Project "independence day"IRS and 3500 swap

[Driver_10]

Ive had this post up at FTV6 for a bit now. Sorry for taking so long to share it over here.

I set out with the goal of creating a track built yet street legal turbo v6 F-body. I had seen some builds on FRRAX.com that had me stunned. Seeing what was possible, I first set myself about the goal of making a shop that would enable me to build such a machine.

The first mission was to find a suitable house with a garage... (OR just move into a garage) and to start hording tools. I completely halted all work on the car and pulled my money together. I got a good tax return and started out by buying a Plasma torch, a Miller TIG and a decent Hobart MIG machine. I then started making plans to move to a new house.

A full year passed and I got in touch with my old roommate from college and we decided to take on the mission together since he too wanted to ressurect his car. I luckily stumbled across a house in the suburbs with a detatched 2 car garage, but the HOA were a bunch of Nazi's so still the project waited. In the meantime I managed to slowly keep gathering tools. (this was around the time that I got in shape for anyone who remembers)

After a 1 year wait with no progress on the car and I was fed up. The HOA sucked ass here as well and I was scared of getting my garage broken into, so I made the next move.

By the blessings of God, I finally found the perfect home. It sat on a one acre lot with no neighbors and a detatched 3-car garage for 1400pr/month.



I made the move and soon began setting up shop. By this time, what started out as few welding machines had grown into a formitable work-shop. I had metal brakes, sheers, rollers, bead roller, cutters, slicers and dicers. I also 3-phase electrical system in the garage with over 100 amps to run everything.

and it soon became quite messy too!




The stage was now set. With a new, fully functioning shop, tools and materials at my disposal, I made my plans and began work. The first big change I decided to make was to the suspension. The old K-members were "drag-race" PA k-members. They were not up to the task of my new "track handling" build so they were replaced with a set of LS1 style, "road-race" reinforced BMR K's. I figured if I killed this next V6. I was going to use an LS1 the next time around anyway, so it was the logical step.





The tubular lower a-arms had become a bit weathered and had suffered some mild bending at the shock-perches. After a bit of welding and reinforcement work I sand-blasted and re-coated them for longevity.











With the front end assembled and somewhat happy, I went after the task of implementing the most fundamental change to the car.

The Moser 12-bolt that I had put in the car prior was too heavy for my new "handling" build ideology, so I pulled it out and sold it to my roommate to buy this instead...



I managed to snag a C4 dana 44 IRS with 3.54 gears and a pristine limited slip diff. It was perfect.

[Driver_10]

The dana 44 was secured, and I spent some time handling some other parts of the projects. Early last year, the 3500 engine block, rotating assemble, aluminum flywheel and "stock" balancer was sent off to the machine shop for additional work and final balance.







I got a bit carried away with prepping the crank for the shop and they had to weld extra material to the counterweight for a proper balance. It was cheaper than using mallory inserts.





The forged steel crank had 2.250 crank-pins from the factory (about the same size as 4.3l rods) and were turned down to 1.99 to accommodate the modified Eagle "327" h-beam rods. orange paint that you see on the block in the cam valley is actually an oil-sheering coating that will aid in fast oil-return. (should have bought a dremel and removed more of the casting flash though)

[Driver_10]

Anyway, back to the story...

There was a third roommate that I forgot to mention. He was a guy named Ron whom I helped to get a job and helped him to move in. The big money had dried up for a short time being after his move in (AKA I helped to pay for him to move because Im a good guy), so I focused on and I started working on the smaller details. I began modifications to my M.S.II stand-alone as well as the supplementary electronics.

This MS board has been modified for on-board boost control, E85 control via fuel sensor input, launch control, flat-shift and boost anti-lag.


I also ordered and assembled 2, 4-channel, "peak-hold" injector driver boards to allow me to use low resistance injectors. The motor will use 75lb injectors, so tight fuel control is an absolute.











I also completed the distribution box to help reduce the underhood wiring. It connects by a single harness. Real slick!



With the money crisis receding, I was ready to locate a few more items for the build. There was a swap-meet coming to town so I decided to save a nice lump of cash and search for gold. On a bit of luck, I came across a vendor selling classic car AC retrofit kits and took a chance on a buying a KIT for $400 that looked promising. I also came across a couple of nice Kirkey racing seats and jewed the guy down to taking $100 for the pair.



Heres the AC being test fitted it under the dash. The three vents obove are defrost and the two hoses are the face vents. It comes with a foot-warmer too.
It fit completely flush to the cowl. Total luck of the draw.

It comes with electronic mixer doors, electronic water valve and a basic TXV valve all built into one unit!





Fabbed up some brackets to give AC unit sturdy mounting on the firewall and ensure good clearance for the ducting.







continued below...

