My Engine Committed Suicide Yesterday - RIP
06-24-2010, 08:07 PM
#181
I've finally managed to make some major steps in finding the information I've been searching for. On Tuesday John at SDPC helped me out with another order. This should be everything I need to start getting my engine assembled.
- LS2 Front Cover
- Oil Pressure Sending Unit – Short 1 wire sensor
- Timing chain damper – 12588670 LS2/LS3 Black Timing Chain Tensioner
- Head dowels and dumbbell plugs
- Complete gasket set with LS9 Head gaskets
- Extra L92 piston
I had been thinking that there was an electronic module I was missing for a long time, but we couldn't figure out what was missing. We decided that post my journey yesterday we could figure it out.
Yesterday aka Wednesday, Doc @ EFI Alchemy was nice enough to help me out with finding all of the wiring information for me in regards to repinning my harness and getting everything to work. He let me look at his car (98 repinned to 99+) and sure enough the first thing I noticed is that there was no module in that open slot. Apparently there just isn't anything that goes there on the 98+ cars. That works out for me as I don't have to order anything now.
Today, my 3/4ths-16 RH and LH taps came in the mail.
I can now get my LCA tubing tapped enough to fit the del spheres in there.
I'm working on getting all of my flycutting tools ordered. I am planning on using a Rev 2.096 valve with adhesive 40 grit sanding disks. I'm planning on using a die sit to thread the valve stem. Then, using a large nut with a flat washer attached to the bottom of it to set my cut depth. Monday should be the day I can get a lot of things done. My current work schedule is making things extremely difficult.
- LS2 Front Cover
- Oil Pressure Sending Unit – Short 1 wire sensor
- Timing chain damper – 12588670 LS2/LS3 Black Timing Chain Tensioner
- Head dowels and dumbbell plugs
- Complete gasket set with LS9 Head gaskets
- Extra L92 piston
I had been thinking that there was an electronic module I was missing for a long time, but we couldn't figure out what was missing. We decided that post my journey yesterday we could figure it out.
Yesterday aka Wednesday, Doc @ EFI Alchemy was nice enough to help me out with finding all of the wiring information for me in regards to repinning my harness and getting everything to work. He let me look at his car (98 repinned to 99+) and sure enough the first thing I noticed is that there was no module in that open slot. Apparently there just isn't anything that goes there on the 98+ cars. That works out for me as I don't have to order anything now.
Today, my 3/4ths-16 RH and LH taps came in the mail.
I can now get my LCA tubing tapped enough to fit the del spheres in there.
I'm working on getting all of my flycutting tools ordered. I am planning on using a Rev 2.096 valve with adhesive 40 grit sanding disks. I'm planning on using a die sit to thread the valve stem. Then, using a large nut with a flat washer attached to the bottom of it to set my cut depth. Monday should be the day I can get a lot of things done. My current work schedule is making things extremely difficult.
06-30-2010, 05:56 PM
#182
YEAH, PROGRESS!!!
The night of the 27th I took those 3/4-16 LH and RH taps to my aluminum LCA tubing and finished those off. I have to say that tapping them was a lot more work than I anticipated. I used my dad's table vise to hold them in place, a ratchet with a piece of PVC to give me some extra leverage, and a lot of sweat to get them tapped. After I got them tapped I made the mistake of trying to blow all of the remaining aluminum shavings out of the tube and ended up with a mouth full of aluminum dust. DON'T DO THINK THAT IS A GOOD IDEA, IT IS RETARDED. Even with them now tapped I was having a hell of a time getting one of the left handed rod ends to thread in. I lubricated the threads and end with WD40 and that seemed to help. Eventually, I got all of the ends back into the tubing:
The night of the 28th I started working on repinning the harness armed with the information Doc at EFI Alchemy supplied me with. I got all of the wires labeled and started pulling them out of the connectors. I got the all of them out, but the small ones in less than two minutes. I just used a tiny screwdriver and pushed them right out. When I got to the other connector they just wouldn't come out. I decided to take things one step further and just say, "Screw this." I broke out a razor blade and...
About an hour later:
I then ran into this issue:
Another email off to Doc, information was passed along, and things were resolved. I ended the night with a giant jumble of wiring every where and sore thumbs from trying to hold onto that connector as I massacred it with a razor.
Last night, the 29th I got almost everything finished up. It was extremely frustrating though because I went to start working around 9:40pm and didn't get started until midnight. I first noticed that I needed some dykes to cut the pins so I walked across the street to my parent's garage and made a raid. This was then proceeded by me walking back and forth four more times searching for a soldering iron, solder, and some other things. I found the soldering tools and then realized I needed an extension cord, then heat shrink tubing, or crimp connectors, etc... Each time I needed to stop what I was doing and then walk across the street.
Next, as I was soldering the iron my dad had from circa 1970 stopped working. I then had to drive 20 minutes to Walmart aka super hickville in the middle of the night to find a soldering iron. While I was there I went ahead and bought some more solder, crimp connectors, and a 500 watt light. The light was only $10 and I have to say awesome! I'm going to make something to hang it from later.
Once I finally got home I started hacking up some wiring and got everything moved to where it was supposed to be, taped off, and double checked:
The next step is simply getting power to the car. I have the harness repinned, but I don't have the engine harness side of things done. I went through the engine harness and counted six grounds. I know some of them go to the back of one of the heads, one or two go on the starter, but I really don't remember.
QUESTIONS
Where are the OEM grounds for the engine harness located? I also need to figure out if any of the sensors in the engine harness need to be connected to have power. Remember, I am not trying to start the car and can't with a blown up engine. All I want to achieve is to have electricity when I turn the key. Can I simply ground all of the engine harness grounds to the chassis or engine and plug in the PCM or is it more complicated than that?
