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**xDetroitMetalx** · May 31st, 2015, 09:21 AM

Early 2010

Wanting More Go

I basically continued with a new Yukon Dura-Grip Carrier and 3.73s on my anemic 10 bolt. I Was then having wheel hop issues and launch issues so I then ordered UMI's full catalog offerings and bought some Strange things. This ended up taking the car to a neck snapping 13.3!

Late 2010

Death of an LT1

Around December time the head gasket blew on the highway. My dad had to come tow the car back home to Detroit from Kalamazoo. The car ended up hydro-locking which broke the starter casing. It sounded like there was massive damage in the engine, we had no idea what it was at the time. He gave me my bicycle as kind of a joke... But I had to use it sometimes.

Made it home to Detroit!

**xDetroitMetalx** · May 31st, 2015, 09:23 AM

Early 2011

Resurrection

It was time to put it back together and since the top end was going to be completely off why not put a cam in it? I went with the XFI268, a fairly good cam for a stock bottom end. I also had the engine builder, Jack, do his competition valve grind on the heads. This made a very good refresh for the LT1 engine.

This broken starter was the cause of our scary mechanic noise.

What did it sound like now?

Spring 2011

Dyno Day

I came back to Detroit to get the car Dynoed and tuned. I wanted to make sure everything was right and nice. I went to change the oil and what did I find? Glitter with very little oil is what it looked like. How could this have happened? Well, Jack the engine builder, decided it would be wise to put cheap springs for the XFI cam. This was a huge mistake as all the inner dampers broke, every sing one. There was no performance change nor any noise to find out this happened. You either remove the valve covers and inspect or change the oil to find metal in the oil. My results were the later.

What happened next? Basically re-read the above post but with a lot more anger. Jack bought all the parts to do the build again, I was the labor. We were hoping the engine would be saved, sadly it wasn't. I started it up and instantly smelled oil. The engine was toast. I drove it burning about a qt of oil a week for the rest of the summer and was waiting for it to go, it never did. I decided, ef it, and took it to the track. What did it run with the XFI cam, burning oil and base tune? 12.8@108 mph, not bad.

Here are some pictures during that summer!

This is the last visual media of that set up with some tunnel blasting:

**xDetroitMetalx** · May 31st, 2015, 09:24 AM

Fall 2011

We Have The Technology We Can Make It Better

I ended up planning on building an LT1 383. I found an LT1 out of the car on Craigslist for $150, I offered him $120 and he took it. There were no photos or anything like that so I figured it was the short block. Nope! It was the whole damn set up, wire harness, opti, computer, coil, intake, everything! I figured I was set, I got the new engine to work on while I can DD the dying engine... Nope! I was on the highway and the transmission let go and lost all gears. Welp, time to start the build then.

What ended up being done? Pretty much everything... I even replaced the horns. This was a 3 month process working 5 days a week 7am to 7pm. It started early October and I finished right before Christmas. It was a massive undertaking and I'm still working out the bugs to this day.

There are TONS of pictures as I documented the whole build so here is a link to my photobucket slideshow.

The Build

And here are some vidyas!

Spring / Summer 2012

Weird Life Stage

Well, Oregon is a dead end. Emily's job is god awful, to make a long story short the people here just don't work well with other people and "outsiders", thus, they don't treat us right at all. There are no jobs out here so I will be unemployed for six months. I did work at Oregon Raceway Park and also had some freelance Graphic Design jobs but nothing to start a solid career. Not good. We have made the decision to move back September 1st, yay and crap!

There is a really weird oiling issue with this new motor. It developed on the way to Oregon near the end of the trip. Basically, once the engine was warm including the oil it will drop from 60psi to 50psi going WOT when it goes above 4,500 rpms. Odd and not very settling to the stomach. I'm hoping it's the oil pump and not something extremely major with the bottom end. I have investigated a little bit but with no flat ground and no real tools I haven't gotten far. Basically the car has been fairly inactive since we arrived in Oregon.

To make things worse I went out for a drive and ran into a local with a brand spanking new Green w/ Black pinstriped 392 Challenger... We had a little go from a 20 mph roll. I put roughly 4 cars on him in 2nd gear when I lost my 3rd and OD. He ended up passing by me with me frowning and waving goodbye. Of course now he is telling everyone we never raced *rolls eyes*. So, thankfully, there is an LT1 enthusiast / Mechanic / Trans builder 4 hours up north that is actually picking the car up tomorrow to fix the trans and hopefully nail down any further issues I have this car. I already went to visit him and check out his shop, he has a VERY nice 1996 LT1 Camaro that he is in the process of building a very nice 396.

