1dirtyZ's Conversion by 1dirtyZ

59 minute(s) of a 304 minute read

1dirtyZ's Conversion 

Compliments of 1dirtyZ @ www.ls1tech.com

7/16/08

i was planning on starting this project a bit later , but i guess things happen for a reason 

i was planning on converting my ls mustang from a nitrous car to a forced induction car. why?? cause it already had my camaro's old 8.5:1 408 swapped in it and i got tired of refilling bottles and worrying if i had enough juice to finish a few rounds of racing .

so to make this short , here is a link to the thread in the N2O sction showing you what happened that made me decide to begin this swap.

http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/showth...63#post9751263

so , future plans include the following :

-F1-R ( off the camaro offcourse )

-fixing what ever is the problem with the engine 

-front mount intercooler and plumbing

-complete new fuel system

-redo the electrical wiring through out the car

-new fiberglass hood 

-rebuild the tranny

-new guages for boost and fuel pressure

-fix the non functional rear brakes

-trying to clean up the car in general and maybe , just maybe a paint job 

i have most of the parts in ( will snap pics tomorow), i just need to see what is wrong with the engine and order what ever needs to be fixed and hopefulley it would be a quick process ( i just jinxed it ).

wish me luck!

7/18/08

started to rip the engine apart , i got everything off of it , just too lazy to unbolt the torque converter. 

i should have the short block out today, and then i can see if there is any rod damage or bearings hammered. i'm also worried that i might have to ditch the stock fans inorder to get the blower to fit. and i might need to move the radiator forward. which will suck cause there is barely enough room infront of it already to fit an intercooler .

the game plan is:

-get the engine out

-fix it 

-redo paint and wiring in the engine compartment 

-relocate tranny cooler to the pass fender opening

-put the engine back in 

-start mocking up and fitting the blower 

-the other stuff 

here are a few progress pics:

7/19/08

check the link above for the latest findings 

i'll be taking the heads to a machine shop soon to have them checked. 

i'm starting to get worried about intercooler fitmen right now. the radiator is tilted with the bottom part sticking out a bit , and the intercooler needs to go there , and i barely have enough space as is to fit the blower. i know i'll have to ditch the stock fans and put thinner ones. my options are as follows:

- push the intercooler as far forward as i can ( having it stick out throught the bottom of the bumper ) while still retaining the ls1 radiator .

- get a smaller radiator off a toyota hilux ( see the "mother of all mustangs build" for pics of that) that is smaller , which gives me room to mount the blower and the intercooler , while sacrifising cooling as well as requiring a seperate pressurized expansion tank. 

- hacking the bottom core support and fabbing mounts for the intercooler and a mitsubishi evo radiator ( its just as wide as the engine bay but not as tall, can be mounted vertically - see same thread as above).

we'll see how bad it is when i take the crap off the front end 

here's how it looks so far

ripped the whole block appart and i can't find and exact cause of the knocking noise. 

on a positive note, i found a set of weisco pistons locally that would fit the bill just fine all i need to do now is order a set of rings.

i removed the direct port stand alone fuel system that was in the passenger side front fender: ( one of the few things i was proud of )

i also took the front end off the car as well as the bumper: ( here you can see how much space i have to work with if i kept the bumper )

i then proceeded to mock up the intercooler :

i was planning on relocating my tranny cooler to the hole in the pass. side inner fender left after i removed the fuel cell, after mocking the intercooler in its place , it almost seems i don't need to move anything . i might just do it to help cool the motor down ( one less heat sorce infront of the radiator). it would probably be done like azooooz's stang ; with a cooling fan bolted to the cooler.

i was also planning on ditching the front bumper and slicing up the front facia, but it seems like i just might be able to use the bumper with very little cutting , and the same goes for the facia: the only cutting would be to the outer edges of the bottom opening to clear the pipes going into and out of the intercooler.

it also seems like i can still run the ls1 radiator as is but with slimmer fans. will have to put the motor back in and mock up the blower to see if that holds true 

tomorow i'm planing on removing the single nozzle N2O system , removing the big pile of old ford engine harness i bundled up behind the pass headlight and claning that up. i might also mount the water injection pump somewhere. if i feel like it after all that , i might even raise the rear of the car high enough to get the tranny out from under the car to tear it down and inspect it .

what i really need to do is redo the engine bay wiring , but that will be an all day progect for the near future

7/30/08

the intercooler is firmly affixed to the car , i hacked up the bumper some more to clear the intercooler . off course i forgot to bring the camera, so i'll have to snap pics tomorow. 

i'm planning on relocating the cooler tomorow , as well as begin plumbing the intercooler piping ( i can only do 2 u shaped bends from the sides, untill i get the motor in so i know where the rest will fit.

i should have the engine finished by friday evening if all goes well. and if i'm lucky ( which i think not) i might ddrop it in that night 

i also noticed the power steering reservoire hose ( low pressure side) is beginning to weep , so i guess it was the wrong type of hose will be changing that out soon .

