Richard454

Glad you are back at it AND hope you are feeling better!!!

AirborneSilva

Would love to see a video of you driving it this year, you've been working long and hard on her!

Denpo

Thanks my friend, feels good to have the 'fire' again.

Well, even if I won't make anymore promises, you betcha I'm dying to take her for a ride. There is a GoPro clone sitting in the corner waiting to reveal my car in all its glory

Denpo

Hi everyone, it's been a while isn't it?
While I haven't been posting for a long time, sorry for that, I didn't give up on my project.
I just had many other side project requiring me and most of the work done on the car wasn't particulary worth posting.
First I wanted to let you know I have replaced all the images lost in the Photobucket suicide attempt. bye bye PB, never to see you again.
I'm posting right now because I've reach a milestone : the car made it out of the garage, had a little run terrorizing the neighborhood and made to back under its own power. Sorry no vid or pic but next outing I promess I'll make one.
Took me forever to iron out all the little details, but everything but the engine is working great. The engine is still running rough, I know it has a pretty extreme cam but I tend to remember it running a bit more smoothly. I will probably have to check by a garage in Montreal specialized in carburated Hot-Rods. Or maybe it's because I have a spark wire with a different resistance that all the others. I hope you guys can give hints when I provide you a video of the engine running.

I had a couple of gremlins to chase, like this ground in the accessory 12v that forced me to put all the dashboard down twice. But it's ok I had to but it down one more time to route more wires.
The fuel pump I installed turned out to have a weakness in the membrane and quicky started puking fuel through the pump vent hole.... and the engine block. So no only I had to replace the pump, but also had to change the oil and the filter. Actually I'm gonna replace it again after I've done a couple of miles.
I'm pleased to report that the rebuilt T5 is working great. The very first time I tried to get to 3rd it kinda grinded, but at the second attempt it when through nicely.
Clutch feels just any other properly functioning manual car, steering with the borgeson in conjonction with my small radius steering wheel (tall person hack) feels very good, rather on the firm side, you better have both hand on the wheel, but doing parking manoeuvers while standing still is not heavy. It actually feel like an unassisted steering on a light car with narrow wheels, and I love that.
Hydroboost still feel unconsistent, but it is expected to have a rather mushy pedal feeling until air bubble leave the system but when good pressure is applied you're glad you have a seatbelt otherwise you'd be kissing (bitting?) the dashboard.
The ride allowed me to spot a couple of small issues like oil sweeping out of steering box return (now fixed) and a small leak at the base of the passenger valve cover (will do this WE).
I also had to raise the car 1/2" and put countersunk bolt at my transmission to crossmember adapter, otherwise I'd be grinding my garage entry asphalt. Since my garage ramp is pretty extreme, if I can get out of the garage I'm pretty sure to clear speedbumps.
The ride is harsh as hell, but it's rather Montreal abysmal road quality than the car setup that's to blame.

Now a couple picture of what's worth seeing:


When it turned out that it would be black widow or defroster, the defroster when into the bin. Goodbye practicality, hello look.





I installed grill below the front hood gills. I spent way too much time devising a clean way to get they installed nicely. After too much time spend on this I simply glued them.





My machinist buddy managed to machine the second emblem, the front one to my specification. Wasn't an easy job but it turned out just fantastic. The angle is spot on, I like how it hugs the crest of the body.







I also got the front DLR/flashed installed. One details I'm proud of is the fact the warning flashers works even when the car is off. It may sound simple but given the way those light work it wasn't



Installed is also the front "awareness" cameras. One on each side. When I go into first speed my center console computer displays both image side by side. Driving in town with a car you ride in the back seat required some visibility help.





It's displayed on that screen. I'm not going into much detail right now because :
1-It's not finished
2-It deserves a video
3-If I don't do it outside in natural light is gonna look like poo.




I ordered a set of new skin for my fiero seat from MrMike.
It was very great working with him. He made sure I understand all the degrees of freedom I could add to my cover, was willing to do a could of test run to get the perfect color combo for my emblem and the final result it nothing short of amazing. I went for black leather.
I haven't install the driver side, I sat directly on the floor for the test run.



The stiching pattern is inspired my some Ferrari 430 seat pic I found on internet.



Custom logo



One last job was the center console. Climate control is still in disarray and the cover is not even fixed, but I took time to customize what was the ashtray.


Now the trap hides a regular light plug plus 2 usb charging ports.

Richard454

HA-

I just posted a pic of your rear window mod in another thread...and was wondering what you were up to.

Turned out NICE- the back window- hood- seats!!! And you are driving it!!! Damn!!!

You can always get a cheap temp sensor read at each exhaust and see where to start.


So did you just edit all the PB pic posts? What a pain!!!

Richard

AirborneSilva

The project is looking great! I really like your idea for power outlets in the ashtray lid...

oldgto

Your car is looking great! I LOVE some of the custom touches you`re adding! The front cameras are COOL! The seats look fantastic, and the machined front emblem is awesome! (Ummm.... I`m late to this party, so what is it?) I like what you did with the ashtray... I also re-purposed mine. It hides 2 former power window switches that are now over-rides for the electric headlight & wiper doors!
Keep the updates coming!

