kwhizz

We are doing the Goodguy's Road tour......starting in Denver and ending up in Bowling Green for LS Fest !!!!!.......See you there !!!

Project GatTagO

iTrader: (7)

I think you are going to miss LS Fest! It is the weekend before you arrive in BGKY.

Andrew

kwhizz

Yep !!!........You are right.........Darn !!!

Project GatTagO

iTrader: (7)

It's too bad because the LS Fest is a really good time!!!

Andrew

Project GatTagO

iTrader: (7)

The new transmission will be going in tomorrow, but in the meantime, hare are a few beauty shots I took by the lake...







Andrew

Aston Tibs

iTrader: (3)

I have to say I friggin love that induction system. You must get people breaking there necks when you go by.

Project GatTagO

iTrader: (7)

It definitely draws a lot of attention!

Got the new transmission installed today, and it rips. No more worrying about missed shifts or hurting the synchro gears. The transmission has quite a bit of whine in gears 1-3, but 4th is dead quiet. Fifth and 6th are a little louder than I expected, but on the highway it is barely noticeable.

I need to learn how to drive one of these again. There is a little bit of cluncking on the upshifts, and when downshifting it is important to rev match. I generally don't downshift a lot around town anyway, so this is not a huge deal. Full power shifts are lightning fast and brutal. I need to hit the track to see what shifting method will be faster. When I had a similar transmission in my LS powered RX7, I generally stayed on the gas and barely hit the clutch, just enough to make it slip, and grabbed next gear. This trans might be easier to shift just by lifting off the throttle a little, making the shift, and back on the throttle, without using the clutch. Some experimenting will need to happen.

Now I am thinking that I need a load cell so that I can implement a proper "flat shift" arrangement, but surprisingly the Holley software does not have this feature available yet on it's ECUs. Sigh...

Also, while the car was on the jack stands, I fired it up to make sure everything was ok, and as I watched the rear wheels spin I noticed the driver's side had a substantial "figure 8" wobble. It looks like the axle got bent, but I have no idea how. These are massive 31 spline axles and I am really not making that much HP. It was too late to pull the wheel and check runout, but I will do that over the weekend. I need to have this thing dialed in for LS Fest...

Andrew

superdave84

Well those hub correction plates worked for me...if you do have runout and don't want to bother with new axles. You'll have to search through the different car models to find a modern car with the correct bolt pattern though. Not sure what the common Ford/Mercury one is, but mine was 5x4.75, and I was able to use a correction plate for a 2008 Cadillac SLR.

Something tells me you'll replace the axles instead though haha

gofastwclass

iTrader: (2)

Nah, I see him sitting cross legged with a hand grinder "machining" the flange by eye. Hahahaha!!!

Project GatTagO

iTrader: (7)

What in my build would lead you to believe I would do such a hack job? LOL

Yesterday I got my dial indicator out and measured the runout at the flange. On the driver's side (the side that looked bad) I got .030" runout. I then installed the wheel and measured runout at the edge of the rim, and it was .095", which seemed like a lot. I did the passenger side and I got .011" at the flange and .030" at the rim. The measurements make sense since both sides exhibited about a 3 time multiplier from flange to wheel measurement. I am sure the wheels are not perfect, but this is good enough for me to determine that the driver's side axle is out of whack.

I've also done a little reading and most axle manufacturers try to stay to .005" runout at the flange, which in my case would translate to about .015" at the wheel. The plan is to give Strange Engineering a call on Monday and see how quickly I can get a set of axles. I'd rather not deal with pressing the bearings on, etc...so hopefully they have some axles ready to "bolt in."

Andrew

Project GatTagO

iTrader: (7)

Pulled the axles today, took all the measurements that I needed, and placed an order with Strange. Given that I have a pretty common rear axle, Strange should hopefully get these sent to me in a few days. I ordered the axles with the bearings and retaining plates installed, so I can just stab them in and go. I'll also make sure to measure the runout after installing the new axles. I expect these to have less than .005" runout.

Andrew

Project GatTagO

iTrader: (7)

Today I was impressed with the service that was delivered by Strange Engineering. On Monday I called Strange and talked with a very nice sales rep named Will. He guided me to their axle order form that they had online and told me to take some measurements off my stock axles. I pulled the axles and took the measurements and called him back. He informed me that my axles were relatively common and that they would ship in 5-6 days, which I was happy about.

Today I gave them a call to see where they were in the order process and I was informed that that my axles were on the UPS truck, out for delivery. I was thrilled. This is an excellent lesson for parts manufacturers: under promise (but still be reasonable) and over deliver. This is the classic marketing definition of customer satisfaction (defined as the difference between expectations and actual experience).

I ordered the axles with the bearings and the retainer plate pre-installed. The bearing come with a groove cut inside them and an o-ring to act as a seal. Very nice design:



They fit perfectly and took about 30 minutes to install. Once they were in, I measured the runout and I got .0025" on both sides, which is well under the acceptable .005" limit.

