Hope no one crapped their pants lol...where are you guys shooting for on weight?

 

We have all been around long enough to keep our pants clean. The louder one that came after that video gave us a bit of a jolt (and a ringing ear), but that's all. I don't think we have a goal for weight, just as light as we can get it. Chris may have a better idea on the weight though.


Sean

 

Not really positive on the weight. We have taken some out, but also added some in places. I am guessing it will be around 3200 with me in it. There is still some weight to take out though....

 

I got curious after looking through the pics and realizing the amount of cutting done...I figured it to be closer to 3k than 4k lol.

 

Sean and myself cut weight out of a car?? never...

 

lol...hey where is the pic of the restrictor in the cooling system? Is this in lieu of a t-stat?

 

That is one thing we never took a picture of. They look exactly like the meizere adapter blocks that go to the motor. They are thin metal, and have smaller holes on the exit. Ls1's have alot of pressure on the cooling system, especially inside the motor. So our thinking is the water can enter the block with no restrictions, but has to travel through a much smaller hole to leave, building up pressure, and making the water stay in the block a little longer.

Today we ran the car for a while. Ran it through all the gears, and they appear to be working great. I have the water pump turning on @ 120 degrees, and fans @ 160' degrees.(still might play with these temps a little bit) But the hottest the car go was 166 idling, with a little reving, and it stayed around 164. This is no load on the car, but it was 90 ish degrees outside.

Thanks, Chris

ps. Yes this is being used instead of a thermostat. That is what helps build the pressure in the motor.

 

updates?

 

Sean is working on a full update. Some issues came up in Tunning, so were making some improvements.

Thanks Chris

 

Well there has been much turmoil the last few weeks with the TA. Since the last update we were ready to hit the track, then a minor set back, then no chance of running this year.

Back in the end of July (after the last update) we got the car buttoned up 100%. All of the wiring is done, rear firewall is in, fire system is all done, everything back together and so on. We brought the car to the Dyno July 29th, and had some minor issues. There was some problems with being able to write files to the ECU, but I cant really get into that. We ended up spending quite a while working on that before we got it figured out. By the time that was done, all we got accomplished was start up and idle.

Throughout that week small issues came up, and we resolved, again nothing that I can really get into detail about. More or less things were going smooth though. That Tuesday (31st) Chris stopped by the Dyno to see how everything was going. By then all of the little bugs seemed to be worked out, and all of the start up and driveablity parts of the tune were pretty much spot on. It was time to make the first boost pass! Nothing really eventful about it, the car made 5psi and 525WHP of course it was still pretty fat, and the timing was pretty safe being the first pull. Things were looking good! They made some adjustments, turned up the boost and went again, but it still only made 5psi. They had thought that maybe they didn't turn the CO2 pressure up high enough, so up it went and another pull.... Still only 5psi. After looking around they found that the line from the solenoids to the wastegate had melted. Not a big deal, but by then it was getting kind of late so they called it.

The rest of the week, not much was done to the car. The tuner finished all of the part throttle, driveablity, and things like that. We still were fighting a cooling problem, so he was waiting for the new fan we had ordered on Monday. That came in on Friday, and he threw it in the car for us. Sunday we headed back over to the shop to hopefully get the tune finished up! Got there nice and early, everyone was ready to go, got the car warmed up and went for it. I was standing in front of the car, and knew it was a partial pass right away. Chris yelled something at me, but I couldn't hear right away because the car was still revving down. I think I knew what he said, but I ignored it until I was sure. He said "We're done."

On that very first pull, as soon as the car came into boost, the dump tube from the wastegate into the down pipe exploded. Because of the location of it we had to stop until it was fixed. I have pictures of it that I will post up later. On top of that, the new fan didn't fix the cooling issue! So now we were stuck so to speak. The car was broken, and we just had everything drained from us when it let go. All of those months of work, all of that time, all of that money, and it never even made a full pull on the dyno. To top it off, we had given the trailer and the truck some TLC that Friday. The problem there is we had to replace the studs on one of the trailer hubs, and there were none local (we checked every place within an hour drive). So now the car is broke, and we need to get it home, and we have no way to do so. To top that off, Chris and I were busy the next few weekends in a row, so we didn't know when we would be able to do anything anyway.