8/8/08

well we're back on track again 

here is the intercooler finaly fixed in place :

and the engine is in too:

the tranny cooler has been re located to the opening in the passenger inner fender , it will also have a small cooling fan to assist in cooling.

the tranny is out to be checked and refreshed , and i ordered an SFI flex plate that should be here some time next week.

now that the engine is in , i can start the intercooler plumbing and mount the blower, bov , and drive system as well as cleaning up the engine compartment.

after that ( assuming i get the camro's super pulley and trans shield in next week and i install them ) i 'll take the camaro off the lift and put the stang on it and start the fule system .

planning on sumping the tank, two external pumps and filters, new fuel line to the engine, regulator, and reuse the stock feed line as a return. i'll be using the camaro's old l-92 manifold, 75 lb injectors , and fuel rails .

part of the appeal of this car for me is that it looks sooo nasty and cheap , that you never give it a second look when you see it pass by , think of it as an excersize in "good enough engineering " 

best part is the look on people's faces after you rip them a new one ( especially exotics ) !!!

any how , enough gloating on with the updates :

finally got the fan on the cooler , just need to wire it now:

i also installed the intake, rails , and tb, and mocked up the blower bracket and checked the alignment and shimmed it accordingly:

this is where i found out how big this blower is 

as you can see , i ran out of space

the blower actually touches the core support depending how you clock it . i have two options on how to run the pipes:

the first would be just like i have it on the camaro , pointing towards the passenger side and down:

then making a u turn into the passenger side intercooler inlet, the exiting from the driver side and snaking its way into the inner fender and entering at a 3 or 4 ocklock position ( looking at the front of the car ), which means i can't use thea spot on the inner fender for the meth injection pump and resv. , and i have a feeling that with the pipe in the 3 or 4 oclock position , it would feed the passenger side more air than the driver side ( read on to know what i'm comparing it to)

the second way is to clock the blower like so :

then the outlet would just make a u turn into the driver side intercooler inlet ( the u- bend i have fits perfect- just needs to be trimmed a bit), then from the pass. side intercooler it would make another u turn and shoot stright towards the center of the car , then 90 deg up into the throttle body ( entering from the 6 oclock position ), this way i'm sure both banks will get and equal amount of air, meth , and whatever i'm going to spray up that tube 

in both cases i have to move the radiator forward some more , there is not enough room for the filter and elbow ( note, this is without the radiator inplace ) :

this also means i have to move the intercooler farther out ( well at least the bottom part of it ) so the radiator can clear it .

after mocking up things i was thinking of just hacking up the core support and using some round tube fab me up a new one ( like we did on azooooz's stang), but after clocking the head unit like i mentioned in the second way , it became apparent i can keep the core support and only notch it a bit to make room for some movement .

mr. angle grinder will be busy tomorow

so , if i'm lucky tommorow and get the blower all nice and comfy in its place , i'll start re locating the intercooler and radiator and if i have time , maybe begin the piping process ( i wasn't expecting putting the manifold and bracket on would take so long). i should also clean under the car so i can lay down there while i install the starter and the pass side header.

8/9/08

mr. angle grinder and mrs BFH went to town on the core suport , i now have clearance for the blowerand any movement that might take place . off course i just relized i didn't take a picture of the aftermath 

any how, here is how the blower looks when you remove the radiator (for future refrence):

i managed to relocate the radiator forward inorder to clear the blower , i think i have it a good 3 inches forward now. i just bolted extension peices on the ac condenser tabs on the bottom of the support and bent them upwards to sandwich the radiator between them and the upper rad. hold downs. i can now install my air filter :

off course that meant i had to relocate the intercooler ( again ) to clear the radiator. i was planning on tilting it more by pushing the bottom part out some more, but then i relized that i can lower the intercooler a bit and it would fit real nice in the bumper! 

i guess the first time i set it up i was planning on using the inside bumper ( i still can , i just need to trim it). i also am debating wether i should trim the whole bottom peice of the bumper or not? you can see here how low the intercooler is and how the bottom part is in the way :

here you can see how the intercooler barely shows from under the plastic peice, it used to butt up against it before:

i never got to the "installing the starter and passenger side header " part , and i don't think i'll do it tomorow. most likely , i'll mount the blower, finalize intercooler braces , and clean up the place ; its a mess !

after cleaning it , i'm thinking of fabbing up a patch plate to close the hole i made in the core support to stiffen it a bit , right now its only there for moral support

8/12/08

quick update, the tranny is done, and the new flexplate just came in and will be installed tonight . 

i'll be finishing up the temporary connections to the fuel system tonight , and installing the header and starter and firing her up to see if all goes well. 

i think i'll use the n20 fuel cell and stuff to get the car to start .

well i got the fule system rigged up :

but there was a small problem; the car would not start nor turn over. i can hear the starter click but nothing else. i tried jumping in but no luck eihter.

the other bad news is that the motor is hard to turn , i never spun it with the heads on , but its a bithch to do so now. i have a feeling i must have folded one of the oil rings again 

which means the motor has to come out and get torn appart again

8/14/08

well i ripped the engine out of the car today ( cool thing it took about 20 min - no trans attatched ), but not after trying to fire her up one last time . when i went under to check if the starter was at fault i noticed that the gear was out and still contacting the flexplate. i also noticed that the battery was not charged or had very little power - even though i jumped it for two hours straight last time.

