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Getting closer, got the trunnion kit installed, steering rack is back together for what feels like the tenth time. Intake manifold is back in, radiator is in, hoses are hooked up and supercharger bracket is in. Just need to install the supercharger and associated plumbing and I'm done wrenching just in time to not be able to drive my car into work because it's so freaking hot here. Hit a 106 yesterday here.
Getting there, wish I would have wrapped this project up a week ago with the heat. Can't be in the garage for more than 15 minutes without pouring sweat. Got the supercharger and belt in yesterday, forgot how much fun doing the belt is....
Tonight should get the plumbing hooked up and might be done wrenching for the project...
I know what you mean, it gets hot and humid here in NC too. Working in the garage in August is brutal. But at the moment it's perfect weather here, mid-70's and sunny! and the yellow curse (pollen) has finally passed, so I can breathe again.
I had a Vortech supercharger on my Mustang, and the belt routing was always a pain. but the little 2V 4.6L made 615rwhp on 17psi I ended up building that motor twice. oil pump failed and took the original motor. the next motor the machine shop didn't set up the bearing clearances correctly, and it lost oil pressure at 1500 miles. But I've been told the last motor is still holding together, and that the latest owner changed the impeller wheel in the blower and converted to E85, and made like 670rwhp. I loved that car but I decided I wanted to start doing HPDE events and that was just the wrong car to do that with. sold it and bought a turbo Miata. tracked that for 2 years and then decided I needed more hp... and thus the C5.
And to be fair, the most reliable of them all was the Miata. It was a '92 with 164k miles on the original motor, 10 years on the aftermarket turbo. I was the 3rd owner to use it as a track car, and yet it never missed a beat. I could have bought 2 Miatas for what I have just in my latest C5 build. I feel a little sick just thinking about that, haha.
I know what you mean, it gets hot and humid here in NC too. Working in the garage in August is brutal. But at the moment it's perfect weather here, mid-70's and sunny! and the yellow curse (pollen) has finally passed, so I can breathe again.
I had a Vortech supercharger on my Mustang, and the belt routing was always a pain. but the little 2V 4.6L made 615rwhp on 17psi I ended up building that motor twice. oil pump failed and took the original motor. the next motor the machine shop didn't set up the bearing clearances correctly, and it lost oil pressure at 1500 miles. But I've been told the last motor is still holding together, and that the latest owner changed the impeller wheel in the blower and converted to E85, and made like 670rwhp. I loved that car but I decided I wanted to start doing HPDE events and that was just the wrong car to do that with. sold it and bought a turbo Miata. tracked that for 2 years and then decided I needed more hp... and thus the C5.
And to be fair, the most reliable of them all was the Miata. It was a '92 with 164k miles on the original motor, 10 years on the aftermarket turbo. I was the 3rd owner to use it as a track car, and yet it never missed a beat. I could have bought 2 Miatas for what I have just in my latest C5 build. I feel a little sick just thinking about that, haha.
Must be nice enjoying those mid 70’s that is perfect weather to take the car out sans the allergies. How has it been running? Almost done breaking it in? When is the tune day?
The belt is tight with the steering rack and the idler on the supercharger, such a pain to route. Would be easier with a flip drive. 17psi is huge, ever miss it just for cruising around? I’ve heard the miata is one of the best bang for your buck dedicated road track car you can buy.
Don’t ever plan on taking my car to the track. Maybe the ¼ someday a few years down the road but given I’ve experienced a year and half of down time in the 4 years I’ve owned the car, I just want to drive it. Tomorrow should be judgement day. Got the plumbing back in, everything is bolted together. Oil is filled, just need to hook up the coolant vent breather to radiator and everything should be connected.
Will fill coolant and power steering fluid tonight, pull the fuel pump and relay fuses and double check my work, clean up loose wires and such with zip ties. Tomorrow will double check my work one more time, prime the oil by cranking with no fuel/spark twice for 15 seconds a pop. Then try and start it for real. Hopefully get to experience the joy of success that you got when starting your motor, wish me luck.
