greyghost4x4

iTrader: (10)

Late 2009 I was playin around with some cars on the highway in Yazoo City one day on my way home from doing some shopping in Jackson when i noticed the car was starting to run hot. I pulled into a gas staion and found that my radiator was low on water so i just bought a gallon of anti freeze and topped her off and thought she was fine. Well round about the time i got back on my home turf i noticed it was starting to heat up if i sat at a redlight for a good bit of time. So once again i checked the water and it was low but no leaks under the car at all.. i crossed my fingers and pulled the oil dipstick out and BOOM! Insta-choco-milk! My first thoughts were a blown headgasket so i just parked the car til i had the time/money to fool with it. Got the car to the shop on April 5, 2010 and started the teardown.














When i pulled the heads off all the gasket material looked fine so next was to look the heads over really good and check for cracks.


And there it was... Cracked in between the intake and exhaust valve on cylinder 2. I figured that has to be my problem right!? So being the idiot i am i asumed that was the only problem i had and decided that if i was going to have to buy a head i may as well buy 2 and upgrade while im at it.


Along with a brand new set of PRC heads i also bought a FAST 92/92 set up, Speed Inc. fuel rails, custom grind comp cam, FTP 102mm lid, slp 85mm MAF, TSP 1-7/8 coated long tubes, ARP Fasteners to tighten it all down with. Other odds and ends but that sums up this part of the build.






Ok now that all the money spending is out of the way i needed to prep the block and get ready to slap the heads on so that i can pressure test the water side and make sure that the cracked head was the only problem i had.












Well after all that hard work i pressure tested the water system.... couldnt hold any amount of pressure for more than 5 minutes so i pumped and pumped on the guage and then pulled the dip stick out and stuck my ear up to it and all i heard was a hissing sound.. so i pulled the plug on the oil pan and straight water came pouring out! There goes my simple plan of a head cam swap....

Motor come out of the car for a complete tear down to find the damage.






My engine and donor engine.


My original rotating assembley comes out of my block because the donor engine upon inspection was in worse shape than my 107k mile motor. and this was suppsed to be a 40k mile 2000 ls1... all the bearings were shot, the oil pump was black and blue on the inside... i got screwed when i bought this engine but thats the way my luck always is! haha






Cleaned, inspected, and prepped the donor block and started the rebuild.












Now that the block was ready... and my wallet was back up to normal it was time to go back together with my original bottom end in the fresh block with all new bearings, rings, and arp 2000 rod bolts, and arp main stud kit.

greyghost4x4

iTrader: (10)

And on the cherry picker it goes... time to slide the motor back in its resting place. the time frame from this was april 5th til october 14th.... doing what i could on weekends and days off. It was a pain but at this point i was so close to hearin it fire up that i didnt care about all the trouble i went thru to get to this point.
















I ended up with some help from my rodent friends. They decided that i needed corn in my muffler! haha






And then the 2 became 1...










My buddy Eric "Action" Jackson stopped by to lend a helping hand






Thats all the pics i have for now... First start up and break in miles went fine! She really rumbles! Now the car is in Memphis at Premier Autosports getting tuned and getting looked over for anyting i may have missed and/or need. Dyno numbers and video to follow... Hope you enjoyed reading about my shitbox!

omarrakeen

iTrader: (2)

looks nice and clean! good job my car has 155K miles now . isnt a LS2 drop would have been easier? just curious..

greyghost4x4

iTrader: (10)

it would have been if i wasnt on a budget to begin with. And at the time that was the only vehicle i had to drive so i was doing the quickest route... money was the main issue

WSsick

iTrader: (13)

Post videos of the car now! Let's hear that bitch rumble!

lethal bird

iTrader: (12)

Haha... I just saw this over on T/A.

07 z71 silverado

How come im not in any of the pic's lol. I ordered a gopro a few minutes ago too so when get all our races on video.

greyghost4x4

iTrader: (10)

vids soon to come... gotta get the memory card out of my buddies camera. Jon be sure you get a mount to strap the go pro on my roll cage!

midnightblue02

iTrader: (21)

i bet you was smiling ear to ear when you heard it fire, looks good!

F8L BYT

Awesome budget build! It sucks you got screwed on the motor but looks like it all worked out in the end! Now get some videos up of that thing!

brians91formula

iTrader: (12)

Are you a mechanic or something ? I hope to attempt a build like this when my motor pops.

greyghost4x4

iTrader: (10)

thanks guys. I am not a mechanic by any means.. with that said i did help with this build all that i could... and i was there anytime a wrench was turned... the only thing i didnt have any "hands on" with was when the bottom end went together. Brent has been a lifetime friend of my parents as well as myself. he runs a mechanic shop here where i live and has always helped with and/or pointed his finger at anything i've done to my vehicles since i got my license. He was the whole reason this project was even remotely possible seein as how i dont have the money to pay a shop to do the work for me. plus i like bein around when stuff is done to my car because if i get stuck out in the middle of nowhere with a breakdown i want to atleast think i can figure the problem out and fix it if need be.

greyghost4x4

iTrader: (10)

well looks like project super slow came to an abrupt hault this past weekend.. i pretty much have no clutch left at all after doing a pretty good bit of racing.. still never bolted the new et streets on tho.. i'll prob be going to an automatic now. I KNOW I KNOW.... as much as i would love to keep bangin gears with a t56 i just cant afford to do it anymore... goin thru like 1.3 clutches a yr! lol plus the t56 is still stock so lord knows that on the 28's and the dope its gonna break the input shaft if it has a good clutch... lookin at goin th400 or 4l80e.... will keep you guys up to date.