LS1/T56 LX 4 Door

Few more touch ups completed. Steering wheel fit and indicator switch refurb, seats, door trim assemblies, seats, seat belts, painted side mirrors, wipers, rear brake lines across the diff

Rear caliper mounting brackets, exhaust system, gauge cluster left to go. 

Edited by BENN0, 15 February 2021 - 09:28 AM.

It's been a while since an update.....

Rear caliper brackets machined and installed

Exhaust system complete

Clutch dramas:

No matter what I did in relation to bleeding, the clutch would simply not disengage. The pedal did not feel right (no feeling of a pickup point) even though it was travelling smoothly all the way until the floor (The clutch stop on this pedal is the floor, which isnt the greatest setup)

It felt like the pedal needed more travel (master cylinder travel) to get everything to work. Feedback from the pedal manufacturer was an installation issue or failed component elsewhere in the system.... After double/triple checking the install, removing the gearbox to measure the slave cylinder baseline position (Did it require shimming to allow the correct travel? It didnt) I bought the bullet and bought another new clutch, slave and flywheel

The engine came out again, swapped everything over, measured clearances etc and re-installed. After bleeding i was back in the same position as where I started. No clutch disengagement.

The pedal was then removed and I cut and re-welded the pedal to increase the master cylinder travel (I had 12-15mm of cylinder travel initially, now I have approx 23mm) This fixed the issue. The clutch disengages and the pickup point is manageable. The 2 hours to remove and mod the pedal vs the $2.5k in parts and multuiple weekends of engine/gearbox in and out shows I should have acted on what I first found/saw. 

Now I have a clutch, the car can drive. Now the fun of minor shakedown fixups can begin.

Exhaust leaks played havoc with the O2 sensors (it ran mega rich). The extractors have a slip on merge collector which needed sealing.

• The rear springs are way too stiff (Softer springs ordered)
• The exhaust rubs the tail shaft at full droop
• There is a potential injector issue to root cause (Starts and idles ok, but after a rev the engine speed drops and almost stalls)
• Gauge cluster install (3 x months of waiting for it so far)
• It needs a wheel alignment
• ECU mount bracket change (First one is a bit flimsy)
• Re-bleed brakes and set proportioning valve (pedal is a bit soft considering the hardware/setup)
• Need to re-make the starter to alternator power cable (bit close to one of the primaries)

I should have it all done and dusted just in time for winter! 

Sounds like you're smashing through the jobs. I saw what was I guess your post about the aftermarket pedal issues. Bugger! Not a nice thing to bear.

Its been a while since the last update. 

The dash cluster has been rebuilt and updated to suit the LS (Tacho, re-built speedo and updated instrument gauges to give a little more info)
The dude cuts up autometer gauges and installs them into the dash unit with a custom front face so it replicates the factory style but with some updates)
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Wheel cetre caps finalised and installed


Seats: I made the call to buy some Recaros and have them trimmed to replicate the Torana trim style. The centre golf ball material is Torana, the rest is black leather.



Gearbox Cross Member
Changed cross members and cut/shut to make it fit a little nicer and give some exhaust clearance. Went for a Dellow cross member which gave a little more clearance. 

Exhaust Leaks
Slip on merge collectors on the headers were giving the 02 sensors dramas and causing the car to add bulk fuel and run pig rich. After a few on/off and seal jobs, its under control.

Engine Tune
Bought a HP Tuners dongle and started playing with the tune side of things (more for fun than neccesity) Nice to be able to set fan speeds individually and adjust idle speeds though.

The plan is for the short drives to starts this weekend. Wheel alignment the following weekend and then its off for a proper sand/polish and touch up (paint job is still as it was off the gun) and interior re-fit (im not happy with the off the shelf carpet fitting around the modified tunnel)

 

Edited by BENN0, 06 July 2021 - 06:25 PM.

Love those wheels.

What did you use to seal up the exhaust Leaks?

Regards Mando

CRC Maniseal for the slip on collector. 

Tried Permatex Ultra Copper, but the Maniseal expands when hot which seemed to help. They can still be removed withouht too much drama.

Killing it. Very classy build here.

Keep up the great work.

Took it for the first very short drives on the weekend. Now the fixing of niggles.....

Rear coil clash: The rear springs were occasionally touching on the coil over mount on the diff. Fix was to cut down the mount (I dont use the top 4 x holes of the mount). This fixed it. The rear end still feels a little stiff in compression compared to the front. Bit more tuning needed here. I ran bit of pre-load on the rear springs to give it a little more ride height which didnt help.

May need to move to a softer spring again. Bump stop height (in the rear coil overs) needs sorting also

Exhaust clearance to the body and tailshaft is now all ok. 

Still needs a wheel alignment

Brakes worked pretty well. The punt I took on the proportioning valve setup seemed to work ok. 