Well done Strange Engineering!

Andrew

gofastwclass

iTrader: (2)

Now that's customer service!

Did the car vibrate at speed or did you just notice the wobble?

There is something incredibly reassuring about new axles in an old car, no matter the power level.

LQ4-E39

iTrader: (7)

Nice! now all you have to do is get to breaking those axles.

Project GatTagO

iTrader: (7)

I didn't have any noticeable vibration that I could feel in my seat. I only noticed the wobble in the wheel after running it a little on jack stands after doing the transmission swap.

Andrew

Project GatTagO

iTrader: (7)

I made a video to show what it is like driving this dog-ring T-56. This trans has the G-Force gear set which tends to make more noise than a stock gear set do to the fact that the gears are cut with a smaller angle.


Andrew

Project GatTagO

iTrader: (7)

Just rolled back home from a weekend from LS Fest. The car made a drama free trip there and back, and was beat on like a red headed step child while there. The drive there is right at 600 miles and I also picked up a friend in the Chicago area.

Here is the data:

Weight empty with almost a full tank of gas: 3215
Weight with driver: 3480
Chassis dyno: 325 RWHP while still pulling well at 6500RPM
Average MPG: 20 on the highway

Here is the video on the chassis dyno:



Tire: 255/60-15 MT drag radial
Tire pressure: 18psi before burn out
Shock settings on VariShocks: Front 0R 12C Rear 10R 5C (never changed it)

Best 60' and 1/4 mile: 1.731....12.621@107.25mph

I think there is probably a 1.6x to be had with practice and definitely if I wanted to switch to a bias slick.

Since I had an all access pass, on Friday morning my friend Brian and I also headed to the road course for what they called Track Cross. Basically it is road racing on the gorgeous new course, but to slow people down a little, there were gates set up at the apex of each corner that you had to pass through, otherwise the run did not count. I didn't have any illusions about winning, or even being competitive, but it looked like fun. We rolled in and the tech guys are looking over the car. They were looking for the treadware rating on the MT front runners, and there wasn't any. Then they go to the rear and of course the MT drag radials have a zero rating. They told me I wouldn't qualify for the Grand Champion...Darn! Later on Saturday Kyle Tucker was checking out my car and he suggested that the next time I tell the tech guys to just take the average of the front (they are probably 500!) and rear and call it good. I have to remember that one. I got one lap in, took a year off the life of the front runners, called it done, and headed back to Beech Bend. Spent the rest of the day drag racing and trying to go quicker.

Saturday morning we ran the car on the chassis dyno and then hung out until 11:30am when the cruise for the True Street class was supposed to take place. Did the cruise and got into the staging lanes. My buddy TJ is pretty good with setting up his drag car to be consistent, so he suggested pulling out some timing in order to slow me down closer to 13.00. So he pulled 4 degree before the cruise. I go to make my first pass and I run a 12.690@107.13. Apparently, this engine combination could care less where the timing is set. I can probably run 85 octane fuel...LOL I made my second pass and I felt like I had a good launch, so I just let her eat. Ran a 12.702@106. If I was running a 12.7 index, I would be golden, but I was trying to run a 13.00 average for three runs. I figured out that I needed to run a 13.608 for a perfect 13.000 average, and I decided that the way I was going to do that was to just take off slowly, kill my 60 foot, and then make my pass as I normally would. I rolled out soft, then got on it, and ran a 13.695@107. It was a little slower than I wanted to go, but this gave me a 13.029 average!

Meanwhile, TJ was kicking *** in the 10.00 class, and by his 3rd run he thought he had it in the bag. I was sitting feeling pretty good, but we all know how that goes. We just hung out for the rest of Saturday night to hear the final results. TJ ended up winning the 10.00 class, and I got killed by someone that ran a 13.003! Good times were had by all...We left the track and got steaks.

Sunday we just rolled out in the morning because we had a long day of driving ahead.

I will post up more pictures and video as I get them.

Thanks to Holley for another awesome LS Fest and to all the vendors that had a hand in this build. It's always nerve racking to drive 600 miles, beat the snot out of a car, not break, and drive home.

Andrew

zTimbo

Andrew,
Forgive my ignorance, but beside the fact that transmission sounds amazing is it necessary to have that to be able to shift it hard like in the video without worry of damaging anything? I'm contemplating a T56 swap in my current LS powered Dakota.

Project GatTagO

iTrader: (7)

I am pretty sure that if you try to shift a stock trans like that, you will sheer the synchro teeth right off...

Andrew

Project GatTagO

iTrader: (7)

Earlier I mentioned meeting up with my buddy TJ at LS Fest. TJ brought his wingman Blake with him, and while TJ was kicking *** at the track and taking money from some dude from Indiana while making side trips to Mexico, Blake was busy being the social media director. Here is a picture that he posted on Instagram...



Andrew