Late July 2012

Familiar Sight

Dynamic396 who I met on this site picked up the car today to bring back home with him to fix the trans and diagnose a couple of other issues. I'm excited for him to check it out and he's excited as well to work on something unique and fun. Thanks to sites like these for finding such a great person and a very good new friend. I can't thank him enough for trailering it all the way from Moro, OR to Spokane, WA... A 300 mile journey one way! Luckily for both of us he was coming this way anyway.

This is a familiar sight for me

**xDetroitMetalx** · May 31st, 2015, 09:28 AM

Late August to Early October 2012

Back to Michigan and More Heartbreak

I got the car back and noticed some odds and ends that were weird with the shifting. Dynamic396 was more than willing to help out and make sure everything was right before we left on our big journey home. Emily and I were planning on staying with him and his family for a night to say our goodbyes anyway.

In the mean time I got to the first car show of the season, rofl. It was very tiny but I would say I had the best late model vehicle there, if not one of the top 3 in the small showing. I would say there were only a couple dozen cars that showed up. Here is a photo of me and the car in Oregon before people were showing up!

35 mph winds = funny hair

Next big step was moving from Oregon back to Michigan... Yay. Dynamic396 checked my transmission which was shifting well. We narrowed down the problem to tuning. The computer seems to not be applying enough pressure to the trans. He was also nice enough to check over the GTP and even did the work on an oil change, lol. We hung out in his awesome back yard with a fire and some beers. Then the morning came and it was time for the huge trip.

The first hick-up was at the end of Montana. I know I didn't torque spec the brake caliper mount and I paid for it. The bolt backed out and when I hit the brakes the caliper would slam up into the wheel, awesome. We had to pull over and call AAA. Got it towed to the shop only a 1/4 mile away and they did it on the spot in 110* weather. Cost me $50, not bad! We also found out that my allignment got out of whack and my passenger front tire (the one on the ground) was extremely worn and I had 1,500 miles to go! Everyone at the shop said I was screwed and wouldn't make it... I did... Just in time because going to my father's shop it went flat. I had to pull over and fill it up and made the rest of the journey. I lost 20 psi in 30 miles, rofl.

Look at the tire on the ground, no tread on the bottom side

The next hick-up was the heart breaker for many people. We got to Chicago and had to go through the loop in rush hour. I was impressed with my engine and everything staying cool but my head wasn't. I thought I had enough gasoline but I was dropping to E quickly. Finally the traffic cleared and I began to accelerate. The transmission grabbed 1st - 2nd - 3rd and then dropped 3rd... You gotta be kidding... Long story short it had a mind of it's own but I was able to limp it back to Detroit.

I then went to the shop that aligned it. I told them that I think the control arm bolts were not torqued to spec and loosened up. They said no I probably hit a pot hole... Yeah whatever, so they did give me $20 off, wooooooo! I also had the summer tires put on up front, finally! When I picked the car up the mechanic says to me, "I tightened up the bolts as best I could." Uhhhh... Great... I got it to the shop down the road and decided I would torque them to spec myself. NONE of them were tight enough. I hate when people mess up, know they messed up, won't take responsibility and then when they "fix it" it's not right again and they know you're going to inspect it. Two of the bolts were off really bad, one at 80 lbs and another at 60 lbs. Grrrr.

What is awesome is when I got it to Holland both Jerry/Mike and Dynamic396 are great guys and are collaborating with each other to figure out why this trans is burning the 3-4 pack just on highway duties. Well, last week Jerry/Mike were getting ready to put the trans back in and bring it to the tuner when they saw that my Vigilante torque converter's hub was cracked from the pump down... Now they had to send it out back to Precision Industries to get warrantied... Sigh, another week down

Now I'm collaborating with two trans guys, a tuner and PI to fix this problem *sigh*

Summer 2013

Last I put the car away it was on a trailer... Again... It overheated something awful and boiled over. I threw it in the shop and forgot about it. I didn't want to think about it for awhile. In March of 2013 I started to investigate and took off the WP praying that it went bad. Nope... My heart sunk. Seriously, another head gasket? Well, I began to dig into it deeper and decided **** it, I'm cutting the radiator in half. We can always hope! Yup.... The thing was probably 60% plugged up. $125 for a Chinese radiator later it was back running. I pressure tested it just in case and it passed.

I got the car out in April. I now live 5 minutes away from Woodward Ave and "cruise" there every weekend. My kill list grew substantially this year! Greatest kills was a 2010 Viper ACR SRT10, a Turbo 4.6 Mustang running 18lbs, bolt on Coyote Mustang with 3.73s, stock ZL1, stock CTS-V Coupe and some more I forgot about. Well... Too much racing, I hurt my rear end and she was screaming loud. I didn't want to damage my nice Yukon carrier so I swapped it in for another 3.73 10 bolt for $100 I found on Craiglist. Well... I screwed that one in a week, I said screw it and drove it that way for 3 months and still beat the piss out of it... It never let go O_O

Cars in the garage now sleeping. Only modifications this winter is a Midwest Chassis rear end, UMI kmember and front LCA... A wideband.... and an oil pan that doesn't suck. Yes.... the 4L60E lives on and shifts well (Very special thank you goes to Jon on here). Hopefully if all goes well it will see the track in the spring.