One of the collectors has a slight leak to it still. Its not effecting the 02 sensor, but I can hear it ticking so need to remove and re-seal again....

Clutch / shifting function is all ok. 

Power delivery is good. Not major tune issues. No big RPM pulls, but a couple of low RPM full throttle runs to 3.5k seemd to be fine. 

Diff is a little noisey (Tru-track). Hopefully quitenes down as the kms increase.

Clutch has a thrust bearing noise (slight whirring when the clutch pedal is not depressed. Goes away with the clutch in). Annoying considering its all new gear

Handbrake cable rattles on the exhaust (At the adjustment bracket)

Not a bad short couple of runs. Nothing fell off, nothing broke, made it back home. 

Any test drive that you return from under your own power is a victory at this stage.

Congrats!

The weekends have been dedicated to fixing niggles on this thing……

On a positive, my seats arrived


They feel a little more modern and saved a little bit of weight also!

Squaring up the diff and setting the pinion angle took a good full weekend. Now I’m chasing a fuel issue.
It’s like it runs out of fuel after 10 mins of driving. The logs shows it goes mega lean at the same time. Updated tank breathers and even running without a full cap didn’t solve it. Struggles to run, noses over etc. Turn it off, fire it back up and it’s all good for another few minutes.
I’m running an in tank aeromotive phantom setup with the corvette filter/reg. Next step is the tank is coming out to see if I can’t find anything funky going on.

Its like the fuel cannot enter the rubber/foam baffle quick enough.[/QUOTE]

Fuel filter?

The issue ended up being the MAF scaling. Its a stock tune etc, but a new MAF (aftermarket). At a certain frequency, the air flow the MAF says the engine is getting didnt agree with what it was getting. So the fueling went completey out the window. I found it by running the car in speed density mode (I have a HP Tuners unit) and it fixed it right up. 

This was after I spend some more bucks and replaced the corvette filter/reg setup with a stand alone adjustable regulator, filter and ran another return line.....

Some more test driving and knock/clunk finding fixing has also been occuring. Its getting closer to being almost right! 

The front roll bar is a problem also. Whiteline front mount bar. The wheels foul the bar when close to full lock.......

New adjustable rear lower control arms are on their way so I can square up the rear end a little easier (United Speed Shop)

I also added some billet bonnet hinges (Bliss). These work quite well. They fit the with blower fan unit inplace which is good. 

Lastly, bits and peices to swap the heads and the cam are on their way also. 

Can you push the front wheels out a bit? Looks like there may still be a bit of space you could use on the outside and fix your swaybar issue.

Unfortunately I cant move the wheels outboard. Fouling on the guards on lock. They just clear now. 

I don't have big collectors, and I just used a standard type rear-mount Whiteline bar.

Those front-mount ones are fine if you fix the mounting hardware... but that's most of the kit! Hahaha.

I agree on the shiteness of the whiteline front bar. It doesnt go together well, is extremelly heavy and wont work with any real steering angle......

Ive looked at the KMac bars, but  the inconsistency on what they are actually making these days is hard to deal with. Plus it would be nice to still be able to run the splash guards and my still give me steering angle grief. 

On a postive note, I received the adjustable rear lower arms from United Speed Shop today. They look very very nice. Very well made. 

These guys have a front mount front sway bar, I am not sure on the clearance to the tyres but when I was there the guy I spoke to was very helpful. It has brackets to connect to the lower control arms and I think the arms mount on the bolts for the bumper bracket. 

I took a rear mount front sway bar and he bent it for me so I could front mount it on a home made bracket

https://www.driveind...y-sway-bar-27mm

Those bars look decent. I'll contact them to see if I can get dimensions.

Quality work Benno, looks amazing. Tops work on the front seats, too, they really suit the rest of the car's mindset. :-) 

Few more updates:

I put a wideband sensor in the exhaust so I can do some more in depth tuning with HP Tuners (Its great!) I also threw a new cam/springs in it to make it sound less like a sewing machine(232/234,0.595"ish lift) Sounds much better when idling. The double valve springs area bit loud but fine to live with. 

Most of the time has been spent playing with the tune and chasing small niggles (pinion angle, exhaust rattles, ride height adjustment, speedo convertor calibrate)

I need to update the gearbox cross member to give the exhaust some more room and so it doesnt have to hang down so low. 

Roll bars: Ive been chasing the Drive Industries guys for more info on their front roll bars. The pics of an install and the pics of the bars online show two different designs......

Rear Roll Bar: I bought a Kmac rear bar but need the exhaust modified to make it fit.

Last couple of things: It then needs a wheel alignment and the paint sanded/polished. 

No doubt in two months there will be small niggles still being chased!

Keep us posted on the front swaybar.

Don't forget the wheel alignment.