Good and bad news. The car started and made oil pressure however I almost immediately noticed a bunch of oil dripping on the headers and on to the ground. Unfortunately I installed an ops relocation kit awhile ago. The steel braided hose sprung a leak and was spraying oil all over the place.
Wasn't exactly the dream moment I was hoping for. Going to remove ops relocation kit and put ops in its native location. Going to be a bitch to clean the oil it ran along the valley cover got on the passenger side and onto the headers. Going to have to use brake cleaner and go to town. Hope this is the only casualty.
Last edited by tommypenguin; 05-10-2018 at 11:56 PM.
Good and bad news. The car started and made oil pressure however I almost immediately noticed a bunch of oil dripping on the headers and on to the ground. Unfortunately I installed an ops relocation kit awhile ago. The steel braided hose sprung a leak and was spraying oil all over the place.
Wasn't exactly the dream moment I was hoping for. Going to remove ops relocation kit and put ops in its native location. Going to be a bitch to clean the oil it ran along the valley cover got on the passenger side and onto the headers. Going to have to use brake cleaner and go to town. Hope this is the only casualty.
UGH, that sucks! When my #7 piston went, it pressurized the crankcase and pushed oil out of the dipstick, which sprayed all over the passenger side of the engine bay. I've spent forever cleaning it up, and even now will still find oily areas.
But at least you heard the engine fire up... even if just for a few seconds. That's still a WIN! You're soooo close to having this thing ready to cruise!
As for my Mustang, I do miss it sometimes. While my C5 is fast, it's not at the same level as what the Mustang was. There's just something about forced induction and feeling that boost roll in.
UGH, that sucks! When my #7 piston went, it pressurized the crankcase and pushed oil out of the dipstick, which sprayed all over the passenger side of the engine bay. I've spent forever cleaning it up, and even now will still find oily areas.
But at least you heard the engine fire up... even if just for a few seconds. That's still a WIN! You're soooo close to having this thing ready to cruise!
As for my Mustang, I do miss it sometimes. While my C5 is fast, it's not at the same level as what the Mustang was. There's just something about forced induction and feeling that boost roll in.
It’s tough was really disappointed last night about the leak. My dad came over and took a video for me, didn’t even listen to it last night. Aside from the leak the engine sounded good. I can’t even hear my valve train in the video so it would appear the trunnion kit eliminated the sewing machine noise or reduced it a lot.
Starting the engine was a blur, looked for oil pressure, saw it was good then jumped out and started looking with my light for leaks. After one minute was going to put my radiator cap on but didn’t reach that point since I found the leak. Once I noticed it, it was the only thing I could focus on. Then I saw another leak from the other side of the motor because the oil had dripped along the valley cover and worked its way to the passenger side. Ran the motor for 50 seconds total and shut down.
Hopefully I’ll be giving it another shot this weekend after correcting this issue and getting a better result.
Awesome progress. It sounds great. Love that Vortech whistle.
So I did my first oil change at 50 miles. Cut open the filter, and stretched out the media to inspect. Honestly there was a fair amount of debris. It had me a little worried, so I decided to change the oil again after another 50 miles. This time when I cut open the filter there was very little debris in the media. So I feel much better now.
So in retrospect I think I might do the first oil change even before 50 miles Maybe 20 miles? I think that initial debris happens pretty quickly after the initial startup and a couple of drive cycles.
Tommy - I think you sent your heat wave to NC. It was 95* here this weekend! I drove the car around some yesterday. engine temps still rock solid. Oil and coolant both sit around 194-196*. AC still blows cold too! Hot oil pressure sits around 37psi. Cruising around 2000 rpms is about 45psi. (Castrol 5w30)
Awesome progress. It sounds great. Love that Vortech whistle.
So I did my first oil change at 50 miles. Cut open the filter, and stretched out the media to inspect. Honestly there was a fair amount of debris. It had me a little worried, so I decided to change the oil again after another 50 miles. This time when I cut open the filter there was very little debris in the media. So I feel much better now.