Here is a video a week before she went in for the winter. There is a small pull in the end:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EQT...ature=youtu.be

**xDetroitMetalx** · May 31st, 2015, 09:33 AM

Spring 2014

part one

Installed the new Powermaster Mini Torque Starter... What do you do when you install a new starter? Start it, DUH!

A couple weeks later I got this thing. I'm thinking it's a new drum for my drum set? I'm afraid to open it... Seems Strange...

I mean seriously....

I have a GM rear end not a Ford. I can't do shit with this!

Pro Iron Nodular Case
S-Series Yoke upgrade
S-Trac 35 spline diff upgrade
Strange forged aluminum pinion support upgrade
3.90 final drive

Now I just need something to put it in ^_^

I went 3.90s because I wanted to go one step up without losing too much on MPGs and traction on the launch... Supposedly it's a perfect 1/4 mile gear for the 4L60E and even better for a 4L80E swap. At 70mph my rpms will only go up a couple hundred. It might gain me an extra tenth down the 1/4. I figured with the extra parasitic loss it wouldn't hurt going up a step as it may cancel the difference. It's all theory I suppose... Hopefully it works out!

This is the housing since Saturday:

I still think I'm having 3rd gear / clutch issues in the trans... It's shifting into 4th way too early. I've been using calculators and as silly as it sounds, Forza 5, to determine where it should be at. It shouldn't be shifting into 4th until after 130mph but it seems to be shifting into 4th at 110mph. Also in third it seems to just run out of steam. In addition when I'm just cruising it jumps in and out of OD at times or just stays in 4th... Not good! I'm not sure if it's just slipping or what... Once I get the car in the shop I will start looking into that next... Or I'm debating putting in a new clutch pack again.

Anyway, got some more eye candy from Alex @ Trick Chassis:

UMI K-member in the car on Saturday. Simple install with a bridge and chain-fall set up! I was wanting to get out of the shop on a Saturday so no photos of it in the car, I'm sorry.

9" will ship this week, install on the Saturday! This will be exciting. Lot's of photos to come for that, stay tuned!

Oh! About the tune... Baker doesn't have a bench set up so I can't mail it... I'm kind of stuck now. I'm debating taking a day off work and driving up there but I'm not sure. I can send the PCM to PCMForless but he wants $175... That might still be a better value since I won't have to miss work / gasoline. I kind of want a used Hypertech tuner just for this stuff but I'm unsure if it will mess up my custom tune. It's also impossible to find a cheap 97 LT1 Hypertech. Not sure what I'm doing yet. No one local can really tune in these simple parameters without gouging me for cash.

**xDetroitMetalx** · May 31st, 2015, 09:35 AM

I enjoy working on the Trans Am... I hate working on the daily drivers. I've done a lot of deletes and upgrade to make it easier to work on as well. It's frustrating at times, but in all honesty, if you want something reliable, don't modify it. Once you modify one thing it's a domino effect.

Here is the K-member installed... Seriously awesome!

Received my Trick Chassis 9" yesterday and got it in the car today. I am very impressed with the quality of work. The brackets are designed very nicely with "windows" to save weight when possible and all the holes are lasered out for accuracy. The LCA relocation brackets are one piece, not two. The powdercoat is very nice, no flaking or issues with hole clearance. I had them run my brake lines and that turned out very nice as well. All the mounting points for the rubber lines (in my case braided) were in the perfect location. Turn around was extremely quick at around 4 weeks. I had them powdercoat it, assemble, and route brake lines to it or else it would normally take 3 weeks. They have been extremely impressive with their knowledge and have been friendly from the start. I'm excited to get this car back on the road with confidence.

**xDetroitMetalx** · May 31st, 2015, 09:37 AM

Welp... I got the DS length in too late and Strange Engineering only ships on Fridays. I have to wait until May 2nd for it to ship... So I'm assuming It will be moving under it's own power on the 10th. At that point I'm going to leave it at the shop for my dad to drive it around short distances for a whole week to ensure a proper gear break in. Also he will be taking it to an alignment shop that specializes in performance alignments. So I won't have it home until May 17th.

