398 stroker Build

[Neil350]

Be forewarned don’t expect regular updates. With work and time away from home, this build is going to take a few months to finish. We got the car torn down this weekend. The heads are going to the machine shop and the roller will go to paint next week. I have wanted to build a 396 stroker since I was 16. I grew up about 5 minutes from Motor Sport Technologies in Houston, Texas, so I would go there for dyno days and on my Saturdays to watch some of the nastiest street LT1s in Texas roll out of there. Two in particular were Nick K’s old C4, it was a 396 solid roller LT4 with a hidden direct port under the intake. The car was making 700+ back in ’00 and was street raced quite a bit. When they sold the stroker from that car I printed out the for sale add and knew I wanted to build something like that someday. Another car was Dave Lewis’ old Firehawk, it’s now is the LMR Radial car and runs 6s. Back then it was a nasty stroker LT4 with a T-trim, the car was making 900+ and at the time one of the, if not the fastest six speed car in Houston. It wasn’t until a lot of the Supra guys started making over a 1000rwhp that the Firehawk got beat. My Fikses, seats and hood came from that car.

I couldn't do any of this without the help of my friend Tiago at Force Fed Fabrications. He remembers those cars to and a big part of this is doing it is for the nostalgia. Same reason why the car had a CC306 in the past, making power is the side part of it, the whole point of my doing any of this is to do the things I couldn’t afford to when I was younger. I’ve had this car since I was 16 so my goal is to build the set up I would have wanted to back then. That’s a big reason why this car is still an LT1. This short block was originally built by Dave Diluca and I had it refreshed by Erik K at HKE. Two engine builders I always looked up to since I was young. Erik was the guy building Rick Intrau’s motor. Any case enough walking down memory lane.

Short Block 398 LT1: Dragon Slayer Crank, Compstar rods, Ross pistons with hell fire rings. 4 Bolt splayed mains. Stef’s Custom Pan.
Heads: LT1 Dart Pro-1s
Valve Train: Crower Rockers, Morel 5044 Link Bar hydraulic lifters, Manley Nextek Springs, Custpm A.I spec cam (24x/25x/110/6xx/6xx) Not trying to be secretive, I would have to look at the cam sheet to see the exact specs.
Intake: Motown Single Plane with a Nitrous Outlet Spay bar set up.
Exhaust: Kooks 1 3/4 to 1 7/8 stepped Long Tubes, Custom Y by Force Fed Fabrication, Borla.
Engine Management: EFI Connection 24X
Vacuum Pump: GZ Motor sports

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/LT1%20Build/unnamed_zps8b97dbb4.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/LT1%20Build/unnamed_zps8b97dbb4.jpg.html)

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/LT1%20Build/lt1shortblock_zps29444dab.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/LT1%20Build/lt1shortblock_zps29444dab.jpg.html)

Stock short block set up coming out

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/LT1%20Build/20140816_135041_zps9f3e3ca3.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/LT1%20Build/20140816_135041_zps9f3e3ca3.jpg.html)

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/LT1%20Build/20140816_141603_zps40449c4b.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/LT1%20Build/20140816_141603_zps40449c4b.jpg.html)

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/LT1%20Build/20140816_154510_zps435e3a92.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/LT1%20Build/20140816_154510_zps435e3a92.jpg.html)

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/LT1%20Build/20140816_181608_zps58a78b4a.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/LT1%20Build/20140816_181608_zps58a78b4a.jpg.html)


Getting car ready for paint

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/LT1%20Build/20140817_160336_zps61b58988.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/LT1%20Build/20140817_160336_zps61b58988.jpg.html)

LT1 died on the floor

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/LT1%20Build/20140817_153634_zps748a2b20.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/LT1%20Build/20140817_153634_zps748a2b20.jpg.html)


http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/LT1%20Build/20140817_153627_zps18e74ef5.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/LT1%20Build/20140817_153627_zps18e74ef5.jpg.html)



Thanks to the following people:
Tiago @ Force Fed Inductions
Erik @ HKE
Josh @ BDB Racing
GZ Motor Sports
West Side Machine & Performance
Tony S & even Kyle M, yes even Kyle M for answering stupid questions and not beating me up.
LT1 People for putting up with me for the last 14+ years.

