Continuing shaving the engine bay. These shots are of the fire wall. I wanted to move the engine harness behind the intake manifold to make it less obvious. I got a nice grommet to fit. I cut out some plugs and got them welded in. I still have some more holes to fill on the driver side. I will be down to 2 holes passing threw the fire wall now. (Jan 2012)
I started my winter projects. I pulled the motor and discovered there was some damage the the zo6 cam and one of the lifters. The #3 rod bearing has seen better day's as well. I decide that I want to rebuild up the motor with gen IV top end (ls3 heads) this next time but its not in the budget just yet. So for now I picked up a 5.3 LM7 to play with while I gather parts for the 6.0L. I started shaving the engine bay to get it ready for a new coat of paint before the motor goes in. I also got a swing out bar kit for christmas. So I got that installed. Should be easier to get in and out of now. I got a new 30psi boost gauge and msa headlight covers that will be going in soon. (Jan 2012)
I took the z out one last time before my winter project starts. Here are some photos taken at a local meet. The neon in some of the picture is one that I tuned and helped build. It has run a best of 10.25 @ 145mph so far. My winter project consists of shaving/cleaning up the engine bay and repainting it. I also plan on adding a bigger cam while the motor is out. Right now I'm thinking speedinc's tu2 cam. If funds allow I would like to change over to a air to water intercooler too. I'll keep you guys posted. (Dec 2011)
I raced in a local event on saturday called No Bull. I was hoping to do some license passes but still need a engine diaper first. I ended up runing in a 10.2 index class. I turned to boost down to 14~15psi and thought that was enough to hit 10.2's. I got one test pass and it ran 10.1 @ 140 but was spinning a bit. I lower the tire pressure for the first round and lined up against Nitrous SBC Vega. I didn't realize were on a pro tree. Opps. I tried to chase him down and broke out with a 9.99 @ 141. I need more seat time If I want to bracket race. I did one more run at 20 psi and ran 9.52 @145 with a 1.5 60ft. I pretty happy getting the car more dialed in. I beat my best et with 4 less psi. Here is a video, my car is 40seconds in. (August 2011)
Hit the rollers again on the dyno day I hosted. The car laid down 770whp and 703wtq. (June 2011)
Junior1087 did a photo shot of my car this past weekend. Here are some of shots. (May 2011)
Sqc Tuning sponsored and hosted a local Import/Sport Compact Race. This was the debut of the new setup. I drove it up and down the street to put it on the trailer and headed to the track. Untested and I setup the 2 step in the pits, I took it for my first qualifying pass. Did a good burn out, footbraked into the beams hit the t-brake, boost came on instantly, lights came down car took off but the back end came out on me. I let off got it straight and got back in it. Clicked off a 10.7, Alright! The 2nd pass was the first round of eliminations. I got the left lane this time and repeated my process but left at about 80% throttle on the t-brake and got a 1.5 60ft. Run went smooth and clicked off 9.56. WOOT 2 years in the making!! Run #3 back in the right lane. I went 100% out the hole, backend came out again and I got another 10.7 but won the round. Run 4 I'm up against one of my guys Mr. Neon. I give him lane choice. I get the left lane again. I launch on 80% throttle and pull a 1.6 60ft and get a 9.6 @ 147mph to Aj's 10.7 (his personal best to date - great job bro!). I won the All Out Power Adder class. (May 2011)
Here are some more pictures of the redesigned turbo kit. I still have to remount the coil packs and make new spark plug wires.
The trip out to the track didn't yield the results I was hoping for. Still in the 11's with 2.0 60ft but the good news is my mile per hour went up to 138. I started a thread to get some feedback on my setup on ls1tech. This update is the result of that feed back. I'm trying to optimize my setup. I order a billet ptc 5500 stall converter. I also redesigned the turbo kit. My goals for the turbo kit were to get the turbo away for the t-body, make it a truly divided all the way to the turbine housing, down size from 3 inch to 2.5 inch crossover for quicker spool. I also wanted to be able to check my spark plugs without having to pull the manifolds and make it easier to swap a cam later on. I think I might even be able to add a filter now.
I'm still working on some projects to get ready for the drag strip next month. I mounted a air tank and regulator for the ams1000 boost controller. I will try c02 later on but I think I need a better regulator first. I got a 71 front bumper installed and cleaned up. Had to trim the air block off panels in the front but it all fits well now. I also built a fan shroud for the radiator. Should make it a little more efficient.
I'm working on some projects in an attempt to get ready for the drag strip opening next month. I finished up the parachute release handle and routed the cable. I built a heat shield for the turbo hot side and for the fan controller / relays I have behind the passenger side head light. I also put a flex pipe in the crossover tube to the turbo in an attempt to relieve stress on the headers. Finally for this update I installed a dash cap. It is so nice not having to look at the cracks in the dash any more.
I finally got some time to work on the car again. I Fabricated and installed the parachute mount and bracket.
It looks like the wastegate was the limiting factor. I blocked it off with a metal plate and it now hits 18psi. I took it to the dyno again and laid down 695hp and 595tq sae corrected. I also tryed out the spool valve again. It works! The quickspool closes half of the divided turbine housing and is activated at 14ish psi to open up from .66 ar to 1.32 ar. I plan on trying co2 with the ams1000 to see if I can acheive the same results as blocking off the wastegate. So I have some control. The car will now hit 5 psi on the footbreak. I am very excited to see what I will do once the track opens up again.
Here are some shots sqc tuning bbq.
Here are some numbers finally. I was only able to get it up to 8 psi so far. It put down 511whp and 454wtq on the dyno. I went out the the track and clicked of 3 pass in a row at 11.1 and 133mph. The car did great. Here is a shot on the way out to the track with Aj in his 10sec neon.
I installed a new tachometer that reads off a sparkplug wire. The autometer would only go as low as 2 rev per cycle and I needed a 1 rev per cycle to get it to read. I went with the smaller tach to offset it. Now I can see it threw the steering wheel. I finally installed the window net too. It came out nice if I do say so.
In an attempt to meet all the nhra rules I was told I needed a firewall to seperate the fuel cell from the driver. This is what I came up with. It is made of 20 gauge (min 24 is required). It is sealed with rtv in side too.
I finally installed the brake kit from silverminemotors.com. It has vented and sloted 300zx rotors with custom adapter plates and toyota 4 piston calipers. It is a really nice looking kit. I also picked up some wheel spacers and some extended lugs. I went to oreilly auto and after some trial and error came up with some dorman 610-320 studs.
I got some new toys. I order a Simpson parachute with Competition Engineering's mounting kits. I also have a RCI window net to install. I need to pick up some sheet metal so I can enclose the fuel cell per nhra rules. Then I can take this thing to the track. Also picture are the newer 4 gen truck coils. Coil #1 had been intermitten and I have seen good results with these newer coils. I built some better straps to hold the front lip and close up the front gap a bit. I ended up taking about an inch off the front block off plates after the adjustment. I think it looks alot better now. I have a lot stuff to install now.
The tranny was still leaking from the front seal so after some research I found a better solution to mate the powerglide/converter to the lq4. It is a factory GM hub adapter. Unfortunately I had to use a factory flexplate too. Mike went threw the tranny again and put a new front seal. We also put in a TCI flexplate sheild for some added protection. Big thanks to Mike and Josh, you guys are awesome.
Here are some shots from the Viper Club Fun Run. It was a fun day and the car did great. Thanks to jerry for coming out from cali and braving the heat all day with me in the Z. I need to install some insulation on the firewall.
I got all the wiring cleaned up. I built new fuel rail brackets, blacked out the intercooler, and installed a new wideband and boost gauge.
I’m very happy to be alive right now. The Z burst in to flames last night. The injector on cylinder 8 popped out enough that it sprayed fuel that ignited. The night started off with the dyno acting up. The first few pulls I did would not show any graph. Scottie figured out the speed sensor was being cranky and got it working. So I started doing some tuning. Now the car would hit about 5 psi on the street on wastegate. My past experience is that most cars will be 2~3 psi lower on the dyno. This is my first time playing with a car that has a glide in it on the dyno. I was surprised that the car would only build 0~1psi of boost. After a few runs I got it up too 380whp on like 0.5 psi @ 6500. I think the glide might be robbing some power but what ever. I notice that I need more base fuel pressure after reviewing the logs. I thought I was at 45 but with the car at ldle it was only 30. My pump should be good for 120 so I took the base pressure to 60. I figure at full boost it would be no more that 80psi of fuel pressure. Well get the map dialed in again and then turned up the boost. I went to do a pull and as the boost came on I heard a noise and saw a blanket of fire flowing over the the windshield like a river. Its kind of a blur but I jumped out of the car hit the kill switch and got to the extinguisher and put out the fire. The whole engine bay was a blaze. The room was filled with yellow powder. I went out of the room but saw more flames so I rushed back in to put them out. The visibility was that of a dense fog and the second coming out of the dyno room I felt myself blacking out so I made the call 911 to see if I had just poisoned myself. As the call progressed I came back too. I had just deplete all my oxygen. The end result was like 420 @ 4000 on 3~4 psi. Now its time to rebuild the harness and see else needs to be replaced. I know I need stronger brackets holding the fuel rails. Here is a shot of the problem. You can see the bracket in the background got tweaked up. In hind sight not the best designed mount. I have an idea on how I will make much stronger mounts. That is all the o-ring came out to create the blaze.
