Digging your progress Ryan, I bet you can't wait.

 

John, I'm chomping at the bit. I keep checking things off my list and the list is getting pretty short.

 

I've been keeping busy and making a little bit of progress here and there. I got out into the garage last night and had something to show for it. This is partially an upgrade and partially maintenance. I've had a pinion leak since I build the rear end, but am now addressing that. Apparently you are supposed to add some sealant to the splines on the yoke, not just the nut. Lesson learned. Anyway, it was a great excuse to upgrade to a 1350 yoke while I had to pull the old yoke anyway. Hopefully I can get this back together soon, but I'm waiting on the correct pinion seal.



I should have just gotten the Powermaster 484831 from the beginning since I was sure that it would fit my needs. Failed attempt at using the 14+ Silverado alternator, but at least I tried right?? Anyway, this Powermaster unit checks all the boxes; 165 Amp, side post, and compact enough to fit where I needed it.









Again, I'm a sucker for a good deal. Picked up these Holley Tall Valve covers for half of retail that are brand new. They really serve two purposes for me; one I don't have to clean up my old scrubby ones, and two it moves the coils down so it doesn't interfere with the LSA fuel rails. And I'll add a third, they really look great. I'm either painting them Chevy orange or Torch Red to match the car. Haven't decided.



I also picked up a used Elite Engineering E2 Catch can with all the hoses and one way valve. Looks new, and helps with forced induction from what I understand. I'm going to build a mount off of the supercharger tensioner to keep it out of the way and easy to access. Unfortunately the head mount bracket won't work.





Then the moment that I've been waiting for for a very long time. It's only mocked up at this point to check for interference, but it really changes the look of the engine bay.







My cowl hood bumps up in the middle so this should clear no problem.





This picture is straight across the two fender top body lines.



I'm so pumped about hearing this thing run! Ordered a few more parts and thankfully there is only one more large purchase and a few smaller ones before I can call it done.

Cheers,
Ryan

 

Ryan,
So what was the reason why you couldn’t turn the crank over a few weeks / months ago? I don’t recall reading why.

How much do u think your into the LSA swap? I’ve been considering it, but weary as I’m only at 30k mileage

thanks,
jim

 

That's no joke, looks awesome! Big boy stuff, I can hear the blower whine from here

 

Hey Jim, It ended up being that when I shimmed my oil pump, I had the orientation wrong when I reinstalled it. With the orientation wrong, the crank wouldn't turn because it clamped the ring that slips to onto the crank.

As for the LSA swap, I have more than I had originally anticipated. I also could have saved some money by not doing some of the upgrades that I decided to do such as changing to the CTS-V engine accessories. I've kept a tab on my spending using excel and without the accessories I've got around $3700 into it including my fueling upgrades. But I justified that to myself because I needed to buy an intake for the car anyway...

 

I’m glad u found out why it didn’t turn over. LSA costs, I was starting to price that stuff out. I figured roughly $3500-$4200 the way I wanted. I think it’s a fail/ small price to pay for something that will transform your ride into a monster.

jim

 

Looks good, I'm following over there.

Cheers mate.

 

I love spectating as you add the LSA blower to your swap. You're building a great tech library for others by sharing your experience, but it's also just fun to see your car evolve over time. I am currently in the oddball camp of feeling comfortable with how much power I have, but the itch for more will eventually get to me too.

In case you haven't connected, @hookemdevils22 has gone through a lot of this on his Nova. Turns out he's a cool dude to talk with too. Hope you have his number.

 

Thanks guys, I appreciate the positive feedback. Thanks for the info Clint. I'm way ahead of you though since I've been texting him with some of my questions. I'll second that he's a great guy.

Now that the motor and components are all fitting together, I wanted to focus on the systems that I'm changing up and getting them ready to fire up the motor. One thing that I wanted to do is adding a fuel door in the event that I ever needed to change out my fuel pump assembly and/or upgrade the pumps. It will make the job soo much easier/quicker in the future. I wanted to make it sort of look like it could have come this way so I wanted to blend in the bead rolls. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Here's the starting point where I hacked it away.