[dawdaw]

Sweet! Looking forward to the progress!

[firebird_1995]

This is image for image how this just went at home for me....

http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/08/17/09136a3d637c2c1fb9299885af6ac2ca.jpg

http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/08/17/595115fb2911d61bb224c9794b4a07f1.jpg

http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/08/17/18356bc043ae452435fb8aabe79a9b1c.jpg

http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/08/17/2528140283d2a5e36e027799fb4dc00e.jpg

http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/08/17/5709e304913a246731995cee77bc746d.jpg

[Soxxpuppet]

LMFAO! Firebird that was hysterical!

That sounds like its going to be one Serious engine OP... What compression is it going to be?

[JPack]

Someone is gonna have some fun hitting the go peddle.

[Neil350]

LMAO Chris. Just dropped the heads off at the Machine Shop this morning. Aiming to pick them up next time I am back in Texas around the 12th of next Month. Compression should be mid 12:1 range, 12.4-12.6, Erik at HKE did the math when he ordered the Cometics for it. If all goes well next month the new motor will become a long block. Unfortunately Ill be off shore for this years shoot out.

[Fastbird]

firebird_1995 -- That was EPIC!!!!!

Neil, really happy to see you sticking with the LT goodness. Your car has always been one of my favorites and is gonna be a baaaaaad mofo when done.

[Flyinz]

Subscribing! I wasn't sure if Erik was still building engines or not. Thats good to know.

[myltwon]

damn looks to be good

[Neil350]

Thanks Sean.

Erik's primarily trying to get caught up on what he has, he mentioned building some more LT1s in the future. Just majority of what comes in is all LSX based combos which is plenty of work as is.

[Neil350]

Picked the Dart cylinder heads up from the machine shop. Went with a local shop here in town, real nice folks who have been building engine for a long time. They got these heads knocked out in timely manner, which was awesome. They were also really nice and happy to talk with me about the set up. Will Garza put in a bit of work in to the heads and picked them up a bit. The guy before did an awesome job as well and his work was really clean, at the time though just given the set up there wasn't a whole lot of point to go nuts on the heads. So don't take this as shop A vs B because I still have a lot of respect for the original head porter and his work. Any case they also replaced the 2.02 intake valves with 2.08s. The spring/retainer combo is the Manley Nextek with TI retainers that A.I spec'd for the cam. Lesson I learned on after market heads, it's cheaper to do every thing all in the first go round. Sunday the car is scheduled to go to paint, in the mean time the short block will become a long block.



http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/LT1headflow_zpse25a0a65.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/LT1headflow_zpse25a0a65.jpg.html)


http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/20140822_134529_zps5b9e9174.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/20140822_134529_zps5b9e9174.jpg.html)

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/20140822_134540_zps935970da.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/20140822_134540_zps935970da.jpg.html)

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/20140822_134613_zpsea199ddc.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/20140822_134613_zpsea199ddc.jpg.html)

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/20140822_134609_zpsa4ad7585.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/20140822_134609_zpsa4ad7585.jpg.html)

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/20140822_134547_zps0202cfb7.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/20140822_134547_zps0202cfb7.jpg.html)

[79LT1Monte]

:leghumper:

[firebird_1995]

Not sure if it matters but I noticed above .400" one head seems to outperform the other by about 5%. I wonder if that had something to do with the bench or maybe one side got a little more attention than the other?

[Neil350]

The head flow numbers are a before and after. He flowed them before he started.

[firebird_1995]

That's makes sense!

[Neil350]

Loaded the old heap up and sent it to paint today. Next weekend the long block will start going together on the stand.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/unnamed1_zps4b4d37be.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/unnamed1_zps4b4d37be.jpg.html)

[Fastbird]

DO like!

[ZGOBYBY]

Awesome to see Neil... "don't start no, there won't be no."

[Neil350]

We aint about that life no more. Well maybe.

[383z]

I agree with Fastbird, your car is one of my favorite cars too. I would love to see your car in person. I live in the Clear Lake area so when you get it running I would like to see it run. I bet it sounds like a beast!

