MT0911

Hey guys! Well, after patiently piecing together this small build over the past year - I’m happy to say I’m finally ready to get the install going! If I happen to run into any tough patches - that’s what I have you guys for right?? Lol

Anyway let me start by letting you guys know what parts are going into my Vette. Now I did a lot of thinking before pulling the trigger on buying each of these parts and I believe it’s a pretty solid setup so needless to say I’m hoping for the best! I'm not looking for HUGE numbers, I really just want a very stout, fun - "driver's" car


I'll start out with this list and post pictures afterwards

Ride As It Sits Today:

‘99 C5 FRC

Stock Z51 Suspension
MGW Short Shifter
SLP Blackwing
Borla Stingers





Getting Tuned By Frost - Richmond VA
http://www.tunedbyfrost.com/

Parts I Am Installing For This Build:

- PRC Stage 2.5 CNC Ported LS6 Heads Milled @ 62.5 cc

- Lunati VooDoo #60512 Cam (232/238 599/601 113 LSA)

- PRC EHT .675” Double Spring Kit

- TSP Chromemoly Pushrods 7.400”

- TSP Ported LS6 Oil Pump

- JWIS C5R Timing Chain

- GM LS7 Lifters w/ LS2 Guide Trays

- Comp Cams LS Trunion Rocker Arm Upgrade

- PowerBond 25% Underdrive Pulley

- LS6 Intake Manifold - (Evil Performance Ported)
OEM - w-e .965 n-s 2.617
Ported - w-e 1.050 n-s 2.676

- LS6 Throttle Body - (Evil Performance Ported)
1. 2.9750 2.9995
2. 3.3165 3.3255
3. 3.6250 3.6770

- Kooks 1 7/8” Long Tube Headers w/ 3“x 3” O/R X-Pipe (Jet Hot 1700* Extreme Sterling Silver Coated)

- Monster Stage 2 Clutch w/ Billet Steel Flywheel

- Bosch 42 lb Fuel Injectors

- Elite2 Tunnel Reinforcement Plate w/ Thermal Cover

- ECS Transmission Brace

- Pfadt Transmission Mount

- C6 Z51 Front/Rear Sway Bars w/ Pfadt Poly Bushings & GM Metal Endlinks

- C5 Z06 Shocks

- ARP Bolts for the Heads/ Cam/ Balancer Bolt

- Gaskets/Seals (too much to list - see the pics)

- C6 Z06 wheels wrapped in Nitto NT555rII's (not pictured/ waiting till Spring time)


Here's some pics of everything:


























Well, that’s all. I've actually already started the build and more pictures are going to be posted shortly. And I’m planning on continuing to post pics each day of the progress to act as an aid for myself and keep you guys informed whoever wants to follow (thread will also be pretty cool for future reference). I'd like to use this thread as a note taking resource and a "home" to post questions along the way. I hope for everything to go as smooth as it can. Thanks for watching guys and thanks in advanced in case I reach out for any help!

MT0911

UPDATE:

Alright guys, I just started tearing into the Vette and it's coming along pretty good. I took these last night since I had the chance to work on the car for a short time.

Got her lifted up onto the jack stands!



Just taking some pics for the hell of it lol



One last look at the stock H-Pipe on the car before it comes off



There is sitting on the garage floor




More pics to come!:flag:

silversrtman

iTrader: (20)

nice! cant wait for more pics!

MT0911

UPDATE:

Alright I'm not finished yet today - just taking a break so I figured I'd post some pictures of the progress so far.

Got the Air Intake Assembly and the Throttle Body off



Disconnected all the water pump hoses



Got the water pump off - tried to catch as much coolant as possible in buckets but I soon realized that it was no use lol



Here is a picture of the beautiful pump



Alright... now I need you guys to take a look at this picture. I know everyone says it's beneficial to have a friend and I believe it but I figured I'd be able to get it done alone (and I did) but man.... that thing was painful lol.



Here is the assembly out of the car. I took the time to go ahead and clean both the radiator and the fan and the ac condenser in front of the car.



Unbolted the Alternator. Very simple:



Here it is waiting patiently to be reinstalled at the end of this surgery:



Unbolted the power steering cooler line brackets. I also uninstalled the front sway bar while I was down there



This power steering pump assembly was really a pain in the *** to get out. I tried unbolting the two 18mm bolts for the hydraulic connections on the steering rack with the whole assembly still installed. All I can say is there was no way... I unbolted the entire bracket, lifted it up and moved it over like in this picture below and it made my life so much easier.



Finally got it out after working on the bracket little by little.



