Another build cycle - making progress

[wikd69]

Ok, progress to date:

I posted this over on Rob's site so I figured I'd post it here too...

***

Time for some maintenance and tweaking...

After having pulled the engine and trans, I broke everything apart and started with the engine. Leaky oil pan, to start with.

Pulled the oil pan and inspected everything - still looks pristine, no extra parts in the pan and end play on the crank is good - thought about pulling some rod or main caps but decided against it - none of the filters showed anything after I peeled them so the bottom end is likely still pretty tight. I know, I should have sprung for that windage tray. Would have required me to stud the bottom end and I'd already had it line bored and clearanced when I got to thinking about a windage tray. Oh well...

Anyway, it's still all nice and pretty :)



Ya gotta love the macro feature on my little Canon digital cam :) And yes, I know, these are damn heavy pistons, but they're *stout*. A tough old set of Arias forged blower bullets that required a ton of mallory to balance with my new 4340 crank.



On to the transmission:

Needed to do a case swap - found a TH400 HD case and adopted it.

I ended up building the bracket you see here - made sense for doing trans work and I'd seen variations of this at different shops. Next I'll need to put a hinge in it to allow me to pull the trans up horizontal for valve body work, etc.



The billet piece you see down inside to the left is the CaseSaver I ordered from Coan Racing. It helps brace the snap rings and helps prevent taking case lugs out under severe loads and stress. Hopefully this will keep this trans in one piece.



Getting ready to re-install the pump, note my clever homemade guide dowels. Sometimes I amaze myself being this clever <gag> lolsign.gif



And heres the trans back in the shop after having been cleaned up and trimmed for the carbon fibre shield. Ready to rock and roll...



Here's my original B&M converter on the left, and the TCI converter I just picked up from Rob, on the right. Note how heavy the mounting lugs are on the TCI unit compared to those on the B&M. Again, sheesh.



This is always such a sad sight. And hopefully where all this iron and aluminum is gonna end up over the next week. I'm ready to start stuffing everything back in as soon as I get done cleaning the chassis and underside up a bit. Yuck, I hate cleaning.



Other stuff:

I need to pull an axle on the right to find out why it's seeping gear oil from around the bearing/housing end. Right now I'm wondering if that Red Loctite was such a good idea on the brake hangers and caliper mount.

I need to weld in some O2 bungs in my collectors - don't need them yet but it's a good opportunity to get them installed...

I need to install my new QA1 coil overs in the front. Hopefully this will cure the suspension issues I was having.

Stay tuned :)

[ERV JR]

i would cut the ears off the side of the bellhoushing, makes getting the trans between headers rasier and better to get your hand in if your stater is ever a problem.
Also easy to mount the trans to do VB work is on an engine stand

[wikd69]

i would cut the ears off the side of the bellhoushing, makes getting the trans between headers rasier and better to get your hand in if your stater is ever a problem.
Also easy to mount the trans to do VB work is on an engine stand

Thanks for the suggestion :)

I had thought about that - one of the earlier 400's I got from TCI had the ears cut off and it did make the trans a lot slimmer. I may get around to that before I hang this stuff back together.

[gmracing355]

Looking good there. I would also cut the ears off the trans. I had it done on my trans after breaking it and goes back in really nice.
Greg

[wikd69]

Almost there...

Complete drive train is in except for the drive shaft and I have yet to finish cleaning the underside backhalf area...

See below - new QA1 R-variants are in, they look sweet. Will have to go back and replace the banjo seals on the front caliper lines - tried to reuse the old ones and the line has a seeping leak -

oh well...

Fired the motor tonite with open tubes and scared all the neighbor kids *and* thier dogs < BUWAHAHA !!! >

I'm going to have to re-tune with this new blower drive - I'm now at 1-to-1 on the blower and it should make more boost, sooner. Not sure what that's gonna mean to my jetting and/or vacuum near idle. I've been running 3.5" power valves in the primaries, I'll have to see what the new scheme does. Shooters, jets, etc., all that will have to be re-tweaked.

Another few days of tinkering and cleaning and I'll be back on the street with the new hardware. Yippie !!!!!!!!!!

[vegaracer]

Dang! Chrome conrol arms

[wikd69]

cool, huh ?

Not my doing - they were then when I bought the Camaro originally. Just something else to polish.

[BracketNova]

wikd69...

Do you have kewl neighbors like me? In my old neighborhood, whenever I came home on my bike, the cops showed up. I even putzd in in second gear. Now, my neighbors think my car is neat. I always get a little scared tho, it's common to drive the car from the garage to the trailer and about the time it's strapped down some one says behind me "hey, was that your car that was running a while ago...i heard it two blocks away" i always say to myself...here we go. but so far everyone says it's cool. One guy even said it made his hair on his arm standup


Do you like those front shocks?


Greg

[wikd69]

wikd69...

Do you have kewl neighbors like me? In my old neighborhood, whenever I came home on my bike, the cops showed up. I even putzd in in second gear. Now, my neighbors think my car is neat. I always get a little scared tho, it's common to drive the car from the garage to the trailer and about the time it's strapped down some one says behind me "hey, was that your car that was running a while ago...i heard it two blocks away" i always say to myself...here we go. but so far everyone says it's cool. One guy even said it made his hair on his arm standup

Do you like those front shocks?

Greg

Yeah, I like the shocks, but now I need to 4-corner scale the ride to get the best performance out of them. Not gonna be a biggie until I hit the track next. For now I just have them balanced out using the old Mark-1 eyeball gauge.

And this is about the wildest I dare get in my neighborhood with open tubes - idling in and out of the trailer, going to and from the track. Otherwise, my neighbors love the car and like the sound. It's pretty mellow with the headers capped. Of course they've never heard it when I'm into the secondaries with this blower build. Having the tubes capped at that point doesn't make a lot of diff...

[BracketNova]

I back mine in....no biggie

Sounds sweet!