The Unicorn: Abandon all Hope

[LTb1ow]

As I am bored sitting waiting for IT to fix the upgrade they did, lets make a build thread for all to see.

In the beginning there was X, small older Precision turbo, pt76gts, 76mm T4 unit mounted on an old realquick turbo kit.

The motor is composed of a LT1 block .030 over, compstar 6 inch rods, compstar 3.75 forged crank and JE extreme duty forged pistons, all topped off with max ported stock castings, and a single plane.

Its controlled via a LS1 0411 PCM, so coil packs and 3 bar SD tune. Harness is a frankenstein'd stock LT1 harness with tweaks to use a vortec distributor for cam signal.

Built 4L80e and a S60 puts the power to the ground. Nothing extraordinarily fancy, but nothing remotely cookie cutter.

Take your antidepressants, and fall down the rabbit hole.


JGS 50mm wastegate and JGS 60mm BOV

Kit mocked up at builders

Here it is clearing on my motor

Some pictures from when the motor was being built the first time around






Hotside coated, pre wrap

Milled and drilled for a MAP mount

RIP old cam

Early picture of semi assembly long block

External fuel pump makes more noise than a idling motor.

And since nothing is to be normal..

Early test fit of stuff

Torque converter, triple disk 3400 area stall

Rusty cold side picture

See the theme here?

Built 4L80e from Jake's

First attempt at mating all the parts

That theme again...

It all fits!

Vacuum lines for everything under the sun

Fancy pusher fans

Electronic boost controller

Coil pack mounted up


Scavenge pump for turbo and crankcase puke tank

Relay and fuse board, everything OE was removed from engine bay

First start up, pardon the mess of a harness

And of course, first drive

Not that its ever been used but created my own meth injection kit



Finally got some interior in her

Proof the car made it places under its own power

Engine bay shots


Got a blanket for the turbo

The first dyno passes

A clearly photoshopped dyno graph

The first attempt at a pass, alternator died and car lost all power

So after that debacle, ordered a new alternator

And went to town with heat wrap

That sums are part one of this novel, ended with a 11.5@138 and some snapped flexplate bolts.

Converter damage

Flexplate damage

http://www.njfboa.org/forums/showthread.php?t=64169

Part two to follow

[ThoR294]

nice build and attention to detail. that turdbo is so purdy

[LTb1ow]

Part two: The death of a unicorn


Made up some exhaust since a dumped one is lame

Got it all heat wrapped up

And finally back on 28 inch street radials from M&H

Side view



Made a pass on radials/street trim

And we have 10s, car weighs 3600lb with me in it. Puts it around 700whp



One of the highlights of last season, paint!


And of course, new fancy hood!






And with that high note... we have our death. Went to Etown, ran some craptastic 12 sec passes, and lost all oil pressure. Knock knock, whos there. The tear down..

Smoking gun, snapped oil pump driveshaft tab

But it gets better, trashed cam lobes


And with that, ends the glory days. Part three next

[LTb1ow]

Part three, Rebirth of the unicorn

Sent crank and stuff out for polishing, and started to measure for bearings

Since the old cast cam was trash, I went with a billet cam from lunati

And with that, we have a rebuilt motor!


Link bar lifters will not come out with heads on, FYI

All done!

All the familar places, mated back to a trans and K

Went to town with even more heat wrap, if some is good, more must be better!

What more than likely killed the motor last time was solved with an ARP stud, and steel hold down.

And its back in!


Mounted up my PCM, it had previously just kinda sat on trans tunnel

Tackled wiring up gauges in hopes of stashing them where teh HVAC controls used to be


Finally, the official rebirth idle clip!


Some completed engine bay shots, had painted it during this time round

Wired up my BLS camaro LT1 HID kit


And that is where it stands today, few more nights of wrenching and should be able to start driving it again.

[ThoR294]

that wiring harness inside is crazy!!! lol. where do you have your coils mounted? I can't find them

[LTb1ow]

Mid first post, they are where your sway bar brackets would be.

