chuckd71

iTrader: (23)

This isn't a real update, but I can't keep bookmarks on this computer so I'm putting this link here so I'll have it, it's just the boots for the ebrake which I couldn't find anywhere else. http://www.rmsautoparts.com/proddeta...0FH-Brake-Boot

Also, I think I'm going to let these guys put a t56 in for me once I can find one. Has anybody used them? The guy I spoke to on the phone seemed to know what he was talking about. http://www.bulldawgmusclecars.com/

chuckd71

iTrader: (23)

Can someone tell me if this seems like a dumb idea or not? Since the seat bottoms are flat but the floor is not I was thinking this might be a good way to mate the two. Basically, weld flat plate to the floor (making sure both sides are level of course) then drilling holes through both them and the floor, using original holes where possible, and mounting the seats on top of the plate. I can't think of any problems, I can reuse an original hole or two and can reinforce others as needed. Safety being the primary motivator for the seat swap I'm not looking to half-*** it and end up with a death trap. This is what I have in mind, my laptop has no real software on it so ms paint will do for now:



The red boxes are the bolts, and though it isn't shown they would go through the seat's mounts as well once lowered into place. In real life the seat should not be floating in midair.

douglee25

Looks fine to me.

Doug

rkleypas

I'm a noob on this forum but was wondering if you ever finished up the seat swap? I have a 70 vert and am looking to do the same swap. I don't like how much recline the stock seats have and the BMW seats look like the best option. Nice build btw...

chuckd71

iTrader: (23)

No, not yet, I moved the car out of the garage and to storage while I'm down here in school in ATL. Will pull it back out in June or so for real work but might go dick around on it here in a few weeks.
Once I make the floor brackets drawn above it should be pretty simple to get someone to weld them down, then I'll drill a few holes and bolt the seats on top. My only concern now just sort of off my head is how the tunnel mod for a T-56 might affect the fit. Hopefully a non-issue but I'll have to remember to check that next time I'm home.
For a convertible I think the E46 convertible seats are the way to go for sure. GTO seats look good and tilt but they lack the seat belt,which was my whole reason for doing this. Not too many seats have forward tilt, shoulder belts, simple wiring and belt-triggered locking mechanism. Plus these are sporty rather than huge like truck seats.
Anyway, best of luck to you.

rkleypas

Thanks for the quick response. How did you like the height of the seat as compared to stock? I know alot of people worry about how much it sticks up over the lines of the car.

chuckd71

iTrader: (23)

Just based on the mock up my head height when seated looks to be about the same. The stock seat back is already sort of low and like you said it reclines too far, it basically guarantees you'll get whiplash. The BMW seats will be a bit higher in back but they will also be positioned more vertically.
Someone is always going to worry about something. While they are worrying about my seat being 3/4 of an inch too high I'll be driving around safer and more comfortably (assuming the car ever drives again that is).

bczee

iTrader: (12)

Chuck.. going back a bit.. post #317.. for that cam you had.. 12517552.. did you ever find out what it was from ?.. I picked one up and was told it was a 2006 Z06 cam, which would make it a LS7 CAM ??...? but as you found out, couldn't find much on the net on that number..

BC

douglee25

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-z...-markings.html

bczee

iTrader: (12)

Yeah, I saw that in my searching..

chuckd71

iTrader: (23)

No, I never got a 100% positive ID on it, but what I have seen does seem to indicate it is from an LS7. No idea what they might be worth, I still have mine soaking in oil if you know anybody that needs one.

chuckd71

iTrader: (23)

Summer break is finally here so I got to head back to Nashville and work on some small things. Most of what I got done today was power-window related, looking at the mess of wiring and getting the rear motors mounted in place. Not sure if this placement would work in a coupe or not, but verts have narrower rear seats and a decent amount of room where the top pistons are. Car was basically used as a parts dump over the last year so it's a bit of a mess.

Passenger side.


Driver's



The gear that fits over the crank doesn't stick out too far in back, up in the front doors it a bit more of a bulge. Rather than use one of the covers that comes in the kit I think I'll just mount the switch over it.







Once I get a greenlee I can finish working on the front and start hooking up switches.

chuckd71

iTrader: (23)

Have been in Uganda almost since the last update but now that I've been home long enough to get back on US time I was able to get a bit more done on the windows. Nothing huge, but I finally made sense of the directions and got the rears wired up and switches mounted. My passenger side glass needs to be realigned, but other than that I think this kit should work out okay.

