It's coming along nicely!

You are lucky, chasing the holes with the motor in the car wasn't the funnest thing to to do...

Are the heads going on this weekend?

 

excellent build thread ! keep up the good work !

 

I can only imagine! Turning the motor upside down so that the thread chaser and gravity could do all of the work made life easier.

If the head gaskets arrive, thats the plan. I will be measuring PTV in the next day or two, after that, they are ready to go on!

Thanks!

 

Out with the old, and in with the new!!



While I wait for head gaskets, i installed the water pump and mocked up a valve cover to get a better shot of how its all gonna look.



I hit a snag installing the front suspension, and am having issues with the fitment of my aftermarket k member to my stock control arms. I contacted the manufacturer so hopefully I hear something back soon! For now, to make it to TX2K, the stock k member may be going back in. I will just have to see how it all shakes out.

 

Dana is in, and all of the suspension is in to finish up the ABS delete. Everything is still hand tight, but will get torqued down once the motor and trans are in, and I can load the suspension. Won't be long now, and the motor will be ready to drop in.

 

Got a lot done this weekend, with some setbacks along the way.

Checked PTV with some .030 shims I ordered to match my compressed head gasket thickness. Ended up with over .200" of clearance on both the intake and exhaust side.







Head gaskets arrived. Initially when I opened the box, I didn't realize it. But, when I got ready to install, Cometic only sent me one head gasket. I have the passenger side sitting on the .030 shims I ordered, and I used those for checking pushrod length. Everything came in real nice on pushrod length using the EOIC method and following Darths write up.



Mocking up the FAST 102 one last time on the stand.



Engine bay wiped down, ABS delete complete and bled, no leaks!!



Everything attached to the motor. I decided to go ahead and install the motor with the passenger side header on so I can fab the exhaust up this week while I wait for my head gasket and pushrods. Then the header will come out, and the head will get torqued down. Hopefully with the tubular k member it won't be a big issue to drop the header.







Shes in!!!!

 

Im soo ready to see track times and a dyno sheet of this beast. For some reason I quit getting updates, glad I came back and looked cars looking good man Tony has a few of us set up to build some bad **** it appears. Just wish I had the income to move this quick

 

Looking good except that garage! Entirely too clean and organized!

Can't wait for some results.

 

Geez, talk about progress!

You made that look way too easy, by the way. Did your hands even get dirty?

 

Awesome man. You started your project after me and are finishing waaaaay before lol. Great work! I agree way too clean. I try to keep my garage that clean but it never works out. Too many projects.

Can't wait to see dyno sheet and especially track times

 

Thanks guys!! Hopefully she will fire up this weekend! Haha yes I did get a little dirty putting it all back together, but nothing like coming apart. All of the time spent cleaning the parts and painting them really paid off for ease of install! It's amazing what two guys can do in a weekend, I definitely could not have gotten this far this fast without a good friend of mine coming over and giving me a hand, and my fiance letting me pit this much time into it before 2k. I wish the garage was as clean as it looks, I shoved everything into a pile and out of the cameras view before taking them

 

Getting the suspension all set up, I am sure I will have to fine tune it after a few miles, but hey, it's a good starting point! My 2nd head gasket and pushrods will be here tomorrow. It's almost time to get cracking!

 

Yep.....I've nick-named him "Red label" Ryan

This guy is an animal when it comes to getting **** together....I may have to fly him out here to help put my C5 back together!)

Looking GREAT....man the rushed nature of everything scares me a little.....leaves so much potential for a snafu here and there with everything you addressed but man it is very impressive what you have accomplished and did so looking good all the way

The spray booth was awesome also.....LOL

Good stuff!

=)

 

No ****.. It took me almost 4 months to get my build done, and another month of testing and tuning. I think I could have got it done in half the time if I would have just pulled the motor... oh well.

Congrats on the build! Looks like you did an awesome job!

 

Haha thanks Tony! I agree, it all being rushed makes me a little nervous too, but once it starts up, it will get a 2-3 mile drive around the neighborhood, and get put back on the air to double check everything. Having a nice typed up MS word list with everything I need to do in order(took about 3 days of brainstorming) has made all of the difference.

Head gaskets and all 16 pushrods arrived yesterday. Head #2 is on, all pushrods measured out and installed within .003" of what was originally measured, torqued down, motor rotated 180 and re-torqued. Went ahead and went another 180 and double checked torque to be safe. All 8 spark plugs gapped to .028 and installed, valve covers torqued down, plug wires on, and intake mocked up for now.

 

What Ram Aim setup are you running? I'm in the market for one..

 

4 months is about right. I started tearing the car apart in November.

Its the regular SSRA from WS6 Store.

 

Everything looks so good man. Can't wait to hear you start up! Crazy close now! It's always crazy when you redo so much. I've had quite a few weird things happen after redoing an entire car. Just need to be careful at first. It's always good to have a second set of eyes go over stuff for you. My buddy down the street and I do that. We will just give a quick look over each others cars when we finish stuff. We both look at things differently so it helps when you've stared at it forever, having someone else look at it.

Red Label Ryan might just stick lol. Almost time to work on that other build

 

It is very close! The car should be firing up Sunday! A second set of eyes is key. I am going to be very nervous on that first drive no matter what.

Ha yeah the TA needs some love for sure. It may have to sit a little longer as me and my fiance are thinking about starting up a company.

 

Good thing you poured all this money into the car, then. conventional wisdom would have saved it. You sir, are a trendbreaker!