Last year after being saved from what could have been a really bad situation I started planning what my next upgrade was going to be. I was originally going to go with a 454 build, but after weighing the options (and the funding) I went with a LS3 based 416 build. This wasn't supposed to happen until Jan 2018. Interesting how things change. We started acquiring the parts back in January, but didn't actually start on the build until May after everything had been received.
Quite a few folks I want to recognize for their efforts:
Brett (Bare Essentials Racing) and Scott for all the major labor pieces and making it all work :thumbs::thumbs:
Texas Speed & Performance
Brandon at Maryland Speed for the "hook up" on the Kooks headers :thumbs:
Colorado Speed for the excellent support and pretty much still new Mantic twin (best choice for a clutch I could have made) :thumbs: :thumbs:
Tick Performance for the adjustable clutch master, slave, and other various parts :thumbs:
It started off with this...

We got the rotating assembly, cam, and other various internals from TSP. Silly me forgot to take pictures as we opened things up. I was too busy going :woohoo: The heads are LS3 along with the intake. Both ported by Brett. I'll be posting the flow numbers along with the cam specs later. We kept my LS2 throttle body from the previous build. Kooks 2" headers with 3" all the way back and LG Big 3 exhaust.
As the engine build progressed...



Things progressing along...






All leading up to this...

 

Regarding the suspension...I had the Pfadt JOC Stage 1 sway bars and shocks. They were a tremendous improvement over the stock shocks and Z51 sway bars, yet I still had the Z51/Z06 leaf springs. I decided to take the suspension to the "next level" when I made up my mind I was going to do a larger engine. I was torn between the Pfadt Featherlight Coilovers and the LG G2 Coilovers. After seeing the "torture R&D" Lou G. was doing with the G2s on his own C6Z I was sold.




Changing out the shocks was a little more labor intensive than I anticipated, but the end results were well worth my labors.






Getting the front leaf spring out required me to unbolt the upper control arm allowing me to move the wheel hub out of the way. Once I did that it came out pretty easy.



Then came the fun part of installing the G2s.








Now time for the rear. The rear leaf spring came out relatively easy compared to the front. Once the leaf spring was out removing the shocks went quickly. Installing the G2s on the rear wasn't as labor intensive as the front.






The LG Big 3 exhaust didn't match up exactly to the Kooks mid pipes. Had to get creative on the LG flange and make notches in both sides so I could adjust it on the mid pipes since the Kooks flange was larger. Worked out great. I forgot to give a "shout out" to Cesar from LG Motorsports for getting me everything I needed on the G2s, LG Sway Bars, and Big 3 exhaust. Once I got the coilovers "dialed in" where I wanted them my car stayed firmly planted and would "hook up" under even the most severe conditions. I particularly like the fact that after lowering my car off jack stands it settles right where I set it...not having to wait for it to settle in like I did with the leaf springs.
After doing more research and talking things over with Brett...September's upgrade may very well be the 3.90 gears

 

I've been terrible about providing updates to our progress. Here's what's been going on. While doing my "break in" mileage we discovered my IAT sensor was reading 40* above ambient causing me to lose about 20* of timing. To fix this problem I did a thermal wrap on my airbridge as well as custom modification to a Halltech airbridge cover for a C6 making it work for my C5. The IAT measurements after that were where they needed to be




After much consideration I came to the decision I didn't really like the LG Big 3 exhaust as much as I thought I would. The only other option was the Kooks 3" exhaust, but I didn't see that as providing the sound I was looking for. I contacted Jon at Huron Speed and found out XS Power wasn't making the 3" exhaust anymore (Corsa clone). Jon, instead, provided me with a better alternative. He had 3" straight pipes for the C5.





Knowing that straight pipes were going to be too loud and would probably have terrible drone...I embarked on a project to fabricate my own 3" bullet exhaust. After taking the measurements into consideration I determined the best option was to use Magnaflow 6" race bullets (part #14159). With little room for error I was able to cut off the appropriate length of pipe as well as trim down the connections on the mufflers...







and came up with this as my prototype...




Here is a comparison of the exhaust systems I went thru since last year...