The night of the 27th I took those 3/4-16 LH and RH taps to my aluminum LCA tubing and finished those off. I have to say that tapping them was a lot more work than I anticipated. I used my dad's table vise to hold them in place, a ratchet with a piece of PVC to give me some extra leverage, and a lot of sweat to get them tapped. After I got them tapped I made the mistake of trying to blow all of the remaining aluminum shavings out of the tube and ended up with a mouth full of aluminum dust. DON'T DO THINK THAT IS A GOOD IDEA, IT IS RETARDED. Even with them now tapped I was having a hell of a time getting one of the left handed rod ends to thread in. I lubricated the threads and end with WD40 and that seemed to help. Eventually, I got all of the ends back into the tubing:
The night of the 28th I started working on repinning the harness armed with the information Doc at EFI Alchemy supplied me with. I got all of the wires labeled and started pulling them out of the connectors. I got the all of them out, but the small ones in less than two minutes. I just used a tiny screwdriver and pushed them right out. When I got to the other connector they just wouldn't come out. I decided to take things one step further and just say, "Screw this." I broke out a razor blade and...
About an hour later:
I then ran into this issue:
Another email off to Doc, information was passed along, and things were resolved. I ended the night with a giant jumble of wiring every where and sore thumbs from trying to hold onto that connector as I massacred it with a razor.
Last night, the 29th I got almost everything finished up. It was extremely frustrating though because I went to start working around 9:40pm and didn't get started until midnight. I first noticed that I needed some dykes to cut the pins so I walked across the street to my parent's garage and made a raid. This was then proceeded by me walking back and forth four more times searching for a soldering iron, solder, and some other things. I found the soldering tools and then realized I needed an extension cord, then heat shrink tubing, or crimp connectors, etc... Each time I needed to stop what I was doing and then walk across the street.
Next, as I was soldering the iron my dad had from circa 1970 stopped working. I then had to drive 20 minutes to Walmart aka super hickville in the middle of the night to find a soldering iron. While I was there I went ahead and bought some more solder, crimp connectors, and a 500 watt light. The light was only $10 and I have to say awesome! I'm going to make something to hang it from later.
Once I finally got home I started hacking up some wiring and got everything moved to where it was supposed to be, taped off, and double checked:
The next step is simply getting power to the car. I have the harness repinned, but I don't have the engine harness side of things done. I went through the engine harness and counted six grounds. I know some of them go to the back of one of the heads, one or two go on the starter, but I really don't remember.
QUESTIONS
Where are the OEM grounds for the engine harness located? I also need to figure out if any of the sensors in the engine harness need to be connected to have power. Remember, I am not trying to start the car and can't with a blown up engine. All I want to achieve is to have electricity when I turn the key. Can I simply ground all of the engine harness grounds to the chassis or engine and plug in the PCM or is it more complicated than that?
07-01-2010, 02:50 AM
#183
POWER! - Finally, after about a year and a half. I got this done right before I had to be at work around 10:15pm. It is definetly kind of rigged up now in regards to the engine harness not being plugged into anything, but I don't need it to be. I have the four connectors on the passenger fender, interconnects, the PCM plugged in, and the grounds rigged. I have three grounds on a bolt for the water pump to ground the engine and one ground for the chassis in front of the battery, but... IT WORKS!
My battery is dead so I have it jumped off of my 95. You can see the jumper cables in this picture and my car in the next.
I also think this is the only picture I have with all three of my cars in it:
To say I am excited is an understatement. I tested out all of my power accessories, lights, blinkers, radio, cd player, gauges, etc... and it all works. Enter Sandman was the song on the radio when I pushed the button.
. I can now start working on wiring up my BLS kit, autotrix passenger window fix, move the battery to the trunk, install and wire the two fuel pumps, etc... PROGRESS!
My battery is dead so I have it jumped off of my 95. You can see the jumper cables in this picture and my car in the next.
I also think this is the only picture I have with all three of my cars in it:
To say I am excited is an understatement. I tested out all of my power accessories, lights, blinkers, radio, cd player, gauges, etc... and it all works. Enter Sandman was the song on the radio when I pushed the button.
. I can now start working on wiring up my BLS kit, autotrix passenger window fix, move the battery to the trunk, install and wire the two fuel pumps, etc... PROGRESS! 
07-01-2010, 10:36 PM
#185
Yeah, it was great! When I opened my garage door my neighbor came over to see what was up. I told him I was messing with my car and that I almost have power to it, but my battery was dead. I drove my car around to the garage side, hooked up the jumper cables, and blam power. I was jumping up and down like a little school girl. He looked at me like I was a little out of it, but then I explained to him that I hadn't had electrical power in around a year and a half.
This is the first major step I've taken towards getting the car running again. I've bought a million parts, but this is visible progress. Now, with electricity much more will follow.
This is the first major step I've taken towards getting the car running again. I've bought a million parts, but this is visible progress. Now, with electricity much more will follow.
07-16-2010, 12:11 AM
#187
I will have some more slight progress below once I type it up.
I can hope, but I've never driven anything down the track before. We'll she what she can do once it's all together that's for sure.
I can hope, but I've never driven anything down the track before. We'll she what she can do once it's all together that's for sure.
Last edited by Beaflag VonRathburg; 07-16-2010 at 01:35 AM.
07-16-2010, 11:21 PM
#188
I haven't worked too much on the car recently, but have continually been seeing my money disappearing. I've completely underestimated the amount of money it was going to cost me to get this thing running once again and every time I turn around there are more expenses.
Most of the money I was talking about I spent on the night of the 12th at work. I reordered all of the cobalt digital gauges I need along with some 2-1/16th angle rings. I am planning on making my own pod out of acrylic to mount them above the center AC vents. I kind of have it laid out, but have yet to do anything with it yet. That same night I also ordered some digital calipers, a burette with holder (already received), 2x 2.100 intake valves, a 200 amp inline fuse, and fuse holder for my battery relocation.
My basic plan is to use the 2.100 intake valves as my own fly cutting tool like LS1Formulation did a while ago with a little different methology. I am going to thread the valve stem from 8mm to 1/4-20, use feeler gauges to measure my .050 cut from the top of the valve stem, and then use a lock nut as my stopper. I went and bought all of the supplies the other day, but need the valves to come into get everything rolling:
Once the valves and extra piston get here I am going to measure the OEM L92 piston reliefs, cut my .050, and measure that to get a total -cc dish for the piston. From there I can figure out how much I will need to mill the heads to achieve my compression goals.