I made some pie cuts on the bead rolls then used a hammer and dolly to flatten them out. One side popped up and the other side popped down. Once it was all flat, I used my mig to weld it back together then ground it all flush with a flap disk.



I used some sprayed the door with etch primer, seam sealed the bottom side, then topped it off with some satin black to blend it in with the existing trunk. Once I get the truck cleaned out, I'll go back and spray it over with some trunk splatter paint to give it a more original look.







Tank is installed for good now.



I talked with Carl at Vaporworx and ordered some parts to finish up the install of the PressureWorx kit. If I had bought new I would have had all the terminals and wiring, but since I got it second hand, I needed a few of the terminals. He was super helpful and got back to me right away. Excellent customer service. It's also worth pointing out one reason why I'm so glad that I upgraded to the PWM, since I found some previous work that wasn't my best. I don't remember the soldering being this bad, but check out the corrosion. I believe I did this about 3 years ago, so it happened pretty quickly. This most certainly would have failed at some point in the near future. It pulled apart when I gave it a little tug. Per Carl's (and Andrew's) recommendation, I'll be crimping my connections going forward.



As many have likely found out, the backorder on the Terminator X Max kits is pretty extensive with Holley directly. I waited for about a month and in the end just decided to stick with a cable throttlebody, rather than going DBW right now. Maybe when they are back in stock this fall I'll try again. For now I shopped around and found a great deal on a used Nick Williams 92mm. Came with the sensors too which is a big bonus. It fit great, and just barely cleared the PS reservoir. I'm going to make my own version of the Motionworks DBC bracket using a truck cable holder that I've had for a while and good news is my old throttle cable fits with room to spare. WIN.





Moving back to my yoke swap on the rear differential, I started doing some research on the correct seal. I found out that all of the one's that you get at the parts stores and RockAuto are actually meant for truck 12 bolts. Some people used a small 1/8" shim or don't fully tap in the seal to get the right depth. Then I found out that there is one company that does make the correct seal, and it's available at Summit Racing. Ratech RAT-6109 for those interested. This will allow the seal to sit closer to the seal mating surface on the yoke since it sticks out farther.



Timkin vs Ratech.





This along with silicone on the yoke splines should fix my leaky differential. Then more exciting news is my driveshaft from PEM racing came in. I'm very impressed with the quality and how quickly it shipped to me. This is their Drag Racing 3.5" .125" wall driveshaft with 1350 ends and Spicer solid U-joints included. They had the best price by far, and it came with free shipping! I ended up measuring 42" with my combination, but if you are replicating this build measure yours first. The guy I emailed there said that this combo should be good for around 750+HP, so I should be well under this figure.



Installed my Sonnax 1350 ujoint and test fit everything. Looks like I measured spot on with about 7/8" of stick out of the trans.



I ran out of time to get the yoke reinstalled, but the new seal is in. I'll need to torque it and then check the rotational drag with a torque wrench. Then I can button up the driveline and test fit the exhaust. I'm hoping that my mufflers won't be too close, but if not I may have to modify them or possibly replace.

I'm hoping to get out in the garage tonight and get a lot of work done.

Ryan

 

Great updates. What is your crankcase evac/ breather setup?

 

Wow. You been busy. It looks great. I think I’ll have to try that trapdoor. Keep up the great work

 

I love the trap door access for the fuel pump. I plan to make a similar access panel when I swap my tank. I had to change my fuel pump once on the Nova already and it did suck dropping the tank. How did you manage to locate the door right over the pump? I was scratching my head a bit trying to find reference points on the car and tank to measure from.

I am 100% with Carl - soldering should be avoided where possible, but you also need a good quality ratcheting type crimper to get the best mechanical connection possible. I also use solid body barrel connectors, not the cheap split body crap you get at a parts/hardware store. You can buy them through Mouser. Finish with adhesive heat shrink and the connection should outlast you and I both. The only time I use solder is on smaller wires where I don't think I can make a good crimp connection - ultrasonic welding would be way to go for those, but I don't have the money for that!

