1970 GTO Version 2.0
#162
TECH Fanatic
iTrader: (15)
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Janesville WI
Posts: 1,155
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
418 at the wheels!! Holy ***** Batman!
Assuming the old 85% rule for drive line loss, thats 491 at the crank w just a cam, intake and headers. I gotta assume the tune will get you well over the 500 crank mark.
This is exciting stuff!!
Maybe I won't keep my VVT, and will just blatantly copy you!
Assuming the old 85% rule for drive line loss, thats 491 at the crank w just a cam, intake and headers. I gotta assume the tune will get you well over the 500 crank mark.
This is exciting stuff!!
Maybe I won't keep my VVT, and will just blatantly copy you!
#163
TECH Senior Member
Thread Starter
iTrader: (7)
418 at the wheels!! Holy ***** Batman!
Assuming the old 85% rule for drive line loss, thats 491 at the crank w just a cam, intake and headers. I gotta assume the tune will get you well over the 500 crank mark.
This is exciting stuff!!
Maybe I won't keep my VVT, and will just blatantly copy you!
Assuming the old 85% rule for drive line loss, thats 491 at the crank w just a cam, intake and headers. I gotta assume the tune will get you well over the 500 crank mark.
This is exciting stuff!!
Maybe I won't keep my VVT, and will just blatantly copy you!
For your Buick, that is destined for the road course, a mild engine like this is the ticket. The LS7 has gentle cam lobes that are designed to last over 100K miles. The torque curve is super smooth. I can't seem to find the damn print out, but I don't recall that it made less than 325 TQ at anytime. The pulls were from 3000-6500rpm. So if you forget to downshift before a corner, who cares?
Andrew
#166
TECH Senior Member
Thread Starter
iTrader: (7)
Being around car projects for a long time I can tell you that every build has a few dirty little secrets. Some have more than a few. My project is no different. When I got the car aligned the most caster that we could get was zero degrees. This might be due to frame sag, or who knows what, but thats how it was. This doesn't hurt the handling, per say, but it makes for a less than idea driving car. Without any caster the steering wheel doesn't snap back to center after making a turn. So you actually have to steer it out of a corner. Not the most ideal situation. So I called Mark at SC&C and he convinced me that his adjustable upper control arms are the way to go. I was going to get them at some point later because I want to swap to the AFX spindles, but not seemed like the perfect time.
The SPC control arms will allow me to dial in more caster while not increasing negative camber, and they will work with the AFX spindles.
When taking everything apart I noticed that my QA1 shocks were leaking and pretty much not working. This is most likely due to the fact that the car sat for a long time. So a new set is on the way and will be here tomorrow. I will send the old ones to get rebuilt and it will be good to have a spare set, just in case.
I am in a bit of a rush because I want to take the car on a road trip to Chicago on Saturday...
Andrew
The SPC control arms will allow me to dial in more caster while not increasing negative camber, and they will work with the AFX spindles.
When taking everything apart I noticed that my QA1 shocks were leaking and pretty much not working. This is most likely due to the fact that the car sat for a long time. So a new set is on the way and will be here tomorrow. I will send the old ones to get rebuilt and it will be good to have a spare set, just in case.
I am in a bit of a rush because I want to take the car on a road trip to Chicago on Saturday...
Andrew
#167
TECH Senior Member
Thread Starter
iTrader: (7)
Yesterday I got the new coilover kit and finished installing the control arms. I used the springs that came with the kit, which were 450 lb/in. In retrospect I should have stuck with the 550s. Oh well.
Here is the final ride height. It's pretty low, probably too low, but it look really good. I am leaving it for now.
This morning I got the car aligned. The show here in town dabbles in circle track racing so they have a very nice Hunter laser alignment rack. We aligned the car with me in it with the following final specs:
Left -.5 camber +5.5 caster
Right -.5 camber +6.0 caster
zero toe
Now here is the cool part. The initial alignment was done with the control arm cross shafts right up against the frame. So with the street alignment settings in place, we did a second alignment using shims. With the shims in place I now have an auto cross alignment with the following specs:
Left -1.5 camber +6.0 caster
Right -1.5 camber +6.5 caster
slight toe out
So now when I got to an event I can take a wrench and in about 5 minutes install my shims for a more aggressive alignment. When I am done, just take them out and drive home on the street alignment.
Andrew
Here is the final ride height. It's pretty low, probably too low, but it look really good. I am leaving it for now.
This morning I got the car aligned. The show here in town dabbles in circle track racing so they have a very nice Hunter laser alignment rack. We aligned the car with me in it with the following final specs:
Left -.5 camber +5.5 caster
Right -.5 camber +6.0 caster
zero toe
Now here is the cool part. The initial alignment was done with the control arm cross shafts right up against the frame. So with the street alignment settings in place, we did a second alignment using shims. With the shims in place I now have an auto cross alignment with the following specs:
Left -1.5 camber +6.0 caster
Right -1.5 camber +6.5 caster
slight toe out
So now when I got to an event I can take a wrench and in about 5 minutes install my shims for a more aggressive alignment. When I am done, just take them out and drive home on the street alignment.
Andrew
#169
Car looks awesome! Great picture. I gotta learn how to take better pictures. I bought the wife a Canon SLR 40D last weekend and it seems nice..just need to learn
Hey is that another RX7 in the driveway your building?
Hey is that another RX7 in the driveway your building?
#170
TECH Fanatic
iTrader: (15)
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Janesville WI
Posts: 1,155
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Yeah, I'm loving the ride height aswell!!
How much suspension travel do you have left there?
I was wondering the same thing about the RX7 on jack stands.
How much suspension travel do you have left there?
I was wondering the same thing about the RX7 on jack stands.
Last edited by subtlez28; 06-08-2008 at 12:28 PM. Reason: added a word for clarity
#172
TECH Senior Member
Thread Starter
iTrader: (7)
295/45-18s
The RX7 is what left of Project Darrell. It had an LS6 with a dog ring T56 and ran a best of 10.95@125mph, naturally aspirated.
On Saturday morning I headed out towards Chicago. My journey started out on a beautiful, sunny morning. The temperature in Bowling Green was in the low 70s at 7:30am and it looked like the perfect day for a road trip. I was making good time but that quickly changed when I got to about 50 miles south of Indianapolis. The forecast called for thunderstorms but I had no idea what as about to hit. Keep in mind that up until this point my car has never been driven in the rain.
Notice the large hole in my hood, later to be filled again by my shaker. i really wasn't worried about the engine getting wet, because I have hosed down the LS6 in my RX7 many times and it has never complained. All of the connectors are water tight so a little water on the intake won't hurt.
In this next picture the rain line can actually be seen. See how the pavement in front of me is dry, but just up ahead the semi going in the other direction has the giant rooster tail of water behind it. The sky was about to open up on me.
The rain was unbelievable. With the wind gusting, it was actually raining sideways.
Then as if it wasn't raining hard enough, it started coming down in sheets.
More dirty little secrets about my car. It seems that it is not entirely water tight. After about 20 minutes of driving in the rain I noticed that both the driver's and passenger side carpet was soaking wet. I am not talking about just damp, but sopping wet. I suspected that the water was coming down the cowl and getting inside through the kick panel area. A few days ago I discovered that to be exactly the case. No names will get mentioned, but the passenger side cowl vent panel was installed by the same shop that installed my Vintage Air system. The panel where the hoses come through wasn't sealed against the body at all. Like I said before, the reputation of the shop doesn't mean s**t. It all boils down to that guy, making 15 bucks an hour, wrenching on the car.
In about a week I am going to drive the car from Chicago to Colorado for my (cough....cough...) 20th high school reunion.
Andrew
The RX7 is what left of Project Darrell. It had an LS6 with a dog ring T56 and ran a best of 10.95@125mph, naturally aspirated.
On Saturday morning I headed out towards Chicago. My journey started out on a beautiful, sunny morning. The temperature in Bowling Green was in the low 70s at 7:30am and it looked like the perfect day for a road trip. I was making good time but that quickly changed when I got to about 50 miles south of Indianapolis. The forecast called for thunderstorms but I had no idea what as about to hit. Keep in mind that up until this point my car has never been driven in the rain.
Notice the large hole in my hood, later to be filled again by my shaker. i really wasn't worried about the engine getting wet, because I have hosed down the LS6 in my RX7 many times and it has never complained. All of the connectors are water tight so a little water on the intake won't hurt.
In this next picture the rain line can actually be seen. See how the pavement in front of me is dry, but just up ahead the semi going in the other direction has the giant rooster tail of water behind it. The sky was about to open up on me.
The rain was unbelievable. With the wind gusting, it was actually raining sideways.
Then as if it wasn't raining hard enough, it started coming down in sheets.
More dirty little secrets about my car. It seems that it is not entirely water tight. After about 20 minutes of driving in the rain I noticed that both the driver's and passenger side carpet was soaking wet. I am not talking about just damp, but sopping wet. I suspected that the water was coming down the cowl and getting inside through the kick panel area. A few days ago I discovered that to be exactly the case. No names will get mentioned, but the passenger side cowl vent panel was installed by the same shop that installed my Vintage Air system. The panel where the hoses come through wasn't sealed against the body at all. Like I said before, the reputation of the shop doesn't mean s**t. It all boils down to that guy, making 15 bucks an hour, wrenching on the car.
In about a week I am going to drive the car from Chicago to Colorado for my (cough....cough...) 20th high school reunion.
Andrew
#173
TECH Senior Member
Thread Starter
iTrader: (7)
Yesterday and today were two very exciting days. Monday morning I showed by to Schwartz Extreme Performance in Crystal Lake, Illinois. Jeff Schwartz and his crew were waiting for me so they can begin to adapt my shaker scoop to the new engine. One of Jeff's fabricators, Ken, was responsible for the project.
After looking things over and mocking up my old shaker base it as decided that a whole new base would need to be made. So Ken rolled a new base and bottom.
The only part of my old base that was reused was the upper lip that attached to the shaker top.
Ken also fabricated another piece that was welded to the inside of the base and held the air filter element. I picked this filter element because it is as large as the base will allow. The filter is also rather thick which gives it more area for better flow. It also happened to be in stock at the local AutoZone, which means I can get a replacement just about anywhere.
Another one of Jeff's fabricators, Kyle, helped out with the TIG welding of the 4" pipe that connected the base and the throttle body.
Today everything was starting to take shape. The MAF was mounted inside the pipe towards the the top, just after the rubber coupler.
Tomorrow morning I am heading out to Colorado. I will be stopping in Lincoln, NE to visit my friend Brian. Brian did the body and paint on my GTO. We will smooth out all the welds on the base and paint everything a semi-gloss black. Thanks again to the crew at Schwartz Extreme Performance for a job well done!
Andrew
After looking things over and mocking up my old shaker base it as decided that a whole new base would need to be made. So Ken rolled a new base and bottom.
The only part of my old base that was reused was the upper lip that attached to the shaker top.
Ken also fabricated another piece that was welded to the inside of the base and held the air filter element. I picked this filter element because it is as large as the base will allow. The filter is also rather thick which gives it more area for better flow. It also happened to be in stock at the local AutoZone, which means I can get a replacement just about anywhere.
Another one of Jeff's fabricators, Kyle, helped out with the TIG welding of the 4" pipe that connected the base and the throttle body.
Today everything was starting to take shape. The MAF was mounted inside the pipe towards the the top, just after the rubber coupler.
Tomorrow morning I am heading out to Colorado. I will be stopping in Lincoln, NE to visit my friend Brian. Brian did the body and paint on my GTO. We will smooth out all the welds on the base and paint everything a semi-gloss black. Thanks again to the crew at Schwartz Extreme Performance for a job well done!
Andrew
#179
TECH Senior Member
Thread Starter
iTrader: (7)
How so?
My road trip is going pretty well. The car is running great and it is really a blast to be driving it all over the place. I put about 1800 miles on the car since I left Kentucky. Here is a shot of the car taken in Laramie, WY after being cleaned up a little bit.
Andrew
My road trip is going pretty well. The car is running great and it is really a blast to be driving it all over the place. I put about 1800 miles on the car since I left Kentucky. Here is a shot of the car taken in Laramie, WY after being cleaned up a little bit.
Andrew