i then put the thing on the engine stand and proceeded to take stuff off , i took the heads and the oil pan , i then removed the windage tray . thets when i saw some scuff marks on one side of the tray - and they looked fresh ...... so i'm starting to think could this be the cause of the rough spots or were those scuffs there from before. so i spin the motor and it spins freely. what i also noticed is that the windage tray has some side to side play in it when you lay it down, which led me to belive that the tray was bolted with it sitting more to one side before, which caused the contact.

any how , to double check , i spun the motor with the heads off and there was acceptable resistance , so i go to the camaro and try the same and it was harder to turn ( duh ), which is a good sign . 

so i proceed to bolt the heads and rockers, and spin it again and compare it to the camaro : same effort! 

so , i'm assuming that i solved the problem , it was actually a combination of two : bad starter/ battery and internal scuffing if you may call that on the windage tray.

so just to make sure , i'l be getting a new starter ( i need one as a spare since the original one is "wrapped" by the headers and i don't know how long it would last), and i'll be swapping the battery from the camaro just to make sure .

8/20/08

it lives ! 

well after messing with the starter issue for a while , i found out that the starter was ok , and it was the fact that the engine was not grounded properly that was causing the issues i was seeing coupled with a weak battery.

i fired her up today and got oil pressure . i had to shut it down cause i had no coolant in there .

so tomorow i'll proceed with finishing up the cooling system, bolting the blower , running the pipes from the blower to the intercooler , hacking up the front end some more , and if i have time , push that sucker on the lift ( after i get the camaro off of it )

8/23/08

well after filling it up with coolant and starting her up again , i noticed the car was starting to missfire and was getting harder to keep ideling . it was also pouring black smoke out of the exhaust . so i shut her down and ran out of the garage for some air 

. when things settled down i pulled a plug ( well all of them ) and they were all black and covered up in wet soot. 

at that moment i thought great ! this thing will never seal the chamber , then it hit me ...... i never reprogramed it for the 75 lbs/hr injectors 

well today i did that and cleaned the plugs , and now she purrs like a kitten ( like a kitten with a monster cam up its a$$ )

the blower sounds so mean on that thing , i think i have to find a way to quite it down ( yeah , like that will happen )

i should be putting it on the lift today , and then i can slap the trans in there, do the intercooler piping , start on the fuel system, and later on do the interior and electrical work.

here is how much clearnacce i have between the blower and the radiator & core support now :

i finally got the car on the lift 

so now i can put the tranny in and start with the fuel system.

i also got some 90 deg bends today ..... too blingy for my taste but thats what was available 

i guess tomorow i'll stab the trans in , drop and drain the tank in preperation for the sump, and finish up the damn intercooler piping. i just have to stick two 90's on the driver side from the blower to the intercooler and then run a u- bend on the other side after i weld the BOV flange on it . then it just curves straight up to the t-body.

i might even start running the fuel lines too

8/24/08

those are stock l92 heads. nothing fancy ( yet )

sultan , my goal is to see an ls1 in every car ( bill gates did it with a computer in every home , why can't i )

v8rumble , thanks ! dunno how that came out 

cam72aro, thats one of tha major reasons i switched to F/I ( i was sick of carrying 4 bottles around every time i go to a race ) , that and i had the F1-r laying around 

didn't get much done today since i spent the majority of the time disassembeling the camaro motor and cleaning it before i delivered it . i did however manage to slap some bling on the thing :

according to my calculations i should have the tranny in tomorow ( i wounder how many times i sadi that already ), and if i'm lucky and don't run out of t-bolt clamps i might just finish up the whole intercooler piping thing. then maybe i could drop the tank .

another thing i noticed is that i moved thee radiator so much forward that it now has a bit more space than i need between it and the blower . i'm debating whether to pull it back , or see if i can fit the stock fans in there.

8/28/08

i finally dropped the tank today, i was planning on cutting it and welding a sump in . but after i took it off the car i found that the sump i got was a bit big. it was not going to be a cut and weld deal. it would have required a bit more fabrication and time to get it to fit; so i decided to just use a bulk head fitting on the bottom of the tank. i located it centrally so that if you remove the fuel level sender you will have direct access to the nut. and from that i'll just run a 90 deg -8 hose end to the rest of the fuel system. ( no pics today- i forgot to get the camera )

i also finished the bov deal; i cut a hole in one of the 90 deg bends and welded a tube and the voretech mondo BOV to it . the BOV sits just infront of the pass. side front tire. all that is left is to run a vaccume line and finish the maf part and the elbow into the T/B.

so the plan tomorow is to clean and button up the tank and start running the fuel lines and pumps/filters. i'll also try to finish up the intercooler piping and a few odds and ends under the car. 

the next few days i'll focus on the top end of the car again; i'll mount the water injection pump somwhere and plumb that, finish the front bumper and mount it and then start on the interior ( guages and what not) and the wiiring .