For swapping the yoke, are you going to put in a new crush sleeve or do you have a solid spacer or? I personally don't feel comfortable reusing a crush sleeve with a new yoke. I know you can shoot for the same preload but it's really hard to get just right if you're not actually crushing a new sleeve. It's also impossible to measure bearing preload properly with the center chunk in there adding some resistance. It's the reason I am currently/temporarily using a 1350-1310 conversion joint with my new driveshaft, because I need to pull the center chunk to properly install a new 1350 yoke and sleeve. I intend to rebuild or replace my posi when it's time for that job.

 

I always thought soldering was preferred. Always learning something new.

 

You'll find healthy debates on this topic and for good reason: the way hobbyist execute solder and mechanical/crimp joints varies tremendously, so one person's decent solder job may easily outperform another person's crappy crimp and visa-versa. For our uses either joint when done properly will likely last until we swap to the next engine or rewire, depending of course on exactly where the joint is and how well it's protected from the elements and strain.

OEMs do not use solder joints in their harnesses, but they do use really good crimping and ultrasonic welding equipment that goes through extensive process development. They also use engineered connectors. The result is a harness that lasts decades through vibration, heat cycling, and environmental conditions that would otherwise crack a solder joint and lead to internal joint corrosion or even wire strand failures at the joint.

 

Clint,
Excellent explanation

 

My basic plan is to copy what some others have done successfully. Valley Cover to Catch Can, Catch can to manifold fitting, and then Intake Tube to Valve cover ports. I bought an inline PCV fitting according to the Holley valve cover instructions. Apparently it can lead to excessive oil consumption without the PCV valve on the Holley covers.

 

Clint, what I did was mocked the tank up and took a few reference points from the bottom side, then translated them to the top side. I drilled a hole to check how close I was and then used some tin snips to adjust the hole until I was happy. I used the trap door as a reference to keep adjusting my cuts. I'm sure there was a more efficient way to do it, but since I do most of my work after the family goes to sleep, I've found that I can get a lot of work done quietly with hand held tin snips.

I read a lot of articles from some of the veteran members of Chevelles.com and Camaros.net who have swapped yokes and/or replaced seals before on both 12 bolts and 10 bolts. It really wasn't bad at all given their instructions. The basic idea was to get everything back in place, torque the pinion nut to somewhere between 125-150 lb. ft. and check your rotational drag with an in. lb. wrench. I didn't have one of the dial style wrenches, but I did pick up a bar style at a swap meet a while ago and it worked just fine. With used bearings they say to target between 12-15 in. lbs. (with new bearings, I hit 25 in lb. on the dot per the instructions). I started out with 125 lb ft and checked my rotational and hit 15 right off the bat, so I stopped. I didn't want to go any further and get too tight, but it looks like the veteran site members really know what they were talking about. I love the internet forums for learning new stuff.

I found out too why my differential was leaking too, and it wasn't the seal. It was actually leaking through the splines on the yoke. So I made sure to clean them all up with brake clean and sealed with high temp silicone. I'm hoping that I won't have a problem this time around.

 

Glad to see your LSA swap is coming along! I just saw a guy with an LSA on a 5.3L who blew his d/s on the dyno, so I'm glad you addressed that before it grenaded on you.

And a quick fyi on that silicone intake elbow. I talked to a guy with a 750+hp LSA build who was found his collapsing while running on the dyno. He replaced it and gained 70 whp. I'm currently looking for a solid aluminum tube to replace mine.

 

Thanks Trevor. That is good information there. I'll start looking for that as one of my next modifications. I don't expect to make much more than 600 whp with my setup, so hopefully I'll be ok for a while.

I built up my driveline so hopefully I don't have any weak links. Trans should be good for 700 lb ft, Clutch is rated for 1k hp, and the driveshaft is good for 750+. I think my 400 treadwear, 255 tires are what will be my weak link now. Not sure they stand much of a chance.