Poor man's LS1 ITB fab-up
06-01-2014, 11:00 AM
#21
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I'm as old school as anyone. There were many years when my tech tool was a dremel. My orbital sander is still my main power tool. Have to buy a new one every couple years. Dude, you seriously need to go out and buy an old inexpensive Bridgeport CNC mill. Teach yourself the software. Learn how to use it and learn how to fix it. After that there is not much in your head that cannot be turned in to metal (that sounded kind of weird..). Took me a couple years to get good at it but now I can make things I never thought I would own. Only bad part is now everything has three digits after the decimal. Everything. A man with your raw talent can really benefit with a machine like that. You should look into it.
Did this start as a kit or something? Was it the real thing? How many molds did you have to make? I think you should start or have someone start a website about the car, from the first drawings up to now. Outside of my own Vette' its the coolest budget build I have ever seen.
Did this start as a kit or something? Was it the real thing? How many molds did you have to make? I think you should start or have someone start a website about the car, from the first drawings up to now. Outside of my own Vette' its the coolest budget build I have ever seen.
06-07-2014, 03:10 PM
#24
Did this start as a kit or something? Was it the real thing? How many molds did you have to make? I think you should start or have someone start a website about the car, from the first drawings up to now. Outside of my own Vette' its the coolest budget build I have ever seen.
I couldn't agree more on the Bridgeport idea. Today, I use those carbide tipped hole saws as an end mill in my drill press, to shape pieces of aluminum on an x-y table as a mill to get what I need. Not pretty, but very effective. My long-term goal is a decent metal lathe and a decent milling machine.
For anybody wanting to see the build from a photo perspective, you can see it at:
Build documentation
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Homer_Simpson (04-20-2023)
06-07-2014, 08:34 PM
#25
It started out as a Manta Mirage, but 5 years later, it only has about 5% of the original car left in it. No molds were made, but I did use foam and aluminum to make bucks for the fiberglass parts. Technical drawings and photos were about all I had to go on in turning it into the McLaren look-alike. As far as a budget build goes, after you build three of everything in an attempt to perfect or correct, then the budget is blown, and you find out you probably could have built the GT40/Lola T70/Porsche 917 kit just as economically.
I couldn't agree more on the Bridgeport idea. Today, I use those carbide tipped hole saws as an end mill in my drill press, to shape pieces of aluminum on an x-y table as a mill to get what I need. Not pretty, but very effective. My long-term goal is a decent metal lathe and a decent milling machine.
For anybody wanting to see the build from a photo perspective, you can see it at:
Build documentation
I couldn't agree more on the Bridgeport idea. Today, I use those carbide tipped hole saws as an end mill in my drill press, to shape pieces of aluminum on an x-y table as a mill to get what I need. Not pretty, but very effective. My long-term goal is a decent metal lathe and a decent milling machine.
For anybody wanting to see the build from a photo perspective, you can see it at:
Build documentation
10-01-2015, 07:38 AM
#26
Update (probably final one). The set-up works really well. Took it to the track and tuned the suspension, and took care of some fuel temperature issues, and found that the helmet amplifies the intake noise from the stacks behind my head (ear plugs mandatory). Pulls hard all the way to red-line, and until the tires are warm, can be a handful at WOT. No idea yet on HP, but guessing in the high 400, perhaps maybe right at five.
Last edited by blueovalz; 10-01-2015 at 07:46 AM.
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Homer_Simpson (04-20-2023)
10-01-2015, 09:06 PM
#29
Yeah, it idles real well, right from start-up. Throttle response is really good. I wouldn't say "instantaneous", but with a steel flywheel and pressure plate components, it's still pretty responsive.
Oh, and the wife is really cool! Now that it's painted, she's pretty jazzed about the whole thing, but expecting more house projects to be completed now.
Oh, and the wife is really cool! Now that it's painted, she's pretty jazzed about the whole thing, but expecting more house projects to be completed now.
10-16-2015, 09:46 AM
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Yeah, it idles real well, right from start-up. Throttle response is really good. I wouldn't say "instantaneous", but with a steel flywheel and pressure plate components, it's still pretty responsive.
Oh, and the wife is really cool! Now that it's painted, she's pretty jazzed about the whole thing, but expecting more house projects to be completed now.
Oh, and the wife is really cool! Now that it's painted, she's pretty jazzed about the whole thing, but expecting more house projects to be completed now.