In the weeks that followed I decided to try a larger version of the bullets and settled on 14" Magnaflows (part #12619) and made the setup where I could swap from the "race" exhaust as I desired. I call the 14" bullets my "cruiser" exhaust and made further mods allowing for adjustment points at both the OTA connection and at the pipes prior to the rubber exhaust mounts.

 

I put the race exhaust back on before we went to the dyno last month. On the way there Brett spotted a black C7Z so he signaled me to "go get him". As I rolled up next to the guy he was a bit "snotty" since I only had a C5. I pulled in front of him and kept cruising so Brett gets his attention and blows by both of us in his Camaro so I fell in behind Brett. That's when the C7Z driver decided in his mind he was going to "show us something". Brett noticed him catching up so he slowed down and moved over then once the guy was on my rear bumper Brett motioned for me to "burn him"...so I dropped into 3rd from 70mph and all he got to see was my rear bumper walking away. Brett said the C7Z sounded good as the guy got on it and he was probably in it so hard he was kicking the spark plugs, but after going thru two gear changes and still pulling away I decided to slow down and wait for the guy. He was such a bad sport about it he just kept going at WOT. Glad Brett witnessed the whole thing! Most gratifying. Anyway, here's a clip of the race exhaust on the dyno and the cruiser exhaust after the dyno.




While on the dyno we did find out the torque tube was definitely going bad. Since I had to replace the TT I decided to go ahead and do 3.90 gears. Shout out to Rick @ RKT Performance for providing both the replacement TT and a new diff with 3.90 gears and upgraded internals. Now that the new diff is definitely broken in we're headed to the dyno tomorrow. I'll be posting the results tomorrow afternoon. The only time I really "got on it" since it's been broken in was last Thursday on my way north against a "hopped up" VW Jetta. The stuff that happens on my way home when I'm trying to behave! Anyway, I dropped into 3rd @ 70mph...dropped the hammer...and I was like HOLY #@$! When the guy did finally catch up he was way cool about it...thumbs up...wave...etc.
Other cosmetic mods include me ditching the pop-up headlights (aka: speed brakes) and going with the V3 Stealth Headlights from Radio Flyer Innovations. I initially tried to paint the shrouds as close as possible to the color of the car, but it just didn't work out to my liking.




I finally settled on a matte black finish for the shrouds.






I also changed the stock shifter **** to a delrin ****. It showed up plain with etching so I painted the etching.

 

Here's the results and findings from yesterday. After 6 pulls we figured out something else was going on. Best we could get was 550/471 even accounting for the new gears.






We're at least 50/50 short of what we're capable of. Brett said he be happy with anything over 585, but because we are losing torque somewhere we don't have an accurate assessment. The last dyno shop we went to read about 6% lower than actual power. We confirmed this by doing pulls with Brett's Camaro...also reading 6% lower than what he got at the shop we went to yesterday. We only did 3 pulls that day after confirming my torque tube was bad. Yesterday we should have been well over 500 on the torque, but now we have to troubleshoot why it was "flatlined" at roughly 4k rpms on every pull after the 1st one. The first pull there was definitely some "spin", but we still used it as a baseline. Numbers were well below the previous dyno pulls last month and considering the corrected torque numbers there were over 500...even with a bad TT...definitely losing torque from somewhere. Tomorrow we'll be doing a compression test to rule that out. The last item will be the used Mantic Twin I scored from Colorado Speed. I thought it looked great, but I'm not the professional. Turns out there was "scorching" on the pucks. Good thing is CO Speed has it warrantied thru Mantic. We'll definitely know more tomorrow. While we were there Cajun (Bare Essentials Racing) and Yve (Edgyvette.com) showed up and caught the last couple of pulls. Of course they showed up in her black C7Z so I'm already jealous. I did take a few clips of her pulls which Brett was able to get 617/589. Made for a great time at the dyno. Looking forward to giving her a "go" when mine is where we're supposed to be and seeing you guys at the Dyno Day on Oct 22nd.





I did get the "nod" from Competition Auto where we did the dyno for how NASTY my car sounds Still having a blast with it, but Brett is so OCD (which is a very good thing) the car has to be perfect.




We were able to confirm the engine is sealed up tight and is "rock solid"!

Hoping soon to have everything "right" so I can have even more fun.