Fuel rail rebuild done. That's a Standard (the brand, not standard equipment) steel adjustable regulator. Way less obvious than the schmancy billet aluminum ones and less likely to leak since it's edge crimped like the stockers and not bolt-together. The -8AN feed and -6AN return adapters are on. O-Rings replaced. Once I get the injectors, I'll be able to pressure test the rail and call this subsystem done.

Still waiting on injectors and my BBK Throttlebody, which is apparently backordered until June (ouch).

 

In on this 1st because of your help with the steering column questions and 2nd, because you ordered the whole After Dark Speed set up. I am planning on doing the same thing but more drag and drive set up.

 

Old fuel lines are on the floor.



Pro-tip: These are way easier to remove if you do it with the rear suspension dropped. I just cut these out.

 

Sender converted to AN supply and return!



Next step will be running the new fuel lines from the back up to the front where the filter is going to be. All that hardware showed up today, so hopefully this weekend?

 

We have the filter and flex fuel sensor in place in the spot where the factor fuel filter went:



And the lines are run from the front to the back down the same channel used for the stockers:



I bought the wrong adapters for the flex fuel sensor. Derp. Ordered the correct ones, they'll be here tomorrow. The Flex fuel sensor had to be angled because I just couldn't get a drill in there to make the hole for the bracket with it straight on. The outlet is still above the lip on the frame there, so I think it'll be OK.

 

Great job, and here I am worried about changing my shocks. Going through this post got me tired and you are the one doing all the work 👍

 

Thanks!

 

New front air dams!



Nothing more to do now until the fuel pump shows up. Then the tank can go back in. Then we wait on the cylinder heads so I can finish the engine and get it installed. THEN we wait on the torque converter so the transmission can go back in.

THEN I get to start on the drivetrain wiring.

 

Tank is back home!



Bumper cover is also back on.

Water pump rebuild is done:



Next up I'll roll it off the lift so I can take the dash apart and figure out how to mount the new computer and figure out where to cut a 2" hole in the firewall for the harness.

Heads are still showing mid-may ship date. :-(

 

Cutting more holes. This one was 2" to accommodate the engine harness.



I'll be mounting the Haltech here, where the factory radio tuner used to be. I'm not going to pull the dash back out so this one's going to be an unenjoyable bit of me laying on my back in the passenger footwell.



I also need to cram a vacuum line through the grommet to get the manifold pressure signal to the computer, and I need to drill two more holes for the 4awg direct feeds to the battery this thing needs.
Moving right along.

 

Huzzah! There is a Haltech in its final location:



Here's the pile of wires pulled through to the engine bay:



All this waits for the engine and transmission to go in so I can route it. Speaking of, my cylinder heads and Torqhead parts have finally shipped, so I'll be able to finish the long block and get it into the car soon. Once the drivetrain is back in the car, the wiring should go pretty quickly. Moving to the Haltech cut down a lot of stuff. It works with the RacePack IQ3s, so I don't need to wire any more sensors to the dash, it'll get all the data from the Haltech over CANBUS. I do still need to splice the Haltech's trigger wire into an ignition-on feed, but I think that'll be all the interior wiring I have to do. Everything else happens under the hood.

I also learned from reading the manual that the Haltech is ODB2 compliant, so I'm going to rig up a standard OBD2 plug for the car hanging off the CAN-2 interior plug. If I'm ever out somewhere away from the tools or the laptop, I can pull into an Autozone and at least figure out what the fault is with a normal ODB2 code scanner. Could be useful in a pinch.

 

If that is the case with OBD2, buy a bluetooth OBD2 reader from Amazon and hook it up to your phone. That way you can have live data on that and pull codes at your leisure.

Looking forward to see how the Haltech setup goes!

 

Not really necessary on the OBD2 dongle. The ECM has Wi-Fi to the laptop or a phone app and 128MB of internal log space. The OBD2 is just in case I'm out somewhere and have neither available.
It also might allow me to pass emissions in California if I ever moved there. Which I have no intentions of ever moving there, but the future is unknowable.

 

Photo dump! The heads arrived.







These are the AFR 1032 with the upgraded valve springs and 54cc chambers.

Wasted no time getting them installed. I've managed to keep the decks on this block rust free for two years. Time to cover them up.
I did use studs. Maybe I'll get froggy in the future and put nitrous on it? This cam isn't really boost optimized, but the bottom end should be able to hold over 1000hp. I'll never get anywhere close to that, but an extra 150 over baseline at the press of button could be a thing. Or not. We'll see. Gotta get it running first.



I'm used to wrestling cast iron Buick heads around, these aluminum jobbers were cake to drop over the studs.



And now I stop. My adjustable pushrod was too long. I've ordered two more of various ranges. Once those are here I can measure for pushrod length then order those. THEN I can finish the valvetrain and put the valve covers on. In the interim, my Torqhead stuff shows up Monday. But life will be life. Kid has freshman college orientation Tuesday, and next weekend is the Pine Mountain Hillclimb. So it might be a couple weeks until the next update. But that update should have the front cover done and the balancer installed. With the valvetrain done I can flip it over and install the oil pump, rear main seal, and the oil pan. Then I'll flip it back over and install the intake. At that point it should be ready to go back into the engine bay, followed by the transmission and C-channel.

Then the tedious task of wiring and plumbing the engine will commence.

Exciting!

 

Back at it, sort of. The TorqueHead sensor unit is installed, but my bolts were too short to really properly secure it. Longer ones ordered. Once those are here I'll install the crank hub and damper, set the gap on the crank sensor, and install the water pump.

Also needed some spacers for the valve covers. The bolts it came with are either too long or the holes in these AFR heads are too shallow. I also needed to order an ARP stud for the oil pump. Once all that shows up I'll flip it over and install the pump. Then I can flip it back over and get the intake bolted down. Then it can go into the car... if the torque converter ever gets here.

 

Two steps forward, five steps back. I guess the key slots in this Eagle crank are not as deep as the slots were on the stock crank. The woodruff keys are too tall. I machined the forward key and got the hub past it, but then it hit the woodruff key on the timing gear. I'm going to have to tear the entire front the engine back down, get the timing gear off, and get the inner woodruff key out and machine it down. Frustrated.

 

That's a bummer! Fortunately the resolution is attainable without replacing or waiting on parts. It does blow that you have to go through that though.

 

Yeah, I'm out a timing cover gasket. Just annoyed. Not holding anything up thought, I'm still waiting on a torque converter. I'll dig back in tomorrow. It's Kentucky Derby Day here. All about day drinking and losing money on horse races.

 

And we're moving again!



And the purty balancer:



Of course, ATI uses bolts with a Torx PLUS head. Not plain Torx. So now I'm waiting on new correct Torx bits to show up.

 

That's lookin good! I'm an ATI fan....put one on my C6 GS when I did the Maggie blower on it. Thought I need to put one on the C4 too, then got to researching and looking at the Torqhead setup and thought I need to do that too, so I've got both on the list to do at some point, not sure when I'll get to it though. Enjoy reading your build posts, keep em coming, thanks!