The largest piece of progress happened on Thursday the 15th. Every once in a while there are those kinds of deals that pop up that you cannot in the right state of mind pass up on regardless of the circumstances. I managed to bump into those once again and it happens to be a very nice set of heads, rockers, and pushrods. I know you guys are thinking... HE CHANGED HIS MIND AGAIN!!! I knew he would even though he said he wouldn't. If you guys had this kind of deal lined up you wouldn't pass on them either.
Here they are and the last picture is the reason I got them for the amount I did:
Intake runners - Clean:
Exhaust runners also very clean:
8 1.7 and 1.8 Crane polymatrix rockers, stands, and pushrods:
Seven extra 1.7 rockers, rocker shafts, and bolts:
Here is why they were priced the way they were:
I've had two people say that they would be fine to run as is, one say they'd want to look at them, and another locally that I am going to have check them out.
Thursday night I started checking them out and took those pictures. I did my best to check them over and they look good. The damage between the valves doesn't seem to have touched the seats at all. I was going to swap two of the springs over to a checker set, but my compressor wouldn't work. The rocker bolt holes on these have been opened up to accept a larger 3/8-16 bolt instead of the oem size which is the same size as the stud I have for my compressor. I went to Home Depot today and bought a couple 3.5 inch long 3/8-16 bolts with some washers and nuts along with a couple other things to make a stand for my burette. I haven't messed with it yet, but am going to here shortly. I'll swap a couple of the springs over and do some flat valve drop measurements to see what sort of added clearance I have over my Dart heads.
I'm thinking I'm going to step up to a solid grind now with the adjustable rockers. I have a set of unused jesel solid lifters in the garage that I bought a long time ago so I can use those. The only cost will be buying a slightly beefier set of springs, but I found a nice drop in set of 1.290 springs that are rated as:
160 lbs @ 1.750
400 lbs @ 1.150
will handle .750 lift with ample coil clearance
I figure I can sell the springs on these heads and the new set of .660 lift springs I have and simply buy the new ones, swap them out, drop in my jesel lifters, and proceed as normal.
Most of the money I was talking about I spent on the night of the 12th at work. I reordered all of the cobalt digital gauges I need along with some 2-1/16th angle rings. I am planning on making my own pod out of acrylic to mount them above the center AC vents. I kind of have it laid out, but have yet to do anything with it yet. That same night I also ordered some digital calipers, a burette with holder (already received), 2x 2.100 intake valves, a 200 amp inline fuse, and fuse holder for my battery relocation.
My basic plan is to use the 2.100 intake valves as my own fly cutting tool like LS1Formulation did a while ago with a little different methology. I am going to thread the valve stem from 8mm to 1/4-20, use feeler gauges to measure my .050 cut from the top of the valve stem, and then use a lock nut as my stopper. I went and bought all of the supplies the other day, but need the valves to come into get everything rolling:
Once the valves and extra piston get here I am going to measure the OEM L92 piston reliefs, cut my .050, and measure that to get a total -cc dish for the piston. From there I can figure out how much I will need to mill the heads to achieve my compression goals.
The largest piece of progress happened on Thursday the 15th. Every once in a while there are those kinds of deals that pop up that you cannot in the right state of mind pass up on regardless of the circumstances. I managed to bump into those once again and it happens to be a very nice set of heads, rockers, and pushrods. I know you guys are thinking... HE CHANGED HIS MIND AGAIN!!! I knew he would even though he said he wouldn't. If you guys had this kind of deal lined up you wouldn't pass on them either.
Here they are and the last picture is the reason I got them for the amount I did:
Intake runners - Clean:
Exhaust runners also very clean:
8 1.7 and 1.8 Crane polymatrix rockers, stands, and pushrods:
Seven extra 1.7 rockers, rocker shafts, and bolts:
Here is why they were priced the way they were:
I've had two people say that they would be fine to run as is, one say they'd want to look at them, and another locally that I am going to have check them out.
Thursday night I started checking them out and took those pictures. I did my best to check them over and they look good. The damage between the valves doesn't seem to have touched the seats at all. I was going to swap two of the springs over to a checker set, but my compressor wouldn't work. The rocker bolt holes on these have been opened up to accept a larger 3/8-16 bolt instead of the oem size which is the same size as the stud I have for my compressor. I went to Home Depot today and bought a couple 3.5 inch long 3/8-16 bolts with some washers and nuts along with a couple other things to make a stand for my burette. I haven't messed with it yet, but am going to here shortly. I'll swap a couple of the springs over and do some flat valve drop measurements to see what sort of added clearance I have over my Dart heads.
I'm thinking I'm going to step up to a solid grind now with the adjustable rockers. I have a set of unused jesel solid lifters in the garage that I bought a long time ago so I can use those. The only cost will be buying a slightly beefier set of springs, but I found a nice drop in set of 1.290 springs that are rated as:
160 lbs @ 1.750
400 lbs @ 1.150
will handle .750 lift with ample coil clearance
I figure I can sell the springs on these heads and the new set of .660 lift springs I have and simply buy the new ones, swap them out, drop in my jesel lifters, and proceed as normal.
07-19-2010, 01:05 AM
#190
Thanks, I will keep the updates coming. Here's another decent one.
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I had all day off of work yesterday (Saturday) so I decided as soon as I got up I would start working on the car and get as much done as I could. I happened to get up at 1:30pm, but worked until around 3am and was pretty productive. My original plan was to pull a couple of the springs off of my new heads, swap them out for the checker springs, and remeasure my valve drop. I have to admit on a
level that this set of springs was giving me hell. I was having issues, but it all came down to how I was trying to do.
I was simply snugging the compressor against the springs and then trying to tap the retainers out. When tapping didn't work that eventually transformed into bashing with a mini sledge which still didn't work. I eventually started to compress the spring down about half way and then lightly tapping the retainers loose. Once I got that down they came out right away.
