It's hard for me to imagine ever getting rid of it, even for right price. I'm too emotionally tied to this car as are my kids. It'll stay with one of them when the time comes.

 

8rib complete. Oil drain line was relocated. Had to replace the oil pan with a new one but that's life and hot rodding I guess.

Calendar is set for the 26th this month for more tuning. Hoping to see 14-15 psi this time. Might be close to 800 but we will see. I hoping this belt snapping is fixed. The guy working on it said it shouldn't be a problem at all now with some updated tensioners. Also, I'm pretty sure the right size belt is on now. So crossing fingers here.

 

I just got my recent "Upgrade" done and I think I am right in the sweet spot (for me) as the car is still plenty drivable in traffic and then after ~3g's she starts to romp. More than my current 650/570 on pump gas is not in the cards for me! I wanted a mid to low 10second car for drag and drive and got it, now it's time to have fun with it! Next year though, if I come across the right C6 Z06, well, I want to do a 650 NA build with a manual. Use the C5 for Drag and Drives and the C6 for fun!

You are gonna have a hoot when you get it all done-Sounds nice. Agree about E85, a hassle unless you stay on it and the extra power is not worth the hassle IMO. It is so nice just pulling up to any station especially when you are on a "route" for an event.

 

That is going to plant a smile on your face every time you touch the throttle. The pedal becomes a lot more sensitive in the sense of it resulting in more power. I adapted quickly. I wonder about 800 wheel now. I know 650 and I'm happy all day with it. I have known "probably" over 1000 wheel for all of half a day applying it without reserve and it is just scary fast with no traction. All mid throttle on that setup is awesome. I know now that my happy spot is less than 1k and at least 650 is a happy place. I'm going to aim to underwhelm the target with the Z06 now and need to talk to Bret about cam concepts. I will probably stick to what I have for now as I can always do a cam swap as a future project, though I firmly believe now that less is more and to rest on boost for the power delivery. If I can underwhelm the target then I feel the car is a lot more drivable and enjoyable year-round as I prefer. If I need more power I can change tunes to gate pressures. Boom. Done. But this looks awesome. That wait is going to be painful but so rewarding when done.

 

You seen any of the Race Proven Motorsports (RPM Builder in Delaware) vid's on Youtube? They have done quite a few Z06's (C6's I mean) and get some nice numbers on NA builds with just heads/cam and intake.

 

Sure have. They're the ones who made me unafraid to use the BTR Trinity for the 427 car when it goes down to NA from 16psi. The other one is going to be ported LS6 intake and ported C5 tb behind the turbos for the 402.

 

I wouldn't take their numbers too seriously. I know all dynos are different and conditions are different. I know of 1 car that made 649 at RPM and then made 603 on the dyno where my car was done. I have not been there to see this personally but have heard more than 1 person say Fran is known to do a "hero pull".
Being 80 miles away and going to the same track, Cecil County I have come across a lot of RPM builds. All the cars seem to be well built and I've never came across anyone who had anything negative to say. I'm personally a huge fan of the youtube channel. I just don't take the numbers too serious.

Glad things are headed in the right direction JLayer.

 

I hear ya, my point was, you can make some nice NA numbers with the right combo and a good tune on those LS7's! My next will be a NA build for sure.

 

Oh no doubt. My good buddy from high school has a built LS7 C6Z and it's a great car. Ported MSD and AHP h/c package. It's a fun car and has been very reliable. He's had it since June 2020 and the only issue was a heat soaked starter.

 

Yeah the headers get real close to the starters on the LS7s

https://americanheritageperformance.com/

 

Picked the car up today from the shop and drove it home about 50 miles. The car definitely had belt slip. I read 13 psi on the gauge at 3/4 throttle. I'm spinning 3rd hard at 60 mph where I wasn't before. Tires maybe a little cold but it's got more power.

On a side note, I bought some c6 Z06 shocks to replace my 23 yr old shocks. My god what a difference those made. Easily the best purchase I've done on this car as far as upgrades.

 

Well here's my update, probably not my last but it might be awhile. Just got to decide what I want to do.

First of all, got my final numbers today. Here's my graph. This run 11.2 psi was my peak boost.

766/653. You can see that I'm peaking at 6400 then falling off. Tuner thinks I still have belt slip. This run was on the 8 rib with an even smaller belt (889 vs 895). The 895 belt was slipping and wouldn't spin higher after 5000. No idea why it was slipping. They threw the smaller belt on and it took 2 hits for it to actually grab. Once it did, it maxed out with the above numbers.

What I'm questioning is that previously if you remember, the last Dyno, the belt snapped but it peaked at 11psi. This was on the 6 rib but with 2 belt sizes bigger (905). I'm now wondering if it's not belt slip but I'm justed maxed out on the unit. I'm going to contact ECS and see what they say

In the mean time, I'm ok with how the car is reacting, numbers and drivability. I'm not going to be at that rpm much so if the belt is slipping, I'll keep an eye on it and just change it when it looks wore out. Im not in the position to throw more money at this thing with a direct drive. And I don't even know if I need it. The Novi maybe the problem here with the 3.25 pulley on it.

So there it is. The car is 98% done as far as I'm concerned. I'm just ready to drive it and enjoy it.
Hammering it 3rd is nuts and the torque pull is beyond undescribable.

Thanks to all that have been following along. 😎

 

That's an awesome place to be as long as you have the option of some traction to go along with it. I'm ditching the blower off my 427 ethanol car because it was too much to full send anywhere nearby and became a cruiser more than an aggressive driver. Going to dial it back to probably somewhere in the 600s rw and go back to whipping it.

 

There's no full sending for this car on the road. Maybe NT01's will help but the R888s are not holding. I have to leave TC on no matter what I'm feeling.

I don't know what I was thinking during this build. Hind sight 20/20. Car was great at the 600/600 range. It would have stayed there if it wasn't for the piston exploding. Maybe I was chasing numbers idk. Too late now to go back. Too much invested so on with life.

 

You could always go with an aftermarket ecu with traction control in the future.

Im interested in how you do w the NT01s. I thought they did great in 3rd even w the 390 gear.

 

My old car is in the shop now torn apart.

New owner went w a BTR intake manifold, holley ecu, flex fuel and Ysi. They're saying it should be over 1k.

I hope Im wrong but that thing is going to be broke all the time.

 

Cars TC is actually handling it pretty well.

That's next year purchase for the tires. I still have some life in the 888s.

 

Sounds about right. We get comfortable with one level and move on to the next. I wildly overbuilt my Z06 I see now, though I still like it that way. But I have learned similarly that going north of 650rw puts any car into a new category. This is part of why I continue to ponder changing the cam on the car from a turbo / spool specific cam of mid size.... to something just pretty tame actually. Then rely on the cubes and the turbos for any bigger power. It will put down plenty on its own. I know now that for my driving preferences the high 3 digits or low 4s are not where I'm at. I'm super happy with 500 to 700 I wager, though I've only driven to 650rw until the recent coupe purchase.

 

da yum
that is some oof dah
try a set of mickeys
when they are new that flat out hook in 60+ weather
nice build