8/30/08

well i got the tank sump deal done , i had to use 2 bulkhead fittings since i'm using 2 pumps. i also mounted the walbro pumps and filters right behind the rear bumper :

the pumps have their feed lines go around the tank and meet in front of it using a y connector ( both hoses on each side are -8 , and the outlet from the Y is a -8 too), from there i'll run a hose under the passenger side and into the engine compartment.

and as promised , pics of my sexy vortech mondo BOV resting on my even sexier welds

and here is how the intercooler piping looks so far:

i finished bolting the torque converter too, i just need to run the fuel line now, install the rear bumper, and find the stupid shifter bracket spacers that i seem to have missplaced and install the bracket .

and here is a shot i took on the way to the garage ,,,, i like to call it " just chill'n "

9/4/08

i got a bit done today, i bolted up the exhaust and insulated the fuel line where it need to be insulated. i also finished the top intercooler brackets and then proceeded to hack the face of the car up 

it took quite a bit to finish it , here is how it looks :

i also got my new license plate and regestration in today 

at least now you guys can read them 

i did findout about a "potential" problem. i say potential cause i'm not sure if what happened would cause an issue or not: as i was filling the tranny up with oil , i noticed that tranny fluid i had was two kinds, dexron 3 and type 3 (H) . i remeber some time ago some one said nexer mix the two , or if you use one kind, you can't use the other or else the cluth material will flake off??? 

is that true? and should i be worried?.should i just drain it and put dexron 3 stuff inthere and not worry about it anymore?

9/9/08

well i finally started her again , this time i wired up the fuel pumps temporarily and finished wiring the fans.

found out a couple of things, first the cheap fans i bought are cheap for a reason; you can bearly notice them working i was planning on using them temporarily untill i get a decent set. guess now i have to get the decent set sooner than i thought 

second thing is that i'm having starter issues again. this time after i started it and let the car idle for a few minutes , i shut it off ( mainly to re connect the coolant bypass tube that i forgot to connect as well as to get a chance to breath in the garage )

when i tried to restart it it had a hard time turning over, then i noticed smoke coming from the grounding strap from the head to the body. 

what is going on ?? its the same setup i had before i pulled the engine and it worked fine before. can it be that i should run a dedicated grounding strap from the battery to the head??

why is the ground getting hot?

9/12/08

got the car off the lift and squared away in the middle of the garage so i can remove most of the interior. i managed to remove most of the nitrous wiring, timing tuner, bottle heater, and progressive controller wires. 

i also routed the grounding cable i got from the head to the trunk area. turned out to be a tad to short, so i'll be grounding it on the driver side trunk area and running a cable from the battery - on the pass. side- to that spot .

i also snagged a spal 16" fan from a buddy of mine , should be installing that soon too.

another thing i noticed is that i'm running out of places to put guages in 

i'm thinking of getting a guage pod that houses the tach , and two small guages ( boost and fuel pressure). orrrrrr, i could just do what i did on the camaro and just build me a whole new cluster with my own guages. right now the only guages working on there are fuel level and volts.

i'll see how energetic i feel tomorow

9/18/08

i finished the grounding deal , and now have the battery grounded to the body and directly to the block.

the car still didn't like to start after it warmed up, so i went ahead and boght a new starter ( thinking the one on there was already toast since the header precticaly touches it - only header wrap and a bit of heat shield seperate the two )

i also extended the maf harness- i'm thinking of running the thing on a 1 bar maf setup (using the camaro's old tune) for now and going SD in the near future when the thing is up and running propperly. connected the BOV and tans vaccume lines ( need to install them correctly/ cleanly)

i also decided to ditch the stock cluster and do my own. maybe a small rpm and speed ( not sure on the speed one ) and relocate the essentials in to the cluster. will do that as soon as the thing is running i guess.

i started the thing up today and it ran fine . i turned it off and the thing would not turn over! so , the starter was a waste 

could it be that the battery is bad? the alternator is charging ( i see it on the volt guage).

so i guess next up on the list would be the damn electrical wiring 

i'm seriously considering removing everything ( and i mean everything ) and starting from scratch, i'm just too lazy to do such a thing 

i do need to do the following now:

- redo the fan wiring and install the spal fan - the harness i have now has some small guage fan wiring for power and coupled with the crappy fans i have now you get this :

- wire the two fuel pumps to two seperate relays on the relay board.

- wire the water injection pump

- wire the fuel pressure sending unit box thingy.

- fix a ground issue i have right now with the reverse lights and rurn signal - they now stay on all the time !

- clean up the existing underdash mess that is supposed to be "electrical wiring " 

after that i should down load the camaro's old blower file after i tweak it a bit and then fine tune it on the dyno.

9/23/08

got most of the wiring done , just have to do the guages now. i redid the relay panel, all that i need to do is wire up some fuses for safety. i also finished installing the spal fan , it turned out the cheapie ones i had there had their blades angled in a way that made them not move air !

right now i need to change the oil on that thing and filter. then i will try to take the car out this weekend and play with it and fine tune the tune i got in there.

took the car out for a quick test drive , it drove great , i lso did the obligatory "floor it to see which hose comes off" test , and as expected , i had one of the hoses going into the intercooler come off ( clamp was bottomed out and not tightening the hose properly), fixed that and proceeded to vaccuming up the interior of the car from all the crap inside of it . 

on a side note, the car still would not start after it got warm . the battery is charging propperly , and i even tried another battery on there , yet still no luck. 

what could cause this? i changed the starter, and got a thick gable grounding the block to the - batt. terminal. can it be the smallish guage wire (original) going from the ford fender mounted starter solenoid (now used as a junction block ) to the starter?

