What a weekend! I don't care if I sound like a broken record but man I've got some GREAT friends and family. I'm always astounded why these folks continue to support my projects and will be forever grateful.
On to the update for those not in the BH.
Prior to this weekend, I was tasked with dressing the motor but first, I had to replace the bum crank hub seal in the timing cover. In theory, this shouldn't have been a big deal but I have a special gift and ended up putting my face into the throttle body, effectively giving me a nice gash on my cheek. I was pressing the crank hub on the crank snout with a homemade tool. It was a stubborn bastard and one of the wrenches slipped while I was going at it full force. After the bleeding stopped, the hub was fully pressed on and we were ready to continue.
Old seal
A little while later, I finished up dressing the motor in preparation for the big install day. My dad spent hours hand polishing the accessory bracket. He played it off like it wasn't a big deal but I know how long this process takes. It came out great!
While giving the bracket one last hit on the bench polisher, I decided to injure myself again. I was careless and didn't have the polisher bolted down very well. When the buffer hit an edge on the bracket, it sprung free and landed on my forearm. Suffice to say, its still healing....same goes for what little pride I had left.
I figured I would have less chance hurting myself by gapping plugs while watching TV. This was uneventful. I went with NGK BR7EF plugs gapped at 0.28. These are a non-projected, 2 step colder plug.
This past Friday, I took PTO from work, loaded the Yukon and had the car towed to Pal Performance. I arrived while the sun was shining so I gave her a quick bath and we put the bird inside the shop. Adam and I slapped on some Road Wrap product to give the paint a little extra protection (not shown in pic below).
Before getting the engine prepared for install onto the k-member, we installed the new plugs, headers with new gaskets & ARP bolts, coil packs, new pilot bearing, SFI bell housing w/motor plate, McLeod twin disk clutch, etc.
On to the K it goes!
Trans installed as well.
Things went quiet for a few hours as we wrestled the k-member and engine into the car. With my car, its always 10lbs of **** into a 5lb bag. Everything eventually went in. I had a moment where I thought something was wrong with the clutch fork/pull-out bearing but thankfully I was just dreaming.
We were approaching 5PM (started at 8:30AM) and we had a few options. Stop here with much of the major items done, or rally and push towards a potential first start. We decided to keep going....
We got literally everything in and connected. I turned the key for power and everything lit up. Unfortunately, Matt and Adam caught a fuel leak where the regulator goes into the back of the rail. They tried to give it a quick kiss with a wrench but the issue didn't go away. We assume it is a bum o-ring but rather than pull off the rails and attempt a quick fix, this is something better addressed with a clear head. It was now 8:30PM so we called it a night.
Since it was cold, dark and getting late, I decided to get the car towed the next day (Sunday - Today). We got some breakfast, strolled over to the shop and called to have it towed home. The car is now back in the garage and I will tinker with the fuel leak issue likely next weekend or sometime this week.
Overall, I can't believe how much got done in the weekend. I can't wait to get this thing fired to hear that whistle.
That's a lot of work in a day. Looks like your well on your way
Thanks guys!
So so this happened today....
Removed the rails from the car and took apart the regulator. I replaced the diaphram, all the o-rings and bolted everything back up. No leaks. The diaphram didn't look bad at all but there were a couple barely finger tight fasteners so I think that was the issue.
I only let the car run for a few minutes since I will eventually need to bleed the cooling system and the tuner needs to tweak my idle AFR. Everything out of the exhaust was water vapor from condensation. Not a bit of oil. Sooooo damn excited.
Busy day yesterday. I was only planning on building headlights but decided to get a few things done on the car.
I replaced the O2 sensors and wideband sensor. I've passed quite a bit of oil past the old sensors so a fresh set made sense. The MightMouse PCV can is hooked up. Factory PCV port gets connected to the inlet of the can. Outlet has a check valve which goes to the intake port below the throttle body. Passenger valve cover just gets a oil fill cap (no breather) and drivers side gets the breather. Hopefully it works as well as they say it should.
Got the car up to temp and AFR is looking good now. Coolant system took forever to bleed and I think needs a little more.
Now these roads need to clear up so I can take it for a ride!
So I think I def need to play the lottery. The bird laid down 777rwhp yesterday while attending a dyno day. I was the 7th car to dyno. Peak boost was right about 17lbs with a 7.65 crank pulley, 3.7 blower pulley. AND today is my 7th wedding anniversary.....
Impressive man. Yeah you def need to play the lottery
Thanks. I played the lottery on the 7th but unfortunately I'm still working. Maybe next time!
Quote:
Originally Posted by IROCZman15
wow man, 777rwhp is insane! that is awesome. worth all the build headaches?!? id say so
Thanks. Hopefully it does a good number at the track to back up the dyno queen status. If the honeymoon period lasts with this build, it will be worth it.
