A simple issue to pass along for others to not make the same mistake as I did.......I used Fuel line for the transmission cooling lines to the radiator.......after blowing holes in the lines (3 times) and after the last time the car had to be brought home on a Flatbed.....I didn't know really what the Heck was going on.......I called RPM transmissions and after explaining what was going on......he explained that you can't use fuel line for this purpose......It seems the trans fluid attacks and weakens the Rubber used for fuel lines......the trans he built for me has about 300 PSI line pressure when put in reverse and that's why I was having these problems.......It was blowing thru the hose at it weakest point.........So....I already replaced the front section of lines (from the starter forward) with hard lines........and I was going to finish the rest but it seems me and tube benders don't get along.......so after going thru a bunch of hard lines I went and bought some correct trans rubber hose and installed them and everything is now fine........Now maybe I can make it to the alignment shop without the trans line blowing out......LOL.......

On to the last Issue that I had to deal with was setting the pinion angle.....The Ridetech set-up is great .....But.....because of the little extra angle of my engine trans combo when I tried to adjust it using the upper adjustable arms........It just rolled the rear end back into the Coil Overs..........So.....as the lower arms are fixed length and non adjustable.......I talked to the Tech guys at Ridetech (Great Guy's) and what I did was bought threaded Bungs and Rod Ends........So.....we cut off the ends of the lower arms and welded in the new bungs with the adjustable Rod Ends........So.....I figured out the angles and how much shorter the lower arm needed to be and adjusted them and put everything back together.......Bingo........hit it the first time......and when I ordered those parts I also ordered the rear sway bar assy.......so I got everything installed and finished.......Now we just need some dry Salt free roads to get the alignment completed......Get the exhaust system installed.........Get the car to Donnie at Frame-up.......Then off to Stefano at Nickey for the Tune.........















Ken

 

A couple of things........I made it to the alignment shop today.....LOL.....I actually didn't blow up any transmission lines.......I guess when you use the right product for the application .......It works......LOL.....anyhow....The front end is now aligned and set up........I also sent out my stock am radio and had it converted to am/fm stereo /satellite Sirius ready.......got everything in and hooked up with Radio Margaritaville ..............great cruising station...........I also ordered an exhaust kit with all mandrel bends and Dynomax #17749 mufflers.....2 1/2" system.........should be here in a couple of days......Good weekend project......The other thing I'm not too crazy about is the brake system.........It was recommended to go with a 7/8" bore master non power system..........well......I'm not very impressed with the stopping power and may be switching to a Power system in the near future.........anyhow......here are some pic's....Time to call Stefano at Nickey and get the old Beater over there and wake it up......LOL

 

In for the big smokey burn out....she's lookin' good Ken..


T,

 

Happy day.

 

Looking good Ken, getting closer by he day. You can't beat satellite radio, I bought a car a couple of years ago that had it and now I'm hooked, I have it in the garage and my '33 now too, never having to listen to another car commercial is worth the subscription price.

 

Just a suggestion on the brakes. Before you go making changes, put some miles on it and let the pads seat themselves. Right now you're probably at about 50% pad contact as everything has nod bedded itself in. 7/8 is the correct master for a manual system, so it should work pretty decent. That's what I'll be running in the Chevy II. Food for thought.

 

The box of exhaust components showed up today.......Got started today......In the pictures you will see some band clamps.....those are for fitting only........everything will be welded ..........Gonna be a busy weekend and hopefully off to Stefano and Nickey next week......