Denpo

Thanks Richard. To be honest I haven't checked the forum that much and I need to go check on what you've been up to, I'm sure I'm in for some surprises.
Concerning the engine, after the ride I checked the header and each pipi seemed to be equally hot, I'm gonna check the plug to see if mixture burns equally right.
And yeah, I reuploaded all the images from my harddrive to imgur and edited all the links. Since I'm a programmer by trade, editing endless piece of code is second nature to me. still a PITA tho.

Thanks man. Good to know after all this time there's still people waiting for my updates.

Thank you sir. The emblem is a D and a P, which stand for the car name, Dark Patrol. It's also my initials, but that's totally fortuitous.

Be aware my friends that I won't have time to make the driving video until two weeks (vacation time !!!). Let's hope the suspected engine issue get resolved by then.

briankeery

Fantastic work, congratulations. Nice to see you back.

Denpo

Thank you long time follower, feels nice to be back.

Denpo

I started a thread about my engine problems.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...post1595409316
I'd appreciate you'd have a look. Thanks.

Denpo

Hello fellow vetteheads. It's been a long time since I've last updated.
Last year's work on the Corvette ended up with an engine failure at the first try.
Turns out I'm probably the one to blame since it appears valves' lash were totally out of wack, to the point the rockers were floating at some point during the cycle. The engine ran at most 4 time during the 8 years of the restoration process, only a couple minutes at a time and yet it seems it was enough to get the lash completely off. Could it be it's a flat tappet engine, you tell me.
So yeah, it pretty much ruined engine right from the start.
Well, maybe no ruined, but it would take to have the engine apart to really tell.
The amount of work to investigate is pretty much equal of an engine removal, so, since I have this 5.3 LS I assembled the year before I decided I'd go straight for the LS conversion that was I end goal.
If all goes well I could inspect clean and fix the SBC later for resell or whatnot.
So here I am with a fresh new plan and energy. Morale was low after the engine when kaboom, but I got over it, took time to work on other non Vette related task that were taking dust in my todo list and now I have needed time (and probably $$$) to make it happen.

This LS engine started with the purchase of an L33 shortblock on the LSTech classified, got it for 700$, I think this was a fair price.
From there I purchased from many sources (ebay, forums, kijiji, scrapyard) the missing parts at the best deal.
Basically what I got now it a 5.3 LS6 engine:

Flat top stock pistons.
used 799 heads ported in-house.
used LS6 stock cam, pushrods, rollers.
new LS6 valve springs.
Double roller timing chain.
Later LS6 valve cover.
Batwing oil pan.
Truck harness I rewired for car use.
Truck cable actuated throttle body.
Truck MAF.

At the time I had the engine put together (but not assembled), just to make sure the big LEGO was completed.
Now it's time to disassemble every again, take the shortblock appart and inspect everything.

Cylinder walls (1 to 8):












While cylinder wall seem to still sport the honing pattern, you can clearly see cylinder #3 has seen better days.
Scores can catch a finger nail and match small score on the piston between the top and the compression ring.

Is it doomed for reboring or should it be ok to use as is?

Main bearing: (top and bottom, 1 to 5)












I'm no expert in mail bearing, I just found that bottom bearing looks nicer than top bearing, but that's all. I'd love you guys tell me what you think of those.

Since I'm right at the start, if you guys got suggestion on what I should upgrade/replace, I'm listening with both ears.

Thanks for reading me.

doorgunner

Rent or buy an automotive honing tool that is driven by an electric drill. Hone the WORST cylinder until it is smooth and the same size top-to-bottom. Measure the diameter of the cylinder too see if a standard size piston will have the correct clearance.......OR, if ALL the cylinders need to be honed (or rebored) for oversize pistons.

AirborneSilva

Sorry about your motor issues on the SBC. As for the LS I wouldn't think that vertical scoring would be a big issue, if it was horizontal then yeah. BUT, if you have the cash I would bore and stroke it with all forged parts to make it bullet proof and add some more ponies to it too.

Denpo

Thanks for the answers.
Since there's still of shadows in my conversion plan, like the gas tank and the exhaust, where I might have to cough dough no matter what, I'd prefer not having to buy engine part I already have (pistons).
I'm aiming for a torquey 350ish hp, so nothing too crazy, and nothing a stock setup couldn't handle.
I'll check the bore size and see how far I can hone out the scratches.
The deepest groove it pretty down into the cylinder, so it wouldn't affect compression when the fuel mixture detonate.

AirborneSilva

Good plan and a brother's gotta work with what they have!

Denpo

I'm not cheap, I'm thrifty

AirborneSilva

I can relate to that, I've been spending money building my Challenger on the cheap, I just put a supercharger on it that retail is $7800, I paid $3800 so I too am thrifty and get deals wherever I can or wait till one comes up.

brent319

Thanks for checking in! I was thinking of you the other day and that we have not heard from you in a long time. Glad you are back at it.

Denpo

Thanks YOU for your patience my friend , feels good to know people are still following despite all the hiatus.