Upon pulling the first valve spring I noticed that the seat had some damage to it on the very edge. I pretty much thought, "Damn, now I'm going to have to pull all of these bitches." This was also before I got the methology down. After pulling all of them I found four intake seats damaged from extremely slight to obvious. Here is the worst one:
Upon pulling the exhaust spring I noticed for some odd reason the one spring I had just pulled off of the intake valve is different than the other 15:
??? I have no idea on this one. The inside spring looks taller, but it still has a normal gold / extreme gold retainer on it.
Followed by the least obvious.
Two of the seats looked like this. The first one I found damaged was in between this level and the worst.
I sent Mike at TEA an email with pictures of the damage around 4am last night. We'll see what he has to say, but I believe the seats will need to be swapped out and a new valve job done. I'd prefer not to spend the money, but I want to have complete confidence in the items I am running. I don't want anything small to cost me an engine. If they get shipped out to them I'll have them do a lot of the measuring I was planning on having to do and milling the heads.
After I got the heads taken apart and inspected I simply built a stand for my burette. I bought the materials for less than $5 and put it together in 10 minutes including finding all of the tools. It works just the same as the $45 + shipping the supply company was going to charge.
With that out of the way also I decided to start on the first thing on my wiring process which was rerouting my fuse boxes out of the way to clean things up. This was a mother ****** of a task as there isn't much slack in the oem harness. I also had my garage door shut to keep the mosquitos out so it was boiling hot in there.
I started off by moving the fuse boxes out of the way and pulling the oem bracket. I then jacked the front of the car up and pulled the driver's side front wheel. I then pulled the OEM air pump bracket out of the way.. It leaves you with this:
I started by simply trying to jam the fuse boxes down the hole, but quickly realized that wasn't working too well. I figured I'd make the hole larger so I then took my sawzall, a metal cutting blade, and removed the material between the two areas to enlarge the hole.
After I had some more space I jammed the boxes all through the hole, but was now trying to figure out a way to mount them. I decided to pull the four OEM clip looking things that hold the bolts for the air pump bracket. My plan was to take four long bolts and drop them down through there to hold a square of aluminum flat bar. Well, at 9:15pm all of the hardware stores were closed so that kind of killed that idea. I started measuring things and my next idea was to mount the bracket where the cruise control module normally mounts. I would have worked pretty well, but I didn't have the right parts to pull it off so I just decided to jam them through, let them hang there, and zip tie everything.
I knew that the new cut I had just made would eventually work through the OEM wiring even though I had filed it decently smooth, but all of the shops were closed by now. I pulled all of the boxes back out, went outside to the parts car I have in my driveway, and started hunting for some sort of suitable weather stripping or grommet. I ended up pulling the metal trim piece off of the passenger side that goes along the door seal / roof and pealing a giant section of the windshields weather stripping off. I used my heat gun to contour it to the shape of the new hole and zip tied it up.
Around this time I was fighting with the wiring and trying to get more of the harness towards the hole that had just been made smaller by the weather stripping. Well, the ABS block was in the way and I plan on deleting it anyways so I pulled that off and added it to my pile of crap. I then put the plug for the ABS block down the hole I cut also and used the front cruise control mount as the new ground for it. I didn't know if it needed to be grounded any longer, but figured I had the space and I might as well.
I then figured I could mount the headlight module the same way, but to the rear mount:
With those out of the way I just started adding a couple extra zip ties to keep things in place and from moving around too much. Here's the whole thing pre extra zip ties from the bottom:
Here is the top view with everything moved:
Here's a little more of a zoomed out view without the ABS block in there:
I also started looking around at the OEM grounds and looking towards where I could relocate them. I noticed the two above the headlights, the one just inside of the driver's frame rail towards the radiator, and one for the battery. I decided to move the two above the headlights beneath the lid base:
I added an extra washer to it just in case.
By this time I was getting tired and decided to call it a night. Here's all of the crap I managed to pull off of the car:
I still have to move the other two grounds. I'm not too sure where those are going to go just yet. I'm going to work on it tomorrow as much as I can. My plans involve moving those other two grounds, drilling out the OEM fuse box mount, rerouting the hood latch cable, and making a cover out of acrylic for the hole that all of the fuse box wiring runs through. I should have another update late tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I had all day off of work yesterday (Saturday) so I decided as soon as I got up I would start working on the car and get as much done as I could. I happened to get up at 1:30pm, but worked until around 3am and was pretty productive. My original plan was to pull a couple of the springs off of my new heads, swap them out for the checker springs, and remeasure my valve drop. I have to admit on a
level that this set of springs was giving me hell. I was having issues, but it all came down to how I was trying to do. I was simply snugging the compressor against the springs and then trying to tap the retainers out. When tapping didn't work that eventually transformed into bashing with a mini sledge which still didn't work. I eventually started to compress the spring down about half way and then lightly tapping the retainers loose. Once I got that down they came out right away.
Upon pulling the first valve spring I noticed that the seat had some damage to it on the very edge. I pretty much thought, "Damn, now I'm going to have to pull all of these bitches." This was also before I got the methology down. After pulling all of them I found four intake seats damaged from extremely slight to obvious. Here is the worst one:
Upon pulling the exhaust spring I noticed for some odd reason the one spring I had just pulled off of the intake valve is different than the other 15:
??? I have no idea on this one. The inside spring looks taller, but it still has a normal gold / extreme gold retainer on it.
Followed by the least obvious.
Two of the seats looked like this. The first one I found damaged was in between this level and the worst.
I sent Mike at TEA an email with pictures of the damage around 4am last night. We'll see what he has to say, but I believe the seats will need to be swapped out and a new valve job done. I'd prefer not to spend the money, but I want to have complete confidence in the items I am running. I don't want anything small to cost me an engine. If they get shipped out to them I'll have them do a lot of the measuring I was planning on having to do and milling the heads.
After I got the heads taken apart and inspected I simply built a stand for my burette. I bought the materials for less than $5 and put it together in 10 minutes including finding all of the tools. It works just the same as the $45 + shipping the supply company was going to charge.