What am I going to do with the extra time? Well, I purchased a custom aluminum radiator from a local radiator shop for $350. I think this is a killer deal! Especially since the cheap Advanced Auto Chinese made one was $180, I want to get that out of there asap. I also bought the B&M oil cooler that's as large as texas (1/2 x 11" x 11"). In addition I ordered a 160* thermostat. There have been scary heating moments in the past so I want to make sure to solve those issues.

I am going to take the bumper cover off and fabricate my own little shroud system. removing the A/C core left a lot of room for air to escape instead of flowing through the radiator. I will be incorporating a trans cooling mount with it as well. Should be pretty cool once finished.

Found this local company at the Detroit Autorama (Superior Radiator, Mt Clemens, Michigan) I am very pleased with the purchase. Did test fitment Today and the only real issue was there is not place for the radiator shroud to hold it up top. So some ingenuity will be needed there. I will let the owner know when I have it in the car. All other mounting points were correct (I do not have A/C). This bad boy is only $350... I have no idea how they make money!

They have been in business since the 50s here in Michigan and the owner said they tried many different core set ups. They use two rows of 1" tubes for the core and claim that it gives the best all around cooling and supports 700hp @ 3,000 CFM. They say if you need more cooling then you need more air flow.

For the price it was hard to beat, especially for a radiator made locally here in Michigan with a two year warranty. They actually get the tanks and brackets laser cut from the same place I get my cuts from. They also tig weld and pressure test the radiators in house. It's an extremely nice piece and quality is comparable from what I've seen by BeCool.

So I have everything together... It is currently at a local shop that specialize in performance alignments. I am going to do some finishing touches and drive it home tomorrow (Taking a few breaks to work in the ring and pinion while staying off freeways). So, here are some final photos before I start driving it home. Thank you everyone for reading the story so far...

Here are the LS1 front brakes and UMI front suspension together. The calipers are powder coated red and the mounting bracket black.

Here you can see the rear LT1 brakes mounted on the new Trick Chassis Ford 9". Everything bolted up extremely well. I had very little obstacles to overcome with the Trick Chassis swap. I am extremely happy with the purchase thus far. I can't wait to get some road time on the set up to see how well it performs.

Here is a photo of everything bolted up in the rear end. I've really enjoyed the black on red theme I've kept with the car over the years.

Here is the new Superior Radiator mounted up in the car. As you can see I needed to make some modifications in the shroud. Thanks to Mystery Bird I had two shrouds on hand. I ended up cutting my old one at the shelf and used a strong adhesive to glue them together. The shroud needed an extra 1/4" or so to support the radiator.

Here is the other side... I had to also remove material on the shroud so that the radiator cap could be installed and removed with ease... Bolts right in!

Here is what I'm really proud of! This is my new B&M 1-1/2 x 11" x 11" transmission cooler. To make it fit in this area I fabricated a mounting bracket which puts the cooler in a fantastic position. Once I had what I wanted out of it I also powder coated the bracket black.

So far at idle the water hasn't reached over 180*... Usually it goes up to 190*. This is fantastic news for me. Also the transmission hasn't gone over 145* yet... I would assume during some cruising and hard accelerations it will be higher. I'm hoping between the 165-175 range.

**xDetroitMetalx** · May 31st, 2015, 09:40 AM

I went and left disappointed... My launch was terrible and I could feel it right when I dropped the hammer. I need to stiffen up the shocks a bit in the back. So I ran and when I got back to adjust the shocks I looked at my passenger Mickey and it was flat O_O My day was done, there is a big hole in the middle of the tread, I think they are finally toast... RIP MT ET Streets... You served many F-bodies well.

The MPH was not disappointing one bit... But everything else was... Oh well. I got what everyone wanted and I made it home after stopping at nearly every gas station to fill air in the tire!

DA 1870 (I'll never get a low one)

60 ft - 1.989 *puke*
1/8 - 7.978 @ 91.57mph
1/4 - 12.091 @ 119.40

12s for life.

Now that I've had some time to sit down and sip on some beers and think about what happened I'm not disappointed at all. I'm figuring this is the first time I've ever had this car down the track and I've changed nearly EVERYTHING! Suspension, rear end, gearing, transmission, engine, weight reduction.... The list goes on and on and on... It's been in the making for three years now and this is the first attempt to just see what's going on and at a track I've never been at!

Overall the car performed extremely well. No wheel hop, no miss, great shift points... Third gear feels AMAZING now, it's almost scary. The best part is I was guessing 118mph but really thinking 116mph... Then it exceeded my expectation with 119mph, can't beat that!

Then I remembered something.... I still have Nitto 555R tires for the 16" wheels laying around... I can go next weekend! ^_^

Been looking at a 15" wheel for the back and some new tires... Also began making some adjustments to the suspension. Brought the LCA one notch up which brought it to about a 3.3* rake... I must have been over 6* with the bottom hole, it launched like poo!

