Wejjmeister
Member
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2021
- Location
- UK
Amazing build!!! Just been through the whole thing and Im blown away. Love the rear suspension setup with the longer coilover and the top mount mod, I may copy these if I may?!?
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Intro and Project Smurf
- Thread starter MCHN8
- Start date
Cheers, and of course! I copied a mix of builds myself.
Greetings People! I figured it's time to catch up.
When I had the motor built I chose some racing lifters that were supposed to hold pressure better "slow leakdown". The result was the loudest valvetrain I've had over 6 LS's. I played with viscosities, additives, nothing worked, but kiddo #1 fell in love with "The Blue Car".
I began to worry there might be more involved in the lifter noise so I took a look and found scoring.
So new rods and rockers and take it for a cruise. Things go well for a few days and then on the drive to work there's a pop and a long rumble. It sounded like a flat tire, weird. Pull off at the next exit, cars still running, turn it off. Try to start it and it locks.
Turns out the shop that CNC'd the heads were too aggressive with their material removal around the intake valve boss's. No Bueno, dropped and shot the valve through the head. Valve #1 dropped and took the scenic route all the way to intake runner #8, because boost I guess.
Interesting how the mile of driving without the intake valve cooked the intake runner.
Luckily my builder stands behind his work. Also luckily, the carnage was fairly contained. So tear it down, hot tank, check everything, new bearings, new Wilkes heads, etc.
Also, before the valve dropped when the motor was all happy it liked to break loose in 4th and then smoke the McCleod RST clutch in 5th. Luckily McCleod offers a rebuild and upgrade service for their street twins, so on goes the RXT rated at 1000 something wrong units.
New motor goes in, hook everything up, starts right up on the old tune and then makes a puddle as soon as it gets to temp.
I'm very tired of pulling the motor at this point. Cross the fingers it's the pan gasket and replace it with RTV (which is usually unnecessary on LS's). Unfortunately it is the RMS, which appears to have been sheared along the outer sealing ligament.
This, uhg.
Surely it must be ready now. As a gift to the car gods, I invested in less chrome and scored some GTX surrounds and the mandatory turbo grill. That did the trick! No leaks, quiet, and it rips without burning up the clutch.
Then on like drive #4 or something it starts puking PS fluid out the rack input shaft seal?
Turns out racks are unobtanium so I went with the rock auto rebuild service. That was a good experience. Quick, and the rack was returned looking brand new with nice supple boots.
In the meantime I patched together a wonky undertray/bash plate for the splitter. I hated the way it was open under the front, and of course that is counter productive to cooling with the compromised pressure differential sans splitter floor. Some old composite panel laying around and good ol' Volvo OEM door trim did the trick. It doesn't parallel the entire width of the splitter but whatever, good enough for now. How many track days/year am I up to with this thing anyway? 0
The car has been solid since the rack incident, almost trustworthy? We're going on ~1000mi of good fun without any issues. It's stupid fast @15psi and everything works. A dyno session, and a real alignment are needed. After that I think stickier rubber but no rush there, it gets ice cream fast enough for the kiddos now.
When I had the motor built I chose some racing lifters that were supposed to hold pressure better "slow leakdown". The result was the loudest valvetrain I've had over 6 LS's. I played with viscosities, additives, nothing worked, but kiddo #1 fell in love with "The Blue Car".
I began to worry there might be more involved in the lifter noise so I took a look and found scoring.
So new rods and rockers and take it for a cruise. Things go well for a few days and then on the drive to work there's a pop and a long rumble. It sounded like a flat tire, weird. Pull off at the next exit, cars still running, turn it off. Try to start it and it locks.
Turns out the shop that CNC'd the heads were too aggressive with their material removal around the intake valve boss's. No Bueno, dropped and shot the valve through the head. Valve #1 dropped and took the scenic route all the way to intake runner #8, because boost I guess.
Interesting how the mile of driving without the intake valve cooked the intake runner.
Luckily my builder stands behind his work. Also luckily, the carnage was fairly contained. So tear it down, hot tank, check everything, new bearings, new Wilkes heads, etc.
Also, before the valve dropped when the motor was all happy it liked to break loose in 4th and then smoke the McCleod RST clutch in 5th. Luckily McCleod offers a rebuild and upgrade service for their street twins, so on goes the RXT rated at 1000 something wrong units.
New motor goes in, hook everything up, starts right up on the old tune and then makes a puddle as soon as it gets to temp.
I'm very tired of pulling the motor at this point. Cross the fingers it's the pan gasket and replace it with RTV (which is usually unnecessary on LS's). Unfortunately it is the RMS, which appears to have been sheared along the outer sealing ligament.
This, uhg.
Surely it must be ready now. As a gift to the car gods, I invested in less chrome and scored some GTX surrounds and the mandatory turbo grill. That did the trick! No leaks, quiet, and it rips without burning up the clutch.
Then on like drive #4 or something it starts puking PS fluid out the rack input shaft seal?
Turns out racks are unobtanium so I went with the rock auto rebuild service. That was a good experience. Quick, and the rack was returned looking brand new with nice supple boots.
In the meantime I patched together a wonky undertray/bash plate for the splitter. I hated the way it was open under the front, and of course that is counter productive to cooling with the compromised pressure differential sans splitter floor. Some old composite panel laying around and good ol' Volvo OEM door trim did the trick. It doesn't parallel the entire width of the splitter but whatever, good enough for now. How many track days/year am I up to with this thing anyway? 0
The car has been solid since the rack incident, almost trustworthy? We're going on ~1000mi of good fun without any issues. It's stupid fast @15psi and everything works. A dyno session, and a real alignment are needed. After that I think stickier rubber but no rush there, it gets ice cream fast enough for the kiddos now.
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2009
- Location
- Monterey/Falun
looks great man! that melted intake reminds me of the triton v8s/v10s they drop valves and melt the intakes just like that! good to see you plugging away at it!
Cheers! That moment when you're wondering if something is really wrong is trippy. Still makes power, check. Still turns right and left, check. Gauges in the green zone, check. Stop and start, FAIL. WTF