After going back and forth about what to do for a while, we decided to just drive it the few miles back to the house. That's when things went from bad to worse. When Chris pulled the car out of the shop, I looked down at the turbo and saw some scuffs on the housing by the fins. Nothing really major, but its never a good sign. He shut the car off, and sure enough we had a bunch of shaft play. So for anyone not keeping track, that's, a broken dump tube, a wastegate that is too close to the turbo, a CO2 line that needs to be re-routed, an over heating problem, a turbo that needs a rebuild, a battery that is too small, and an alternator that cant keep up. Some of that wasn't mentioned in the story to try and make this shorter. We got the car back home, and just left.

So first thing first, we tackled the cooling issue. We decided that a new radiator would be helpful, and look a lot better. We decided to make the fan(s) pull through, and full y shroud it. That weekend I was unable to go work on the car, so it was up to Chris to discover that we were kind of screwed on all of those ideas. Of course that was AFTER parts had been ordered. The brand new 16" fan was going to be replaced by two new 10" fans. Even those were going to be a VERY tight fit, but we had little choice. He took all of the measurements he could get, then dissembled the car to send the turbo out.

The following weekend Chris was out of town getting engaged, and I was working on making things fit. I patched the down pipe, moved the wastegate down and away from the turbo, and got most of the dump tube mocked up and tacked. That was all pretty easy, the radiator on the other hand... It simply was not going to fit without drastic measures. I removed everything that was in my way, and mocked up the layout after I had assembled the new fans and shroud that I made up during the week.

Chris came back from his vacation, gave everything a once over then we started talking about plans. We decided that since it is already so late in the season, and since everything we were doing was only temporary (in reference to the tubing) maybe we should just plan on making some changes for next year. That way we aren't rushed to get the car out this year, we can take out time make everything nice, change some things we didn't like, and be ready at the start of next year. So that is what we are doing.

I don't want to spoil the fun just yet, but I think you guys will agree with the decision when we start updating again Believe me, we are just as bummed as anyone that we never made it out with the car this year, it sucks. It will all be worth it next year though for sure. There will be nothing left on the car that we are not confident that it is a good as it could be. The turbo set up will be slightly improved, the cooling system will be vastly improved, all of the little things will be cleaned up and fixed (not very many of those), and the car will be the best it has ever been. We are sticking to only a couple changes to be sure that the car is ready before the race season next year. The plan is to have the car race ready in about February, and have it out A LOT next year.

Like I said, I will add in pictures to go with the story a little later. Everything is blocked for me at work, so I cant add them right now.



Thanks for following along!
Sean

 

damn that sucks!!!! what was wrong with the alternator? i seen you got a new one from aeinc is it just not big enough? im about to order one and that would suck if i had the same problem

 

The alternator just didn't have the juice to keep up. We have a massive fuel pump, electric water pump, 3 fans, etc... It only put out 70amps max, and I think around 35 at idle. The new alternator is 70 at idle, 135 max. Chris will have to chime in with more details.

Sean

 

The alternator worked good last year, but it was probably maxed... This year we added alot. I have a huge magnafuel pump, 3 fans, water pump, then the computer, gauges, lights, huge coil packs, LCD screen.... List goes on and on.

Aeicnc bracket is bad ***... It works with like 3 alternators.. I had the smallest of them. Cs121. Also can fit a Cs130, and 1 other I don't remember right now. Power master and some other companies make much better alts in these housings that fit. I got a Cs121 that will do 105a at idle, and 135 max.. the old one was around 40 idle, and 70 max..

Thanks for following!
Chris

 

What are your cooling issues?

 

Hard to say exactly what it is... Could be the water pump pumping to fast... Seems liked the fans have a hard time pushing air through the radiator. Now its a bigger rad, way better fans as pullers.

 

Nice build Sean, who makes that quick release steering wheel if you have a part # for it ?

Thanks Ivan

 

The first one was a grant, for the factory column. Madman sells them, and summit. Dont know the part number. The new one is a strange for The Midwest Chassis lightweight steering column.Talk to Eric to get the column, and the quick release.

Thanks, Chris

 

Thanks for the info Chris, I will be doing some similar work with my car that Sean and you did to his.

https://ls1tech.com/forums/forced-in...l#post16682625

 

This is my car. Sean has a camaro that he might put a build thread up one day. He posts.the updates cause he takes the pictures and has more time

Good luck with your car.

Chris

 

tough to hear about your most recent update. I'm sure that you'll get it fixed and out next year though.

I'd take a look at the derale pushers, i think they are 18295's. I'm running those and the griffith radiator and my car doesn't go over 210 in the southern heat. When it's 80's out it doesn't go over 202. I've got a stock water pump, 160 thermostat and -20 hoses.