Mr. G. Brettin's Slow Motion Leg Hump

gbrettin

Took a measurement and put a belt on. Someone suggested that I put an idler pully on so that I don't throw belts. I had just the idler pully on my low mount alt setup so I just took that and applied the idler to my new setup. Quite happy with the belt system now.

Finished cutting the plate steel for the power steering mount. Now you should be able to see how the MA Motorsports cage will sit in the plate steel. Next step is to get the engine and transmission in the car so I can see how close the mount can get to the pan. Ideally the PS pump will be higher than the K-member...

ZontheRocks

Continues to be straight bonkers. Love it!

__________________
'16 Pearl White Sport | Stillen Gen. 3 | Motordyne ART | Motordyne Shockwave | ZSpeed | Powertrix | EVO-R | Aeroworkz | Nismo | Z1 | EcuTek | Tuned by Seb @ SpecialtyZ

gbrettin

To state the obvious... I loaded the engine and transmission into the chassis.

There's a few more things happening that are not as obvious at first glance, but have been mentioned leading up to this point such as fitment. A few notable items are the valve covers being more shallow so I can change the plugs, passenger mid mount alt (single accessory item) for weight distribution to passenger and ease of maintenance, black steel-it engine bay easily repainted due to scratches (touched up after putting in engine), air to water plenum removed weight off the nose of car, Motion Raceworks cold side charge tubes are independent and easily removable for maintenance (aluminum charge tubes will be added when the cage goes in). There's more things, but you get the idea... There's A LOT that goes into packaging because everything gets in the way of other stuff that was completed. I'm not out of the woods yet. The remote power steering reservoir and PS pump must be mounted yet. Both of the ideal mount locations still seem viable, specifically the under engine mount (see picture under car).

Getting the power plant loaded was quite the task because I did it myself. The lift cart was the thing that made it possible. The cart put the transmission at the same height as the dangling engine. I've got to say... dangling thousands of dollars off the ground was a bit unsettling now that I look back at it... but hey, how else will it get in there?

Bottom line... this was a big deal getting the engine in the car because it's about to get REALLY cold. I don't want the engine and transmission hanging out not in the car. The engine stand that I was using had a really bad gangster lean.

Last thoughts.... 4L80e is F'n heavy... Transmission is in and I can now re-measure the drive shaft and change the u-joint so that I can mate it to the Winters Quick Change.

Lemme know if you have any thoughts or questions. Thanks for reading! or maybe just picture viewing?

gbrettin

It's been a month since I last posted, because I've been insane-o busy completing my degree. I am completely done! It was a complete pain in the a$$ so I'm happy to turn the page on that to focus on other items now... Including my hobbies.

Over the month I did manage to take a few breaks to wrench on my car to get away from work/school grind. It turns out that my ICT mid mount didn't work. The accessory was switched to truck spacing from Fbody so that the full sized alt doesn't hit the valve cover. This change has had cascading impact which required me to change the water pump to a 417 Motorsports manifold (again) and the ATI damper length needs to extend. Both of those parts have been purchased.

The mid mount electric power steering fits perfect after I fabricobbled the mount. Dave Diehl with Auto Dynamix TIG welded. Pictures tell the story. Something notable, rubber nipples (lol) were put over the k member bolts so they act as a rubber isolator .

sx moneypit

Car is looking great!Congratulations on getting your degree!!!!

gbrettin

Put the final touches on the power steering mount with steel-it. Added some blue loctite on the bolts to the PS pump and then added red loctite to the bolts under the car, don't want to drop the PS due to vibrations. Didn't get any pictures under the car while doing the final install.... OH, one cool thing that I added was nylon spacers that slipped over the bolt. I wanted a bot more surface area w/ vibration dampening. The small details add up!

Steam vents and return line need to be setup differently because the lower plenum's belly sits really close to the valley pan. After installing the plenum, I noticed that the plenum was missing a plug on the bottom of the lower plenum.... Might need to take the plenum back off. oh well. About 90% of the wiring is in the right place now and plugged in.

I'm going to run the MS3 wiring and ECU until 2026. All the wiring will get re-done into bulk head milspec connectors, ECU changed to Fuel Tech, and all the OEM wiring ripped out for a solid state PDM. This will remove all the gangle of the dangle with wires. BUT!!! I'm not going to let perfection get in the way of good enough right now. I don't like half measures, but the MS3 wiring harness is really damn good.

I'll take off the plenum and get the plug in, fuel rails, and injectors in over the next couple days. The return line will need a different route so ill need to check in to some Earls fittings. The steam vent lines will dump into the 417 motorsports manifold, I'll show you that later.

cv129

This is some craziness!

Congrats on finishing your degree!

__________________
Setrab | RE-71 | SPL | JRZ | Nismo | ARK | Whiteline | RacingBrake | CJM Oil Pan | Ti shield

gbrettin

It has been wild the last couple weeks. I've been helping Nick and Dave, limitedly, get ready for Sick Week 2025 in-between working on my own car. The shop car, Last Penny, has had pretty much everything you can do to it done in literally 1 month: fabrication, paint, body, engine, wiring... They have a YT channel under DiehlBrothersRacing if you want to check the whole thing out.

https://www.youtube.com/@Diehl_brothers_racing

Now back to my slow azz build... A deal fell through on getting the Tick Performance upper intake so I'm going to stick with the Shearer Fab plenum and cut my hood. That's fine because I really like the Shearer Fab and it's a known quantity at this point, meaning I know what items need to change. That being said, all the injectors were loaded into the plenum. Sometime last year all the injectors were sent out for cleaning and flow testing. Didn't really make sense not to have them gone through. The specific injectors being used are Bosch 210lb injectors, that's something like 2200cc. All the threads were chased on the fuel rail because they got slightly messed up ******* around with the twin intake due to the lack of room. Easy fix.

The rear steam vents on a 243 LS heads are blocked off by factory compared to the 799 heads I had on previously (same casting, different number). The ports were drilled out but the bit managed to get the side of the surface so I used epoxy putty to get the surface right. When I put the steam vent into the hole it had a perfect tight fit. The local hardware store had a door hinge which was the perfect size of the hole which allowed me to pack the putty in. I bought an assortment of fittings that will work with my steam vent and 417 Motorsports water manifold. More to come on that next post. However, thought needs to be given well in advance for all the lines or else I will be in a bind. After the plenum went back on I noticed that the return line no longer fits under the lower plenum. A tight 90 was used for that, which isn't ideal for flow... but it's the packaging I have to deal with.

I feel it's safe to say the accessories on the car are perfect now. ATI sent me a truck spacing hub that allowed me to swap out F body (Camaro) balancer spacing. Truck spacing allows for the full sized alt to sit up top with out hitting the valve covers, showed that in my previous post. Out with the old hub and in with the new. That's not to say bumpers were along the way. The flywheel needed to be locked into place, a thick wall impact socket required to blast off the balancer bolt, hub removal wedged the tool into the crank so a slide hammer was needed to get it out.

BUT....

End result was worth it. The accessory drive now consists of a single BAD AZZ 400amp alt that has had the mathematics worked out so it can spin 9,000rpm. The pulley on the alt is larger so that it doesn't exceed 18,000rpm. The tensioner from Dirty Dingo is oversized for maximum pressure on the belt. Best of all.... there's no power steering pump in sight. The vision is taking shape!

Last thought... I added lights to the garage so I can see the front of the car easier.