9/26/08

took the car out for some testing at the local spot ( ok , it was more like laying rubber down from my old slicks on the launch pad than actual testing )

car pulls good, only there is one major issue : just past 4000 rpm afr shoots up to 17:1 and higher !!! don't know why its doing that ; i have the same tune in it as the camaro - which runs great- fuel pressure is good at 60 psi and rising with boost.

i looked atthe hp tuners file and the strange thing is that the PE table goes from 1.2 in the lower rpm's to .85 from 4000 rpm and above ! i checked a few of the camaro files i had and they were all set up that way; which doesn't make sense! ( i almost could have sworn that the PE tables i had never went below 1.1 )

any how , i started messing with the tune and slowly brought the AFR down to 14 ish last time i floored it .i had to cut my session short cause i ran out of time and slicks then 

another issue i'm having right now is over heating: the car's temp slowly rises untill it gets too hot. i have a single spal 16" fan on there, and another on order which should be here in the next few days. another problem is also that the starter will not turn w=once the car got warm. i'm assuming that is due to the small + cable going to the starter.

i also need to cut up the bumper some more to get some more fresh air in there. that and finally get to redo the starter cable and the water injection pump wiring.

i'm also debating weather i should go with an SD tune right now, we'll see what happens this week

10/3/08

well i found out that the file i was looking at seemed to be corrupted, cause when i opened an older file the numbers looked more familiar. 

so i took the car out to the local spot again after changing the slicks i had on there ( 4 uears old and pretty worn ; this is what they looked like when i was done with the first sesion of testing :

anyhow, the car pulls through the rpm range at about 11:1 now , still need to get it to a dyno and see exactly how the AFR graph looks like.

i'm still overheating this thing, i ordered a new spal fan which should be here in a couple of days , i'll be mounting it as a pusher to help the puller i have there right now. 

if that doesn't work , i might just pull the radiator out and have the end tanks pulled off and cleaned. if that doesn't work i'll start looking into replacing the water pump ( i guess i ran out of parts to replace so thats why i'll change it )

the cool thing about today is that with the new(ish) slicks the thing pulls goooood all i can say is :

VIVA LA BOOST!! , 

the bad news is i think i need to change the converter ; ( and this is where i need your input) when shifting from 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd rpm's drop from 6300 to 4300 rpm. i'm thinking the thing is pushing through the converter , could that be the issue? cause if i remeber correctly , i should just drop about 1000 rpm or so between shifts.

10/7/08

well a quick update on things going on :

i got my new spal fan in today, so i promptly installed it as pusher on the other driver side of the radiator. i also had the radiator cleaned ( end tanks removed and internal passeges cleaned) , the shop said there was alot of gunk and scale built in there that they removed.

so i slapped all of those together and installed it and ran the car for a few minutes and it held steady at 180 for a few minutes ( had to shut it down cause i couldn't breath in the garage anymore ) , which is a good thing, cause before it would just keep climbing . the real test is when i take it out again on the road. 

another thing i got out of the way was the new ultra sexy guage panel i fabbed up which goes where the center AC vents are. it holds 3 guages (afr, boost , and fuel pressure) and did i mention it is ultra sexy 

offcourse in my ultimate wisdom i forgot to take the camera with me , so no pics today , but given how sexy the guages look , i'll definatly have pics be tomorow 

i also found out that i forgot to bolt down the compressor housing or snail ! there was one allen bolt missing and the rest were loose a bit . but luckily no damage was done to the unit.

i also got a message from a buddy who owns a bike ( busa with n2o) who was mentioning that his bike is "ready" for my junk...... oh well , guess i have to put the 200 shot back on 

next up on the list: more tuning ! i'll be taking it to the dyno this weekend to see what i can do timing wise. i'm also thinking of setting up a retard button ( timing retard that is ) , so that i hit the button when launching to gain traction and release ( bumps timing up to normal ) as soon as i feel the car hook. maybe even wire the timing tuner back on ehre aain ... ( now that i think of it why did i rip all that stuff out in the first place! ) .

another little progect i might do is relocate my regulator from the rail to the fender so i can bolt the regular fiberglass hood on . but why would i want to make the car look decent

10/12/08

so, i totaly forgot to take pics but some stuff is finished - and i still didn't get pics 

i swapped the converter i had to the ol'trusty PI "pinky" one 

i also had the subframe connectors finally welded on , just need to paint them ( had them in the garage for over a year!)

and in another step forward i took off the rear sway bar - to put on another car ( azooooz's stang , since he "forgot " to order the wolfe sway bar )

i also had the flex plate shield and tranny blanket put on too ( i still love you feet )

we have a test and tune we will be attending this friday , we'll be taking the red stang there , but as soon as we come back , i'll start fine tuning the car on the dyno and hopefully have the water injection finally plumbed. i'm also thinking of converting to speed density. that and the other little stuff mentioned earlier.

