I am building a Thompson Motorsports LM4 346 for my 2000 B4C. The goal is a nearly stock-plus-exhaust sounding street machine with reliability in mind, 10+ years of use and a generally unique car. I've gathered nearly all of the engine parts I'll need aside from the pushrods, here's the list:

12566910 (LM4) bored to 3.898 (fresh) short block with stock pistons, stock stroke
799 heads milled to 62.5cc with a VJ and PAC 1218 springs, 02 GM MLS gaskets
TR55 plugs, MSD wires
LS6 cam (5308)
LS2 timing set
LS2 timing chain dampener
Melling oil pump
Powerbond 10% UD pulley
LS2 water pump
LS6 intake
36# FIC injectors
LS7 lifters/LS2 trays
1 7/8" TSP headers, ORY, Magnaflow catback, Poly engine mounts

I'm assembling the motor on the stand while the B4C continues to be my DD. Other goodies will include a built A4 from a vendor TBD with a stall TBD and a rebuilt 10 bolt with 3.42 gears and a rear cover. Suspension plans are fairly straight forward since I already have 35/22mm sway bars, PHB, LCAs and relo brackets, SFCs and Torque arm. Changes will include swapping the Bilstein/Vogtland struts for Bilstein/Stock with BMR 1" lowering A-arms and a torque arm relocation cross member.

I'm fairly firm on all of these details, but I could use some input on the trans/stall decision...

Here is the patient, Jake (named by my little sister, our family loves the Blues Brothers ) in 2008:



And here is current:





All huddled up for hurricane Irene:



I picked up the short block in Texas at the beginning of September... in my new Mazda 3. Can you tell it's squatting?



And here's my little corner of the garage for it...



A whole bunch of work will slow me down here, but I hope to work on it through October.

 

Man, I'm bad at this documentation thing...

Starting to pull two Fridays ago


Pulled two Fridays ago


Short block built to long block, being assembled as parts are pulled off the old motor (like front and rear covers, oil pan, etc)


Completed front K-member, awaiting a Torx T50+ socket in the mail for transmission assembly


I decided on a Performabuilt Stage 2 trans with a 10.5" billet converter at something like 2800 stall. Again, I'm building this for longevity and novelty, not street killer.

With the way things are going, I'll likely have it together and running next weekend. Pics in 4 months, lol...

Edit: if you'd like reference pictures of anything in particular, let me know while this thing is out so I can get an idea of what to take more fuzzy pictures of!

 

Cool build. Ive got a 94 B4C that was never in service.

Were did you get the power steering pulley? It looks cool. Im going with Performabuilt also if I decide to stick with the 60e in my 98z. Ive heard alot of good things about them.

 

PS pulley was from eBay, piece of cake to install with the motor out! Not so much with it in...

I went with Performabuilt for the deals they did near the end of last year. I've got a picture of it bolted up, but meh... no one cares what a transmission looks like on the back of a motor until they have to take it off.

 

Alright, I'm ready for a first start! Everything's bolted up, all I have to do is drop in the fresh computer and pray! This isn't the first time I've started a freshly built motor, but it's the first time with a 4l60e and it's a freshly built one at that. So I do need some input from all of you guys on my first start plan...

According to the instructions from Performabuilt, I am supposed to add 6 quarts to the trans before starting. Done, along with all the fluids. So far I have about 8 quarts of coolant in there, the engine oil and break in additive will be added seconds before the first start and brakes will be bled at my leisure after the first start. Now here's the tricky part, the Performabuilt instructions say to add fluid immediately once the car is running off the ground. So, balancing a fresh engine start with the trans first start, here's my "plan":

1. Take battery tender off car and add engine oil/break in additive
2. On a lift with the rear wheels off the ground, prime the fuel pump a couple times to compensate for the empty fuel rail and injectors.
3. Crank til it starts, no more than 5 seconds of cranking. If it doesn't catch in 5 seconds, regroup and come up with a plan/inspect stuff.
4. Upon start, watch for oil pressure to come up to at least 60 psi within 5 seconds (60 because of the Melling oil pump). Ensure car will idle.
5. Once oil pressure is established and car is idling, quickly come around to the engine bay and begin funneling in the 6 remaining quarts of trans fluid while watching for leaks/unusual conditions.
6. If engine is not at operating temp, take trans slowly through the gears until the engine is warm.
7. Shut it off and allow it to cool while enjoying a cold bit of celebration
8. Top off fluids, inspect intake bolt torque, check new belt tension, bleed brakes and take for the first drive the next day
9. On first drive, drive 5 miles at 40-50mph with low throttle load to allow trans to wear in. Check fluids upon return.
10. After 30 miles of low load for the trans, change the engine oil and get on it with three moderate pulls to 4000 rpm over a few minutes.

So, am I doing it right? I'm not really nervous, but it seems like the break in procedures for a new motor and new trans are contradicting. I'll have a new rear end soon, but I didn't want to make things even more complicated in the break in, so that will be installed later.

Please toss in some input! I don't want to be surprised in the process!

 

Sounds like you got it covered. The only things I would hav done different on the build are a little bigger stall (3200) or so and a little larger cam.

 

Make sure you bleed the brakes before you try starting the car. You will want a way to stop the tires from turning when you're running the tranny through the gears.

 

Now that's a good point... I had figured I would have to depress the pedal to switch out of park, but I hadn't thought of keeping the wheels still through the process of running through the gears. Thanks for the tip!

 

Well, the first start happened over a week ago now, I have ~100 miles on it so far. The first start went almost exactly as planned, primed the fuel a few times, it caught after only a couple seconds of cranking, oil pressure came up to 60psi after just a couple seconds, and it found idle fairly easily. Thanks for all the advice from everyone, especially gunslinger for the brake bleeding pointer!

I nearly had a heart attack when a VERY aggressive rubbing/grinding noise started about 2 minutes into the first start. Long story short, the three torque converter mounting bolts were rubbing on the rear engine cover! The interaction probably started as the torque converter started filling with oil. Here's the result, note this bolt is a 10.9 bolt! Between the SFI flexplate and new converter, I didn't even think about the fact that I had replaced the hex head bolts with flanged ones that added a little height to the head... I'm just glad I found it before catastrophic failure occurred!



The oil pan had two hairline cracks at the front, this is now the second oil pan I've attempted to reuse that developed hairline cracks! This one was at the front two bolts and clearly occurred due to a lip from the block surface to the front cover surface. I swapped the pan in the car by lifting the motor and dropping the kmember. FML, that sucked. And it caused my steering rack seals to fail, so I swapped that too.

But finally after an alignment, it's running pretty well! Only thing is this thing revs up to 2500-3000k RPMs in city driving in 1st and 2nd before shifting, light throttle. I'm rationalizing that because of the 10.5" billet converter, but is that typical? It also doesn't seem to want to shift to 3rd in around town driving unless I manually select 3rd, it just skips 2 to 4 in D. Weird, anyone know what that is?

Here's how it sits now with the new BMR lower A-Arms, Bilsteins, stock springs and new power plant. Overall, I'm really pleased with how drivable it is, and it still screams at WOT!

 

I know sometimes the stock computer doesn't like a stall. You may have to tweek the trans programming in the tune.