I weight the car with a full tank of gas. 2608lbs and 2827 with me in it.
The SQC Tuning BBQ @ Motiva was awesome. Here are some shots that were taken that day.
Here are some exterior shots of the car with the hood on an front air diverter plates installed. Shes looking good if I do say so myself.
It was a mad dash to get the car ready for the sqc dyno day bbq this past weekend. I had a lot of customer cars along with a faulty trans cooler fitting to deal with. I took the friday before the show off and finished up the car and got the tune up drivable. I made it to the show with 30 miles on the motor. We dynoed 45 cars that day and I decide it would be smarter to put some more miles on her and change the oil before I put it on the rollers. I will get it on there the week after valentines day. Here are some shots of it all together when I drove it to work yesterday.
The transmission was leaking so I the guys a Mikes Transmission 505-797-9444 go threw it. They found bad seals, damaged pump gear, and the cause of most of it was the converter wasn't fitting properly. The pilot on the converter is not modified and fits like a glove and the trans looks great. I can't wait to take it for spin. I also go the headers wrapped and put back in along with a transmission scatter shield and drive shaft loop.
I started rerouting the wiring in the engine bay to avoid heat and clean up the appearance. Hear are some before and after pictures.
So the initial drive didn't go as planed. The number 1 spark plug wire was touching the header and was destroyed taking the alternator with it. Since I am digging into the car again I decide to relocate the coil packs. I built custom brackets for them and I'm using caprice lt1 plug wires. I am also rerouting some the the engine bay wiring and fixing some leaks I found. I plan on wrapping the hot pipes with DEI Header kit to help battle the heat too.
The coolant lines are installed. I was chasing my tail on this one. I had one line I couldn't install because the compressor housing was in the way. I pulled it off, installed the line then couldn't get it back on. Finally I loosened the turbo bracket and undid the exhaust. I was so sad. But I got it all in there now. 2 steps back to get 1 step forward. It's almost there now. I got the engine oil in, the trans fluid is good to go. I need to get the intercooler back on, fill the coolant, gas tank, check the rear diff, and hookup a couple more wires inside the car.
I got the new blow off valve flange/pipe welded, painted and installed. Here is a picture of the ams-1000 boost controller solenoids. I just finished reading the manual and this thing is wicked!
I hooked up my breather/catchcan setup. I'm running a line from each valvecover and a line from the valley cover. Two 5/8 lines and one 3/8 hose. I also hooked up the tps sensor and wired in one of my sqc boost solenoids as a idle air control valve. In an attempt to keep the engine bay looking cleaner I'm running 3 lines off the bottom of the edelbrock elbow. They go to the IACV, intake air temp, & blow off valve.
Test fitting the hood to make sure everything clears.
I started building the intercooler piping for the car. I picked up 5 feet of straight 3 inch aluminum pipe and 2 slivers of solid 3 inch to cap the original intercooler inlets. I'm routing the pipe into the back of each end tank. I primarily used 15 degree cuts so that 2 put together the would equal 30 degrees. I did this in an attempt to keep the bends smoother. The u bend coming off of the turbo on the hot side of the intercooler is mild steel to accommodate the blow off valve flange that is steel. You will also notice in the pictures I got the rest off the exhaust installed. I also got the bumper cut and remounted.
I made a bracket to hold the intercooler and it is in its new home. Now I can start planing the piping. I'm going modify to end tanks for sure.
I put the intake manifold on and hooked up and tucked the injector and coil wires out of sight. The fuel lines are all hooked up. I got the turbo mounted and the driver side header on. I'm still doing wiring on the passenger side. I also have to come up with a plan on how I'm going to run the intercooler piping.
My Infinity Q45 90mm Throttle body came in on Saturday. The OEM Camaro (76mm) would not fit on the Edelbrock elbow. There was a gap at the bottom. This was one of the cases were things cascaded. I bought the stock throttle body for the Weiand manifold I decide not to use after reading some reviews. Then bought the elbow to match the stock throttle body but it didn't fit. Finally I ended up back at the Q45 throttle body I wanted. What a mess right? So now that I have the Q45 T-body I have to make it fit the Edelbrock elbow. Here is how I did it.