 

I finished the exhaust system and got another Education on Welding.......I finally got the wire feed and voltage dialed in on the last weld........Typical..........But.....In building the other LS powered cars I always seemed to have issues with the "Rappy" sound out the exhaust pipes and ended up changing mufflers a couple times to get away from it..........I think the length of the tail pipes have something to do with it........But.......On this car I bought Dynomax #17749 super turbo mufflers and brought the tail pipes out behind the rear tires........so ....when I started it I didn't know what to expect.........I wanted the quietist performance Muffler I could find...........so.....When I started it........I was very pleasantly surprised at how you could hear the exhaust.....but yet how quiet it was........Perfect!!!........Going down to Stefano at Nickey next week to get the rough edges blended together in the ECM............When I started the build I had the complete ZL1 harness assy........But......because I decided not to use the 6L90E trans we couldn't use the ZL1 harness ........John at Speartech supplied a ECM set up to work with the engine and the 4L70E trans......but....It needed to dialed in to blend everything together......so......Stefano and Cory are going to put the final piece of the puzzle in place.............Then it's going to Frame-Up to get the A/C system charged......83 days till Power Tour.......

 

Great progress Ken. Can you post a idle video with the new exhaust? I've always liked a quiet exhaust. Can you say..... Sleeper.

 

[QUOTE=kwhizz;18086260]But.....In building the other LS powered cars I always seemed to have issues with the "Rappy" sound out the exhaust pipes and ended up changing mufflers a couple times to get away from it..........I think the length of the tail pipes have something to do with it........But.......QUOTE]

Adding an H, or an X to those systems will usually remove the raspy, crackle from them.

 

I have gotten a couple of requests to hear the "Beater" run with the exhaust system.....so....here is a short video......as you can see until the engine gets tuned it's running Pig Rich!!!..........Driving down the road you can barely hear the exhaust unlike the Flowmaster that I had on the other cars......These are much better and thanks to Samhatco for the Muffler recommendation.....Click on the Picture for Video

 

Sounds awesome Ken!

-Nick

 

I've always liked the Dynomax ST mufflers. They'll be even quieter outside of the garage.

At first when I saw you taking apart such an original car in good shape I was a little skeptical, but now you've done such a good job and it's such a nice hot rod. Not quite the Beater to which you refer it. Awesome work! I look forward to more updates.

 

The car is on it's way to Nickey Chicago where Stefano and Cory are going to give it some good old Muscle car tuning......They are very busy there so it might be a week before I can post a video of the car on the chassis Dyno.........Gonna get interesting from this point on!!!.........








Ken

 

Waiting it's turn on the Chassis Dyno at Nickey Chicago......

 

Can you elaborate on that? Why did it need to be 'dialed in'? I used John for my LS1 in my '56, and am running it as received.

I'll be doing another on my '61 project, but it'll be a while before I get to that component of the project.

 

The ZL1 harness, ECM and fuel module assy that came with the engine and trans assy was not able to be used because I chose not to use the six speed automatic trans......So.....we are treating the finished assy as a LS3 with a blower and the 4L70E trans has it's own module assy........I also have a Vaporworx module to control fuel pressure.....So......Stefano and Cory need to get the modules talking to one another and tune the engine for optimum settings.........Because of the pieced together system.....it needs to be dialed in...........

For a stock LS1 system as you will be putting together........John will have a perfect tune put into your ECM........so.....no further tuning is required......
Hope that explains it!!


Ken

 

Stefano and Cory at Nickey have been very busy and since I'm not really in any hurry to get the car back,.....they didn't get to it until late in the week.........Cory had to install another Bung in the exhaust system for one of the sensors that is needed for the Dyno Computer.......it would have normally gone in one of the rear O-2 sensors Bungs........Then it finally got on the Chassis Dyno but since it was late on Friday.......Cory didn't get a chance to really dial it in yet.........should be a video early next week...........

 

Cory had a nagging issue to deal with in this pieced together system.....When he would start to get into some boost, the Computer would pull Timing out of the engine and kill the Power......Took a while to figure out that it was the Torque Management system that was killing the power........It took a while to figure out how to get in the proper area of the ECM and turn that particular table off..........Got a call from him just before he was leaving for the day and he finally got to make a pull without losing Timing.........Tomorrow seems to be the day everything gets blended together to work as a balanced system.............

 

Great to see progress. I am really behind on getting mine going due to a recent move. Hoping to get a shop put up soon so I can put up some more finished results soon.