~JOSHUA

iTrader: (92)

The Zo6 is getting upgraded like the Firehawk was.

Crappy i-Phone pics in a dark garage.. but better than nothing!

I started with a lump of metal with 68k miles of carbon to remove. Mild cleanup/smoothing in the exhaust ports and smooth the combustion chambers.



It's still only rough polished. Final polishing will happen next weekend.


Grab your shades!




It's going to go on this... (timing cover, cam, and billit pulley not done yet, plus everything else.) Lots more work to do..



Here's a thread that shows the materials and steps used to sand & polish metal.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-g...-and-beer.html

scramblerman

iTrader: (16)

Wow, great Job! Looks awesome. Can't wait to see the pic's when it is all back together.

02SCVette

iTrader: (3)

Wow, amazing results! Have you been keeping track of how many hours your putting into each piece? Damn impressive for sure.

~JOSHUA

iTrader: (92)

Thanks for the compliments!

On the subject of time spent...

Each valve cover is 10+ hours
The fuel rail is 2.5 hours
The valley cover is 3 hours
Throttle body is 15 hours (lots of sharp angles & detail sanding by hand)
Each head is about 40 hours including the minor port/chamber work
Thermostat is 2 hours
Oil catch can was 3 hours, still need to do the bracket
Front of the block was 4 hours, plus masking of the deck
Belt tensioner is about 4 hours
Coolant crossover is 45 mins
The Lingenfelter intake was rough (not polished) It took about 40 hours when I did it a few years ago. It's the only part I still own from my old Firehawk.



The power steering pump is sanded, ready to buff
I need to take the alternator to a shop to seperate the halves..
The alt bracket is rough ground and the sanding has started
Still have the water pump, timing cover, motor mounts, master cylinder, rear suspension cradle and A-arms, and Ti exhaust. Oh yeah, polish whatever headers I get.

hobbesnmina2001

iTrader: (1)

That looks absolutely super!
Congratulations on a great job!

oneblackTA2000

iTrader: (5)

You should make this a write up and then maybe the mods will make it a sticky for anyone crazy enough to follow in your footsteps. Me, personally, if I did all that work, I would probably never even drive my car, let alone start it. It looks unreal man.

Pauls416Z

Joshua,
Have you considered using ZOOP Seal to protect the aluminum? I've seen it used on some 60s vette engines and it looks good and the owners swear by it. Thinking about using it on an alternator case I'm polishing...

allngn_c5

iTrader: (3)

Great work Joshua !!

One question about that intake, after the engine is hot do experience any loss of power from the dreaded "HEAT SOAK" that so many FI cars experience. I do realize you are N/A but stands to reason if your IAT's are higher partially because of your intake then you may be down a few ponies after tearing it up on the highway. Not knocking anything, you have done some amazing work just curious about the rumors I've heard about your choice of intake.

~JOSHUA

iTrader: (92)

I've never used it... I've read about it, and it can be a tricky set-up to get right. If you fail on the application you have to burn off the cloudy results by polishing again.

The last polished engine I had lasted 3 years with only 2 very minor sessions to keep it looking new. The secret is to NEVER drive it in rain, then you don't have crud baking on.


Mike from Vengeance tuned my last car (with the same intake) right when they were opening their own shop. The power was 421 rwhp with just a lid, headers, 236/236 cam, and underdrive pulley, ported tb.

They say you lose 10hp on a 500hp engine due to heat soak. That doesn't bother me at this point.

allngn_c5

iTrader: (3)

Cool that aint ****.

SilveradoSS500

I bet you have a polished condem. WAIT, if your as cool as me, you don't use condems...

spdygon

iTrader: (1)

great job
i did the same with my motorcycle engine and won lots shows with it.

~JOSHUA

iTrader: (92)

I was cool for a while and then became a father by accident. My son is 10 months old.