10/14/08

here are the pics (finally ) :

the subframe:

and the ultra sexy guage and panel

1/25/09

man its been ages since i got on this thread,,,,

just an update for you guys ,,, the thing is running and well went out to the local spot a few days ago and i had the drag radials on ,,, managed to smoke the tires at 130 mph! so i know its making power 

hopefully will be heading to the race track in bahrain this weekend and should see what it does. debating on wether to run the car as is or dump some pump gas and bump the timing . 

next up will be an SD tune , and finally mess with the rear brakes to get them to work properly

1/31/09

went to the track this weekend ,, track was horrible , no one made a clean pass. i managed to run a 10.2 lifting 3 times ( one of them was a complete lift till i regained control). i know this thing has mid to low 9's in it easy!

just sucks the track was not there . it was so bad that they actually had to cancell round 3 of the championship ,,,, it was so humid and wet it was not safe at all to run.

9/30/09

man its been ages since i updated this thread!!

here's a quick update till i get some pics:

- switched to a carb style efi GMPP intake manifold and edelbrock low profile elbow 

- installed a snow performance carb spacer with meth. nozzle bungs

- got a new set of DR's along the slicks i already had.

- converted to a #bar SD tune

- ported the headers ( they were nasty from the inside)

- got the heads ported and cleaned up 

thats it as far as i can remeber 

next up is getting it tuned , lower tubuar front controll arms, cutting the lower core support and welding i decent looking one, and later down the road swapping to a cog drive setup.

on a side note , i got a set of dynatech swap headers and tried them, they almost fit ( driver side was ok but pass hit the frame). i think this is due to the fact that i used the 4.6 k-member and mounts , as opposed to the ls1 specific k-member . from pics i came across it seems that the ls1 specifit k-member sets the engine higher up and forward in the engine compartment compared the the 4.6 ; wich leads me to beleive that the headers were designed with a ls1 k-member in mind.

10/14/09

got a base SD tune in the car now , just need to fine tune it now. i also got the lower control arms in .

i also looked back at the placement of the meth nozzle after reading a thread about placing it there ( in the carb spacer) , and noticed that the methanol will be siphoned in while cruising . so i'm thinking of just sticking a single nozzle back into the intake tube going to the throttle body. 

pics of the intake : 

12/14/09

more updates as i get some stuff done to this thing 

i decided to ditch the stock f body radiator infavor of the becool one i had on the camaro, only problem is that the becool one is soo much thicker than the stocker which meant i had to move it forward some more to clear the blower inlet tube.

long story short i hacked up the front end 

i cut both upper and lower core supports and fabbed up a tubelar unit that bolts to where the bumper used to mount. this way i'll have the nose of the car, radiator and intercooler all mounted on that unit as well as the front (inside) bumper.

bye bye core support:

dead core

and here is how it looks now ( radiator is going to sit a bit lower , didn't have a smaller box to sit it on ) - and the welds look alot nicer in person

bottom side will have tabs for the radiator and intercooler , and the top side will have tabs for the nose of the car and radiator.

when that is done , i'll weld the other ( thicker ) tube to the side plates to form a bumper and to use also as a mounting point for the top of the intercooler .

1/12/10

got everything squared away and done

i also got the new headlights and side markers in and on the car .

here are some pics of the finished product :

with the intercooler on :

clearance between blower inlet and radiator :

and the final unit all prettied up and ready to install with the front bumper :

i still have to take pics of the front end on with the new blingy lights 

next up is to beat the crap out of it to see how the latest mods work.

after that the following :

-remove the carb spacer with the meth nozzle ( to gain some hood clearance)

-try to get the other fiberglass hood on there

-relocate the meth nozzle to the charge pipe.

-mess with the tune 

- i might even mess with the interior a bit to "pretty it up "

4/2/11

good lord ! its been over a year since i updated this thread and almost a year since i took the car out on the street !

well i don't remeber what i did since last year but i know i put in a tiny filter ( just like the one on the camaro ) for street driving - i'll have to get a pic of that .

also got a 3 bar SD tune on there- nothing agressive at all , its pump gas friendly 

also went to bahrain a few months ago to try to see what it would do in the 1/4 , and in my rush i forgot to take the filter off and take a peek under the car , well the result was a roasted shifter cable ( from the open headers) and after launching like i was at a traffic light (1.9 sixtyfoot if i recall correctly ) and hitting the rev limiter on both shiftgs for what seemed like forever ,,,,, i got a 10.2 

so i know it has much more in it , then there was the dyno pulls : i took the car to the rollers to get it tuned and long story short, ran out of fuel , it was late , and the damn thing was spinning on the dyno so they couldn't get accurate numbers , but i guess the tune was good cause it made 700ish rwhp 

then there was this week's "outing" :

i slapped on the 4 year old drag radials ( cause the the 6 year old slicks where showing some cracks on the side walls ) and went out the racing spot , had a few runs where the car did very well from a roll (no one wants from a dig ,,,, which was fine by me ), then i races a new skyline GTR that was running on C16 and had a bunch of work done - the car is known to be fast over here and was making some where in the 900 flywheel hp range ; i raced him twice , the first was from a 50 mph roll and with the filter on , where he had the jump which ended with him beating me by about two car lengths .

but man was this thing pulling ! 

then we raced again from a 70 mph roll without my filter and with him getting the jump again : this time my junk spun all the way through 2nd gear and hit the rev limiter , but as soon as i shifted into third the pile launched forward and then i started reeling him in till the finish line - about 1/2 mile - where i was on his rear bumper .

but then this happened

or i guess it couldn't handle the pressure ,,,, or i forgot to conncet the BOV hose - i'll have to check this when i get back to the garage .

all in all i'm pretty surprised how well the pile worked and performed : asses were hauled to say the least 

i guess next time i'll make sure to log some runs to see if all is going well .

and i should have some vids and pics up soon .