Picture of my PS Pump assembly (yep got a little PS fluid on my boot lol)



Unbolted both of the tie rods



Unbolted the steering rack from the cross member and the abs controller block bracket for extra clearance



Victory! I got the steering rack out. Here it is poking out of the passenger side



And at this moment, here is my organized area where I am keeping tracking of all my bolts and stuff



Just taking a lunch break now and then I'm going to head back out there and try to get everything else out of the way so I can start taking those heads off! Seems to be coming along good guys!

Rise of the Phoenix

iTrader: (27)

Looks like you've got things under control so far. I commend you for digging in and doing it yourself. Really inspires me to do my own head/cam swap when the time comes. Good luck and I'll stay tuned for more.

MT0911

Thanks a lot man. Yep it's coming along pretty good. I'm hoping to have it wrapped up this week.

MT0911

UPDATE:

Ok guys, I'm back in the house (dinner time ). Here's some pics of what I did since last update. I feel pretty good like I'm making decent progress.

Unbolted both AIR tube fittings on both driver side and passenger side



I got the coil packs off



OK.... I attempted to disconnect the fuel line. What a huge pain in the a$$ ... I unscrewed the fuel pressure test port and everything went fine. Then I stuck my plastic 3/8" fuel line disconnect tool on the line and got ready to release... I pushed the line in and then I push the tool out (into the line) and then I pulled the line but it was a no go. I honestly played around with it for an hour .. I wiggled, turned, lifted, squeezed.... everything. And no luck. Which leads me to think that maybe one or more of the tongs/springs inside the fuel line is bent.



No worries - time to improvise . I went ahead and left it connected and laid down towels on the windshield and just flipped the fuel rail upside down. It is now successfully out of the way and I don't have to screw with the fuel line anymore .



I finished up removing my intake mainfold



Here's a shot of it with the coolant pipes



And last but not least I removed the exhaust manifolds



Here's a shot of them



Now next I'm going to be removing the Heads which really isn't difficult. And then my favorite part...... cleaning .

Thanks for watching guys!

Hanzy98LS1

iTrader: (6)

Lookin good bro take your time unboltin the rockers and head bolts thay strip easy n make shure the head bolt holes are spotess! Man you vette guys have it made!!

MT0911

lol Thanks man! I'm taking my time with everything, partly the reason why I do my own work - to make sure it's done right .

And yea I'm really looking forward to getting everything wrapped up. I've been slowly piecing this entire build together since beginning of 2010 so it's been almost 2 years! So being able to finally throw it all together - I'm thrilled.

I really hope to finish it up this weekend and cruise around on Saturday on the new tune and start the break in process.

MT0911

Going out there now to take off the heads!

themealonwheels

iTrader: (20)

Man, this is cool that you're documenting the progress so well despite the VERY short timeline! Thanks for doing it, it certainly is inspirational

MT0911

UPDATE:

Alright guys. Here's pictures of all the progress I got done yesterday.

Took the valve covers off



Got the rockers and pushrods out



The stock 853's are off now



Here's a shot of them laying on the ground



Took the lifters out. I kept taking the trays out and all the lifters would be stuck in the motor and since they had oil all over them they were slippery to pick up - thank goodness for the little magnet pickup tool lol



Here's a shot of the rockers, pushrods, lifters, and trays all organized (even though I'm replacing almost everything lol



Time to get that pulley off



Got my pulley puller on and ready to work



The pulley is now off - having the right tool is very nice



Time to get that timing cover off



Underneath the cover



Time to get that cam out



About 7/8's the way out. The key is to be gentle with the pressure. I would have loved to have a friend lift the ac condenser out of the way lol.



Old Cam - Top
New Cam - Bottom



Got the new cam installed and the old oil pump off - this part was a breeze. New cam went in very easily .



Old timing chain and oil pump - left
New timing chain and oil pump - right



Worked for a while trying to get the dots aligned. It took me a total of 3 tries to get it right (third times a charm right? lol) The first time I was one tooth off to the left - Second time I was one tooth off to the right. Third time - I knew what needed to happen. Everything looks good so far.



I got the new oil pump installed. I used red line assembly lube on the o-ring so it would slip on easy which is a good thing BUT I couldn't feel it seat very well due to the slippery-ness which worries me (I think everything along these lines worry me lol) so I rotated the oil pump on the gear until it seated flush with the pickup tube (yes the o-ring was on the tube and NOT in the pump) and I worked on screwing it in. Honestly there wasn't much space to work with so I'm a little worried. I uninstalled the whole thing after I got it on just to check and it was fine so I put it on again the same way and I'm hoping for the best. I'll find out when I crank the car up (and hopefully I have healthy oil pressure).