[Driver_10]

The AC controller panel was cheap and flimsy looking so I decided that I would build an acceptable panel. With space in the dash being at a premium, I decide to go ahead and incorporate the controls on my toggle panel. So after buying a new dril-press and machining plane I went ahead redesigned the panel. (I even made a proper place for the meth controller)

























Heres the last test fitting of the revamped console before completely striping out everything from the car. It should work pretty good.

[Driver_10]

I had some small things out of the way with my own 95' and was now ready for the big ugly stuff. It was also around this time that we started collecting parts for the old IROC Camaro project car ,dubbed "Project Lazarus".

The expensive bits (engine, trans, Suspension, yata-yata) and other pieces were tracked down first. Ebay and LS1 tech to the rescue! We found a TICK stgII t56 for about $1,200. It was shipped with a flywheel, clutch/accel/brake pedal set and stock LS6 Clutch.





Also got this LS6 aluminum block with a single cracked liner. Easily repairable by a competent machine-shop. Got it for $50! No kidding.



Got this nice GEN I cast ls intake w/ 250hp shot, "on-port" wet nitrous injection.



Soon afterwards, got this Callies "stock-stroke" forged crank and fluidine under-drive balancer.



Also got KYB s/a dampers with a "coil-over" conversion and BMR tubular lower control-arms. Also Pre-purchsed the first set of "LS swap" road-race K-members for the car as well. However, they still haven't shipped yet since the piece is still in the prototyping stages. Ill post up pics of that later.

It was around this time that the Wolfe Racing "Mini-tubs" arrived. And I started slicing into the two cars. I was still short of a few materials, so I tried my had at installing the wheel wells in the third-gen first.

[Driver_10]

my first attemps at installing the minitub on the pass side were a bit clumsy but well anchored. The experience gave me a better scope of F-body structural anatomy and I learned quickly how much easier this job was when using a round "cut-off" wheel as opposed to a sawz-all and a plasma tourch. (although the torch was better for cutting the tops of the wells out)



After partially installing the minitubs on the remaining driver's side (a real PITA btw), my technique had improved and the work was a lot cleaner. I felt as ready as I would ever be to start the IRS install so the first daring cuts were made and the metal began to burn. (BTW... it was around this time that some you started to notice the vague comments randomly popping up in threads here and there)







After doing the first big bits of slicing, I tried lifting the IRS into position to get a scope of what was needed.





After the first relatively easy task of cutting the wheel-wells out of the way for fabricating the cradle, the daunting task of actual placing the rear-end correctly was upon me. I started taking random measurements at different points in the car to find a common point of reference for placement. I finally decided to use the spot at the top of the spring perch as a common reference since it at least seemed to be level with the opposite side. I made my first lines and began cutting. This was followed by constructing the mounts for the bat-wing.





(BTW... I learned very quickly why it isnt wise to run a cutting torch while wearing street-shoes)









Im using a set of magnesium corvette 18 x 9.5 front and rear for this car. They fill the wheel wells rather nicely! They will be crucial when it comes time to mount the "6-piston" calipers and 13 z51 rotors!

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/542297_407219392668563_648917510_n.jpg

As glorious as this looked, I soon realized to my horror that the mounting point was entirely too high in the car and the suspension travel was severely limited. So I disgusting cut out the "pretty" brackets that I made and called it a day.

The precise words that I used were, "fuck this shit, Im gonna eat some water mellon."



continued...

[Driver_10]

The next weekend. I tackled the approach differently and built a cradle to support the bat-wing in ride-height compression for better accuracy.





Eventually... after a lot of patience and some "make-shift" alignments using the distance between the wheel-well, body line and door corner, I GOT IT RIGHT!



With the rear sitting in a comfortable position, its was temporarily tacked into place and now awaits DS angle alignment with the tranny.

I now placed my efforts on getting more materials for the swap and ordering more /building bits for the engine, turbo and lubrication system. (BTW... Im doing a separate thread for the 3500 engine!)








Here's the beginnings of the surge-tank fuel system and fuel cell.

[Driver_10]

Roy's third gen was also fitted with my old steer-column since I never could get it to extend without making it feel wobbly. I went ahead and spend the $773 (ouch) and special ordered this woodward column and momo steering wheel through "Blainefabrications" for my car. Alan (a fabrication genius in his own right) welded up a special bulk-head plate and an undercowl braket for a "plug-n-play" install.





I had also assembled and purchased some trailing arms at "Smilye's" performance shop to replace the "rubber-bushed" stock pair. I also special ordered a set of adjustable, "3-position", brackets that were CAD designed to accomodate the center of gravity of the car for optimal handling. The positions could be changed for drag-racing, road-course or wet-weather driving.