With that out of the way also I decided to start on the first thing on my wiring process which was rerouting my fuse boxes out of the way to clean things up. This was a mother ****** of a task as there isn't much slack in the oem harness. I also had my garage door shut to keep the mosquitos out so it was boiling hot in there.
I started off by moving the fuse boxes out of the way and pulling the oem bracket. I then jacked the front of the car up and pulled the driver's side front wheel. I then pulled the OEM air pump bracket out of the way.. It leaves you with this:
I started by simply trying to jam the fuse boxes down the hole, but quickly realized that wasn't working too well. I figured I'd make the hole larger so I then took my sawzall, a metal cutting blade, and removed the material between the two areas to enlarge the hole.
After I had some more space I jammed the boxes all through the hole, but was now trying to figure out a way to mount them. I decided to pull the four OEM clip looking things that hold the bolts for the air pump bracket. My plan was to take four long bolts and drop them down through there to hold a square of aluminum flat bar. Well, at 9:15pm all of the hardware stores were closed so that kind of killed that idea. I started measuring things and my next idea was to mount the bracket where the cruise control module normally mounts. I would have worked pretty well, but I didn't have the right parts to pull it off so I just decided to jam them through, let them hang there, and zip tie everything.
I knew that the new cut I had just made would eventually work through the OEM wiring even though I had filed it decently smooth, but all of the shops were closed by now. I pulled all of the boxes back out, went outside to the parts car I have in my driveway, and started hunting for some sort of suitable weather stripping or grommet. I ended up pulling the metal trim piece off of the passenger side that goes along the door seal / roof and pealing a giant section of the windshields weather stripping off. I used my heat gun to contour it to the shape of the new hole and zip tied it up.
Around this time I was fighting with the wiring and trying to get more of the harness towards the hole that had just been made smaller by the weather stripping. Well, the ABS block was in the way and I plan on deleting it anyways so I pulled that off and added it to my pile of crap. I then put the plug for the ABS block down the hole I cut also and used the front cruise control mount as the new ground for it. I didn't know if it needed to be grounded any longer, but figured I had the space and I might as well.
I then figured I could mount the headlight module the same way, but to the rear mount:
With those out of the way I just started adding a couple extra zip ties to keep things in place and from moving around too much. Here's the whole thing pre extra zip ties from the bottom:
Here is the top view with everything moved:
Here's a little more of a zoomed out view without the ABS block in there:
I also started looking around at the OEM grounds and looking towards where I could relocate them. I noticed the two above the headlights, the one just inside of the driver's frame rail towards the radiator, and one for the battery. I decided to move the two above the headlights beneath the lid base:
I added an extra washer to it just in case.
By this time I was getting tired and decided to call it a night. Here's all of the crap I managed to pull off of the car:
I still have to move the other two grounds. I'm not too sure where those are going to go just yet. I'm going to work on it tomorrow as much as I can. My plans involve moving those other two grounds, drilling out the OEM fuse box mount, rerouting the hood latch cable, and making a cover out of acrylic for the hole that all of the fuse box wiring runs through. I should have another update late tomorrow.
07-20-2010, 02:31 AM
#191
I continued working on my fuse panel cover today and didn't get very far. I made a rough template out of cardboard and paper. I decided to keep the OEM fuse box bracket to help mount my new acrylic covers as it would be more work to figure out how to add mounts cleanly. Once I had the cardboard piece on the car it looked pretty good.
I had to make another trip to Home Depot for some supplies and ended up with $88.89 missing from my checking account. I bought a 1.75 hole saw, sawzall blades, the cheapest jig saw they had, some blades for that, velcro, and some universal weather stripping, and another sheet of acrylic. Besides the jig saw and blades the rest is for tucking the passenger side wires and the hood latch cable. I got home, popped out the jigsaw, put a new blade in it and started cutting. This is the first time I've ever used one so it took some getting used to. I found that if I went too slow or quickly the acrylic would crack. I was having a hell of a time cutting this from a large sheet and had one corner break a couple times. Thankfully, it is the corner that goes beneath the rubber stopper for the hood so you can't see it very much. It still needs a ton of trimming to make it fit right, but here's where I'm at now:
I'm going to try and get this whole side finished tomorrow. I'm pretty sure it is going to take me a ton of time trimming the thing to get it to fit correctly and then getting it mounted up. If I can get it finished it will be onto the other side which might take me even longer as there's a few more odd bends.
I had to make another trip to Home Depot for some supplies and ended up with $88.89 missing from my checking account. I bought a 1.75 hole saw, sawzall blades, the cheapest jig saw they had, some blades for that, velcro, and some universal weather stripping, and another sheet of acrylic. Besides the jig saw and blades the rest is for tucking the passenger side wires and the hood latch cable. I got home, popped out the jigsaw, put a new blade in it and started cutting. This is the first time I've ever used one so it took some getting used to. I found that if I went too slow or quickly the acrylic would crack. I was having a hell of a time cutting this from a large sheet and had one corner break a couple times. Thankfully, it is the corner that goes beneath the rubber stopper for the hood so you can't see it very much. It still needs a ton of trimming to make it fit right, but here's where I'm at now:
I'm going to try and get this whole side finished tomorrow. I'm pretty sure it is going to take me a ton of time trimming the thing to get it to fit correctly and then getting it mounted up. If I can get it finished it will be onto the other side which might take me even longer as there's a few more odd bends.
08-22-2010, 04:04 AM
#192
Things are going to be changing a lot here shortly. I am parting out my 93 project, selling that car, and quite a few parts from this. The new giant 39 item parts for sale thread is listed here:
https://ls1tech.com/forums/parts-cla...tion-sale.html
My 93 will be listed for sale here in the next couple days as well as a rolling chassis.
https://ls1tech.com/forums/parts-cla...tion-sale.html
My 93 will be listed for sale here in the next couple days as well as a rolling chassis.
09-10-2010, 12:31 PM
#193
I haven't been feeling too motivated to work on the car, but I decided to take somethings out of my room and down to the garage. While down there I figured I would finally get the measurements for my Redline shift boot to be made that I had ordered around the beginning of May. The problem was I had been waiting for my straight shifter stick from Speed Inc. for about two months. Even after I was told it was shipped it took around 13-14 days to get here... I'll leave it at that. At least I got it though.