[Neil350]

Thanks man, I drive it around a bit to different car meets over on the West Side of town. I don't street race the car, the fact it makes it to a meet and drives back home is good enough for me.

[LT slow]

Yea I've always been a fan of your car. Always thought of it as one of the cleanest LT1 TA on the interwebz. Can't wait to see how this thread goes. Just glad to see you aren't going LS. That thought once crossed my mind. But to much is invested in the lt1 now to turn back.

[Neil350]

Thanks man, the cars o.k, getting there. But lot nicer cars on here than mine.

Worked on the motor with Tiago over the weekend and picked the car up from the paint shop. The engine bay is done, also put the motor back together and built up the UMI K member. I don't have pics but we put the Stef's pan on, got the accessory bracket on with the p.s pump, a/c comp, tensioner and mocked up the Vacuum Pump today. Also put the ATI Dampner back on. In the process bent the engine stand.

It did fight us on some minor things, we had a pan gasket from Felpro, I guess it was for a SBC but it sat to high on the rear main, causing the pan not to go on correctly. So we got one specifically for an LT1 and it seemed to work just fine. Who Knows. Also the motor mounts were for I guess an older SBC and not an LT1 because no way they were going to work. We ordered new ones as well as all the AN lines and fittings to redo the fuel system, plumb the vacuum pump and the nitrous to the dedicated fuel cell. measured the push rods and got those ordered. I am going to try and take some more pics next weekend.

But next weekend, Install the MSD dummy distributor oil pump drive, motor mounts, drop the engine back on the K, put the single plane back on, headers, plugs and put it back in the car. Start running the lines and stuff.

Back from Paint, when ever the cars goes back for the body they'll repaint the front core support forward of the engine bay. That's why it's still red there. None of the front clip was pulled off. http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/20140830_183524_zps33622856.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/20140830_183524_zps33622856.jpg.html)

Morel Link Bar Hydraulic Lifters

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/lifters_zps1292a3d3.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/lifters_zps1292a3d3.jpg.html)

Putting the 24X stuff back on, only change was using a Cloyes timing chain.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/24xstuff_zps7353debf.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/24xstuff_zps7353debf.jpg.html)


Looks like an engine kinda

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/longblock_zpsb04cb4e8.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/longblock_zpsb04cb4e8.jpg.html)

[Neil350]

Better pictures with the pan on and accessories

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/2014-09-01143615_zpsa957a9e4.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/2014-09-01143615_zpsa957a9e4.jpg.html).

That ac compressor on the back is kind of a pain, no real decent way to get at it with the motor mount stand on. Lot easier on the stand though.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/2014-09-011627441_zps74921196.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/2014-09-011627441_zps74921196.jpg.html)


You can see the GZ Crank Mandrel pretty well, really nice piece and fit like a charm.


http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/2014-09-011627341_zps04c5f027.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/2014-09-011627341_zps04c5f027.jpg.html)


Stuff from Summit Racing to do redo the Fuel, plumb the nitrous and Vacuum Pump

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/20140904_135015_zps3c0c0665.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/20140904_135015_zps3c0c0665.jpg.html)

[MEAN LT1]

Looks good man. Love the Stefs oil pan,they make good shit.

[dawdaw]

Hey looking good neil... what vacuum pump are you running and what are you gonna do for a bracket? The gz bracket will work I think but you gotta move your coil/icm...

[Neil350]

GZ Cylinder head bracket, with the 24X no coil or ICM to worry about and it clears all the water pump outlets. When you mentioned that it made sense why people don't put it there because of the stock coil and ICM.

[MeanZ]

What timing cover is that?

[dawdaw]

Yup.. I bought Jason brissons old set up (outlaw z) out of cali...was gonna see if you needed a template for the bracket or something m.. looks like you're all good! Keep the pics coming!

[Neil350]

Didn't CSM? build Jason a really nice billet bracket? I originally wanted to put it where the old air pump went.

MeanZ,

The timing cover is an EFI Connection cover from TPiS for the double roller timing sets. I think they have a new cover now.

[dawdaw]

Yup... I ended up asking him if he knew if csm was still in business cause i wanted to buy a bracket and ended up getting it from him .

[Neil350]

That's a nice piece, glad parts of his set up went to a good home. He had a killer LT1 for a while there.

