4-20sx

Damn that blows man. Positive thing is you got a new set of heads lol

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"get that nacho out of my face"

Kingtal0n

Thank you for sharing this, I wish you the best of luck with the rebuild.

I hope you find where the water entered the engine from. Any chance to check the original heads for cracks?
I dont know about the newer engines, but old V8's I worked on required thread sealer on the threads of the head hardware because they threaded right into coolant jackets.

onehundredoctane

I did some research into this issue, the 862 heads which came on my 5.3 are known to have casting problems which allows coolant to seep into the oil system it's a known and documented issue that Chevy didn't address until around 2004. My luck, this engine is a 2003. . . HOWEVER, the 799 heads I'm installing are from a 2006, so hopefully this won't happen again.

As far as having the old heads pressure tested, I'm not sure I even want to waste my time and money having them tested by the machine shop.



Got a call from the machine shop just before lunch, my heads are ready to be picked up! They completed them a day early and came in $20 cheaper than they quoted me!

Not to keep babbling on, but I did some reading ( See article: http://www.hotrod.com/how-to/engine/...st-comparison/ ) and found out that swapping the stock 6.0 cam into the 5.3 will net 40 hp and 32 lb ft at 6,500 rpm. . . and guess who has a stock 6.0 sitting on their shop floor that they aren't doing anything with yet?!

SCORE!

onehundredoctane

Ordered a ton of parts in hopes to get the S14 back on the road in time for all this nice weather we are having here in NC.

Tore the heads off, cleaned the surface of the block, got it ready to put the new heads on.


Getting the new heads on, these things are so clean they made the rest of the engine look even dirtier.


Both heads back on, oddly GM's torque rating for the heads is 22 lb-ft, followed by 2 sequences of 90 degree turns on all head bolts.
WHY THE HELL CAN'T YOU JUST TELL ME WHAT THAT ADDS UP TO!?!?!!?!
(deep breath)


Now with the heads on it's time to start re-assembling the rest of it. One step closer!


At this point I'd been working for 10+ hours, time for a beer.

newdie

I don't get those torque specs either. Flywheel bolts for my audi were like 50ft lbs + half turn.

onehundredoctane

Glad I'm not the only one! It's like "touque to 18 ft lbs, then add 90 degrees, then add another 90 degrees, then google to see if you're really doing this right"

GIVE ME THE TORQUE SPECS! lol

BoostinIX

Joy of TTY bolts lol. Comin along nicely

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shoguner

I like this thing.
I didn't read through everything.
What front accesories did you use?
Water pump, pulley, alt, brackets, what car did they come from?

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1uz build. Wiring on Page 2
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onehundredoctane

I may not have covered this in a previous post.

Accessories are based off of whatever crank pulley you use, the truck crank pulley and water pump stick further off the front of the engine than the car versions. I opted for a late 90s Camaro crank pulley, so all accessories had to be based off of that. I've kind of pieced it together, the water pump is from a Corvette and since the belt line on it didn't line up I had to shim the serpentine belt tensioner a bit.





Small update: I fired the engine up last night, just to make sure that oil started coming up thru the pushrods and lubricating the top end. Held my breath for about a minute and finally oil started circulating. Need to button her back up and see what she's got.

onehundredoctane

Car passed NC emissions and OBD-II inspection, drove it to Cars and Coffee on Saturday.

Leaving C&C a early 2000 Corvette (complete with chrome door handles and chrome tail light covers) came up on me while rolling on the highway.

I didn't expect to walk off on him, but I put a good 6-8 car gap on him before I let off, then I dropped down to the speed limit and when he passed by he wouldn't look over at me

I'm signed up for my first Auto-x this weekend, we'll see how that goes with no power steering

TheRealSy90

Yeah, I hate torque to yield bolts haha. Much prefer a simple final torque figure.

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Kingtal0n

more videos! The sound of the engine... I could just sit and listen to it forever.
pls get some when you auto-X for sure!

onehundredoctane

Thanks!

I'll be sure to charge the battery in my Gopro before the auto-x!

newdie

Torque monsters gonna be drifting through the autoX course lol

onehundredoctane

So glad I made it to the Auto-X yesterday. Had a blast and really got to put the car thru it's paces. I feel like I know where it's weaknesses are and now I can focus on them before the next Autox.

Brought a fire extinguisher just in case


Noticed this across the parking lot and had to take a closer look. . .


Yep, that's a Miata! Not the first LS swapped Miata I've seen, but it is the first one I've seen on tarmac going flat out. This thing was a beast!


Of course there were tons of cool cars there, but the shifter karts had me thinking of my childhood when my dad raced stock appearing and limited modifieds on dirt. The exhaust smell brought back memories.


Speaking of memories, made some of my own with my son, Ryan


First Nismo GT-R I've seen in person, that thing was amazing to see on the track.


Stay tuned, I have a few mods I want to do on the car before May.

onehundredoctane

Haven't had time to tinker on the car lately, too busy with traveling to California for work, as an added bonus I stuck around for Round 1 of Formula Drift


I love all of the new cars this season, most of all Forest Wang's S15 that they converted to LHD, as always he's sporting a 2JZ. Matt Coffman in the background warming up the rears.


I've been going to Road Atlanta since 2007 for round 2 of Formula D and this being my first trip to Long Beach it was an awesome change of scenery, I love the fact that Long Beach is ran on a city circuit.


