I got a good bit done this weekend. I finished my crossover pipe. I don’t have a flex in it but I did order one from ace race parts. I bought a bellows style one. I may install it before I get it running. I was shooting for it to be running this weekend but I had to order a few more things. My oil line was way too long so I ordered a more suitable one with a 90 fitting on it for a cleaner routing. I got most of my connection pipe done that goes from my down pipe to my exhaust. O2 bung is about where the trans pan is for my wideband. Not sure if I mentioned it but I put the front of the engine back together. I’m having to move a couple wires and cut a notch in the battery tray so my coolant tank will fit. Hopefully it will be running by the weekend. I’m still looking for injectors. I’m trying not to buy new ones because my funds are running on fumes right about now. So if any one has some injectors that are drop in ls1 style around 60-80lbs, let me know. Thx

Ok my fellas, I had a wild hair tonight and decide to try and build my coolant tank. I think I may have wasted my time because the highest coolant level possible in the tank sits a couple inches lower that the top of the radiator. O well. I’ll try it and if it don’t work then I’ll do something else. No worries. Trial and error right? I was going to powder coat it semi gloss black but maybe I should wait huh?

Well I had fun no matter. I actually did the best by leaps and bounds tonight on my aluminum welding. I’ve barely been able to fuse crap together in the past. Im actually pretty excited it turned out as nice as it did and I didn’t have to grind weld off lmao!


*****edit, I think it will work as I forgot my radiator isn’t pushed down all the way. There won’t be much difference the top of the radiator and the coolant level.

Here’s where I decided it’s going



Cut some end caps out of .090 wall sheet aluminum.



Position it



Weld er up. Fill in the hole.




Welded bottom main fitting on that I made in my lathe and test fit



Time for the top piece the radiator cap goes on. I cut it off a cheap tank I bought and then machined a step on it. You’ll see why in a second. Made the hole bigger so it will snap into place



Weld it from the inside using no filler because of the step

I had to make one more fitting. This goes to the top of the radiator

The smaller one came with the tank I had. I’m not sure what size hose they use in China but it’s smaller than 3/8. I couldn’t use that.





Little test fit to see where I want the fitting



And it’s done besides powder coating and drilling a hole in the mounting tab that I made but forgot to take pics of. It’s just a mounting tab so who cares anyways! Lmao

Nightly update.

Got home today and my oil pressure line was here and so was my block of rubber. I wasn’t really planning on doing much but I did anyways. Went to my shop and cut my rubber blocks to locate my radiator further forward. Worked perfectly. Holes drilled in it easily. I hooked the hoses back up once I got the radiator and fans back in. Then I decided to work on my oil drain. I had picked up a push lock fitting for 10an hose I have. The hose would not go on for anything. I tried soapy water. Heat. And lithium grease. Nope. I’m not weak either. I gave up because I think either the China hose is slightly undersized or the fitting is the wrong size. It’s supposed to be 10an but it measures .600 between the barbs. I ended up using one of the fitting I had that I didn’t want to use. You screw the collar on to the hose and then screw the fitting into the collar and it locks on the hose. I don’t like it but it should work. If it don’t then I’ll change it.

I bought some Siemens deka 60lbs injectors today. They are 79lbs on our fuel pressure. Should get me to 550-600 on pump gas.

I didn’t do the pressure line yet because I’m waiting on a fitting. That shouldn’t be a big deal to do. I’m getting close guys. I may be able to hear it run this weekend!


My rubber blocks

So here’s the million dollar question. Bout the only thing I have left to buy is fuel pump. I have not decided which one to use. I want something drop in to get me by for now. I don’t plan on pushing it any time soon until the motor comes out and I go through it with h beams and forged slugs. 600rwhp would be my max expectation but more likely 550ish. I’m thinking about the deutchworks dw300. I have a gto and it’s returnless. For now.

I got my exhaust done. Finally. I’m happy how it turned out. This will be pretty much temporary until I feel like building the rest of the exhaust. For now I tied it into the shitty slp exhaust I have with a magnaflow muffler. It’s heavy as hell so I need to ditch it. Here’s my connection pipe. It’s basically a single 3” Mid pipe. If it stinks like gas then it’s getting a high flow cat. Check it

both. The drill press I have goes down to 250rpm so it works better.

Well fellas, my goal was to have it running this weekend but that didn’t happen. This **** is a lot of work omg. I did get a bunch done. I finished welding the manifold. I finished my mid pipe. Oils lines done. Wrapped the rack and some other lines in heat sleeve just for extra measure. Welded on my wastegate. I made the out tube to my down pipe for the wastegate, I did it outside the car on the bench and that was a mistake. It don’t fit. Luckily all I have to do is some minor cutting and welding and move the Move the tube tighter in. I drilled and tapped the compressor for a fitting for boost reference. Now Check these pics out.

so with that pump do I HAVE to run a return?

Maybe not. But dead head systems don’t react well to sudden flow changes, not to mention it heats the fuel up big time. I get my walbro 450 high pressure for $100, a $100 regulator and a bit of fuel line, and a bulkhead fitting for the tank and your done. The don’t use deadhead systems bc they work better, they work well enough for the intended application and are cheaper to produce. last thing you want is boost and a lean issue. How are you going to boost reference the head headed regulator? Does it have a vacuum port? Is it capable of higher than preset base pressures?

I really wasn’t planning on referencing fuel pressure. I guess I never thought it was necessary because no one has mentioned it in anything I’ve researched. My first go at this. I was just going to ramp fuel under boost using the map sensor and maf. There’s plenty of people running lower power applications where I assumed when they weren’t running a return line that they weren’t ramping fuel pressure. Maybe I wrong? I don’t plan on running much boost from the start. Right about now I don’t care if I have two psi boost, I just want my car running. Wife is on my *** because I’ve been at this for two months now. I just need to get it going and clean up this mess and get it off of jack stands. My theory is, get what I’ve got now lined out before I start adding more potential things to my potential problems and then I’ve got more crap to handle. Make sense?

it’s very neccessary. Your base pressure is what your injector data is based off of (flow wise), so say base is 58psi if you run 10psi of boost your only seeing 48psi fuel pressure, 10psi is a good bit of fuel flow. What happens is the injectors lean out and your ECM compensates by increasing injector pulse width (it can only accommodate so much) and then you got a lean condition and pop. Of course low boost is less dramatic but even in old procharger kits they provided a FMU to increase fuel during boost.

All those times you see JY 5.3 turbo builds and they have the stock truck rails (most get the one with the return line) and they have regulators built in that are vacuum referenced. Once boost is in the intake the regulator sees boost and increase fuel pressure by pushing down on the diaphram. They essentially get a return style boost referenced fuel system which is perfect.

I would agree with your train of thought, but your fuel system is not going to work well, and your about to spend money on a fuel pump. Why not think... do it right and do it once! Your spent a lot of money on SCH40 SS what’s a week to get th fuel system done. Also I’m not sure what “low boost” is but your single wyntom 44mm wastegate might not let you get as low as you might think. There is a limit to how MUCH exhaust it will bypass. U might manage 6psi minimum, or hell even 10psi... it depends on a lot of things

Got it all fitting in there now. I’m not so sure about my slip fit on the wastegate to down pipe so I cutting a slot in it and using a t bolt clamp and some red high temp silicon to seal it. Might throw my wideband off if it leaks.

well I guess I’ll have to rely on just the clamp. How do v band clamps seal? There’s no gasket and it just don’t look like they seal well to me.