Since my car got pillaged and I didn't have a shifter on it I just dropped the new one in and went to work. I tighteneded down the four bolts and started trying to go through the gears. I figured that I had it in neutral because I could get 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 easily. The problem is that I don't think it is actually going into reverse. Here are a few pictures to help illustrate what I'm talking about.
Here is what I started with. I believe this to be neutral, but like I said I'm not 100% sure if I moved it or anything:
Now, here is where my problem arrises. This is the car in fifth gear.
Now, here is the car in what might be reverse:
It looks pretty much exactly the same. I can also take the shifter straight down and put it in sixth gear. Which, if I remember correctly I should not be able to do, but it has been a really long time since I drove my car. Sixth gear:
On the bright side it appears I won't be punching my CD player any longer trying to shift into third gear like I would with my B&M shifter. The downside is that I can't get the damn thing into reverse. I have an idea on jacking up the rear end of the car. If it is in reverse the wheels should only roll backwards unless I am confused. I could use some assistance with this.
Thoughts?
Since my car got pillaged and I didn't have a shifter on it I just dropped the new one in and went to work. I tighteneded down the four bolts and started trying to go through the gears. I figured that I had it in neutral because I could get 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 easily. The problem is that I don't think it is actually going into reverse. Here are a few pictures to help illustrate what I'm talking about.
Here is what I started with. I believe this to be neutral, but like I said I'm not 100% sure if I moved it or anything:
Now, here is where my problem arrises. This is the car in fifth gear.
Now, here is the car in what might be reverse:
It looks pretty much exactly the same. I can also take the shifter straight down and put it in sixth gear. Which, if I remember correctly I should not be able to do, but it has been a really long time since I drove my car. Sixth gear:
On the bright side it appears I won't be punching my CD player any longer trying to shift into third gear like I would with my B&M shifter. The downside is that I can't get the damn thing into reverse. I have an idea on jacking up the rear end of the car. If it is in reverse the wheels should only roll backwards unless I am confused. I could use some assistance with this.
Thoughts?
09-10-2010, 05:17 PM
#194
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To the right and up is 5th, then straight back from that is sixth. All the way to the right and up is reverse. You can't go back once you're all the way to the right. You shouldn't even be able to get into reverse with the key off because of the reverse lockout solenoid. It's really hard to overcome it.
09-14-2010, 03:28 PM
#195
To the right and up is 5th, then straight back from that is sixth. All the way to the right and up is reverse. You can't go back once you're all the way to the right. You shouldn't even be able to get into reverse with the key off because of the reverse lockout solenoid. It's really hard to overcome it.
09-23-2010, 03:50 PM
#196
I haven't been able to mess with checking out the reverse lockout solenoid yet because my battery is dead once again. I do have it on the charger now though and am giving it a little time to get some juice in it. I plan on messing with the car once again tonight and as much as I can tomorrow. I figured last night that I should get working on it once again and actually suprised myself with how much I got done. It gave me some motivation to get to the grindstone once again.
I knew my battery was dead so I decided to pick up on working on cleaning up the engine bay. I started by working on finishing my driver's side fuse panel relocation cover piece. My dad let me borrow his Dremel tool a while ago to work on something around the house and I figured that if I used one of the metal cutting disk on the acrylic that it would pretty much mow right through it. I was right and slowly started carving down the large piece I had to fit. I found that was taking way too long cutting it down .25-.50 of an inch at a time so I decided to make a new cardboard template and just cut it once.
Template:
With the template made I went to work on cutting it out of the piece I had been trimming on. In about two minutes I had an almost perfect cover:
I cleaned it up a little after this and it looks damn good. I plan on painting them MTM to blend in with everything else. I also did some measuring and found that my future plans should work out exactly how I want them.
The next thing I started on was removing the factory hold down for the fuse boxes. I figured that if I moved the fuses why leave it there. It has a couple pain in the *** spot welds holding it in.
I got to cutting them out with the same metal cutting disk on the dremel I used to cut the acrylic.
Gone:
I plan on sandind down the rough spots and painting them.
After I got all of that stuff out of the way I decided to reroute the hood latch. I couldn't get the kick panel off without being able to move my seat or remove it. I made the decision to undo it at the latch instead as it would be easier. Once I got it undone I found a spot in the inner metal where there was already a slight gap. I found that I would only have to open it up about a quarter inch to fit the largest part of the hood latch cable through it. I used a metal carbide tool on the dremel and slowly made the hole just large enough to fit the cable through:
While I was doing this a piece of the dremel tool towards the front decided to eject off of the dremel and land right next to the fender vents. I had to take the inner wheel liner off to get it out and found a million leaves in there. I'm going to have to vacuum them out later.
I then flipped the factory hold down over so that it faced down and ran it throug the inner fender area.
Once it was through I just crammed the cable back towards the hood latch, reattached it, and made sure it worked. Here's how it sits right now:
Once it is all cleaned up it should look pretty darn good. I plan on working on the passenger side tonight.
EDIT: I also forgot that a few days ago I bought a new transmission that will be getting overhauled for some big power soon. I'm just waiting for the guy to ship it now. I'll post some pictures once it gets here. It's a pretty neat piece and something different than the usual viper main shaft builds.
I knew my battery was dead so I decided to pick up on working on cleaning up the engine bay. I started by working on finishing my driver's side fuse panel relocation cover piece. My dad let me borrow his Dremel tool a while ago to work on something around the house and I figured that if I used one of the metal cutting disk on the acrylic that it would pretty much mow right through it. I was right and slowly started carving down the large piece I had to fit. I found that was taking way too long cutting it down .25-.50 of an inch at a time so I decided to make a new cardboard template and just cut it once.
Template:
With the template made I went to work on cutting it out of the piece I had been trimming on. In about two minutes I had an almost perfect cover:
I cleaned it up a little after this and it looks damn good. I plan on painting them MTM to blend in with everything else. I also did some measuring and found that my future plans should work out exactly how I want them.