[NJSPEEDER]

What is that dizzy replacement you used as an ignition pick up?

[V]

wow, I didn't know it had that issue and was torn down.
Looks good painted too, lol.
Glad it all seems to be doing good again.

[LTb1ow]

Originally Posted by NJSPEEDER

What is that dizzy replacement you used as an ignition pick up?

Just standard distributor out of a vortec motor, minus the cap/rotor part.

Originally Posted by V

wow, I didn't know it had that issue and was torn down.
Looks good painted too, lol.
Glad it all seems to be doing good again.

Yea, unless you ventured into BH

Thanks!

[ar0ck]

Nice to see it all come together outside that dizzying build thread! Really came together on the second rebuild!

[LTb1ow]

As usual, the pal of pals comes and lends a helpful hand, thanks again Adam.

My ebay cheap block off plate, will paint at a later time and seal it up, fits great #wentbetterthanexpected


Its all together again!


This needs work, bezel kinda F'd me over on the ATF temp, but, it works, and dims with headlights on. w00t w00t!


Gotta finish tidying up under the dash, but so far, it all works


Got the cluster bulbs pulled and it drives. Didn't even burn down!

#****yea

[ThoR294]

need to get a TA dash

[LTb1ow]

If anything it would get an LS1 camaro dash upgrade, but thats far off.

[greenformula92]

Good to see she's up and running again and looking pretty damn good I must say

[LTb1ow]

Thanks!

Pushing to get it all buttoned up and driving normally for the meet next weekend.

[greenformula92]

Nice. Hopefully I'll make it out to circus before I have to go to work

[LTb1ow]

Changed out the oil today, prob a little early but needed to get the assembly lube out and verify no leaking coolant internal. Thankfully it all came out crystal clear

Truck trans, truck oil, and truck filter!


Pulled #1 to get TDC compression, and plug looks damn good to me.


I reclocked the dizzy, it was way off, and really need another person to fine tune where TDC is so I can clock the dizzy well.

[NJSPEEDER]

How far off is "way off", are we talking way off in engineering precision terms or way off as in wondering how it even ran?

[LTb1ow]

The dizzy is used for start up efficiency improvement with this setup, and nothing else. It will start and run with it unplugged AFAIK. Right now its got a window of +/-7 degrees I think and I am not in there. Basically causes backfires during cranking cause the PCM doesn't know what bank is where and it will switch to the other when it detects no increase in RPM.

Previously, my dumbass figured TDC meant, ya know, top dead center mark on ATI was, top dead center when looking at it. So, way off, is like 30-50* of crank rotation

[WildBillyT]

Originally Posted by LTb1ow

The dizzy is used for start up efficiency improvement with this setup, and nothing else. It will start and run with it unplugged AFAIK. Right now its got a window of +/-7 degrees I think and I am not in there. Basically causes backfires during cranking cause the PCM doesn't know what bank is where and it will switch to the other when it detects no increase in RPM.

Previously, my dumbass figured TDC meant, ya know, top dead center mark on ATI was, top dead center when looking at it. So, way off, is like 30-50* of crank rotation

Do you have a piston stop?

[LTb1ow]

Negative, this whole mechanical timing mayhem is a dark confusing world to a EFI LT1 person

[LTb1ow]

And with that gents, the ****er is back to semi decent looking status! Wrapped the roof and sail panel with some shiny black vinyl, shameless plug for the company who hooked me up. Amazon.com: UNDERGROUND DESIGNS: Automotive




Super excited to have it all shiny, big thanks to Taylor for helping wrap it and Adam for getting the shift cable adjusted with me. Almost back to DD status, hopefully drive it to work tmmr.

[NJSPEEDER]

WOOT!!!

How long until you are confident enough in it to make some passes?

[LTb1ow]

Got another week or so of break in miles, then I will start datalogging and bounce stuff off tuner. If he says go for it, I will go get kicked out of Etown.

[NJSPEEDER]

Sounds like a good plan.

Are you going to be able to get the appropriate safety equipment installed this season or are you mainly targetting just being able to drive and enjoy it again?