment 712533 Attachment 712534 And removed. Attachment 712535 Attachment 712536 I think I just gained like 0.5 hp! LOL. |
1 Attachment(s)
Borrowed Ray's vavle spring compressor to take put the springs back on. It took a lot of force to get these bad boys on. I nearly herniated another disc in my back. They're rated at 2.000" lift, but they only can take 4 rpms.
Attachment 712537 I got these two springs from Home Depot in the screen door area. Work perfectly as check springs. I had to cut them down a bit to get as little spring pressure as possible, yet still hold the valves up. |
1 Attachment(s)
I made some more practice cuts on the aluminum plate. I used an air drill and the results were much better. Significanly less chatter, and no chatter on a few cuts.
I checked the piston to valve clearance on the intake valve w/o any reliefs. 0.025". I have yet to check the exhasut PTVC, I'll do that one tomorrow. Here was the setup I used. Attachment 712538 I have the MS4 cam on a stock bottom end LS1. LS7 lifters, GM MLS headgasket, PRC 2.5 5.3l heads with 59cc chambers (milled 0.040"). I'm shooting for 0.080" PTVC, so I suppose I'll make my intake cuts 0.060" deep. That should give me an 0.085" PTVC on the intake. I suppose that gives me an allotment of 0.005" for measurement error. |
4 Attachment(s)
So since I'm a novice I messed up the measurement on the PTVC. I was rotating the motor CCW when I was checking, and not CW. I also did not have all the lash adjusted out of the pushrods with the length checker. All those things fixed I measured:
0.004" clearance on the intake valve. 0.000" clearance on the exhaust valve. Aka, contact. I was unsatisified that my method of checking PTV clearance was adaquate using the hydraulic lifters (even with the light check spring), so I just modified two stock lifters. I welded the lifters up solid. New PTVC numbers tomorrow.... Attachment 712539 I put the modified solid lifters in today and remeasured the clearances. I came up with 0.003" intake, and 0.001" exhaust. Then I realized I made a mistake when I was removing the exhaust rocker. I used the same length pushrod (on the adjustable checker) for both intake and exhaust measurements. I then double checked the PR lengths required. The exhaust pushrod needed to be 3/4 of a turn shorter than the intake pushrod, which equates to ~0.0375" difference. That meant that when I measured the clearance on the exhaust valve the valve was 0.037 more closed than it should have been. So I rechecked, each clearance, making sure to have zero lash and the appropiate pushrod length for each. I remeasured and got these numbers. The new exhaust number reflects exactly the difference in pushrod length. Intake: 0.003" Exhaust: 0.038" I know if you read through this thread you'll see that I measured about 58 times, and came up with a different result each time. I feel pretty confident that I measured correctly this time. I checked with the dial indicator, and then also with feeler gauges between the valve tip and rocker. Another thing worth noting when measuring is that the tightest intake clearance it occurs as the cam is ramping up in its profile, while the tightest exhaust clearance occurs when the cam is ramping down. Because of that, you have to ensure the lifter is seated up against the cam, and not sticking in the lifter trays. With only a test spring on the valve, it could stick and you would not know. Each time I'd measure I'd push down on the rocker to amke sure the lifter was up against the cam. Given my results to maintain 0.080" clearance on the intake side, and 0.100" clearance on the exhaust side I would have to cut: Intake cut: 0.077" Exhaust cut: 0.062" Given that I may end up cutting 0.080" on the intake, and 0.065" on the exhaust side. I think I may actually cut today, or maybe tomorrow. So I finally made my first cuts. I cut 0.080" on the intake, and 0.065" on the exhaust. That should have given me 0.083" PTVC and 0.103" PTVC respectively. After I made the cuts I measured and came up wiht 0.080" PTVC, and 0.097" PTVC. Looks like there is some spring in the material as it cuts or something. Close enough for government work. Here is the area all prepped for cutting. All taped off to ensure no metal chips get anywhere unwanted. Attachment 712540 Made the intake and exhaust cuts on one cylinder. This pic is what it looks like when you pull the head off. You can see some chatter in the cuts, but its not too bad. Attachment 712541 After I brushed away the shavings I sanded the edges down with some 200 grit sand paper. Finished product. Attachment 712542 All its well, clearances are what they should be. Looks like its time to repeat 7 more times! |
1 Attachment(s)
Everyone else just says I'm an asshole lately. Hahahahaah. Finished up the cutting tonight. Yay.
Attachment 712543 |
2 Attachment(s)
I just used the Crane valve spring compressor tool. That thing is badass, thanks Ray. Some pictures I took while using it.
Springs compressed Attachment 712544 Locks set in place Attachment 712545 I measured lifter 4 intake and 4 exhaust pushrods to zero lash. I used the adjustable length checker, and moved in increments of 1/4 turn (0.0125"). I'd find the length that was slightly too short, and the length that was too long, so it was between those two, and I averaged the lengths. I did that for all 8 lifters I measured for. The most that I could be off using that method is less than 0.00625", which is close enough for pushrod lengths. I came up with 7.269" intake, and 7.244" exhaust. All 4 intake were identical, all 4 exhaust were identical. Then add on preload to those numbers. I tried a few different pushrod lengths and figured out what the preload would be. Prelaod with 7.350" pushrods: Intake: 0.081" Exhaust: 0.106" Preload with 7.325" pushrods: Intake: 0.056" Exhaust: 0.081" I have a few questions. First, why is the length of the intake and exhaust pushrods different? Second, which length pushrod should I choose? Would it make sense to use a different pushrod length on the intake and exhaust? If I was shooting for 0.080" preload it would seem as if that would be the right decision. I would appreciate any pros on the subject to shed some light. A little info on my setup: LS1 with stock bottom end (pistons flycut with Lindy tool), PRC stg. 2.5 5.3l heads, MS4 cam, LS7 lifters, stock rockers. Need any more info please ask. |
| All times are GMT -5. The time now is 12:13 PM. |
© 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands