LSjim

iTrader: (8)

nice car man you should run the power wires for your stereo in the car tho

frojoe

iTrader: (10)

I agree. Stereo is coming out, and battery is in the trunk, so a negative for engine ground and positive for starter will run inside the car from trunk -> engine bay.

frojoe

iTrader: (10)

Heavily modified core support painted and back in car for good:



Turned a radiator hose coupler for the upper rad hose:



Clean looking:



Same story for lower rad hose, bit of heat wrap tape for where it's near the hotside piping:



Oil cooler line(s). Have I mentioned how much I love trying to re-use/re-purpose OEM stuff? Dirt cheap from the parts store and this 1 cooler line has 2 steel fittings and pre-flared ends, and still cost less than 1 stupid (blue and red!!!) Aeroquip fitting:





Fits near-perfectly right off the bat, now just needs a couple tweaks and weld some -8 AN bungs on the ends:





Looking a bit more legit now:

frojoe

iTrader: (10)

Intercooler looking a bit obvious:





Grill didn't really helps so much, maybe I'm gonna have to give it a quickie flat black spraybomb paint job:

tsnow678

iTrader: (3)

Your just days away from a test fire! Looking badass!!!

crosstraining

iTrader: (1)

Looks great Joe! This project has come a long way. I wish I would have done a turbo, but I am having enough trouble just NA. I also don't have your skills.
Your Nova is going to be badazz!

-TheBandit-

iTrader: (1)

Looks like your 2x4? tire stands are shifting around a bit on the driver's side. Are they not screwed together? Be really careful with that kinda stuff Joe. A good friend of my family lost his life under a car after it came down on him.

I think the intercooler would look a lot better black. They make spray paint specifically for radiators/heat exchangers and I think you can get it from the autoparts store. Everything is coming together pretty quickly now. How much time are you putting into this thing lately? It looks great.

frojoe

iTrader: (10)

The tire stands are screwed together, but are two seperate "stacks" on top of each other, each stack being screwed together, the bottom stack being 6" tall overall and the top stack being 3" tall overall. The top stack has an additional single 2x4 tie screwed into the bottom of it to prevent it from sliding forward/back, but only side to side (check pic below):



There is a bit of wiggle room though with this setup as you pointed out, from having turned the tires so many times when checking clearance and setting up my steering linkage.

And yes, things seem to finally be coming together at a decent pace!

tsnow678

iTrader: (3)

Just curious, did you turn the radiator hose coupler on a manual lathe or was it done on a CNC? I run four 25mm Swiss lathes and just received a 10mm Deco swiss. I wish they had the capacity to run items this large! I would probably be fired in a week if I did have the capacity. I could see shifter *****, couplers, spacers, and all the goodies I might need being turned on a daily basis.

frojoe

iTrader: (10)

It's a 12 speed manual lathe with DRO's, up to maybe 8" rod capacity in the chuck, 12" swing & max 40" between centers, and 2.5" dia. rod capacity thru the spindle...

frojoe

iTrader: (10)

Made some aluminum brackets to hold down the Summit LS1 fuel rails onto the stock truck intake.

LS1 rail mounts that came with the Summit rails:



Mockup. They almost worked, but not quite, and were also way too low:



Front:



Rear:



C-bracket adapter!





Also made a MAP sensor tie-down bracket. In the truck intake the sensor is just a clip-in and is wobbly as f***... not sure I liked that for under boost.

frojoe

iTrader: (10)

Time to clean up this tab business on the truck manifold:



Looking a little better:



Why is "Semi-gloss black" only barely barely less glossy than gloss black?



Looks slightly less-bad than a pure stock one, but it's still no FAST LSx intake:



Brackets blacked out, of course:





Brackets on:





I'll settle for this:

frojoe

iTrader: (10)

Finished up modding the intercooler and gave it a very quickie spray job. Barely dusted the fins with black, went and looked up close with flashlight and the paint didn't even make its way into the fins, only caught the front edges... I doubt it'll reduce heat-dissipation capacity, and backside of intercooler is still raw:

-TheBandit-

iTrader: (1)

Are you working full time on the car now? You're making rapid progress. Looking great.

Chicago TDP

iTrader: (3)

Looking good!!!


What size IC is that and where did you get it???

hookemdevils22

iTrader: (12)

i say you should've spent the $900 for that extra 10 fwhp the FAST provides... hey, dumb question, but why didn't you dust the radiator black, too?

Jimbo1367

Joe,
Looks great dude! ALOT of time invested in this ride.

frojoe

iTrader: (10)

Car work is still part time (in the evening after dinner). Things seem to bolt together a lot quicker if you've installed/removed them half a dozen times during fab/mockup.

The intercooler is standard import stuff at 12"x24"x3" with 3" inlet/outlet.

I left the rad unpainted because the only part that really shows on it will be hidden behind the bumper.

ls68firebird

AWESOME build and craftsmanship! congrats.

frojoe

iTrader: (10)

Remade the coil relocation brackets to make them less flexy and to also have the passenger side one have a clearance cut for the heater hose:





Warning, the rest of the post is completely useless, just has glory shots of the first time the car has seen outside in maybe 2 years. Had to turn it around to get easier access to gas tank/diff to work on those. Man seeing it low on the ground and rolling around got me so excited to drive it hopefully soon!