Anyway, gave the 16s and the nittos to a friend to mount them... They are old and dry so I'm going to test that WD40 trick.

*grumbles* Stupid 60 ft... I will show you... *grumbles*

Trick Chassis gave me a great deal and I already sold the old UMI bars to a friend... So I didn't spend much of anything on these new ones. I can tell a huge difference on the street so far, not only on the hit but even the ride quality seems smoother... Way less jerky and much more predictable. However, vibration noise has amplified.

Some more small changes. Today I had to change the Trans fluid on both the GTP and the T/A. That's 12qts of fluid at over $5 each... No thanks! I jumped on the JD Hy-Gard wagon. I put it in both the GTP and the T/A. It solved the GTP shift shutter issues which is awesome. In the T/A the shifts are much snappier and quicker. It's said the fluid is supposed to help trans temps. My temps seem more stable but they do still spike at the lights, but I never went over 180* like I did with the straight F-Type. Well... Let's hope I don't melt clutch packs jumping to this.

Anyway, here is a cool little tunnel blast clip I took tonight:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-Xp...ature=youtu.be

**xDetroitMetalx** · May 31st, 2015, 09:44 AM

- 38 days later -

I am the new 12s for life member!

First aftermarket wheel set I ever bought in my life. I'm really lucky as I have McCormack Racing 30 minutes away. Basically all they deal with is high performance and drag racing wheels and tires.

My dad went with me to check the place out and see what I was getting myself into. All I originally wanted was 15 x 8 Pro Stars with Hoosier DOT 26 x 10.5 tires for the back only. I was going to worry about the fronts in the off season. While we are waiting we are looking at the wheel wall. I pointed out the Pro Stars to my dad and he was not impressed. He looked straight at the RTS wheels and said, "Wow, you should get these!" I told him they are really what I want but they are out of my price range. He just shrugs.

Help arrives and I tell them what I'm looking for. They actually have them in stock. My dad asks about the RTS and the sales person explains how they build on order and there is a 3-4 week lead time. He kind of shrugs again. I have them start on the Prostars with Hoosiers... We are waiting only a couple minutes and my dad is looking at the RTS wheels again. He looks at me again and says, "Mark... You're ****ing up... Order the RTS. I will pay the difference. Happy birthday." Yes my birthday was around the corner. I walk in the shop and tell them to cancel the order, we changed our mind.

In the end I bought something completely different than my original idea. Weld RTS 15 x 10 mounted with 26 x 10.5 MT ET Streets. I picked the MT again because I want to drive these bad boys down Woodward and troll around a little bit. Again, I was planning on getting the fronts in the winter.

Skip forward to a few weeks... On a FB site a guy is selling a full set of RTS wheels off of his 2002 Camaro. He has the fronts I want with 26 x 6 Sportsman S/R tires which is perfect for my use. I mention that I would buy the fronts right now, of course, he does not want to split them. Another potential buyer posts that he just wants the rears... Again, he won't split them. I end up joking that him and I will drive up and get them so he won't have to split them up. The other buyer ends up joking back saying we should.

I message the guy that wants the rears and ask where he lives. He only lives a few minutes away. So I tell him what if I pick him up and we will drive out and grab them. Mind you, this is a three hour drive one way. We will be in the car for 6 hours together, complete strangers! I told him we will split the cost of the wheel set and gas. I just asked if I could pay less for the fronts than the rears, not a 50/50 split and he agrees.

My new cohort ends up talking to the seller and get's the price down a lot from the asking price. He messages me saying, "Okay, we bought them. You pay $525 and I pay $725." Deal! We arrange a date and time to drive out and get them. He then asks the seller to take down the ad and he agrees... What a crazy idea, huh?

I took all the necessary precautions I could, just incase. I drive to his place and it looks extremely familiar... He comes out and looks extremely familiar... Then it clicks... I bought my rear leather seats from a 2002 Trans Am at this place. He is actually that sellers younger brother, small world! That's when both of us start laughing coming to the conclusion that we aren't going to get murdered, lol. It was a fun drive there and back. Him and I had a lot to talk about. So it all worked out in the end!

Once I had these mounted I adjust my sway bar. With the new 9" the rear of the bar was hanging really low. I took all the pre-load out of it so I could start fresh at the track for adjustment. When that was finished I began adjusting the front ride height of the car. It was raked a lot. I was dumb to do what I did originally. This was another reason why I believe my 60 fts have been trash. I now have the front sitting a 1/4" lower than stock which I believe is a nice looks and the weight transfer seems much more responsive. The rear is remaining stock height.

The car is pretty much ready for another go around at the track. I was going to go last Saturday but it was too hot. At 11am the DA was already 1,900... I just didn't want to waste my time. I will most likely wait until fall hits and good air arrives. It's been an extremely humid Michigan summer.

