Irocss85

iTrader: (1)

wow, cool project. cant wait to see it run in a video.

JRracing

iTrader: (35)

I bought a braille battery, it's the 15lb version it has 1067ca at 80 degrees and like 575ca at 30 degrees. Does anyone have any personal experience with these?

I managed to get the radiator in along with the puke tank. I'm not real fond of these little perma cool fans but I will give them a shot and see if they get the job done. I also hope this stock radiator keeps this engine cool. I don't see why it wouldn't.
I got the TCI pan on and drilled the hole in the wrong spot at first for the temp sender then found a better spot were it didn't hit the valve body inside and drilled and tapped it. So I had to plug up the wrong hole. I was pissed. But it is cool now.

JRracing

iTrader: (35)

So then later today the Kooks headers show up. I was stoked. I ordered them last Thursday. That's less then a week turn around time. That's great.

BUT... they hit a tube on the K member. The drivers side is pretty bad and the pass is very minor. I want to just grind a little on the rt side but the lt one will require cutting a tube and rewelding around the header. I don't want to dent any of the tubes. I'd rather modify the K member since it has already been cut on.
Let me also make this clear. I knew when I bought them that I was taking a risk on them fitting. This car has a PA K member. And I was told a road racing peice. So I'm not sure how much support this tube is for. Is it more for side load/latteral G's??

I would like some serious advise on what to do before I go cutting on the K member this weekend. Can any of you chassis guy chime in on this one? Detailed pics right here.

JRracing

iTrader: (35)

The lt side hits so bad that the flange will not lay flat against the head. It lacks about 1/8". The rt sits flat and barely touches the tube. I love everything else about the fitment. They could be a tad lower. They also clear the T brake niod nicely compared to the BBK's.

JRracing

iTrader: (35)

More.

JRracing

iTrader: (35)

Well I ended up cutting the support tubes out of the K member and had to dent two tubes on the left side and one on the right. I didn't want to but it was either that or buy the AJE K Member and I didn't want to fork out the money right now so I did what I had to do.

The car is all packed up and on it's way to get wired and mostly finished by a friend of a friend who works on race cars. He is doing all the wiring and gauges, final assembly of the tranny and cooler and a list of other small things. When I get it back it should be about ready to hit the key. I can't hardly wait!!!!

I still have a ton of stuff to do when it comes back but least it's on the down hill side..

speedshifter

iTrader: (1)

very cool project! Something I plan to do one day myself, just with a 94/95 body.

tomz28

iTrader: (20)

i want one

JRracing

iTrader: (35)

I got the car back the other day. The wiring job looks awesome. The guy took his time and made everything nice and tight. I'm very pleased with the work.
I'll post some pics this weekend.

We tried to crank the engine over to prime the oil system but could not get any pressure at the gauge. It seems there is something wrong. Should it show some pressure when cranking?? I did not pay attention to the cranking speed. I tore the front end down and we put some ultra slick assembly lube in the oil pump to see if that would create enough suction to put the oil up through the engine. No luck. I could also tell the top end was not getting oil. Lifters not priming up.

And to make matters worse, there is a squeaking sound coming from the engine now when cranking. I hope it is not a dry bearing problem...


Any idea's guys? We put 10w30 petroleum oil in it and used permatex ultra slick on everything when assembled.

I'm going to check the shim for the oil pump(double roller chain) and maybe take the pan off to make sure it is not bottomed out on the oil pan from shimming the windage tray..

JUICED96Z

iTrader: (2)

As far as I know yes.

Thats how I started my BBC when it was cold, would keep the ignition box off and crank it untill the pressure came up (sometimes took a few seconds) then I would hit the ignition while it was cranking and it would fire up.

It did not come all the way up but it came up enough while cranking but it was enough.

Might make sure your gauge is good or wired up right.

I have a mechanicl oil pressure gauge that works great if you wanted to borrow it and test it that way.

Also pull your breather and see if oil has made its way up there.

Are you sure there is oil in it??? Not a falme or an insult, it just happens alot with builds that take a while

JRracing

iTrader: (35)

I took the plugs out and cranked it a few times and it finally came up. It hit 40psi cranking. Now I need to put the front cover and all that **** back on and we are going to tackle the ignition problem. I got a cable today that is vista compatible so I can see if the msd communicates with the pc. Going back to the shop now.