(I will be setting myself about the task of getting these installed this week-end... hopefully)



I now set myself about the task of installing the engine and trans in the car. My first job was to measure, cut, level and re-weld the pan to modify it for dry-sump oiling.











After an agrivating struggle with liquid proofing the difficult to weld "cast aluminum", The pan was fitted to the engine and the engine and trans was test mounted into the bay.







The top-end was mounted and the clearances noted. The 3500 top-end just barely clears the underside of the cowl, so Ill drop it about 1/2 inch to give it better top-clearance. Ill either cut or "message" the firewall out a bit to seat the engine back another inch or so. Otherwise, it looks

[Driver_10]

I decided to try moving the engine backwards and downwards in the engine bay one more time. The engine now sits an additional inch backwards and 3/4 of an inch downward in the bay. I'm not sure how much lower and closer to the center it sits compared to stock, but I can say that its quite a bit.

Heres how it was before.


Heres now


The oil-housing now clears the mounting bracket.

Also, here's the top clearance before


and heres after


The back of the firewall had to "messaged" with a hammer to fetch the extra clearance for the drivers-side cylinder head.


I should have the mounts made this weekend assuming money permits
(Ive got some crazy high electrical bills rights now:no

[Driver_10]

My roomie finally stop procrastinating and got his turbo payed off. The thing is a monster! A CT43 72mm "billet wheel" compressor with a water/oil-cooled, "triple ball-bearing" center cartridge and a t4 divided 1.15 AR exhaust housing. It will pump o touch over 120lbs of air. Thats about 1200hp worth of air! Were looking at making 900hp or so. (my 700hp CT36 is the smaller of the two)





It rained today on and off, so I will more than like be removing the engine tomorrow to bail out the water and dry out the block, Despite this set-back, I also got a bit more work done on placing the accessory brackets.



These templates are not quite ready to be duplicated in aluminum plate, but hopefully tomorrow, weather permitting, I will try to have at least one of them cut.

[Driver_10]

I (as shown before} have been using the method of "plexiglass shaping" to make templates for the acc brackets. The of engineering the acc brackets has not been an easy one. In the midst of trying to find a usable design, I went through about $50 worth of plexi-glass.



The job of cutting the 1/2 inch material was slow and arduous, so I took a gamble and used some 3/8 thick lexan sheets. They were a lot more cost effective and were easier to cut. The original bracket called for the AC pump to be on the Pass side of the car. However, due to the space constraints from the steering linkage the oil-pump had to take up residency on the pass side, leaving the driver side space for the AC pump.

I had planned to run the headers up high over the accessories at first. the ALT and AC pump are stacked low here.


I dropped that idea in favor of higher placed brakets that would allow the headers to run low making access to the spark-pugs easier and pipe routing more simplified.


With the basic placement of the accessories now laid out now, I had the to find the space up high to run the ac bracets without the belt routing interfering with the space for the headers, BUT not being so high that it would make contact with the hood. The throttlebody was also an obstacle. I also quickly noticed that the belt routing was now in the way. This was easily remedied by the use of a bracket flange on the front of the water-pump to install an idler pulley (noticeable in the lower right side of the pic above)

After repeatedly editing the templates, I finally found a good final arrangement and cut the first aluminum plate.


After a brief test mounting, I found that the EGR flange was making slight contact with the reservoir snout. Ill go ahead and cut this off and weld it shut tommorrow.








Tomorrow, Ill have the ALT bracket cut and Ill hopefully have finish the supporting structures to make everything nice and stout.

[Driver_10]

I did a little more work tonight... Gonna need some trimming before the ALT bracket fits without interference.
Might de-ugly the thing while Im at it.

Yuck...


EDIT:Now De-uglied... Gonna trim the AC/PS bracket back a little too.

[Driver_10]

I managed to get the belt routing completed. The crank pulley has good belt contact and the pulleys are well located now. The bracket for the DRY-sump oil pump is moving along well too.on the lower left side. All of this, and Ill have plenty of room for a set of Equal Length, front facing headers. The DP will run comfortably over the K-member too.


To make enough room for the PS pump, I had to cut the EGR mounting flange out of the way. It also cleared up room for the TPS harness. Also managed to give the AC pump a wide enough birth to clear the valve-cover.




I also cut this happy little notch for the throttle body.


Ill be spending the rest of the day making reinforcement for the brackets and may have a bit of time left over to work on the IRS swap.

[Driver_10]

I went ahead and added an extra pulley to direct more belt coverage for the AC pump and PS pump. This car will be belt-squeak free!

[MidnightriderZ24]

happy to see this moving along! car looks great, amazing work man.