There were some really tight runs during competition, and some failures as well Robbie Nashida had issues with his battery or alternator failing, the team was able to push start the car to get him back to the start line for his last run but the car stalled at the start line and with no crew to push start the car Robbie was out, very sad to see. Another disappointing failure was Ryan Tuerck's car blowing up the diff, he and his team pushed the car from the finish line back to the pits and were given 5 minutes to fix the car.

Sadly the team wasn't able to install the new diff in the 5 minutes allotted. The team was so close to having the new diff installed that just watching left you with a bad feeling in the pit of your stomach. All they had left to do was bolt the axles to the diff and they would've been done. At the end of the day Tuerck would take 3rd anyway.

newdie

Watched the whole thing on TV. Sikky cars are local to me so I get to see them all the time. I couldn't imagine how awesome it was to see all of them at once.

onehundredoctane

^The Sikky cars are great, love the livery but you can't mention the 2015 Formula D season without mentioning Mad Mikes 4 rotor, MX-5


This thing sounded awesome in person!



Of course, what's an FD event without the "umbrella girls"?


Naturally you want the best seat in the house at Road Atlanta, which is on the tarmac


Ok, ok, getting back on topic. With getting more into auto-x I need an affordable way to get my track wheels and tires to the track. If it fits it ships right?


I might have to go in and reinforce the receiver on the car, with all 4 wheels and tires loaded it bows just a bit. Nothing that can't be fixed.


With all that sorted out it was time for a road trip to Darlington Dragway, can't beat free track time, right? I'm not a 1/4 mile guy, but it's always nice to know what your car runs.


With bad launches and spinning between gears I managed a 13.6 @ 105mph, I should have ran mid 12s if I had gotten a good launch and not broke traction between gears :/

Updates to follow.

onehundredoctane

While at Formula D Atlanta I stopped by the Sikky booth and picked up their shifter, this shifter works SOOO much better than the Tri-Ax (mustang) shifter I used to begin with, also picked up their shift knob which has a great textured surface to it, no more burning my hand on a hot metal knob. There are plenty of threads in the shifter too so you can adjust the height of the knob by about an inch.

onehundredoctane

Not sure if I'm getting too serious about auto-x. . .

onehundredoctane

Since my S13 is going to be parted out, I figured it most appropriate to keep the Work 3 piece VS-XX wheels and put them on my 14 commence fender rolling/pulling

onehundredoctane

A couple of shots from my recent autox


The slicks don't clear the front bumper

onehundredoctane

Well, I guess it was going to happen eventually. In my quest for more traction and more rubber I flared my wheel arcs and slapped on my Work VS-XX wheels from my S13. Long story short, they are WAAAY to wide and stick out too far. While flaring the wheel arcs I over worked the metal and it turned out like wavey bacon. Fuck that, I'll just run flares.
You can see here that the rears stick out way too far.


Mounted them up and made sure measurements matched on both sides before drilling the first hole.




Not too bad I guess. . .


Then it was time to cut this virgin up.




Not too shabby


Notched for the gas door and primered, now to lower a bit more

2muchboost

Love the contrast between the grey and the gold rims. By any chance are you running a 160 degree thermo?

onehundredoctane

Honestly, I'm not even sure. It's just the stock GM 5.3 thermostat that came in the engine.

2muchboost

Huh interesting. I am surprised it never climbed temps as almost everyone I know is running low temp thermos. Just picked up my 160 degree cause I saw temps climbing slowly during rush hour.

onehundredoctane

^now. . . it's interesting your mention this, I was having overtemp issues, but it would be at the weirdest times, like after exiting the highway and slowing down on an off ramp then the needle would start climbing.

I found that the radiator cap o ring has a small cut in it and was causing the cap to leak slightly, introducing air into the system. After replacing the cap I found a small leak coming from the waterpump, I replaced the waterpump with a new A/C Delco wp as the one on the car that went bad was an Autozone part. I haven't driven the car much since I made these changes.

Sleepy_Steve

ACD is the OEM supplier on a lot of GM parts on my truck (C1500 Suburban)... I'd venture to guess that the same holds true for your motor, and that you'll have much better luck with those parts than advance / autozone house brand shit that seems to fail all the time.

Looking at you Advance Auto thermostats!!

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'95 240 | @SleepySteve72

2muchboost

Same issue here. Drove the car on a 15 hr trip never went over 210. Parked the car a few days then drove about 25 miles and she started climbing temps on the service road. Got stuck in dead stop rush hour and about 25 mins in temps got to 217. Technically it isnt crazy temps for an LS but my fans were on so I decided to pull over and let it cool down. Btw I'm referring to water temps. Went to Texas Speed and Performance to pick up the low temp. Hopefully it will keep down the temps in this central TX heat.

onehundredoctane

Prepping the car for this coming Autox season. I've addressed the drivetrain vibration, turned out to be a bolt missing from the driveshaft where it bolts to the diff :/ oops! I replaced all 4 bolts and nuts and added Loctite to be safe.

With that out of the way, it's time to look at car set up. I'm in XP class by default due to the engine swap. Not really fair in my opinion because I don't have but 2-3 events under by belt at this point. With that in mind, I've decided that I'll be cross weighting the car the next chance I get. Along with that, I will be ditching the full cat back exhaust in favor of something that doesn't run the full length of the car and hopefully sheds some weight. Living in NASCAR country has it's advantages, this is what you can get for beer drinking money


I've already sent it out for sandblasting, when I get it back I'll mock it up then chop, cut weld to make it fit, once that's done it'll either be high temp painted or thermal coated.