355z28

iTrader: (8)

Awhile back soxxpuppet made a thread about lowering his radiator in the engine bay. Since I had viewed his pictures I had been brain storming an idea. This weekend I put it to use.

There Is a couple reasons I did this.

1. My engine gets pulled every winter to clean/touch up stuff, I wanted a faster/simpler way to remove the motor and transmission.

2. I wanted to clean up the engine bay, the lower tubular brace makes a nice addition.

3. I wanted to run the ls1 lid setup, but wanted to run the ls1 support and keep my ss hood without cutting it.




The radiator is dropped 2 1/2", I moved it back 1" so my ac lines would still work.


I made the upper tie bar bolt in so it could be removed and the engine will pull out the front. My friend and I were able bolt the engine up within about 5 minutes. The tie bar is also drop 2 1/2" so the stock ls1 rad support could be used.




One thing I am undecided on is if I should fabricate a factory hood latch to work, or to install 2 flush mount hood pins (most likely quick-latch) on the outside corners of the hood. What do you guys think?

R3DLT1

iTrader: (5)

Or get a cowl hood.
Nice job man u took it to the next level.

bufmatmuslepants

iTrader: (3)

Very nice, very very nice. More pictures!

You could use dzus fasteners instead of hood pins because they at least site flush with the hoods surface.

355z28

iTrader: (8)

I like the ss hood, and it clears just fine, just cant decide if I was to modify the factory hood latch to work, or do hood pins and keep it clean and open upfront of the radiator

I looked at the Dzus fasteners. The quick latches are affordable..
http://www.jegs.com/i/Quik-Latch/658/QL-25-BL/10002/-1

Im just unsure If I want head pins on the car. If I can get 2 of the 1 1/4" pins to hold the hood I would probably do it.

Thanks for the kinds words. Ill get some more pictures as the engine bay cleanup keeps moving along.

355z28

iTrader: (8)

Did some more work tonight.

Here I worked on getting the factory hood latch to work. It took some time but it opens and shuts great now.



Fans and condenser installed for the final welding. The fan shround took some trimming but it fits. Everything is pretty tight.



This is why I love this setup, the air is just a straight up and in shot, I have plenty of room and may build a sheet metal ram air setup for it.



I put the front cover on quickly to give some ideas how much it was actually lowered.

the_merv

iTrader: (88)

That's definately thinkin outside the box...neat.

bufmatmuslepants

iTrader: (3)

Your definitely going to want some sort of ram air system to isolate the radiator from the air filter. I actually lost some MPH going from a CAI to pretty much the same setup you have, until I put in a ram air scoop. The vacuum caused from the motor sucking through the intake is fighting the vacuum created in front of the radiator from the fans sucking through the radiator. Its not much, but its enough to cost you 1-2mph on the big end.

Here is what I did

355z28

iTrader: (8)

was that back to back testing? the air/temperature is enough to make you lose that type of mph at the track. Its tough to imagine this would lose over the CAI. I will look into building some sort of ram air, just not sure how Ill do it I hate blocking that much of the radiator!

95mysticta

iTrader: (4)

Very cool setup man! Glad i dont have to cut anything when i do the lid swap to my old mans bird when i put the newly acquired Warbird hood on it and ditch the K&N CAI.

bufmatmuslepants

iTrader: (3)

Both of my fans are wired to run all the time. My car is usually very consistent 109-110 mph, with the lid and no ram air I was about 107-108, then with the ram air I was at 110-111. All days had similar DA. I will note that when I was running without the ram air I also had taken off the black plastic splitter at the bottom of the radiator, so that could have had something to do with failing to create as much of a high pressure area in front the radiator as when it is on. I put it back on when I put the ram air setup on. I will note that when I did the ram air I also did an EWP, so that might jade my results a little, but I doubt the 10hp I gained from the EWP gave me 3mph in the quarter mile. I also never have any issues with overheating with the radiator covered that much, with or without the EWP.

355z28

iTrader: (8)

Thanks, I wouldnt of done this if my car was mint.. But it has 150,000 miles on the body and the more I dig into it the more parts I find shimmed or bent slotted etc to make them fit right. I had to have the car put on a frame machine after I bought it because I noticed it sat weird.

After I realized how imperfect it was I said the hell with it and started going for something different. The main thing I am pumped about it I dont have to drop the k member anymore. This will save an easy 30 minutes.

Thanks for the compliments guys.

the_merv

iTrader: (88)

One thing I did to help with "Ram-Air" was to cut out the steel behind the Fog Lights..direct push through the Radiator and to the Lid.

SoxXpupPeT

iTrader: (34)

Looks fantastic! Thanks again for the rep! Im glad someone liked it

TSAEB

iTrader: (5)

I see alot of people doing things like this. Cutting the front clip. My question would this be legal? For example at the ltx shoot out?

355z28

iTrader: (8)

There is no reason why it wouldnt be. As long as you make weight which honestly this weights the same as the factory.

As long as the car meets weight, engine and suspension requirements it should be legal. FWIW i'll be running in extreme street n/a