All that being said... It's Woodward Dream Cruise week... A lot of hot cars are "cruising" *cough*RACING*cough* I went out Saturday and didn't get home until midnight! Got in a couple of great races. Should be an eventful week, pay attention to the "smack talk" section. I already have some good ones in.

**xDetroitMetalx** · May 31st, 2015, 09:45 AM

Well... A lot of things have happened since I last posted. Luckily, I have it all on video!

First, I raced my friends 2015 Ducati Diavel...

Then I noticed an oil pressure drop... And this happened!

I said forget it... It's over for the season... So I attempted to grab the Buick Roadmaster and it went into No-Start condition! Yaaaaaay! It's either VATS or needs a new battery. Either way, I fixed the T/A instead.

So last weekend I went to a Car Show / BBQ and got into some Hooning...

And more hooning...

Then the next day (Last Sunday - Yesterday) I went to the drag strip.

Oh... Then I found these comments from the rider's group on Facebook...

Here is my time slip:

Here is the video where the bikers say I pulled the wheels:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ma7...g9u570QoGl241A

Next is a video of me vs a G8 L76 with a LSA S/C and LS9 Cam - from a dig and a roll. The dig was awesome, I'm starting to believe those crazy bikers... The roll not so much, Opti hiccuped and messed up the shift. Either way, the G8 would have walked me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W2mwubg-1c

**xDetroitMetalx** · May 31st, 2015, 09:50 AM

2014 X-mas

I hope everyone had a joyous Christmas and a soon to be happy New Year!

I've learned something interesting this X-mas season. Santa is hella confused what an LT1 is and he likes loud stuff.

I've just been doing YouTube blog like videos... Been easier.

Driving it to my shop in -4 weather:

http://youtu.be/Tet_wkbn1vo?list=UUP...g9u570QoGl241A

Cat-back is off:

http://youtu.be/zk_zRWFhH9U?list=UUP...g9u570QoGl241A

Open Headers:

http://youtu.be/fdI0O68LB0M?list=UUP...g9u570QoGl241A

**xDetroitMetalx** · May 31st, 2015, 09:51 AM

Well... The biggest hurtle has been making the Xpipe system fit properly. I actually had to order an extra 4' of pipe have it polished and be able to slip fit over the existing pipe for ease of removal in the future. I finally made some huge strides today in getting everything to fit properly. There now isn't much to do left with it now.

The 24x system has come together very nicely. It has been surprisingly easy to install everything once the old stuff was removed. I'm hoping it will continue to go well because that is the only difference that can stall me in a huge way this year.

About the LPP headers... I'm happy with them but I can see some improvements to be made on my car. I say my car because I have changed a lot and I believe LPP has been working on OEM-like vehicles only. I say this because:

I use Earl's header gaskets which are thick. They come extremely to the LS1 steering knuckle which has much more clearance than an LT1 knuckle. I do not see how they would clear an LT knuckle.

I have a deep oil pan and the headers come extremely close to the kick out. Because of this I am no longer able to install or remove an oil filter anymore. I have to lift the filter between the tower and the header... Not between the header and the oil pan... If that makes sense. This will be an added pain in the ass... In addition a longer filter will no longer be available for use, it simply won't clear a primary tube.

The starter I use is a Mini SX Torque starter... Again, it's REALLY close to the header. I am interested to see if I will need to use a heat shield or not.

Lastly, spark plug #5 will be a complete ***** to remove and install... A normal plug socket is too long. I will have to modify one in order for it to be an easy removal.

Overall... These small inconveniences do not come close to adding up to the MAJOR inconveniences I had with Pacesetter Headers. I highly recommend LPP headers over those any day.

Here are some photos, enjoy!

Saturday work day update!

Today was mostly tedious work. A lot of cleaning, degrease, and re-assembling removed parts. I did find out that my small annoying oil leak from the timing cover was a worn O-ring on the crank sensor. Luckily my new-used 24x kit came with the 24x cam sensor and new O-ring.

Since the timing cover kit came with the seals on the timing cover itself I thought why not? I got a little too excited and forgot how delicate the water pump shaft seal was and ripped it. No problem, I'll get another one, the kit's only $11. And I ripped that one too. So this time I stretched it and sliped it on with the large sharpie cap method. What a pain in the ass! At least if I ever need to remove the anything with the WP or timing cover I'll be all set with gaskets!!!

All in all I'm really happy how the clean up turned out and I have everything on the engine buttoned up for the most part. I ordered more powerful fans for the larger aluminum radiator I bought last year. The stock fans were not strong enough to pull the air through. Once that all comes in - and assuming it all fits properly - I will hopefully be home free!