The next thing I started on was removing the factory hold down for the fuse boxes. I figured that if I moved the fuses why leave it there. It has a couple pain in the *** spot welds holding it in.
I got to cutting them out with the same metal cutting disk on the dremel I used to cut the acrylic.
Gone:
I plan on sandind down the rough spots and painting them.
After I got all of that stuff out of the way I decided to reroute the hood latch. I couldn't get the kick panel off without being able to move my seat or remove it. I made the decision to undo it at the latch instead as it would be easier. Once I got it undone I found a spot in the inner metal where there was already a slight gap. I found that I would only have to open it up about a quarter inch to fit the largest part of the hood latch cable through it. I used a metal carbide tool on the dremel and slowly made the hole just large enough to fit the cable through:
While I was doing this a piece of the dremel tool towards the front decided to eject off of the dremel and land right next to the fender vents. I had to take the inner wheel liner off to get it out and found a million leaves in there. I'm going to have to vacuum them out later.
I then flipped the factory hold down over so that it faced down and ran it throug the inner fender area.
Once it was through I just crammed the cable back towards the hood latch, reattached it, and made sure it worked. Here's how it sits right now:
Once it is all cleaned up it should look pretty darn good. I plan on working on the passenger side tonight.
EDIT: I also forgot that a few days ago I bought a new transmission that will be getting overhauled for some big power soon. I'm just waiting for the guy to ship it now. I'll post some pictures once it gets here. It's a pretty neat piece and something different than the usual viper main shaft builds.
09-24-2010, 03:55 PM
#197
I left my battery on the charger for about five hours yesterday so that when I got home it would be close to fully charged. Come to find out that even after five hours on the charger it was only around 70-72% charged. Either way it was enough battery power for me to hook it up and finally be able to get my shifter measurements. I lugged my center console back into its place. I have to say that it is a rather long object to be spinning around inside of a small car with a person sitting in the driver seat. I managed to get it in after pinning my leg between the steering wheel and the console a couple times. I had to double check that it was in the right spot after I got it in because the shifter was really offset to the passenger side. I wasn’t sure if I had everything in there right, but finally decided that’s where it went.
Odd offset:
With the key in, power on, and the clutch pushed in I finally managed to get the damn thing in reverse.
I won’t lie and say that it went right in. I actually started to get mad because I still wasn’t able to get it to go into reverse. I finally got it on about the fifth try. I guess my shifting skills are just super rusty.
With the shifter in reverse I finally managed to get the measurements that I was supposed to give Maciek at Redline Goods when I ordered my shift boot on 5-27-10. I ordered the shifter boot about half an hour after I ordered the shifter and short stick online from Speed Inc. I was informed by Maciek the next morning that he would need specific measurements to make the shift boot. I told him that I didn’t have the shifter yet, but that the shifters were on back order from Speed Inc. and whenever I got it I would mock everything up and get him the information.
I got the shifter and short stick in on 6-9-10. Unfortunately, I received the angled short stick when I wanted the straight one. There wasn’t a spot on the order form when I ordered it and I didn’t mention anything about it so I guess they just sent me what they had in stock. I was also waiting on some parts from my original order that I placed on 5-13-10 so I decided to give them a call. The guy was really nice and told me that my parts I was waiting on arrived the day before and that they were shipping everything out today. He also told me that he would exchange the shifter stick for me. I shipped the shifter stick out and it was received 6-12-10. Then, as time went on I got to deal with a bunch of mixed up orders, shipping parts to the wrong address, and other crap that I would have preferred not to have had to deal with. Everything eventually got here after many phone calls and emails. This included my straight shifter stick which was on backorder and arrived on 8-30-10 over two months after I sent back the angled one. The other some what amusing thing is that I was told that it, “shipped USPS” the 13th yet I didn’t receive it until the 30th. * Keep this in mind*
After getting all of the shifter measurements I went upstairs, found some extra cardboard, and started making a template for the passenger side. This one was certainly more difficult and time consuming to make. I had to make a few decisions about how I wanted things to fit and if I wanted to keep the stock coolant overflow tank. I decided to keep it to avoid spending more money and worked around it.
Here’s the template:
After I finished the template I used my fancy pink highlighter to trace out the template and got to cutting. I used the same metal cutting wheel on the dremel. This side was more involved than the other, but it still worked well aside from spitting hot acrylic shards all over the left side of my body.
Trimmed up:
I’m going to smooth the edges out to make it look a little cleaner.
I took a complete engine bay photo too just to get an idea of how the whole thing is going to turn out.
I’m more likely than not going to raise the passenger side cover to be the same height as the driver’s side one. I realized that it is a little lower and I don’t want it to look odd. I think that the engine bay will look really good once all of the dirt, leaves, and spider webs are cleaned up, the engine bay dings, and covers painted. The last steps are getting the battery relocated, moving a couple grounds, and doing the wire tuck on the passenger side.
Out of those last steps the only one I could currently work on with the state of the engine bay wiring was moving the battery. It was the next task on my list and because I ordered all of the parts from Speed Inc. I though I was set… I read the directions and figured that even though I didn’t know where to run the positive power cable to that I could at least get the battery box mounted in the spare tire area. I told the guy when I ordered it that was my plan and he told me that they have a Moroso box and relocation kit that would work… Well, slight problem again:
*Refresher from the earlier material needed* No matter which was I turned it the damn thing still wasn’t even close to fitting. This set back of course made me upset because I was specific in saying that I wanted it to fit in the spare tire area, being told that this piece would work, and come to find out it isn’t even remotely close. It’s kind of along the lines of saying I want poly motor mounts, waiting over a month for them, receiving all of the poly parts, but one motor mount, calling, being told that I was only charged for a single motor mount, paying for a second one, waiting again, having my second mount I paid for shipped to the wrong address, waiting again for a replacement to be shipped, eventually receiving it on Saturday, July 10th, and the tracking number for the package I’d already received the following Monday July 13th. What was I going to do with one poly motor mount and now what I am going to do with a battery box that won’t fit where I was told it would? I’m not trying to bash Speed Inc. as they’ve made everything right up to this point, but this is getting really frustrating.