Here is the passenger side door more or less finished. The plan was to mount the switch in the ash tray, but moving it here let me cover up the lump over the crank post.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21527394@N06/9196457490/
Back of the door panel:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21527394@N06/9193667503/
Driver's side:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21527394@N06/9193666963/

A giant hole in the side panel where the previous owner had some 6x9s:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21527394@N06/9196459730/

And a short vid of a rear in action just since someone asked me how well the motors powered a sort of sticking window (can't get it to embed so here's a link, you're not missing much by not clicking it though). Edit- looks like it worked after all. http://www.flickr.com/photos/21527394@N06/9193665287/ Sorry for the Ryan Paris in the background, Pandora seems to play it all the time.

Lousy update, but not much has been going on. Going to roll the car out in a couple days and take the front of the motor apart to see if I can figure out why it's not running, just double checking the cam and timing gear and all that.

chuckd71

iTrader: (23)

Spent a few minutes pulling the accessories off to see what cam gear I had on there. This is the one that I have (C).


http://www.flickr.com/photos/21527394@N06/9320834035/ by


http://www.flickr.com/photos/21527394@N06/9323650874/ by [url=http://www.flickr.com/people/21527394@N06/][/url

For those just joining us I have a 6.2L with a 24x reluctor and am using the ls2 front cover. VVT and AFM are gone. This 1x gear is what I need to be using as far as I know. Some good pics and info here just as a side note - http://www.teamzr1.com/ubbthreads/ub...at&Number=3290

I replaced the cam sensor with a new one just in case, and the crank sensor shows rpms and seems work when I look at it on my computer with the HP EFI stuff. My old harness and etc ran my ls1 just fine but when I swapped motors the 6.2 didn't fire. I switched to hp efi (tired of paying for tunes) and it appears to behave exactly the same as it did before with the old stuff. This makes me think that the problem is somewhere in the new motor, whether it's injectors or whatever. Other than pulling the motor and trying to find a test stand I'm not sure what to do next. Any thoughts? I have a few weeks to work on the car but part of that will be eaten up by a complete rewire.

In the mean time I got the passenger power window switch in place and cut up some flat aluminum to work on a flat base for the seats. Not big progress but it's something.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21527394@N06/9330410348/

chuckd71

iTrader: (23)

Had to run back to Atlanta for a bit, but I used the drive time to think about what I needed to do. I ordered a multimeter and two things I wish I had known about a year - noid lights and spark testers. I also decided for sure to pull the motor and maybe even take the heads off (not a huge deal since I don't have to worry about those crappy TTY bolts anymore).
After committing to that, I thought I might as well buy another one to put in, if for no other reason than to see what happens. Seemed like a good way to make sure the electric stuff works while I tackle the 6.2.
I picked this up on the way back to Nashville and I hope to get it in the chevelle tomorrow. Just the basic 5.3 from a 2003 Tahoe.


I was thinking it would be fairly easy to sell once I'm done with it, but then I started thinking that for what a 6.2 would bring I could just keep the 5.3 and use the extra cash for a t56. Guess we'll see how well the 5.3 moves the car and decide then. A 6 speed would be nice...

The power windows are almost finished but I'm at an impasse until I get the dash wiring in. Speaking of, this suitcase of wires finally arrived:


And a pic of the contents, I wasn't sure what to expect but each subsystem so to speak is bagged by itself and labeled alphabetically in order of which to install first. Looks time consuming but straightforward.



Since it's the classic update kit there is a fair amount of crimping to do. Rather than rent tools that I will inevitable fail to return I ordered this after finding that several people have had good luck with it: ToolAid crimper

