I've been doing alot of lurking but not posting much cause I'm too damn tired. The SS miraculously has been put back together, for a little while I was not sure I (or we Mikey was there 90% of the time) could put it back together it was in so many peices.

I haven't opened it up but at about half throttle it feels WAAAAAAY stronger than the 388, I don't know that my vette at full throttle felt like this. Did not loose any quickness of the revs with the longer stroke the engine is extrememly responsive. The Ellis built tranny and new OZ700 Clutch seem to shift very nicely.

It drives very nice for what it is, in fact I'm happy with the way it runs, idles, I had much more cam surge on my 232/230 cam in my 346 WS6. After the other things like alignment and brakes are fixed I could hand the keys to my mother and she could use it as a commuter on nice days.

The only real problem is the drag radials are useless I mean even at part throttle and short shifting they were spinning like crazy!

Quick things I learned:

1. don't be afraid to drop the engine from the bottom. Very easy and saves a crapload of time. If I was doing heads and cam I would consider it. If I was doing heads/cam/headers/clutch I would yank it out in a second. I had the heads off the 388 in like 20 minutes with the motor out of the car.

2. UMI tubular Kmember is the bomb diggy d bomb bomb. MY GOD if I only knew. If I was buying a new f-body I was going to mod I think this and poly motor mounts would be my first mod. It would make the future so much easier.

3. ARP header studs are a wonderful thing. I'm guessing you could make a set for much cheaper but I'd pay the 99 again in a second it would be a must have in a header swap, no more stripped threads in the heads. In fact with the kmember and studs I could probably have Kooks out of the car in about 25 minutes.

4. LME is a great shop to work with, I must have called Bryan a 100 times over the last two months. I dealt with alot of vendors on this build and LME was by far the best service. (of course I spent alot more with him than the others.) ATI was the second best customer service, I bought a balancer and they were very nice and helpful with the questions I had.

5. I hate power steering fluid.

I have a video of it starting I'll have to get uploaded. It sounds pretty awful between me forgetting to put on the pcv and the power steering pump screaming. After it got sorted out it sounds pretty mean, even through the SLP dual dual. Hope the guys and the emission station don't look twice at it....

To be continued

 

aaaaaaah WHERE'S THE PICS?

Dang thats cool! Can't wait to see the video clip. Doesn't that feel good when the project comes together like that?

Did the engine startup on the old tune with a few minor adjustments?

I'm still scraping undercoating and prepping for paint. ugh I will have the undercarriage all painted and the car ready for reassembly this weekend. About 3-4 weeks overdue.

Scott

 

What oil did brian recommend for break-in & for longevity?

 

Scott funny you should respond, I still owe you a MAF!!! I've basically been working nonstop on the thing since last friday when the motor arrived.

It does feel good, it feels amazing can't wait until the brakes and alignment are squared away so I can really mash the gas pedal

I got a tune with my EFI purchase from wait4meperformance to start the car with. Took forever to get it the guy is hella busy but amazing though the car starts and drives VERY well. I haven't scanned it but I think he did well on the idle and start with just my setup information!

 

Just regular Castrol Dino oil for the first few thousand. I'll have to ask him Tuesday what to use in the long run. Probably run Mobile one always have and never had an issue.

Breakin is done, he said drive it for 20-30 minutes varying speed then let it cool off and change the oil. Then beat on it all I want.

 

No hurry on the MAF, I'm gonna start it with the old MAF. I plan to make an aluminum 85mm air lid for that MAF one of these days.

Damn I'm jealous now.

 

Someone ask for pics??

First put the longblock from LME on the new kmember:



Transmission and intake:



Ready to go in:



Under car:



Ready to drop car onto cradle:

 

Now you wanna sell it?

 

Damn, I wish I had went with the LSX. What are your cam specs? what heads? what compression? how much spray coming? Very nice, i bet it freaking pulls like a frieght train, as my 408 pulls pretty good n/a.
Robert

 

Here are the general specs, obviously with the solid shortblock I have alot of room for improvement. I don't really know how it really does I have to get the brakes bleed today and get an alignment to stomp on it. Not to mention get the wideband and scanner to make sure nothing crazy is going on. Couldn't help giving it a little bit of gas and it was impressive.

Honestly if I didn't have the big bore heads already I probably would have done a L92 416 or even 427, things just worked out that I needed a 4.125 or bigger bore and the 454 was only about 500 more than the 427 so I figured what the hell?

Already had a guy at the exaust shop argue with me about the car saying a 454 is a big block etc etc etc. I think I'm going to skip the 454 SS license plate I was thinking of getting....


Components include:
GM Bow Tie LSX 454 CID Block
Callies Compstar 4.125" Stroke Crank
Callies Compstar 6.125 Rods
ARP Studs
Wiseco forged 4.187" 9cc VP's
11.68/1 Compression
Cam Motion Custom Cam 252/256 595/595 112 +2
Melling M295 Ported High Volume Oil Pump
Rollmaster Double Roller Timing Chain
TEA Stage III big bore 2.10 intake valve Paris port 317's
TPIS 90mm Intake Manifold
TPIS 90mm Throttle Body
85mm MAF
42# injectors from Speed Inc
Kooks 1 7/8 headers and catted Ypipe
SLP dual dual
T-56 just rebuild by Ellis at Speed secrets
Tex single clutch

 

Thanks for the post Bobby! I was thinking about doing it this way since I want to add a K member to the new car. Looks like it would be snap to do that way with a lift. Not sure I would want to do it with floor jacks tho....

So you wnet with an LSX eh? You dog! I wish I could afford to go that route. You'll have to keep us posted how the numbers turn out. And like Robert said, details?!

 

Sorry I didn't post on your loss and subsequent gain, I was pretty speechless as your car is what I considered top dog of the NW F-bodies all around looks and performance! congrats on the new car I think you'll like the 6speed and all the crap that goes with it

Just a kmember would be very easy without a lift. Get it up in the air using a tranny jack of jack stand on the bellhousing then a hoist to hold the motor for saftey. Drop just the Kmember and replace. It would probably be a few hours, you could do it and the headers, mounts all at the same time. Like I said if you use the studs it would pretty easy.

 

SWEEEEEEEET!

 

Congrats again. The car is coming together nicely. I knew I should have just left it in my trailer and brought it home with me. hehe

 

Looks great man! Don't sell it till you get to enjoy it some

 

LOL it would not have taken much to get me to let you at that point! I appreciate the lift again, probably would still be on jackstands at my old house!


Ellis, I may keep this one awhile. I have officially gone over the value of the car in mods so I don't see anyone buying it But you never know!

 

Congrats again Bobby, that is waaaay cool.

The car is a freakin' beast so far. I can't wait to get it a little more dialed in and see what 3rd gear feels like!!!!!!! Damn. It was great being a part of this build and we learned quite a bit about pulling the Kmember from the bottom. It's so damn easy, I can't even imagine pulling the entire engine from the top on a 4th gen.

Car fired up on the first attempt, but the throttle cable was hangin' open a lil bit. Got that squared away and the car purred, well, other than the open pvc, and power steering pump whining away until we got that squared away too lol. The car sounds flat out AWESOME at idle. Much deeper sounding than a typical heads/cam LS1. Could be the 1-7/8" Kooks headers too lol...

Now it's just working through the little things, alignment, exhaust, final tuning, etc...

Enjoy man!
Mike