Meissen's LT1 Rebuild Thread

[bigjon88]

look at that sexy red block that i painted congrats in public B!!!!!!!!!!!

[meissen]

I want to definitely send a big THANK YOU to Craig and Jon - they were a HUGE help with helping my dad and I haul ass on getting the LT1 back together. We received the LT1 on Wednesday the 13th, Thursday we went to the Red Wings game, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we hauled ass and had the LT1 installed and tried starting it on Sunday night. It wouldn't start, was back firing through the intake.

And that's where the problems started - Although everyone will say it's impossible to do it, I was able to successfully install the Optispark with the dowel in the wrong slot. I indexed it wrong, apparently, and I hardly used any force to push the Optispark into place... it just slipped right in. So, Monday the 18th we tore the front of the engine down to get to the opti. What really helped was I took the cover of the optispark off so I could see where the rotor was. Then I was able to hold the rotor in the correct position so the dowel would go into the CORRECT slot. We started it Monday night but it was backfiring still and it was too late to keep trying to fire it up and get it running right.

Tuesday the 19th we figured it out that we had two of the spark wires (3 and 5) reversed, so we swapped those and that fixed the problem - the car was running alright but we could also hear a banging noise.

Wednesday Craig came over and we were able to figure out that it the banging noise was coming from the dustpan so we thought that the flexplate was cracked.

Thursday I had class.

Friday we didn't do much of anything with it... I can't really remember why but whatever reason we just took the night off.

Saturday we found out it wasn't that the flexplate was cracked it was the weight on the engine side of the flexplate was sticking out too far and there wasn't enough clearance to the starter so it was whacking against the starter as it spun. We took the starter out, took a grinder to it, and reinstalled the starter. We gave it just enough clearance for the flexplate's weight and TADA it was running great! Did a LOT of data logging along the way to make sure it was running OK and everything was good.

Lowered it down onto all four tires and then took the videos above.

Talked to Steve yesterday and he said it was safe to drive out there so we did. Hopefully should get it back tomorrow night.


Also, I need to give a big THANK YOU to Kyle and Joel for giving me tons of advice along the way. When I ran into all the problems Dr LT1 earned his name and helped me out a shit ton.

So, big thanks to my dad, Angie, Craig, Jon, Dan, Kyle, and Joel for all their help. Another big thanks to Ryan [ThreeHonks], Jeff [DetroitMuscle], Kyle [MP81], and Liz [..y'all know who she is..], for keeping the secret. Ryan found my "help!" thread on LTxTech.com and Jeff caught my dad buying o2 sensors and spark plugs at O'Reillys and put two and two together.

[JoeliusZ28]

i cant wait to see this thing!

[meissen]

awesome brian!!

ill check out those datalogs for ya at work tomorrow.

I got a shit ton of data logs on my server right now.

http://www.meissenation.com/datamaster/

I even have the data log on there when I drove it all the way out to Port Huron.

[ICEPICK]

And that's where the problems started - Although everyone will say it's impossible to do it, I was able to successfully install the Optispark with the dowel in the wrong slot. I indexed it wrong, apparently, and I hardly used any force to push the Optispark into place... it just slipped right in. Tuesday the 19th we figured it out that we had two of the spark wires (3 and 5) reversed, so we swapped those and that fixed the problem - the car was running alright but we could also hear a banging noise.

i did it so i dont say it cant be done, slipped right on and backfired like crazy, was told out of time so i checked it after going over the plug wires yes 3 hours double checkin everything, finally turned the opti and whamo fired right up.

[steddy]

I feel so cheap.....
So duped.....

[71novaSS]

ill let ya borrow my crotch rocket for the track day brian and youll get good gas mileage on the way there

[Phantom409]

Way to go bud

I think you are going to draw a crowd on Saturday

[78mali350]

congrats on the quick turn around brian, that is awesome!

[Derek]

I knew something was fishy!!! when I was talking to you the other day you were like well "they went .040 because thats the pistons they could get the quickest" then you said you were just trying to save the money to get it back. I didn't say anything but I was scratching my head at why the heck they would be concerned with how fast they could get it back together if you didn't even have the money to pay them. you are very very sneaky sir!

[meissen]

I also slipped and said that the jack slipped off the kframe twice and then said "I mean on my dad's car..." I was hoping you didn't catch on too much.

[Superman09]

Do I win a prize for being the first to raise the BS flag? lmao. Good job B! Don't break this one please!

[92conv]

Congrats B, I think they call that flying under the radar!! Glad to hear Red Alert will be at the M&G.

[Phantom409]

Congrats B, I think they call that flying under the radar!! Glad to hear Red Alert will be at the M&G.

The M&G wouldn't be right with out RA!

[meissen]

Hey guys - I put the updated pictures in the 1st post on the 1st page. Make it easier for everyone to keep up to date.