[Neil350]

Every thus far had gone smooth, this weekend. Not so much. First the intake manifold gaskets, hey they're missing the plastic alignment tabs. Weird. Hey why are these thing oily and crushed, oh I guess some one returned these and I was unlucky to buy them. Luckily O'reileys had some Fel Pros. When lowering the motor on the K, the Stef's pan was hitting the rack tabs. trimmed the rack tab a bit and it seemed o.k. Go to put the motor mount on, passenger, no issue. Driver side. Doesn't quite line up. Tiago corced it with a breaker bar and some longer bolt magic to make it line up. At this point the longer bolts were taken out and the stock bolts put back in. With it all bolted up, pan lines up and clears rack.

Header Gaskets, wrong ones. Earl's will not work with Kooks, to small. The Auto Zone "Performance" section had some Percy's though for a SBC that worked that had probably been there since 1996. The rest of the time wasn't bad, putting accessories on, spark plugs, coil packs, plug wires, ran the engine harness. Tiago also built the fuel lines up and ran the lines for the GZ Vacuum Pump. Time to drop the car on this puppy.

Passenger side, no problem. Driver side, the stupid dowel doesn't line up. It's some how crooked. Breaker bar again and some black magic. It goes on. Maybe I got an early K, maybe the guy who welded it was mad. I don't know. I've never had issues with an UMI Products, but this was kind of odd. This things been sitting for a couple years in my garage. I bought it from a guy who never used it. So my right to bitch at UMI is zero. Everything else from them has been spot on.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/2014-09-07184323_zpsbbac752f.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/2014-09-07184323_zpsbbac752f.jpg.html)

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/2014-09-071529241_zps28d6b9c8.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/2014-09-071529241_zps28d6b9c8.jpg.html)

[blackbirdws6]

Looking good. Keeping the factory bell housing eh? Regarding the UMI K, we had a bitch of a time getting it in my car as well. We had to trim the little guide a bit on the drivers side so it would atleast work its way into the frame.

[The SRZ]

Looking good Neil. What they charge you to shoot the bay? Just curious, want to reshoot mine while the motor is out just haven't decided on gloss black or factory black. GZ pump, are you building your brackets? Loved to have one but no room, blower on one side, alt relocation on the other but I know Mgxp5 on CZ some how managed to do it but he's so damn secretive. LOL

[Neil350]

Yep, stock bell housing, didn't change it. This thing should make crazy power, maybe 700 on a bigger jet? I am more worried about that haunted house I have for a 12 Bolt.

Aaron,

It was about 990$ to repaint the engine bay. The typical price quote I got was about $700-1000. This guy came highly recommended because he actually sticks to the schedule and only messes with bikes and custom cars/classics. Most the guys are collision shops, so non insurance work kind of tends to be put on the back burner. We dropped the car off Sunday and it was ready to go that Thursday. So it was kind of one of those things, pay a little more and deal with less head aches or pay a little less and expect the car to take longer.

The GZ Pump is on their head mounted bracket. There was a guy on CZ28.com who modified the accessory bracket to run the vacuum pump up top where the alternator went. The alternator went where the a/c compressor went. That could work. You just have to lose a/c if you hadn't done so already.

[Neil350]

This weekend was spent buttoning stuff up, installing the abs delete, line lock, canton over flow for the radiator and running lines. We're about 95% of the way there. The issue we ran in to is with the Kooks and Stef's pan there is no way to get the oil filter on. The area near the bottom of the pan and long tube just isn't wide enough. That area was tight before with the stock pan, a stock oil filter would work, but anything extra capacity like a M1-302 wouldn't fit. Just not enough room, should have seen this coming and planned ahead. So we're going to have to relocate the oil filter, going to be small project in it self. Really happy with the way this cars turning out though, I couldn't have done it with out Tiago at Force Fed Fabrication. My skill level stops at basic stuff, if I had to fabricate or run lines, the engine bay would look like a 3rd graders arts and craft project.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/2014-09-14180154_zps1a48c1a6.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/2014-09-14180154_zps1a48c1a6.jpg.html)

[popo8]

If def does look very clean and "professional" in there man.

[firebird_1995]

Wow! Looks great!