So in retrospect I think I might do the first oil change even before 50 miles Maybe 20 miles? I think that initial debris happens pretty quickly after the initial startup and a couple of drive cycles.
Tommy - I think you sent your heat wave to NC. It was 95* here this weekend! I drove the car around some yesterday. engine temps still rock solid. Oil and coolant both sit around 194-196*. AC still blows cold too! Hot oil pressure sits around 37psi. Cruising around 2000 rpms is about 45psi. (Castrol 5w30)
I have the exact same oil filter cutting tool, it works well. Didn’t have much in my oil filter after idling to running temp and taking it for a few mile drive. I’m in the same boat as you, can’t drive the car to work. Having an issue with it where putting the car in neutral approaching a stop the idle falls below target idle speed and wants to die unless I give it some throttle. Car drives fine in gear and idles fine when reaching idle but struggles to achieve idle after being in motion.
At this point I was going to go to speed density tune and remove the maf sensor after break in period but I really need a base tune just to break in the motor. AFR gauge is running too rich when approaching idle, likely from the massive drop in compression from the new piston setup. Contacted Patrick Guerra who does remote tuning via email/logging and plan on working with him to get my car tuned for speed density.
One more issue I’m having that I forgot about that I need to resolve is I made a change in engine mounts. I swapped out my stock hinson height mounts for the 3/8 shorter mounts. I did this because the fast 92 manifold was a tight fit previously but doable. Didn’t research enough to find that when running 3/8 shorter mounts people run into issues with the leaf spring touching the oil pan. Found a thread after the fact and reached out to a member that made a couple shims and raised the engine height with the shims to gain clearance. The last thing I want to do is have to buy stock height engine mounts again and go through all the work to install them. Am hoping if I shim I can just loosen the nuts on the mounts, jack the engine up a hair and slip the slotted shims in.
Watched your Header video it looks like you had a miserable experience getting them in I feel for you. Fingers crossed on nut burning through the AC line. Got to love the joys of modding a car when fitment doesn’t work out.
I've got about 150 miles on the motor now. Returning to idle at a stop sign has gotten slightly better, but still pronounced enough that I don't want to drive it to work (an hour of stop-n-roll traffic).
Have you checked spring to oil pan clearance with the car back on the ground? I swapped leaf spring while I had the car apart and noticed my stock springs were pressing against the oil pan when the weight was off the suspension. but back on the ground, there's a bit of clearance. But I do see how 3/8" lower mounts would make it very close.
Ugh, I don't even want to talk about those headers. So annoying. And it's a shame because the materials and construction is pretty good. But just too many fitment issues. Not worth the hassle; there are other brands.
I've got about 150 miles on the motor now. Returning to idle at a stop sign has gotten slightly better, but still pronounced enough that I don't want to drive it to work (an hour of stop-n-roll traffic).
Have you checked spring to oil pan clearance with the car back on the ground? I swapped leaf spring while I had the car apart and noticed my stock springs were pressing against the oil pan when the weight was off the suspension. but back on the ground, there's a bit of clearance. But I do see how 3/8" lower mounts would make it very close.
Ugh, I don't even want to talk about those headers. So annoying. And it's a shame because the materials and construction is pretty good. But just too many fitment issues. Not worth the hassle; there are other brands.
That's a lot of miles, you're getting closer to the tune date. I had considered doing remote tuning but am trying like hell to work with a local and see if he can make a house call to get me a base tune or email me a file.
Good call on the checking clearance. I'm running the ls3 oil pan and while it touched with the wheels off the ground I was able to fit my finger between the leaf and the pan the whole way across with both wheels loaded on ramps and with one wheel on the ground and one on the ramp. But the leaf does rest on the pan when both wheels are off the ground. Lucked out finally and should be good with the shorter engine mounts.