Changed the front seal on the timing cover (old seal on the right)



Got the front all buttoned up and the new pulley installed (I used the Hawk tool - very easy )



I picked an easy job to end the night : installed a new tunnel plate



I also decided that it would be simple to drop my new Kooks 1 7/8 longtubes in while I have the heads off of the car.... WRONG lol. It wasn't that big of a deal but even with the heads off I still had to remove the starter, loosen the motor mounts, and jack the motor on the passenger side. But here is a pic of both items on the car:



Thanks for watching guys!

MT0911

Thanks man! I'm doing my best .

I appreciate the support!

MT0911

Time to go out there now - I plan to work on the trunions for the my rockers , then get the new heads on the block, and the new intake manifold. Once those are on I'll start putting everything else back together.

Well, it looks like I have a good chance of getting it done this weekend like I planned! Hopefully I don't run into anything catastrophically bad lol (knock on wood).

Thanks!

themealonwheels

iTrader: (20)

I found a video on Youtube documenting the Trunnion upgrade. In the video, he says he had fun knocking those things apart. He was right, it was a lot of fun! Enjoy blasting needle bearings everywhere

On your oil pump, I'll be watching this thread. I've read what you apparently have read as well, and it sounds like you did it right. I'd want someone with experience to back up that statement, but it sounded good here. Keep up the good work and documentation!

MT0911

UPDATE:

Well... I knew things were going to smooth. I got the passenger side head on there and wanted to check PTV so I stuck two rocker arms, pushrods on cylinder #2 and started turning the motor by hand.... and what do ya know? I have PTV . So I'm thinking.. hey I must have been off on installing the cam (dot to dot method) so I took off the head and un-buttoned the front and checked. Nope - dot to dot install looks perfect. Cam Gear 6'oclock - Timing Sprocket 12'oclock (just like in the picture I posted). And if I crank the motor one more time 360 degrees (without heads) and cam gear is at 12 'oclock and timing sprocket is at 12 'oclock. So basically when dot to dot cylinders #1 and #6 are TDC. That sounds good to me and it looked fine.

So I put the heads on again- thinking since the pushrods and rockers are on there "maybe" I need to give a little more gentle force to get it going. Well... that didn't work out. So I thought "hey if it looks like I installed the cam right let me see if it clears my stock heads"... nope still got PTV.

So I took the cam gear off and did everything all over again just to reassure myself. Completed the dot to dot perfect (quadruple checked and I even climbed up onto the car so I could see it head on - I also brought a toothpick to line it up.) Everything looked good.

Tried both sets of heads AGAIN (this is the 3rd time) And I'm still getting PTV . My cam is not huge by any means and my heads are not milled drastically (specs are in the first post if you are curious). So now I'm stuck. What the hell am I missing ? Is there some secret trick that I don't know about? Advice would be awesome at this point (after installing heads 7 individual times and doing the dot to dot twice today .... I think I'm losing my mind

Thanks guys.

MT0911

Alright guys - Listen.... I just had an extremely rare opportunity that most of you may never experience. I looked at myself in the mirror and said YOU are a GENIUS! and do you guys know why? Well, let me tell you what I discovered....


You can avoid PTV if you install the rocker pedestal under the rocker arms...

Ok, honestly I looked at myself and said.. "You dumba$$! What the hell were you thinking not installing the rocker pedestal..." :rofl: something along those lines
Anyway, once I put that on - everything went very well. I was able to turn the motor over by hand very nicely about 4 times fully with both heads and the entire valvetrain installed. Terrific :thumbs:.

Now - I did take a lot of pictures once again but I'm afraid that I'm not yet finished for the night. I want to get the new intake manifold, throttle body, new fuel injectors in the rail, and pretty much the motor buttoned up completely so all that is left tomorrow is putting the steering rack back in. I just got my mail order tune from Steve (TunedByFrost down in Richmond,VA) - I plan on going to him for the full dyno tune. So tomorrow I'll be starting her up and I'll even get a video of the initial start so you guys can hear what she sounds like :thumbs:. (I just pray that damn o-ring is seated nicely )

Wish me luck guys! I think I'm actually reaching the end of the install soon !

Rare96LT1Formula

iTrader: (32)

Subscribed.


Love tracking these build threads!

s346k

iTrader: (4)

nice writeup. it's funny you mention the genius achievement. i had one of those when helping a friend do the same upgrades to his car. we had ptv issues, but it was because the pushrods were too long. it took about 10 minutes of WTF and checking, then i picked up the box and said who the **** uses 7.7 pushrods? wtf? yeah...it worked great with a shorter set. he had a larger cam and tfs 215 heads and .040 cometic gasket. calculations said it would be close, and after everything was installed correctly, it was.

94 s dime

iTrader: (10)

seems like a cool build, should move out nicely now