In attempting to make something positive out of this debacle what sealed battery boxes actually fit 100% in the spare tire area? Apparently, I am going to need a new one. I could also use some help in figuring out how to run the new power cable. I checked out the OEM battery cables in hopes of figuring out how to run the new one. I found that the positive terminal splits off with the red cable running towards the starter. The other side of the positive cable splits off with the red (+) side going to the fuse box and the black (-) side going towards the alternator. I’m not too sure how to run the new positive power wire. Obviously, the negative is just going to ground the chassis, but the positive….? I’m thinking about just some how connecting the new power wire to the OEM positive side of the battery cables, but I’m not sure if that’d work. If anyone has pictures or could draw a simple diagram of how they moved their battery I would really appreciate the help.
Odd offset:
With the key in, power on, and the clutch pushed in I finally managed to get the damn thing in reverse.
I won’t lie and say that it went right in. I actually started to get mad because I still wasn’t able to get it to go into reverse. I finally got it on about the fifth try. I guess my shifting skills are just super rusty.
With the shifter in reverse I finally managed to get the measurements that I was supposed to give Maciek at Redline Goods when I ordered my shift boot on 5-27-10. I ordered the shifter boot about half an hour after I ordered the shifter and short stick online from Speed Inc. I was informed by Maciek the next morning that he would need specific measurements to make the shift boot. I told him that I didn’t have the shifter yet, but that the shifters were on back order from Speed Inc. and whenever I got it I would mock everything up and get him the information.
I got the shifter and short stick in on 6-9-10. Unfortunately, I received the angled short stick when I wanted the straight one. There wasn’t a spot on the order form when I ordered it and I didn’t mention anything about it so I guess they just sent me what they had in stock. I was also waiting on some parts from my original order that I placed on 5-13-10 so I decided to give them a call. The guy was really nice and told me that my parts I was waiting on arrived the day before and that they were shipping everything out today. He also told me that he would exchange the shifter stick for me. I shipped the shifter stick out and it was received 6-12-10. Then, as time went on I got to deal with a bunch of mixed up orders, shipping parts to the wrong address, and other crap that I would have preferred not to have had to deal with. Everything eventually got here after many phone calls and emails. This included my straight shifter stick which was on backorder and arrived on 8-30-10 over two months after I sent back the angled one. The other some what amusing thing is that I was told that it, “shipped USPS” the 13th yet I didn’t receive it until the 30th. * Keep this in mind*
After getting all of the shifter measurements I went upstairs, found some extra cardboard, and started making a template for the passenger side. This one was certainly more difficult and time consuming to make. I had to make a few decisions about how I wanted things to fit and if I wanted to keep the stock coolant overflow tank. I decided to keep it to avoid spending more money and worked around it.
Here’s the template:
After I finished the template I used my fancy pink highlighter to trace out the template and got to cutting. I used the same metal cutting wheel on the dremel. This side was more involved than the other, but it still worked well aside from spitting hot acrylic shards all over the left side of my body.
Trimmed up:
I’m going to smooth the edges out to make it look a little cleaner.
I took a complete engine bay photo too just to get an idea of how the whole thing is going to turn out.
I’m more likely than not going to raise the passenger side cover to be the same height as the driver’s side one. I realized that it is a little lower and I don’t want it to look odd. I think that the engine bay will look really good once all of the dirt, leaves, and spider webs are cleaned up, the engine bay dings, and covers painted. The last steps are getting the battery relocated, moving a couple grounds, and doing the wire tuck on the passenger side.
Out of those last steps the only one I could currently work on with the state of the engine bay wiring was moving the battery. It was the next task on my list and because I ordered all of the parts from Speed Inc. I though I was set… I read the directions and figured that even though I didn’t know where to run the positive power cable to that I could at least get the battery box mounted in the spare tire area. I told the guy when I ordered it that was my plan and he told me that they have a Moroso box and relocation kit that would work… Well, slight problem again:
*Refresher from the earlier material needed* No matter which was I turned it the damn thing still wasn’t even close to fitting. This set back of course made me upset because I was specific in saying that I wanted it to fit in the spare tire area, being told that this piece would work, and come to find out it isn’t even remotely close. It’s kind of along the lines of saying I want poly motor mounts, waiting over a month for them, receiving all of the poly parts, but one motor mount, calling, being told that I was only charged for a single motor mount, paying for a second one, waiting again, having my second mount I paid for shipped to the wrong address, waiting again for a replacement to be shipped, eventually receiving it on Saturday, July 10th, and the tracking number for the package I’d already received the following Monday July 13th. What was I going to do with one poly motor mount and now what I am going to do with a battery box that won’t fit where I was told it would? I’m not trying to bash Speed Inc. as they’ve made everything right up to this point, but this is getting really frustrating.
In attempting to make something positive out of this debacle what sealed battery boxes actually fit 100% in the spare tire area? Apparently, I am going to need a new one. I could also use some help in figuring out how to run the new power cable. I checked out the OEM battery cables in hopes of figuring out how to run the new one. I found that the positive terminal splits off with the red cable running towards the starter. The other side of the positive cable splits off with the red (+) side going to the fuse box and the black (-) side going towards the alternator. I’m not too sure how to run the new positive power wire. Obviously, the negative is just going to ground the chassis, but the positive….? I’m thinking about just some how connecting the new power wire to the OEM positive side of the battery cables, but I’m not sure if that’d work. If anyone has pictures or could draw a simple diagram of how they moved their battery I would really appreciate the help.
10-08-2010, 01:26 AM
#200
I don't really want to, but it doesn't really make sense to keep it. I've spent a small fortune in parts on this car so far and I'm only a little over half way of having everything. Then, all of the time and frustration I've spent working on this thing. I'm really going to need a break from doing anything after I get this car done. In the mean time if it doesn't sell I'll just hang onto it. I'll have an extra rear end, aluminum driveshaft, and 6 speed transmission from this car so if it comes to it I'll just frankenstein everything together as much as I can.