[79LT1Monte]

Looking good, can't wait to see it flying down the track.

[Neil350]

Thanks Guys, the adapter from Moroso came in today (Mor-23782), we'll be able to relocate the oil filter. Nice piece for a SBC and works on an LT1 block no problems.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/unnamed_zps04186ce6.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/unnamed_zps04186ce6.jpg.html)

[SSlowBoat]

Damn that's nice

[Neil350]

http://youtu.be/Kx8JOKlBuMc


It starts and runs.

[dawdaw]

Few months to finish huh! Ya right. Sounds good. Can't wait to see what she does

[Flyinz]

Love it!

[Neil350]

Being home this last month helped a lot. I was originally planning to pick the car up from paint and the heads up last week. So it put us ahead of the curve an easy 4+ weeks not having to go off shore for work. Kind of worked out really nice.

[popo8]

Congrats man!!!

[blackbirdws6]

Sounds great

[MEAN LT1]

Any pics of where you relocated the oil filter?

[79LT1Monte]

Sounds healthy, are you going to get to the track soon?

[Neil350]

I do want to take it to the track and see what it does, going to have to tune it first though.

Filter is relocated to the front of the car near the Vacuum Pump catch can.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/2014-09-18163058_zpsb04ad63f.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/2014-09-18163058_zpsb04ad63f.jpg.html)

[Neil350]

We started street tuning the car, working through some tune issues but the car was starting to really respond. Motor felt strong, two oil changes and nothing abnormal. Took it to NTB to get aligned since the alignment was way off from being apart from the K member swap.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/fcukedbutaligned_zpse2cf909f.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/fcukedbutaligned_zpse2cf909f.jpg.html)

Did fresh plugs this morning, old plugs looked o.k. Indicative that we needed to pull timing if anything which we did. Noticed the serpentine belt was kind of trashed. We took the car out Saturday and it was fine last night. Need to get a new serpentine belt, no big deal but it's odd it would do that. Put that belt back on till we could get another since it was missing one rib but would work for tuning the car. Fired the car up, crank mandrel was wobbling. Wasn't doing that before. Maybe the bolt had loosened? Plausible. Begin to tighten the bolt, snap. Cars fucked. The rest of that bolt is in the crank and it didn't break clean. This was a Grade 8 bolt supplied with the Vacuum Pump Kit. Not sure how screwed we are, but it doesn't look to good.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/fucked1_zpsa8ff7e19.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/fucked1_zpsa8ff7e19.jpg.html)

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/fucked2_zps5f226e7c.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/fucked2_zps5f226e7c.jpg.html)

[79LT1Monte]

That sucks, any way to drill it out with it in the car?

[Neil350]

Best case yes, problem is the hub is still on there and it's not wanting to come off. The hub also is giving the illusion that it's not on staright. Could be from the bolt loosening causing it not to be seated correcttly. Right now getting the hub is off the main goal.

[SSlowBoat]

Best of luck man

[firebird_1995]

If it wasn't bottomed out it should back out realitivly easily

[79LT1Monte]

Remember to take your time and be positive, sounds silly but it works. Good luck.

[popo8]

Remember to take your time and be positive, sounds silly but it works. Good luck.
This... just be patient and walk away for a bit rather than getting frustrated and pushing thru.

[dawdaw]

Hey Neil what balancer you running? I have a spare crank mandrel with pulley's and everything you can have. I was running it on the 917268 ati piece but there hubs have all the same universal I.d. on the hub. Just different material.

Are you using the style mandrel that retains the hub with a long bolt and then holds everything on for drive accessories ?

A lot of guys have mixed feelings on those. .. Some seem to work fine others don't like the set up. ..

My 63860 moroso has a male circle that protrudes on the back side of it and is the same diameter of the hub so that guides it and Is just held on by 3 bolts

[Neil350]

I am running the ATI, steel dampner, 917270. It is the style mandrel that retains the hub with the really long bolt. It doesn't bolt to the face of the dampner, just slides in the inside of it and has the long bolt that holds it and the crank hub. At this point I am not so crazy about it either. This mandrel survived. Ideally going to what you're talking about that bolts to the face of the dampner would be the better situation. The Moroso 63860 bolts to the ATI?