Last Saturday I re-installed some of the smaller items that I may forget down the road such as the oil dip stick, water temp sensor, replacing my broken power steering pump reservoir, etc. I also installed the new 411 LS PCM, however, I realized it stuck out like a sore thumb so I painted it black. Also re-installed the crank hub realizing that the balancer was worse for wear and ended up spending time painting that black.

Moving to the exhaust there was a lot of time stepping down the driver side area where the tub has to clear that lower portion of the frame. I ended up reducing that portion by a 1/2" to clear. I'm not too worried about that area messing up the flow as it's such a small portion.

The next big step will be re-routing the fuel lines... Again... I ordered the pieces for that. I am excited to give it another go because I'm confident in making the routing a lot nicer.

I also ordered some higher powered fans to pull enough air for last years larger radiator. The quest for efficient cooling remains!

The other large hurtle is finding out a nice way to mount the coils to everything. I believe I have a decent plan but we will see during the fabrication process.

Lastly, a nice add on to the exhaust system is polishing my existing Borla XR1 mufflers. I think they turned out really nice!

**xDetroitMetalx** · May 31st, 2015, 09:54 AM

No updates two weekends ago because I got crazy ill with a stomach virus, unfortunately. Fortunately I did get a full days work in that Saturday before the shitting and vomitting hit the fan... TMI I know, haha.

Anyway, I spent that weekend re-routing fuel lines, again... Used the same style of aluminum hard lines and did it slightly better. They are a very cool option when doing your own fuel routing. The fuel lines now run along the sub frame connectors on the driver side to stay away from exhaust heat. The only thing I don't like about it is that there is a small 6" section that is exposed... I may make a cover for it but we will see how it goes this year. If worst comes to worse I can re-route the lines again for a few dollars... But at least if a leak occurs the fuel will be away from anything hot.

Lastly I finally decided on a route to go on mounting the LS coils on the OEM valve covers. I think that turned out really nice. Since I off-centered the mounting location closer to the center of the car it seems as if the wires will not be dropped right on top of the headers. Burning wires - all the time - seems to be a common issue with the 24x system.

This weekend I finally picked up the new radiator fans I ordered 3 weeks ago. Each fan flows at 6,000 CFM... Not sure what it will be when both are spinning combined. They are a lower profile as well which is clearing everything better in addition to making the engine bay look a little cleaner. Lastly, the fit the aluminum radiator much better, obviously, since they are from the same company as the radiator.

The next thing I did was a test fire. I used the old wires that were given to me. The wires were sitting for awhile and I noticed they had some corrosion on the terminals. They will need to be rebuilt to work properly I'm afraid. However, for my purpose they worked fine. I don't think they were firing the cylinders properly which is why the idle is rough and low. This week I'll be building my own wires at home so hopefully this solves the issue.

SPOILER ALERT

The car fired so I assembled the rest of the engine bay. Almost done! Next step is to finish up the exhaust and the car will be ready to drive.

24x is working well... The base tune is extremely rich but having a tuner come over today to fine comb everything. Only issue is that for some reason the tachometer is reading roughly 500 RPMs lower than it's actually spinning... The PCM knows where it's at though, kind of odd.

The X-pipe is becoming a nightmare... What looked great up top ended up shifting around once I drove it around. I'm going to have to revise the back half... Right now the cut out flanges are too low and scrape on dips and up my driveway... Everything else seems low but is clearing obstacles fine.

The sound is unreal... It is REALLY loud in the cabin but wow is it worth it... It just sounds so bad ass! I've gotten a lot of compliments on the crazy sound already.

Would I recommend an X-pipe to anyone else? No, stay away!

The 275# springs are too soft... My car is too fat... I can't get the front end high enough. Right now it's dropped 1.75" and that's just too low for me. I'm going to have to go back to 300# springs

Just spent some time on it...

Got the 275# springs to sit up 26" high... That's 5/8 lower than stock height which seems livable. I'm debating making a 1"-2" spacer maybe. That would give me the height I would need and then some.

When over the exhaust and used some hammer and grinding mods... It's tucking up much better now! I have a few more ideas I can complete at my shop to really tucking up nicely.

I also found out why the Tach is off. Apparently the LS PCM sends a 4 pulse signal when the tachometer reads an 8 pulse signal. So since the pulse is halved so is my RPM reading on the tachometer. Apparently the way the LS PCM sends the signal can be revised through HP Tuners.

Car is tuned. She now drinks E85.

Car's tune dialed in. I got out to his place at about 8:55pm and we got started with it. The biggest annoyance is the idle. The car has always had a fitful idle so he was trying to smooth it out. He got it a little better but it still goes on rampages sometimes.