Just heard back from a reknowned local tuner named NicD and he is going to do a house call for me and build me a base tune for my car on Saturday. Can not wait for that!
Getting my new intake pipe welded today to have the IAT bung in it to switch to speed density tune. Making the switch since I had maxed out the maf at 10psi when I was at 6000 feet above sea level. Now I'm at 1000 feet above sea level in phoenix.
Finally get why so many racers say their are a million things keeping them up at night regarding their build. One of my buddies just posted he reused stock bolts on his rocker arms after doing the trunnion upgrade and had a shop do the install, he's not sure what they torqued them down to but the stud snapped and he had to pull that head to extra the bolt and helicoil.
That has now caused a little concern in terms of things keeping me up at night. With my trunnion kit install I used the upgraded bolts but torqued them to 22ft lbs with blue loctite. Sounds like most guys do 26ft lbs when using ARP and moly lube and 29ft lbs with the straub bolts dry.
Also I pinched my wires to the low oil level sensor when installing the starter and damaged them, I inspected and thought they were good but was wrong. So I ordered a new wiring harness for it and will solder it in when doing my next oil change at 50 miles.
Aside from those two things I feel good thus far about everything else. What a freaking journey!
Just heard back from a reknowned local tuner named NicD and he is going to do a house call for me and build me a base tune for my car on Saturday. Can not wait for that!
NicD is a great tuner. HE also did mine but I don't have near the mods you do. Good luck.
I torqued my rocker bolts to 22 ft lbs and have 10K miles no problems. I used the Straub style bushings too.
I should be fine, especially given I used loctite. At this point I think I have a new hobby which is worrying about my motor.
Originally Posted by mstromquist
NicD is a great tuner. HE also did mine but I don't have near the mods you do. Good luck.
You have quite a few mods, need to pick your brains on how you did your tail lights.
That is great, read of several local guys on here and ls1tech using him for their tune. Really like that he will be road tuning it as my previous two tuners in colorado did not and the car never idled correctly.
NicD is a great tuner. HE also did mine but I don't have near the mods you do. Good luck.
NicD was awesome, he really knows his s*** and schooled me up. He fixed my coming to idle issues but also identified that I’m having a slight misfire on bank 1 of cylinders. He speculated it was from ignition given I had my injectors flow tested.
Comically at this point, of all the mods and maintenance I’ve done on this car I’ve never replaced the spark plug wires. I had always assumed that if I got a misfire from them I would get a check engine light but when cammed it is common to disable those cel as your ecu thinks your missing constantly.
After pulling the socks off of my spark plugs I can see the boot to plug on cylinders 3 and 7 they were touching on the header. Making me wonder given I had damage to ring lands on cylinder 3 and 7 if the root cause of my motor rebuild is from bad plug wires, resulting in lean condition on those cylinders, amplified by me not gapping my rings causing them butt against each other. Ordered a set of msd bendable wires, will toss them in tomorrow and see if that resolves my misfire.
Side note, I washed my car for the first time in almost a year and a half.
Man, that's a sharp looking C5! Sounds like you're making great progress. We've had a ton a rain lately, so mine hasn't left the garage, haha.
Glad he was able to pick up on the plug wire misfire! I replaced mine with the GMPP wires when I first got the car. When my motor went, it sprayed oil out of the dipstick tube, and saturated the heat insulator boots over my plug wires on the passenger side. So I had to replace them during the rebuild. so that gave me an opportunity to inspect the plug wires. all looked good.
05-07-2018, 11:31 AM
I ended up building that motor twice. oil pump failed and took the original motor. the next motor the machine shop didn't set up the bearing clearances correctly, and it lost oil pressure at 1500 miles. But I've been told the last motor is still holding together, and that the latest owner changed the impeller wheel in the blower and converted to E85, and made like 670rwhp. I loved that car but I decided I wanted to start doing HPDE events and that was just the wrong car to do that with. sold it and bought a turbo Miata. tracked that for 2 years and then decided I needed more hp... and thus the C5.
