'70 Nova LY6/TH400 6.0VVT
05-27-2012, 07:45 PM
#422
Staging Lane
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Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Killeen, Texas
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First of all congrats and on surviving cancer, Glory to God. You have provided data on many aspects of your build, that we could all use on our cars. Thanks for your contribution.
05-31-2012, 11:50 PM
#425
Those parts look like new! I'm glad you like the pedal. It's almost as though the engineers designing it were thinking about this swap. I drilled a hole in the firewall used a bolt and nut with washers and it worked out well in that position. I'm sure that you will come up with a better solution. Also, the position has proved (to me) to be safe and intuitive after a year and 3500 miles of aggressive driving.
06-25-2012, 11:00 AM
#426
Update & Bad News
From the Simple Green website:
aluminum is a soft metal that easily corrodes with unprotected exposure to water. The aqueous-base and alkalinity of Simple Green All-Purpose Cleaner can accelerate the corrosion process. Therefore, contact times for unprotected or unpainted aluminum surfaces should be kept as brief as the job will allow - never for more than 10 minutes. Large cleaning jobs should be conducted in smaller-area stages to achieve lower contact time. Rinsing after cleaning should always be extremely thorough - paying special attention to flush out cracks and crevices to remove all Simple Green® product residues. Unfinished, uncoated or unpainted aluminum cleaned with Simple Green products should receive some sort of protectant after cleaning to prevent oxidation.
Thankfully engines, car projects and money are not the most important things in life. As you can see from the long delay in updates, I have kept busy with other projects. Work had me traveling the globe over the last few weeks and my focus at home as been a new patio. Nothing better for recovering from bad car news than barbecuing in good So Cal weather!
Now to research replacement parts again and consider alternative options like buying a ready-built short block or another junkyard engine. 408 is on the option list as is an L99 or 58x LS2. The tricky part is the funding, but I have ideas for covering that.
Last edited by -TheBandit-; 06-25-2012 at 11:30 AM.
06-25-2012, 03:10 PM
#430
It's my own fault for not reading the instructions! I'd heard of lots of people using Simple Green to clean engine parts so I just opened it up and let them soak. The results were looking good, but well, stuff happens. I haven't had very good luck with this swap, but I wont let this get me down for long.
)
07-12-2012, 11:23 PM
#433
Let me introduce you to my daily driver, a 2007 Chevy Cobalt LTZ.This econobox is pure luxury. Leather. Heated seats. Around 30mpg average on the way to work. And guess what? This little baby is packin' LSx power! That's right, the word's first Cobalt with a transverse mount mid engine V8.
See? There it is!
For all of you wondering if an LSx block will fit in the trunk of a Cobalt, well folks, there it is!The bare block was heavy, but moveable with a buddy's help. We turned it upside down on the stand and picked it up by the end cylinders. I put a piece of plywood in the trunk to support it and pushed it against the rear seats to keep it from shifting under hard braking. Next stop is QMP Racing in Chatsworth for cleaning and inspection. From there I'll figure out what machine work is needed and decide what internals to stuff it with. I'm also dropping off the crank to be polished and the bare heads for cleaning.
Been doing my rain dance so hopefully some money will start falling from the sky soon!
See? There it is!
For all of you wondering if an LSx block will fit in the trunk of a Cobalt, well folks, there it is!The bare block was heavy, but moveable with a buddy's help. We turned it upside down on the stand and picked it up by the end cylinders. I put a piece of plywood in the trunk to support it and pushed it against the rear seats to keep it from shifting under hard braking. Next stop is QMP Racing in Chatsworth for cleaning and inspection. From there I'll figure out what machine work is needed and decide what internals to stuff it with. I'm also dropping off the crank to be polished and the bare heads for cleaning.
Been doing my rain dance so hopefully some money will start falling from the sky soon!
07-13-2012, 09:03 AM
#434
I think you should find some stock take out pistons cheap and put the money you save into a 6-speed swap. It will be harder to enjoy all of your new technology with the old slush box. But then again, a forged 408 on squeeze through a turbo 400 will make one hell of a dragster.
07-13-2012, 10:59 AM
#436
I think you should find some stock take out pistons cheap and put the money you save into a 6-speed swap. It will be harder to enjoy all of your new technology with the old slush box. But then again, a forged 408 on squeeze through a turbo 400 will make one hell of a dragster.
07-13-2012, 02:07 PM
#437
Yes I want the six speed, but I did and can still have plenty of fun through the TH400 while I save and plan for that swap. I'm not going to use takeout pistons - new pistons & rods are going in. Most likely Wiseco flattops & Callies Compstar rods. Definitely overkill, but I will feel more comfortable with that. I don't plan on building another engine for the Nova for a long long time (fingers crossed).
Block & crank are with QMP as of today. I took a quick tour through the shop - pretty nice place. They are definitely busy right now, but should have it cleaned and inspected next week.