Anyway, he fattened up the fuel by 7% and we went out and did two WOT pulls and adjusted the E85 AFR (on the gasoline scale). When we got back he fattened it up a little bit more. When that was all finished he asked to race his TBSS (LS2, AWD, Gears, Stall, E85 tune) I say yeah! So we do a dig and he lost by a few cars without me having to reel him in on the launch (I spun most of 1st). We stopped and he exclaimed that it must be running really good. So we both go on our way.

Two lights down I decide to go half throttle and I feel the car lose power and then no fuel. What?! I pull off to the side and try to prime the fuel pump... Nothing. No way?! I'm almost an hour away from home! I text the tuner that the car shut off and there was no response, he must have left his phone at home. So I start thinking we killed the pump... Then I think about the hot wire kit from Racetronix and that little 5a fuse, I bet it burn out!

I pop the hood and look at the fuse and see it's burnt but not blown. So I just rotate it 180* and put it back in. Turn the key, hear the pump prime, and it fires right up... YES! I start cruising and the tuner calls me asking if it was okay. I explain and he said his heart dropped when he saw my text. I got home at about 11:30pm.

Fast forward to me going home from work. Everything is great until I stop at the first red light and see my oil pressure dropped to zero and then go back up to normal... Really?! Yup... The oil pick up tube broke off again... Time to go to the drawing board. I picked up a used ATI Super Damper to replace my OEM one, maybe I have bad harmonics? I am also going to machine / fab a bolt on / weld on bracket for the tube. This won't be happening again! I already have everything off, just need to lift the engine up to remove the pan.

So yes, that's a new record for a failure I think...

More loud noises.

**xDetroitMetalx** · May 31st, 2015, 09:55 AM

I beat the crap out of the car last Friday night. AFR is still a tad on the lean side with E85. I'm going to replace my fuel filter (E85 can cleanse out old 93 contaminants and plug the filter) and check fuel pressure this week to make sure the pump can keep up. Either than that it was a really good night, I got my first Challenger Hellcat race.

So before comments go flying about this and that and the other thing. The Hellcat ran up on me first. We did a low roll from 20-60 and it was obvious the Hellcat is much more powerful, because it is! Then we rolled up to the light and I asked if he wanted to go off of it. He said no, as there are a lot of cops out. I said okay I understand. Yes, he lied. We both hit it, I wasn't trying too hard but I knew I had to race this thing from a dig.

So he pulled over to the gas station and we talked for a good while. Really cool guy! So yes, he had the red key, yes it was dialed in to the 700+ hp, but it was a manual and he only had it for a week. He showed us a few other cool gadget tricks too. Really neat stuff! So I asked him if he wanted to race, he said yes if we there is a good spot... I know a few! Just then a new Challenger Scat Pack rolled up with an automatic. Now this was getting good!

So fast forward to the line up:

G8 L76 with LSA S/C, ZR1 cam, and supporting mods.
Stock Coyote Mustang (chase car)
2015 Challenger Scat Pack
2015 Challenger Hellcat

We did a lot of races, dig only, we are big men! We raced and chatted from 10pm-2am. The whole time the Hellcat owner and I were trying to dial in his launch to make the race more competitive.

He used launch control twice. It was better for him to do it himself.

Race mode twice which takes away traction management, not good for street dig racing.

Street mode which only takes away 10% traction management.

To say the least on those oem tires Street mode with doing the launch himself was best but nearly impossible.

The Scat Pack did much better due to that automatic. I raced him three times. However once was the first race with all of us. The Hellcat owner was fumbling with controls and the Scat Pack left on time but the rest of us were waiting for the Hellcat to be ready. The second time was an even start and the Scat Pack didn't have enough to keep up. The third time I saw the owner roll up to the light and dust the tires before I was up with him. When I went into the light he shouted what sounded like, "Don't go off the light." and he rolled up the window. While my buddy and I were wondering wtf he said the light turned green and he left. I hit it but spun all of first, cold Mickey Tees don't work too great cold. I was reeling him in but before I was done with 3rd he shut it off.

The G8 is my buddies and we saw the video from last year. His car is getting faster every year!

At the end of the night the Hellcat owner complimented my car. He said when I pulled up at that light the first time he thought to himself, "Oh shit, I played with the wrong car... I'm going to lose." Then he said, "You really knocked me down a few pegs tonight." I told him I'm really interested to race him again when he feels more comfortable with the car. Then I heard him mumble, "Now I wish I bought the auto." I felt bad for him

To say the least I'm very humbled to have had the experience to race one of those bad ass machines so early in the season. However, I am not going to walk around strutting my stuff stating to everyone that I can beat a Hellcat... That would be a lie and untrue. It was fun yes, but not the Hellcat race I was looking for.

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