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Finally decided to pull the trigger and build up a decently fast street car, so I sold off both my motorcycles, and began putting together a kit, with ample help and advice from LT1RAY. I've owned a c5 z06 and a c5 FRC prior to this car, and always wanted to but a blower on both of them, but never had the time, funds, or knowledge. Prior to this build, the most mechanical experience I've had was a 4l60e swap on my NBS Silverado. I've also been procrastinating putting together the build thread, and uploading photos, so at this point, I'm over a week into dis assembly. I will try to keep this thread updated as much as possible on, at least, a semi daily basis.
I picked this car up from a Craigslist ad in Albuquerque, Ray also found the ad for me. About a 5 hour drive each way to pick it up in January, and luckily , the weather cooperated. Here's how she sat the day after driving home. Gave her a quick polish and rejex.
Picked up some WS6 wheels, after debating between them and TT2s. So far, the only mods are the wheels, and a Tick master cylinder to help my failing slave along, until we moved into our own house in March.
Shortly after moving, picked up the clutch kit, and got to work replacing it and the slave. The old one flywheel looked like it had been abused quite a bit.
Drove the car for about 700 miles after this, to give the clutch some time to break in, while I posted up the bikes for sale. This is when I decided to start a turbo build.
Ordered parts mid April, and they started showing up shortly after! Getting really excited by this point, but I still enjoyed driving the car stock, so I waited for boxes to start showing up before taking stuff apart.
This was over a week ago, started taking the front end of the car apart. Bumper, fans, airlid, etc.
It was late so I stopped there for a couple of days. Next up were the coil packs, fuel rails, and AC. Kinda worked on this here and there when I had time after work for several days.
Manifolds came off surprisingly easy. I had anti siezed all of the y-pipe bolts and catback bolts when changing the clutch, so this time they were also not a headache. The SLP catback wouldn't come apart however, pretty much stopped for a couple of days after getting mad banging on it with a mallet.
Came back eventually, and pulled out the plugs, intake manifold, and other misc parts.
Decided I wanted to drop the fuel tank yesterday. Was able to get the catback weasled out of there after I dropped the support above the panhard bar.
Also pulled the thermostat and block plugs, to let them drain at least overnight, since I had forgotten to when I drained out the radiator earlier in the week.
Found these nice lights left in my attic, was pretty excited to be able to keep working on the car late.
Fuel tank out finally. The garage reeked of gas for hours, and so did I. Did some reorganizing while I let some fans pull the fumes out for a while.
Here's how we're sitting right now. I'm going to try to get a lot of work done on the car over my weekend (Sun-Tue), and get the piping at least mocked up. The turbo has not shipped yet, as I understand they are on backorder for a while, but I will try to keep the thread updated with photos and commentary. I'll also take more detailed photos of the parts as they go in, everything Ray has pointed me towards has looked awesome. Thanks for taking the time to read it all!
I'm running the same turbo in an M6 car. You'll love the way it feels. About the time you pull it into 4th gear and stand on it and it hits you will think "oh snap, that needle is moving faster then I expected."
I'm running the same turbo in an M6 car. You'll love the way it feels. About the time you pull it into 4th gear and stand on it and it hits you will think "oh snap, that needle is moving faster then I expected."
good luck with the build, just finished mine. Don't know if you were planning on doing the coolant crossover for the rear of heads but now would be the time and its cheap and easy to do. Also I ran into some power steering line issues with mine which you may want to look into. My motor was a 02 WS6 also which had the p/s cooler in the upper radiator hose which made a tight tangle of p/s lines which are very close to all that heat. I ended up deleting the cooler ad got a set of braided p/s lines. Just a thought as they aren't too expensive and will be a lot easier to install before all that piping is in the way !
good luck with the build, just finished mine. Don't know if you were planning on doing the coolant crossover for the rear of heads but now would be the time and its cheap and easy to do. Also I ran into some power steering line issues with mine which you may want to look into. My motor was a 02 WS6 also which had the p/s cooler in the upper radiator hose which made a tight tangle of p/s lines which are very close to all that heat. I ended up deleting the cooler ad got a set of braided p/s lines. Just a thought as they aren't too expensive and will be a lot easier to install before all that piping is in the way !