As someone mentioned earlier in the thread the motor turns over as though it has low or no compression. I did a compression test on several cylinders and got zeros across the board, which seemed odd. Just for the sake of doing it I put a finger over the spark plug hole while the engine was turning over with the starter and didn't feel any pressure that way either. Shouldn't I feel something?
I hooked up the noid light to several injector plugs and it did not light up. To double check I was doing it right, I tried a few noid lights on a few other cars all of which lit up.
I used a spark tester ( ) and it didn't light up on any wire. To test it I checked two other cars and it would light up just being close to a plug wire. For ***** and grins I also did it the redneck way by grounding a plug while someone turned the key. No spark.
Still seeing an RPM reading in the hp efi software, 125 when cranking. Not sure what normal cranking rpms should be though. Will look into it more.
Unplugged/replugged/regrounded/etc everything. No dice. Rechecked to be sure that the hpefi was connected to a constant 12v under the dash and that the pos and neg connected directly to the battery were good, and they were. Plenty of grounds everywhere.
The IAC constantly twitches so to speak and reads at 50%ish in the efi software. It sounds like it's fluttering and moving a degree or two back and forth. Going to replace it and see what happens (it came with the tb so who knows where it's been).
Again, just for ***** and grins I swapped the stock pushrods from the 5.3 into the 6.2 (the cam kit came with 7.425 rods) to see if maybe the valves weren't closing. No change in compression or finger test results. Ordering a pushrod checker.
At that point I decided to let this info sink in and prep the motor for pulling. All I can say is I really hate those damn trans-to-motor bolts and working on lowered car.

After that I worked on getting the seat in. I cut some strips of aluminum out of a sheet I found and (using some random old suspension parts I found in a pile of odds and ends) used rubber pieces as spacers to make them level with one another. Using a template I made from cardboard I drilled some holes, then using some bolts from fastenal I bolted the seat on top of it all. Under the car where I wasn't able to drill through a brace or reuse an original hole I put a piece of 6x6 or so steel plate as reinforcement. I think it should be sufficient. The pearl and black of the driver's seat is way better looking, but it's hard to argue with the comfort and power everything of the bmw seat. I'll have them recovered over Christmas break I think.





So, it's been a long day and there isn't much to show for it, but I'm accustomed to that by now. Getting the 6.2 out and the 5.3 in enough to see if it runs should be pretty easy and will be the first thing on my agenda tomorrow. Either it'll start or it won't I suppose.

chuckd71

iTrader: (23)

Well, after dealing with a series of craigslist asshats I sold the 5.3 to a couple guys that drove up in a something-swapped S-10 who planned on tearing it apart; pretty much the ideal customers. That was the good part.
The bad part is that while reassembling the front end of my 6.2 I got a bolt stuck in the crank. In the past I had used a longer harder bolt to 'pull' the crank pulley on (something I'd read about being done many times) but this time it didn't work so well, the end result being the bolt getting stuck. Before I started I had hand threaded it first and blew it out the crank with the compressor just to be sure it was clean, but I guess it just got misthreaded somehow. Ultimately, I got it out by spraying PB Blaster on it and letting it sit for a couple days then using a piece of pipe to make my breaker bar even longer and standing on it.



Needless to say I'm not trying the 'longer bolt' method again any time soon so I picked up a kent-moore pulley tool on ebay for $25. I suppose I could have saved $3 and bought the threaded rod version, but the kent one has a flat place on the end of the tool to grab it with a wrench if need be. I guess at this point I'll get a new torque to yield soft oem bolt and hope for the best. I just need it to go back in once (in theory).

Haven't done too much with the AAW stuff yet other than unpack it and lay it out but I can already tell that I should have bought this kit on day two (day one being car purchase day). Everything that the previous owner spliced and diced could have been tossed out and replaced from the get go which would have saved me tons of time playing work around. There are power outputs for everything - seats, gauges, a/c - whatever. I have no stock in aaw or any relationship with anyone that does, but if you buy a car with shitty wiring just go ahead replace it.

douglee25

You probably sure thread chase (not tap) the crank again. It looks like those threads on the bolt were necking down and likely damaged the threads to a certain degree.

Doug

armour

I admire your perseverence. I am in the same spot with my car being a few hours away so I only get to work on the occasional weekend. Keep at it! You might want to buy 2 sets of rear tires because when you get this thing running.......the first set probably won't live long!

chuckd71

iTrader: (23)

The time constraints are pretty disruptive but at this point I'm almost positive the kinks are worked out. Hoping to get home on Thursday and spend a few days getting things together now that I've had time to get the random parts I needed. An upside to doing five different things at once is that when you hit a wall in one project you can move to another, but a downside is when one part of the build prevents another from getting finished. Probably about a wash in the end. But I have high hopes for the next trip home. Once I get the motor in it'll just be a matter of getting the brakes bled, the e brake hooked up and trying to get the alignment dialed in enough to make it to the exhaust shop. Rewiring will wait until after that.

jamier2

I have the same seats on their way to me and I'm trying to make sure I do the wiring correctly. Did you get to that yet, or have any info on wiring them?

Thanks