10-19-2015, 08:29 AM
#32
Received a private message with some questions that I felt could benefit others, so here is my response to a request for close-ups of the shaft couplers. These were sourced from McMaster-Carr, and I believe the green ones were their tighter/stiffer ones allowing only 1 degree of misalignment. the center coupler is simply a double coupler with a steel arm welded to it. The two banks then are tied to an aluminum wheel that is rotated with a cable. This configuration allows a progressive opening rate, slow at first by quick when it gets near WOT. The base of the "wheel" is the vacuum reservoir for the MAP signal (8 hoses in, 1 out to MAP sensor).
Last edited by blueovalz; 10-19-2015 at 08:35 AM.
10-19-2015, 10:40 AM
#33
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Dont know what I would do without McMaster. The ear clamps they offer, or "pinch clamps" would really clean up the velocity stacks and get rid of all the hose clamps. Give it a OEM look. Not expensive.
10-19-2015, 01:10 PM
#34
I agree. I may do that with the upper bands on my set set of K&N filter stacks, but these other stacks (full length screen filtered ram-tubes) get swapped out periodically, and the hose clamps make it easy to do that. There is a difference in both sound and torque band between the two set-up, and I plan on putting it on the dyno to get a good comparison between the two (actually between the three - screen/K&N/no filter at all). I suspect the K&N flows better than the screen, but the shorter tubes on the K&N don't "come in" until about 4500 in both sound and torque.
10-19-2015, 02:32 PM
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I agree. I may do that with the upper bands on my set set of K&N filter stacks, but these other stacks (full length screen filtered ram-tubes) get swapped out periodically, and the hose clamps make it easy to do that. There is a difference in both sound and torque band between the two set-up, and I plan on putting it on the dyno to get a good comparison between the two (actually between the three - screen/K&N/no filter at all). I suspect the K&N flows better than the screen, but the shorter tubes on the K&N don't "come in" until about 4500 in both sound and torque.
Interesting. Different sounds from the intake (throttle bodies) or actually sound out the exhaust?
Last edited by Lasershop; 10-19-2015 at 04:38 PM. Reason: Clarity
03-06-2020, 05:29 AM
#38
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Interested in the power level that you achieved I've got a project I'm working on that needed an ITB set-up to be even remotely similar to the car I'm trying to emulate, but in order to finish the car up correctly, the aftermarket LS1 ITB set-ups were either too expensive, or not the correct design visually. So I started looking around for parts that I could work using "normal" garage tools to create an effective ITB set-up (could use my 48 IDA Webers, but I wanted to stay away from the hassle).
After 6 months of looking around I chose an Edelbrock Pro-Flow LS1 intake, and a bunch of Chrysler LHS 48mm throttle bodies (made by Holley...nice surprise. Anyway, I thought I'd throw some photos your way to share the work thus far. Currently I've spent about $700 for everything mechanical (what you see in these first two posts), and now trying to decide how to control this using an OEM GM ecu (if possible).
The thumbnails below are in order of the work of cutting the new intake manifold up, straightening the runners, cutting the remainder of the plenum off the runners, fabricating mounting plate (which was then cut into individual plates after welding to relieve some warping issues), and then a couple of photos of the salvage 48mm ITBs from a Chrysler LHS 3.5L motor. The neat thing about these ITBs is that they are fairly simple (from an OEM perspective) lacking in the usual garbage attached to an OEM TB. The 3.5L uses two of these (one on each side of the intake), which made the purchase even cheaper ($40 / pair).
After 6 months of looking around I chose an Edelbrock Pro-Flow LS1 intake, and a bunch of Chrysler LHS 48mm throttle bodies (made by Holley...nice surprise. Anyway, I thought I'd throw some photos your way to share the work thus far. Currently I've spent about $700 for everything mechanical (what you see in these first two posts), and now trying to decide how to control this using an OEM GM ecu (if possible).
The thumbnails below are in order of the work of cutting the new intake manifold up, straightening the runners, cutting the remainder of the plenum off the runners, fabricating mounting plate (which was then cut into individual plates after welding to relieve some warping issues), and then a couple of photos of the salvage 48mm ITBs from a Chrysler LHS 3.5L motor. The neat thing about these ITBs is that they are fairly simple (from an OEM perspective) lacking in the usual garbage attached to an OEM TB. The 3.5L uses two of these (one on each side of the intake), which made the purchase even cheaper ($40 / pair).
03-06-2020, 10:21 AM
#39
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Blueovalz hasn't been here for over 5 years.