JUICED96Z

iTrader: (2)

If you have any issues wiht the MSD and their tech help is no help let me know and I will PM you the name of the guy at MSD that you need to talk to....

Quaman

^^ Why not post it here? Or invite him to the boards...

To the OP, very nice little build and ill be interested to find out a little insight on your tuning of the MSD and demon.

JRracing

iTrader: (35)

I got the engine and cooling system put back together last night. I then cranked the engine with the valve covers off to watch all the lifters pump up. And they did. I was very pleased to see that.

So I put the valve covers on and plugs back in it, put the wires back on and tried to hook the pc up to the car. But no I can not remember my password for the laptop. I messed with it for about 20 mins and called it quits for the night. But I did notice the engine was cranking very slow, even with a deep cycle battery hooked to the little braille battery. So I put the charger on boost and with the key, still nothing. The tach was jumping up and down but could not really see the actual cranking speed. MSD will say "what is the cranking speed"? Like they did last time. So I have to get the pc up and running first. I may take it to fry's and see if they can get into it. I thought I knew the password but tried for about an hour or so last night, no luck. I have not used it for about 6 months due to a virus that was on it I could not figure out how to get it off there. So I left it alone.

Can any of you pc geeks tell me how to get into this thing?

JUICED96Z

iTrader: (2)

The onwer/CEO of MSD gave it to me after I talked to him on another site for a while about his tech help people.

He said he is personally involved with trying to make the tech help line better and more helpfull.

This other guy is the guy that the Top Fuel Teams call if they have a problem.
Id rather not post it and have him get questions that the tech people can't answer.


Im sure Fry's can get into it, I knew a computer guy that said getting around that was fairly easy.

My old combo did not like to crank for very long, if you did not get it started pretty quick then you had to charge the battery up.

To help the battery on a cold engine I would get the fuel pressure up and then kill the pump and start the car, once it started it hit the pumps. Could also do this and crank it with the ignition off then hit the ignition after a few seconds...

JRracing

iTrader: (35)

Well I took the pc to Fry's and they said it is corrupt. They will have to clear it off and reload it with vista. He is going to try to recover any data he can but doubtful it will work. Vista is harder to crack into with all the security **** it has. Oh'well.

But on the up side... I didn't need it to get it fired up today. We put 110 leaded in the tank and primed it up to check for leaks. All was good so we hit the starter and it acted like it wanted to run. I pumped the carb a bunch of times to dump the fuel in it and tried again. It started right up. I kept it at about 2000 rpm's until it was warmed up a little. Oil pressure was 60psi temp got up to 150 so I turned the fans and water pump on. Then let it idle for a sec. The rockers were very noisy, they still need adjusted.

I did find a few oil leaks. 1 from the oil sending unit, seems like it needs thread sealant put on it. And the 2nd was pouring out of two bolt holes in the front of the oil pan. Looks like little 6mm bolts go in there. they are not the bolts that go into the block.

I'll post a video and pics tonight when we get back from dinner.. I'm VERY relieved to see it run again. You know how it is when assembling a motor yourself, you never know what could be wrong. LOL.

JUICED96Z

iTrader: (2)

Congats man, glad all that hard work is paying off.


I have a 5.3 truck motor with some goodies sitting in my garage now

JRracing

iTrader: (35)

Video up, The quality sucks. now before anyone blow's me any ****. The rockers need to be adjusted. So they are quit noisy. We will be fixxing this tomorrow as well as a few oil leaks. And my laptop is fix and ready to be picked up. I'm gonna get it in the morning so we can play with the MSD software after getting the motor dialed in.

The car is not near as loud as I thought it would be.

JRracing

iTrader: (35)

Some pics to look at of wiring and exhaust.

JRracing

iTrader: (35)

Well the rockers were loud cause they were beating the **** out of the valve covers. I hope it didn't hurt anything. I had to clearance the inside of the covers with a grinder. They still hit a little bit so I need to do it again tomorrow. This will be the 4th time I've had to do this. The motor sounds a lot better now.

I also got the oil leak's fixxed.