[dawdaw]

Correct...

I just went thew threw this debacle a couple weeks ago... When I got my vacuum pump from Jason he sent me the long bolt style and wasn't to thrilled about it


I initially ordered a Moroso sbc mandrel that volts to the face of the dampener and uses and spacer deal inside the hub to keep it concentric. Didn't work


Call moroso and they told me that I need the 63860 GM ls series mandrel. ..

Instead of using a spacer in the hub it has a male circle that sits on the backs of it that sticks out about a quarter inch and is the same diameter as the inside of the ati hub I'm using so that's how they keep it concentric...

So literally all you do is put 3 bolts in the mandrel and attach it to the ati balancer. ..

Slick set up and you can retain your nice arp crank bolt


Takes 2 minutes to put it on...

I actually just started mine last night with the pump on and it was pulling 7" at 3500ish

I would call ati to verify your i.d of your hub... should be 2.05" our c

Then call moroso and ask about the make guide o.d. should be thr same... When I spoke to ati he said they made the lt1 universal with thr ls hubs but i'd still double check

[Neil350]

Thanks man, called ATI and they verified what you said. They make it universal for SBC, he knew about that Morosos piece so I guess they get questions about it fairly often. Thanks for letting me know about it. ATI verified the fear about the long bolt, basically to much load on that long of a bolt it's going to be nite mare to try and keep it tight. Which is what got us in this situation we're in now. I leave Monday so I had to two day the piece directly from Moroso to have it by the weekend so we can try and get this thing back together.

[dawdaw]

Good to hear. .. so you got the 63860?

From what ati told me they made all ls and lt1 hubs the same I.d. so they all are universal but a sbc is different.

[Fastbird]

Good luck with it Neil. Glad to see that you've found a good solution from the sounds of it.

[Neil350]

I got that same one you did, thanks for letting me know about it. Not out the woods yet, but we'll see.

[Neil350]

We were able to get what was left of the old crank bolt out using some vice grips and what ever else would grab on to the broken bolt. Luckily it came out. Put a stock GM crank bolt and spacer in. Ran the part Kyle recommended from Moroso and it worked perfect. Really nice piece, problem solved and lesson learned. Drove the car a bit working on the tune, got pulled over for no front license plate. The cop was cool and let us go with a warning. It was Trans Am night at a local car show, so I took it there. They had some spaces blocked off for Trans Ams. It's interesting how different this motor drives than the heads and cam set up did. Heads & Cam was fun at WOT, but part throttle, just felt like nothing was there. The stroker responds way better at part throttle. Still has a bit of street tuning left and then read plugs, fresh plugs and dyno.

Putting it together

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/20141018_144552_zps26d2fe79.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/20141018_144552_zps26d2fe79.jpg.html)

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/20141018_182934_zpsa9ac4e41.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/20141018_182934_zpsa9ac4e41.jpg.html)

[popo8]

Awesome man. So glad u got p ast that last hurdle.

[79LT1Monte]

Looks good.

[SSlowBoat]

that intake setup looks mean

[Neil350]

Haven't updated this in a while. The cars gotten a bit of street tuning. The manners on this motor are really good. It's really torquey, coming back from a local car show I got stuck in traffic, car behaves well, runs cool, doesn't act up. We were having some issues where we were seeing knock and in higher gears going over say an over pass, the car would shudder. Tiago pulled a ton of timing out, problem still wouldn't go away. The suspicion was that the compression is a bit to high for it to run on pump gas. Trouble shot with Taner over facebook. Drained the pump 93, Tried MS109, problem went away. E85 could be an alternative with more fuel system, but at this point, the MS109 is working and I am happy leaving it be. Also did a Racetronix hot wire kit at the same time.

We were still having an issue where the car would fall flat at around 4K RPM. Really needed to get it on the dyno so we could watch the fuel pressure and start ruling things out. Fuel pressure looked good, but at 4K the graph breaks up and car nose dives in power. At +/- 3,800RPM it's making 362RWHP, 457RWTQ. That's a 135RWHP more than the heads and cam set up, and a 100RWTQ over it at the same point. Got it back to Tiago's shop, pulled the plugs, all looked great. Tiago readjusted the rockers and I had the fun duty of spinning the motor over with a giant wrench. Buttoned it back up, took it for a spin with fresh plugs. Car pulls clean to 6K, needs tuning up top. Which we plan to do when I get back home from this next go around off shore. Up to where it was messing up, the graph looked great. So comparing the graph to other stroker cars, it's really promising that thing should make great power.