Long lives the Junk!

4/10/11

well we went out this weekend to a spot that i now consider street racing heaven ( more than 6 miles of straight , smooth , un iteruppted , non intersected , in the middle of no where yet close , wide street ) 

this place can qualify to land the shuttle 

any how enough with my ramblings, we went out to mess around and for a good friend to test out some mods he made. i basically just slapped another intake hose on ( didn't even take it off the trailer ) . we also messed around with a radar gun and some logging software.

any how here are a few races that i filmed as soon as i got there :

4/16/11

out again to the same spot for some more testing . 

the the car was never taken off the trailer since last week 

we went out on the promise of racing some bikes ,,,, but it was a no show 

so we just messed around some more and "broke in the street some more 

i\m guessing next time out we'll mark out the starting line, 1/4 mile, and 1/2 mile lines and most likely start laying some VHT for some "launch" testing 

any how , here are a few vids of some of the races that took place.

me and a porsche twin turbo from a dig , i launched in 2nd and it didn't help - i need to swap out the 3.55 rear end ratio to a 3.27 to help with traction :

incar footage :

me and the same skyline from the last time from a 40 kph (30mph) roll , started in second :

same race but from an 80 kph (50mph) roll , in second gear:

i'm thinking to spice things up next time i might bump the timing up a few degrees ( more like 5 deg. ) or maybe put some decent gas (not pump gas) and really light up the whick

5/15/11

speaking of traction we went out last weekend for some "testing" . i guess i have more evidence i need new tires ( these 5 year old drag radials are not cutting it anymore )

here is a video of one of the races with a F1C 6.0 camaro from something like a 30 mph roll in 2nd gear , check out the sideways action 

and here it is from an onboard camera , this footage is of two races , the firs is the one above , then we turn back for another hit ,,,, where it gets prety sideways and i had to let off ( check out 2:40 when heading back and look at how long the skid marks are from the first launch, you need to adjust the screen brightness to see them sorry ) 

any how , i guess its getting a bit warm for racing here now : so its time for improovements again 

i think i need a transmission refresh , the thing is getting warm after a couple of races , i also need to relocate the trans cooler from inside the left fender to another place .

another thing that i have been wanting to do for a while is redo the current exhaust ; right now its 2.5" dual pipes with ann x pipe and some mufflers made by the shop that made my exhaust. the bends in the system look ugly and neck down at every bend , so i need to replace them with something decent and a set of dynomax mufflers i had for this project since noah boarded his ship.

another thing i should look at is fixing the rear brakes ,,,, cause they don't work and while i'm on that matter , swap out the rear with the other rear (3.55 to 3.27) to make it a bit more street friendly .

2/19/12

thanks for the intrest 

man its been a while since i updated this !

not much going on since the last update , i did manage to swap the rear brakes to discs . i used the ssbc kit (or at least thats what i think i used )and it went pretty smoothly. the kit comes with all that you need to do the swap , including a new master cylinder. some randome pics ( these are the brackets that came with the kit) :

you will have to mess around with the rear brake lines to make them fit if i recall correctly , but its nothing to difficult to do . 

here is how the end product looks like :

i also redid the lines coming out of the master cylinder and installed a new adjustable proportioning valve. sorry no pics of that . 

i also (finally) got around to swapping the hood !!! i had this "new" fiberglass hood for almost three years now and i finally decided to install it 

this thing is super light and is an exact replica of the stock hood but weighs about 5 lbs if not less 

luckily this thing barely fit , the intake elbow rubs against it slightly and i had to cut the bracing and hood latch on the front of the hood to clear the radiator and core support i made . and in contrast to the old one this hood is hinged in the rear and uses hood pins up front .

i like how i can actually see the road now

currently the car is waiting for its trans to be rebuilt , as soon as that is done i'll stab it back under it and go "test" it .

so whats next ? 

now that i think of it , i have to go back and check if i ever put in any diff oil and additive in there after the brake install ( i really hope i did ).

i also want to take the car to a body shop and have it resprayed so the car looks semi decent 

in the works too is gutting the interior and redoing the carpet, dash area and wiring under the dash. kinda not feeling it right now .

and i decided to start looking for a 4L80E trans to swap in instead of the good 'ol th400 . reason is because i want to drive the car more instead of trailering it to the races, and you know what they say about trailered street race cars (actually i don't know, but i'm sure they do say something )

and the last tidbit of info is there ,,,,,,,,,, or you know what i'll just keep you thinking what it is untill the next update

2/26/12

so i finally decided on painting the thing 

i just dropped it off to get painted last night ,its going to get the same color just a different hue , more metalic too . 

i'll post pics as soon as i get them 

i also got a intake tube testing machine ( some have called it a driveshaft pretzel maker ) 

just need to rebuild it and assemble it and it would be ready to drop right in

3/13/12

a quick update :

i got some parts on the way to assemble the short block including some new slugs to lower the compression a bit .