Where did you get the braided p/s lines from?
OP looks very similar to my stack of parts! I'll be watching this as you go along
OP looks very similar to my stack of parts! I'll be watching this as you go along
cbr performance. Huron sells them also but these were a little cheaper and seem to be the same, and the biggest reason I went with these is that you can choose 3 days flat rate shipping for about 13 bucks, I think Huron even needed 3-5 days to make them if they weren't stocked.
Update: Didn't have a whole lot of time to work on the car last weekend, due to helping some friends out, and family being in town, but I got a few things done.
Looked up my block serial, not an LS6, lol.
Yanked the alternator off...the negative post nut was completely siezed to the strap, so the post that threads into the alternator came out. I tried to get the nut off to no avail, ended up having to pop the cover off the alternator and spin it off.
Took the valve covers off. Doesn't look too bad.
Lifters off.
Rods out.
Also drained the power steering, and deleted the lines and cooler, since I got some steel braided ones with the Huron Speed kit, but I forgot to snap any pics of that.
Will hopefully get the springs and rods installed sometime over the new few days, and best part, the turbo gets delivered today!
Pulled the block plugs, got all that coolant drained out without too much mess. Had to pull the starter to get to the passenger side, which I forgot to take a photo of.
Power steering pump off. Putting new lines from Huron Speed on there as well, so I'm deleting the cooler.
Heads off. Thinking I'm gonna order some rockers and lifters now.
The stock rockers are fine, though you may want to yank the needle bearings and put something a bit more stable in there.
For the A/C, are you planning on running custom lines? The OEM line (the one which loops out in front of the block) melted in mine- even with DEI velcro heat reflective wrap...
The stock rockers are fine, though you may want to yank the needle bearings and put something a bit more stable in there.
For the A/C, are you planning on running custom lines? The OEM line (the one which loops out in front of the block) melted in mine- even with DEI velcro heat reflective wrap...
AC is deleted, I'm doing the bearing upgrade, not entirely new rockers.
If your gonna go with the Derale fans, I would suggest running the higher amp truck alternator. Should bolt in place of the stock one and can pick them up at wrecking yards on the cheap. Just remember to get a new wire connector to plug into the alternator. Is a thread floating around somewhere about it.
If your gonna go with the Derale fans, I would suggest running the higher amp truck alternator. Should bolt in place of the stock one and can pick them up at wrecking yards on the cheap. Just remember to get a new wire connector to plug into the alternator. Is a thread floating around somewhere about it.
Listen to this guy ^^^^. im battling this right now.
I have the huron speed t6 kit and so far so good. Good products!
Realized I hadn't posted an update in about a week, but here's some progress photos.
Got my pan off earlier this week. It's actually in the shop getting a bung welded on, since I decided to go that route, hopefully will have it back today or tomorrow.
Also decided to clean up the heads. Need to finish on the block still, but I can't quite get to the back of it with the motor on stands.
Before:
And after, still a couple of spots I could maybe touch up on, but they look pretty good!
Got a decent amount done this weekend. Got my pan back from being welded, so I was excited to get that put back on. Picked up some torque wrenches and other misc tools.
Old motor mounts out. They looked pretty crappy, but that's to be expected at 90k miles.
New mounts in. I actually put the bolts on backwards in this photo, ended up having to flip them around to clear the block then torqued them down.
Got the mounts back on, the pan on and torqued, and EVENTUALLY all bolted back up to the K.
Lastly got the intercooler mounted up. Feels good to finally get something installed!
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02 T/A HuronSpeed Turbo Build Thread 