[popo8]

Great tq numbers man!!!!

I forgot... are u comin to the shootout?

[Neil350]

It's not close to peak torque yet, should see that at maybe 4500ish I would imagine. But from that point it looked promising. I would have to see closer to far as attending shoot out, I would like to if I am off.

[Flyinz]

Whats your CR as it sits now?

[dawdaw]

Ms109... big spender :)

E85 is cool. .. mine seems to like 38 * in it with it at 13:1 , I put as much as 42 once on it and it never knocked @ .80 lambda, stuff is super knock resistant. If you start to street drive it a ton, it'll definitely be more easy on the wallet. .

Looking forward to some final numbers.

[Neil350]

It's suppose to be 12.3:1 from what we calculated. Thinking the heads may have been milled more than we thought, kind of hard to check that now though.


Kyle,

How much does your car sit? I think E85 would be worth it at some point but the car sits for weeks on end with out being started.

[dawdaw]

Week's ain't an issue. Months I would drain it. And really if you do much reading on the bullet, the stuffs ethanol content doesn't swing even that much to really require any tuning. It's the moisture you want to watch that hurts things, the 15 % gas keeps everything happy and is not corrosive like everyone's great grandfather says it Is. Mark sullens has been on a regular braided hose for like 14 years no, the whole ptfe line Is bs..This is my fifth year running it.

It's a cake for me, I have an AN fitting front and rear . Pop them off and 99% of the fuel gets drained and put in my dad's Silverado.

Really it completely depends on how much you drive it. .. anything less then a 1000 miles I'd keep it on ms109. It'll require larger injectors and pump (assuming yours aren't big enough) , your stock lines are plenty for a na application, but with that said I'd buy a couple replacement filters as well because if you do put ethanol in it it will clean out your tank and lines to an extent.

I run 63.5 Siemens deka injectors on motor @ 3 bar and they're a greatinjector. You may be able to bump the pressure up depending how large yours are now

[Neil350]

We took it back to the dyno a few months ago, made 438rwhp at 4700rpm and died in the middle of a pull. Still making the same torque numbers. Well, Bad MAP sensor. New MAP on, noticed the hub had walked, ended up being an issue with the interference fit between the ATI hub and crank snout. Ended up getting that fixed, hadn't had much time to mess with it. Did some things like charge the AC up, replaced the speakers in it, installed a BLS HID kit. Car was running pretty good. Decided to go back and finish the motor tune, car got wrecked on the way to the dyno. Took the car apart body wise getting ready to send it to the paint/body shop. Damage doesn't look to bad, front driver frame horn is bent, but nothing past the front frame horn. Core looks good and the car drove home fine with the a/c on, took it on the highway, no issues, alignment isn't off, isn't doing anything weird.

[Fastbird]

Oh no Neil, I'm so sorry to hear that.

On my LG G4

[dawdaw]

Any updates?

[Neil350]

Car went back together and it's been street driven a few times. That's really about it. Seems to be happy. Hopefully it'll be happy on the dyno and not hate on us.

[Neil350]

Went back to the dyno.

Positive Notes

Didn't blow up, nothing broke.
Drove there & back. (No AAA calls)

Issues Solved:

Crank Signal issue is fixed, so reluctor must be happy.
Belt looked good.


Negative Notes

Had issues with the car nosing over at 5500 RPM and just stops making power. Right when the car starts making power the oil pressure drops from 70 to 50psi. At 5500RPM, the car made like 448rwhp/432rwtq SAE.