I got my GMPP single plane intake manifold and edelbrock elbow in. I put them together and came up with a mount for the fuel rails. I still need the IM gaskets. It didn't come with any and they are not the standard ls gasket. I also got a 1/4X6X18 3/8 aluminum plate and redid the valley tray with a fitting I will run to a breather style catch can.
Oct 09: I have the custom engine harness pretty much done now. I just need to put it in. I got my fuel rails in the mail. They are the professional products rails. I was concerned with the internal diameter but the bore is much larger than the -8AN fittings I'm using so it should be fine. I also got the coil brackets tapped for the coil bolts. The Comp 3.75 push rods and stock rocker arms are now installed under the valve covers. I also ordered my 4inch thick 1000hp intercooler.
The moment I have been waiting for. I got the engine in the car. I installed the lifters and put the heads on. I got the flexplate on and now the motor is on the motor mounts. I still need to attach the torque converter. I also measured the push rods with a write up that TR posted and figured out I need 3.75 push rods. So I got those ordered. I also got the weiand intake and figured out that it wasn't going to work with my oil pressure sensor along with some negative reviews and resold it. I now have on order a GMPP single plane manifold and edelbrock elbow coming. It is similar to what the previous owner ran. I also read in gmhtp that a car gained 90hp on same boost (19psi) by switching from stock manifold.
I got the coil brackets in and painted them along with the valve covers. I need to tap the holes for the coil bolts. I had to come up with a solution to the water crossover pipe that had been cut off. I ground flat the area, then drilled and taped for a fitting. I'm very happy with how it came out. As a last note for this entry I finally got the lifters in. Now I can put the heads on.
The first customizing hurtle has arrived. The bracket for the alternator I have was intended for an aluminum ls1 block and doesn't fit the 6.0 iron block. The iron block is missing the location for a bolt I have labeled 2 and a I needed to drill and tap location 1. I was able to modify the bracket I had by adding another arm going to a bolt location on the head.
I put the windage tray, crank sensor, and oil pan on. I was putting the flex plate on when I discovered the motor was hanging up on something internally. I have been checking as I go along so allot of cursing in sued. After rechecking the windage tray and disassembling it. I discovered that the crank sensor was hitting where the machine shop had welded in the weight when the crank was balanced. I ground it down and now everything is happy again.
I got the Z06 cam, trickflow double timing set, melling oil pump installed. I had to grind alittle on the front cover to get it to fit but its on now along with the water line fittings. I also started on the wiring harness.
Final putting it together. At this point I have the pistons in. I'm still waiting for my lifters to show up(3wks so far). Then I can put the heads on and measure for pushrods. I need to pick up some misc small stuff to. I'm sure it will add up quick though.
I started measuring my clearances and gapping my rings. I'm using cartech's How To Rebuild an LS as my guide. Along with wiesco's and arp's spec sheets.
After mocking up the truck pan on the motor and measuring the bottom of the pan compared to the motor mounts I determined I only had 2 inches of ground clearance with out the weight of the motor in the car. This would probably rest the motor on the ground once installed. I picked up this corvette oil pan with the idea that I would have to cut off the wings and weld it up but I think I might be able to keep it as is. It is 5 inches deep compared to 9 inches of the truck pan. I do not plan on running the exhaust under the car and it looks like the wings will clear the frame.
I finished cleaning up the heads and put them together. Here is a shot of the Comp 918 valve springs next to the oem springs. My Cometic Head gaskets, TCI Flex plate, and oem damper came in too. Now the rotating assembly will get balanced.
I started working on the heads this week. I pulled the valvesprings out because I plan to upgrade them. The head wasn't as clean as I hoped after being hot-tanked so I pulled the valves out and started scrubing. Then I decided the casting need to be smoothed out a bit a the valve could stand to be lapped. I have one head cleaned up but still have the other to do.
The engine was in pieces when I got it. I have about 60% of the engine and I'm starting to get parts now. Below you see the bare block I am tring to piece together. Also the new Wiseco pistons, Manley rods, Melling Oil Pump, Trickflow timing set, and some used Comp Cams Valvesprings.
The Borg Warner s480 along with the hot side piping/exhaust that is going back on the car.
Here are some shots of the fuel system that came with the car. Its a magnafuel 750 pump with regulator and -10an feedlines -8an Return. Also pictured is the 4linked ford 8.8 rearend with moser internals and the tranny cooler.
Here are some interior shots and the empty (for now) engine bay.
Aug 09: I picked up this 240z off a member of Hybridz.org. It has alot of stuff I was planing to do to a 240z once I found it. I got it for a reasonable price and have a great car to start my new project.