Block & crank are with QMP as of today. I took a quick tour through the shop - pretty nice place. They are definitely busy right now, but should have it cleaned and inspected next week.
07-13-2012, 02:46 PM
#438
07-24-2012, 12:40 PM
#439
Update
I talked to the machine shop. They finished cleaning the block and checked the crank. The crank is straight and in spec - a light polish is all it needs. On the block, the deck heights are mismatched at 9.2375 and 9.2395 (0.002in difference). They are flat (no problems front to rear). Their opinion was that I could get away with the difference, but recommended I deck it to match the two sides. Assuming a 0.051 gasket, 6.125 rod, 1.304 compression height and 3.622 stroke, the current dimensions give 0.0485 and 0.0505 quench, so I should be able to safely shave the deck some and improve quench while matching the two sides. But by my calculations the difference in height is only about 0.05:1 difference in compression ratio; I'm not sure if this is necessary - what do you think?
They are also recommending line honing the mains, but didn't have any measurements to say why - just that in their experience they tend not to be straight on these blocks from the factory. I asked if they could measure, but they said by the time they set it up and measure they may as well hone it. I am not too keen on machining for the sake of machining. Any thoughts on this? In my reading I haven't heard of this being a problem.
As for the bores, they recommend going 0.030 to ensure they clean up. They said they will likely clean at 0.005 but there's no guarantee. Since I need to order pistons first, I prefer to get 0.030 over so I don't have to hassle with returning pistons if it wont clean at 0.005.
I found a few good sales on forged pistons and rods, so my plan is Wiseco 2618 flattops and Callies Compstar rods w/ ARP2000 bolts. This will bump the compression ratio to about 10.25:1. In my research I came across two challenges with flat top pistons for this engine. First, there are only a few piston manufacturers that have L92 head specific valve reliefs. Second, none are available for the factory rod pin size (0.945) in this bore size (4-4.030) - most of the aftermarket pistons have 0.927 pins to match 99% of the aftermarket rods. This meant I couldn't really combine a forged piston with my factory rods. The nearest thing is a 4.065 forged piston from Mahle, but I don't want to bore that much. There are true flat-top pistons without valve reliefs that would work (LS2 pistons come to mind since they have the same 4" bore), but with my high lift VVT cam I don't want to run any risk of valve-piston clearance issues.
So that's pretty much where I stand. Any thoughts?
I talked to the machine shop. They finished cleaning the block and checked the crank. The crank is straight and in spec - a light polish is all it needs. On the block, the deck heights are mismatched at 9.2375 and 9.2395 (0.002in difference). They are flat (no problems front to rear). Their opinion was that I could get away with the difference, but recommended I deck it to match the two sides. Assuming a 0.051 gasket, 6.125 rod, 1.304 compression height and 3.622 stroke, the current dimensions give 0.0485 and 0.0505 quench, so I should be able to safely shave the deck some and improve quench while matching the two sides. But by my calculations the difference in height is only about 0.05:1 difference in compression ratio; I'm not sure if this is necessary - what do you think?
They are also recommending line honing the mains, but didn't have any measurements to say why - just that in their experience they tend not to be straight on these blocks from the factory. I asked if they could measure, but they said by the time they set it up and measure they may as well hone it. I am not too keen on machining for the sake of machining. Any thoughts on this? In my reading I haven't heard of this being a problem.
As for the bores, they recommend going 0.030 to ensure they clean up. They said they will likely clean at 0.005 but there's no guarantee. Since I need to order pistons first, I prefer to get 0.030 over so I don't have to hassle with returning pistons if it wont clean at 0.005.
I found a few good sales on forged pistons and rods, so my plan is Wiseco 2618 flattops and Callies Compstar rods w/ ARP2000 bolts. This will bump the compression ratio to about 10.25:1. In my research I came across two challenges with flat top pistons for this engine. First, there are only a few piston manufacturers that have L92 head specific valve reliefs. Second, none are available for the factory rod pin size (0.945) in this bore size (4-4.030) - most of the aftermarket pistons have 0.927 pins to match 99% of the aftermarket rods. This meant I couldn't really combine a forged piston with my factory rods. The nearest thing is a 4.065 forged piston from Mahle, but I don't want to bore that much. There are true flat-top pistons without valve reliefs that would work (LS2 pistons come to mind since they have the same 4" bore), but with my high lift VVT cam I don't want to run any risk of valve-piston clearance issues.
So that's pretty much where I stand. Any thoughts?
07-24-2012, 01:04 PM
#440
For no more money than it is going to cost, I would let the machine shop do as they wish. This will give you the reassurance that everything is square front-back and side to side.
I have the Manley 2618 flat tops and have plenty of clearance using a .631"/.657" lift on a 115LSA block was decked, and line-honed.
I have the Manley 2618 flat tops and have plenty of clearance using a .631"/.657" lift on a 115LSA block was decked, and line-honed.