The two may be inter related, reading on yellowbullet, it may have an issue where we are over filling it. Maybe if it's losing oil pressure the lifters aren't staying pumped up? The other issue is, there was a local tuner and he was saying it maybe blowing out spark from the gap. So will readjust oil level and re-gap the plugs down to .030 and try again. I want to blame the lifter preload, but there set exactly to Morels guideline. Also, when we had preload issues in the past, the graph got pretty etch a sketch.



http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/DSC00146_zpsasypg3pu.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/DSC00146_zpsasypg3pu.jpg.html)

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/DSC00143_zpsgoecvyjg.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/DSC00143_zpsgoecvyjg.jpg.html)

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/neil350/DSC00145_zpsz6bzuv89.jpg (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/neil350/media/DSC00145_zpsz6bzuv89.jpg.html)

[popo8]

Those are awesome numbers for under 5k rpms...

LTXtech.com IS my drug...
OWNER/ADMIN

[Fastbird]

Man, such a nice car Neil.

[firebird_1995]

What are you gapped at now? Depending on how much boost you were running it definitely could have been blowing out spark. I don't think the lower oil pressure would cause the lifters to collapse, especially at 30 psi.

[Neil350]

Thanks, If ever this thing gets lined out, it'll be a cool set up. Trying to get there is a different story .

Chris,

.050, NA tune.

[myltwon]

What's your valvetrain consist of?

[Neil350]

Hyd roller, morel link bar lifters, crower rockers, manley nextek springs with t.i retainers.

I pulled the plugs and gapped them down to .030, verified the gap was consistent with a feeler gauge. Also drained the oil after the dyno, looked really clean. One of things I was reading on bullet is that if you over fill you'll cause frothing at higher rpms. More careful this time and didn't over fill, it was definitely over filled when we dynoed, so worth a try.

[383z]

Good luck with your next dyno. I know you've had more problems getting that done than anything else.

Hopefully I'll get to see that sexy car in person one day too. Let me know when you take it out again. I could use a little motivation. I have more car parts in my living room than most people's garages.

Oh yeah, let's go to the Shootout! Lol

[myltwon]

What are the specs on your valve springs?

[Neil350]

The springs are here (http://www.manleyperformance.com/pdfs/LS-1Parts.pdf) , they're the .650 lift, they were sold to me by A.I when the cam was done by them. They were installed when the heads were redone for this build, machine shop had the cam card at the time.


Good luck with your next dyno. I know you've had more problems getting that done than anything else.

Hopefully I'll get to see that sexy car in person one day too. Let me know when you take it out again. I could use a little motivation. I have more car parts in my living room than most people's garages.

Oh yeah, let's go to the Shootout! Lol


Yeah, I am scared of dynos just due to the bad luck I've had, two times were our fault, once for not setting the preload exactly to Morels procedure. Second time was from not measuring the snout and hub for the interference fit. All lessons learned. Third time was the car getting hit on the way to the dyno. Over all the car runs though and has been for the last two years. The C6 took a bit of attention away from this car, just lining out issues with the tune and clutch. But I ended up selling it here recently with the down turn in work, I would rather pull my cash from it then I would company stock at a larger loss. I'll let you know when I take it back out, you need to get yours back on the road.

[Neil350]

36888 More progress up 30rwhp and it gave us some more rpm. Time to check some other things. I hate this thread because it is all the things I hate about never ending build threads.

[SSlowBoat]

36888 More progress up 30rwhp and it gave us some more rpm. Time to check some other things. I hate this thread because it is all the things I hate about never ending build threads.
It's a lt1, it'll never ever be done lol.

Looks good man. That's a nice power band

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

[383z]

Bro, you are making some awesome power!
Congrats!
And stop with all that negitive stuff. I wish I could make that kind of power and so does a lot of people here.
Thats freaken great power N/A and you might have some more power somewhere? I'm so jelly bro.

[popo8]

I think he suffers from being a perfectionist. Seriously though man... great numbers.

LTXtech.com IS my drug...
OWNER/ADMIN

[Neil350]

It's getting there so I haven't lost hope. The oil pressure issue was a bit worrisome but with that solved I know the motor is healthy.

[Neil350]

Hadn't really touched the car since the last post, a couple months ago we changed the oil, fresh plugs and readjusted the rockers. At some point here in the next few weeks we plan to take it to the dyno. If it doesn't act right, I am giving up on these Morel lifters and swapping to a solid roller lifter, doing a low lash set up similar to what a lot of LS1 guys are doing using a hydraulic cam and a solid lifter.