Figured it would be a good time for an update. After the car was tuned on the dyno and fun was had at the LTxTech dyno day, I took the car for its first maiden voyage. The top was down, sun shining and everything sounded great. I decided to downshift to fourth on the highway and give her a good WOT hit. AFR looked great, she pulled really hard and I had a big smile on my face. I took the next exit so I could head the other way towards home. There is a nice on ramp to get on the highway so this time I figured I would see how she feels in third. I rolled into the throttle and man did she rip. I went for a quick shift into 4th and it wasn't going into gear (grinding badly). I tried for a different gear and wasn't getting it to go in anywhere. I pulled over to the side of the road. The trans didn't want to go into any of the gears but after a few minutes, I could finally select all of the gears. I started her up and got it home but the trans was hurt.
Upshifting through the gears felt OK except for the 3-4. It now grinds every time at any speed. It will go into 4th but would again, grind every time. I was also not able to downshift to 2nd or to 4th at any speed. I thought perhaps maybe my clutch hydraulics were not allowing the clutch to disengage properly. I had a new, USA made slave on the shelf so I decided to put that in even though I was confident the clutch was disengaging properly (pedal feel was very good and engagement occurs in the upper part of the pedal travel). I took it for another ride and same issue. I also was hearing some not so fun noises here and there too so I decided to just take it back home.
Mind you this trans is a Level 3 tick unit so I was a bit surprised this issue occurred. I called them up and they really didn't have an idea what the issue could be. They were also not looking to do me any favors with a rebuild either. I get their position but it prompted me to look elsewhere. I contacted Hanlon Motorsports located in eastern PA not far from Pottstown for his input. He had a bit more to say but like anything else, it needs to come apart to determine what's wrong. I drove the trans to him and his comments were as follows.
- Input and mainshaft bearings were shot which put the brunt of the issue on the blocker rings causing them to fail.
- 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gear didn't look wonderful.
- Countershaft cluster didn't look good
- Generally all of the gears in the front of the trans showed a lot of wear associated with heat.
The heat in the front of the trans was likely due to fluid running to the back of the trans during hard acceleration. So the rebuild was started and we replaced all of the questionable/bad parts with new OEM. Getting these was a big challenge as Tremec is not producing a lot of parts at the moment. Many parts are backordered, etc. Through our efforts, we were able to track down all of the parts in a rather timely fashion. Aftermarket parts are out there and available however none of the folks I spoke with are comfortable using any of them for a performance build.
To avoid the heat issue and keep the trans happy, Hanlon installed a fitting in the front of the trans to feed fluid to the front end. They sell a pump, cooler and filter setup to make this all work nicely. I will need to figure out placement, plumbing and wiring. The benefits are obviously keeping fluid on the front end of the trans but it also will avoid foaming of the fluid maintaining its protection abilities.
I got the trans back this week and it is back in the car. There are a number of items I need to button up and I will need to figure out the placement of the fluid pump setup. My plan is to engage the pump off of my Hobbs switch which controls the 2nd fuel pump. No need to run the pump when I'm just driving around normally. I will take pics of the setup.
I also bought new wheels/tires for the car 2 days before the trans had the issue. I will debut those items when all is well with the car.
I'm starting to have issue with missing the 2-3 shift, I think it's time for a reuild as well. Keep us posted how the trans works.
What updates are done to the trans?
Thanks! I was missing the 2-3 at the last rental with the car and thought it was due to me just botching the shift. In speaking with Hanlon, he asked if I had trouble hitting 2-3 quickly. I confirmed and he wasn't surprised. The blocker rings were shot and synchos had some good wear which explains why I couldn't hit the shift quickly. Normal or generally spirited driving was fine. Or....maybe I really can't drive and this made me feel better.
Internal upgrades really aren't much since there isn't anything available without essentially stepping up to magnum internals which is a involved conversion likely costing $5k+. The mainshaft is a viper size unit, bigger this and that. We replaced all worn parts with new OEM since the aftermarket hard parts are questionable. The pump should really help to keep everything in good shape. Hopefully it lasts.
For those not in the Bounce House, here is an update on the car. The rebuilt trans is back in the car and the fluid pump system has been installed. I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out based on the available room under the car. Better yet, nothing leaked after doing all the AN lines. Unfortunately, my back/sciatic nerve is acting up big time so I'm not very mobile at the moment. Matt, Adam and my Dad have been helping big time with all the upgrades (nothing unusual right?).
Yes, the lines are crossing each other but it couldn't be helped since the pump in/out can't be reversed.
Jiffy Tite quick disconnect fitting. When you disconnect the line, fluid will not come out. Another is placed on the line going to the fluid filter.