and the car finally rolled into the paint booth today 

its been primered and sanded and all it needs now is paint :

and a freind of mine thinks he found me a suitable 4l80 , i should be getting it pretty soon

5/4/12

well i guess its time to update 

the paint was done a while back , but i still didn't get a chance to take it out in the sun to take a good picture, so here's the next best thing (excuse the dust everywhere )

the car looks real decent now , which is a good thing i guess 

i also started building a new battery tray/hold down cause i didn't like how th eold one was . this is what i came up with so far , i just need to get it powder coated then mount it in there :

i also started assembeling the short block , started with hanging the new lower compression weisco pistons on the rods ( don't mind the bearings , those are the old ones ) :

after that i did the rings, checked all clearances , and dropped the crank in there and torqued everything down. here is wher i'm at so far :

the new cam should be here any day now from texas speed ( texas giant 248/254 .615"/.622" - 144 ) , and as soon as that is in there along with the chain and lifters i can time it , and slap on the oil pump and call the shortblock done.

switching to another subject , the car recently started developing a miss , and some lugs would just be soaked when i pulled them out ( i'm sure the rings are shot and oil is runing past them ) but recently the miss got worse - to the point the car would not start unless i put in a new set of plugs - and even then it would foul them after a few minutes . now tha last time i took out the plugs there were two plugs(#4and 5 ) that were super clean on the outer ring but sooty where the porcalin (sp) is . 

this might be an electrical issue , or could be worse , so i 'll be doing a compression test to see what i get . and in case it is bad i guess getting the other engine done just got a whole lot more important

5/23/12

small update, 

i did a compression test an it seems fine ( the lowest reading i got was 125 and the higest was 145) , so i decided to put a fresh set of plugs in and swap out the coils. after starting the car again it idled ok and i verified that all header primaries where scorching hot, which leads me to beleive that the miss is fixed. i still need to take it out for a spin to verify , and just to be safe i'll pull the plugs and see how they look now.

but incase the miss is still there , i have to then look at the injectors/connectors and fuel filter and probably the tune maybe?

either way it still has some more stuff to get done , one of which is the new trans cooler that i've been wanting to install since the last ice age , a new radiator puke tank, and swapping out the front springs to somethink a bit softer and lower. i also have to weld the stupid battery tray to the trunk floor.

as for the engine, well i buttoned up the short block last night , i just need to time the camshaft to verify everything is ok. i also should have the heads installed any day now ( waiting for head gasket) after i swapped out the springs with a new set to replace the wimpy ones it had before. 

so next up on the list is:

- fix the ebrake cable thas rubbing against the tire 

- test drive to make sure the miss is gone

- puke tank

- wire in air temp sensor

- weld in the batt tray 

- trans cooler

- hood pin scuff plates

8/8/12

guess its been long enough since the last update 

since the last update i have fixed the ebrake cable rubbing , the miss is still there but i have been driving the car around for a while and flogging it and it fouls the plugs at a slower rate now i still need to change the plugs pretty often , but i'm not complaining since the engine will be comin out soon .

i also did wire the IAT sensor but still didn't plug it in - waiting on the tuner . and also put the hood pin scuff plates. i also redid the trans cooler , now it looks better and has a fan to help cool it, also installed a new catchcan for the oil breather - no pics of that :

i also got the new battery tray in :

i also started working on the rear suspension of the car : i ordered a UPR antiroll bar and coilover conversion kit for the rear shocks. the anti roll bar is now welded in place and am in the process of installing the coilover conversion right now:

i'm planning on leaving the original sway bar on there and using a quick release pin on the anti roll bar so i can just unhook it when i drive on the street.

and did i mention that the short block now is a long block

i just need to get the coolant stem hoses that go under the intake manifold ( the x type , anyone got a part number for those? )

and one last pic of the car after paint under better lighting :

further more , i bought a new fiberglass hood ( 2 inch cowl) and a trunk lid , i just need to get them painted so i can slap them on the car. i also ordered a new chromoly cage thats on the way ( the one on the car is locally made out of mild steel and weighs as much as the car ) 

so next up i guess is :

- remove the old relay panel that holds all the nitrous stuff 

- clean up the wiring under the dash 

- swap rear slicks 

- paint new hood and trunk

- change blower belt ( might just leave that untill i swap engines) 

- swap front lakewood shocks to strange adjustable shocks

- wire transbrake

8/15/12

you mean more like third and fourth hand parts 

i finally decided on swapping the old ( 2006 ) goodyear slicks with a new set of hoosiers , but now i have to trim the inner lip on the rear fenders ( old slicks were 10.0 wide and these are 10.5 ) 

i also have the coilover conversion in the rear finished . car looks killer but it feels too stiff !

it already has 125 lbs springs in the rear , so i ordered a set of 110 lbs to try out .

and here is a pic of the oil catch can installed :

i also dropped the front end as much as i can but the front end still sits high. so i snooped around a few boards and found out that i need a set of 14" 130 Lbs front springs to cure the high stance and stiff front, so they were ordered 

so i guess the priorities have changed a bit now , now i have to clearance the fenders ( trim the inner lip) before i can do anything. and after i get the front springs in i have to install the new strange struts and get the car scaled and get the corner wheights right .