[WarShrike]

Little more time today, was mostly making things clean by making other things dirty. Cleaned up years of grime baked into the power steering rack as well as installed a few "upgrades."

First on the list is a set of boxed swaybar brackets by Blainefab. These help take care of deflection and bent brackets caused by big swaybars and sticky tires + high g cornering.

Second is a small piece, but it is a solid bushing for the steering rack. This is actually for Corvettes from Doug Rippie, but it fits our rack as well. This eliminates some slop from the rack, but in all likelihood it is a placebo effect until I get some hoosier slicks on the car.

Hope to get the trans mated to the engine tomorrow and get it all ready to go back in the car if I'm lucky.

 

[DevareoY87]

Looking good man, its been awhile since you update the thread.

 

[WarShrike]

Second full day of going at it. Had to run some errands here and there, did some more cleanup and wrestled the engine around for a little while. The cardboard came in handy since I could just slide the engine/k-member off the hoist and onto the heavy duty dolly. Hey, if it's stupid and it works, it isn't stupid.

Pretty good shot of the Mal-Wood adapter plate. This allows me to use a full T-56 and LSx bellhousing and just bolt it directly to the engine block.

Ram Clutches throwout bearing spacer (Necessary to compensate for adapter plate and difference in height of the T-5 clutch/flywheel vs. T-56 stuff), OEM slave and Tick remote bleeder.

All installed.

Closer.

Testing things out to see if the engine and trans would roll under the car without touching anything. Makes it easy since the intake plenum isn't installed. 6-ton stands, really nice investment and a lot more room for me to move around under the car without feeling friggin claustrophobic!

Just waiting on UPS/Fedex/USPS to drag race down my block to bring me the last of my gaskets and other parts...

 

[Suron]

Dane, what clutch are you going with?

 

[WarShrike]

Centerforce dual friction clutch. Works pretty good.

 

[KeyKeeper]

Great build thread, salute.

Ive never really put much thought into the 6banger birds. A buddy of mine worked at a GM stealership and he said it was common practice to replace motors in them as a LOT of buyers were slapping a fogger on them and blowing them up...right after they bought them! Sheesh!

 

[DevareoY87]

More stuff today...

Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads...

Powerbond SFI balancer. It's been waiting a while to go in, this was the best opportunity to do it during the swap!

This balancer fits on v6 application?

 

[WarShrike]

It's a powerbond, you can get it from ZZPerformance, same for ATI balancers.

You need a longer bolt though.

 

[DevareoY87]

Nice, yeah i found it on zzp last night, what size bolts?

 

[WarShrike]

Nice, yeah i found it on zzp last night, what size bolts?

Can't really remember. The one that comes with it is not long enough, so you just need to get the same style just a bit longer, can't remember the measurements.

 

[DevareoY87]

Pretty sure i can find it easy at a auto store. Also on description, it says it might be to close to the oil filter. Is that true?

 

[Suron]

Excuse my ignorance, but what is the point of using a different balancer?

 

[WarShrike]

Kind of a "meh" day of trying to find bolts that were supposed to be in one spot but after a year later, they...migrated. Oh well, found them and got things moving along.
Really like the eye for detail that the guys at Total Engine Service have for their engine assembly. It's those little things that tend to make me happy.

"In the beginning, there were no accessories. And then a lot of terse words were spoken..."

New water pump and an underdrive WP pulley from ZZP.

Mmm, all sealed up.

Notice the NPT plug? This prevents unfiltered oil from going through the bypass and washing the mains. Spun bearings are one of the lead causes of 3800 engine death. This helps fight it along with good filter and oil selection.

Accessorized!

More tomorrow.

 

[WarShrike]

The brown truck stopped by today!

UMI Performance Inc. boxed A-Arms. This is pretty much the last part of the suspension puzzle for the car. Just got really busy with other things today and things are competing for my time when I really wanted a clean and open schedule to finish...this...car!

I actually remember asking about boxed A-arms like the LG Motorsports ones a few years back and Ryan from UMI piped up that they actually had prototypes in the works. So, a few years later I finally get around to buying them, better late than never!

Really clean design, looking forward to putting this through the paces soon enough:

 

[WarShrike]

For the first time since August of last year, there's an engine in the car.

Exhausted and have a few mixed feelings since it has taken so long to get to this point. Still have to reconnect and reinstall a whole lot of parts.

 

[Suron]

Those valve covers are amazing.

 

[WarShrike]

Pretty sure i can find it easy at a auto store. Also on description, it says it might be to close to the oil filter. Is that true?

I don't have any problems with it being close to the oil filter as you can see in the pics. It might be that way for the FWD car or if you go with the OVERDRIVE pulley, mine is stock size.

Excuse my ignorance, but what is the point of using a different balancer?

Sorry, didn't see your post before. The old balancer was worn out and since I actually race this thing, 6500-7000rpm will be on the docket. Stock balancer is not recommended over 6200rpm for sustained periods or you will cause premature wear of your bearings.

In short, because racecar.

 

[WarShrike]

Progress got stalled a bit, just really busy with other things.

 

[WarShrike]

Created a new cover image for the car's facebook page. Makes it easy to do that because I can share from one location on just about everything.

Just a silhouette with a word collage around it that involves everything in the car.

https://www.facebook.com/ProjectSturmvogel

 

[WarShrike]

Made a little progress yesterday. Got in some good Daddy-daughter time as well, she was pretty excited to get to work on stuff for the car.