Big thanks to BellVegasZ06 for bringins his car (VegasRedZ062's old car) for me to do some comparing. As thought, I've got clearance issues on the drivers side, but why is beyond be because we took some measurements from various points and everything was coming up the same oddly enough. Putting mounts in the car tomorrow though.


Oh, that Sammy's old car is effing insanely fast.

 

Each car has some manufacturing variances. Not sure how much you're off by, but that could be some of your difference.

 

I would hope, but we measured from valve cover to shroud, rail to shroud, and alternator bracket to fender and all came up the same. But I could look down his drivers side turbo and see an obvious greater clearance than on my car.

Hoping to do my mounts tomorrow......more to come.

 

How do the turbos and associated parts compare in dimension?

 

Same turbo kit. My motor isn't sitting right, or a manifold got bent or something.

 

Motor is lifted, manifolds are hanging, drivers side mount has been replaced, passenger side just came out. All four mounts measured approx 70.5mm in height (stock and Pfadt) but the passenger side mount I can visibly compress (just a little) by hand just squeezing the top and bottom together. Not much as I noted, but enough to say "that ain't right."

Passenger side going back in. Tomorrow I'll probably have the manifolds re-hung and at least try to start it if all looks well.

Another note: Passenger side pisses oil too when the turbo gets tilted backwards.

*edit* Mounts are both back in and torqued down. Just looking at it, I'm VERY skeptical of this correcting my clearance issue.

Manifolds are going to be bolted up tomorrow, so hopefully that will turn something up.

 

If you get a chance,,,maybe you can take out your frustrations on that bad passengers side motor mount and dissect it to see how and why it failed. That would be cool to see how there designed

Bill

 

I can do that.

 

Just read this entire thread! I'm sure you have suffered many sleepless nights over this, however it appears you may be in the home stretch now! I must say i admire your ability to do all this work on jack stands and by yourself for the most part.
I just got my car back from the tuner today after i did a H/C install myself. Glad to have her back and she did not put up much of a fight. I was considering doing my clutch and new gears myself but thought that was a long time to be on my back. after reading your thread you my have changed my mind
Hang in there my Corvette Brother!!

 

If this inspired you then maybe it's not all for naught. I will say that doing the driveline by yourself with two floor jacks isn't the most pleasant thing, but it's very doable as long as you think out positioning of the stands and take measures to keep everything balanced safely (as safe as can be at least). I would STRONGLY recommend snagging a transmission jack if you're going to do it. Would have made moving the rear cradle around much less painful.

Ok, drivers side manifold is bolted back up. At first it looked like the clearance was there, but after shifting the manifold around and getting it bolted in, the clearance shut. I simply don't think the motor mounts did the trick. I can't say for sure though as for one, the motor doesn't move. Love that. And......there is the tiniest of gaps between the interfering flange and the heat shielding on the tunnel. So there looks to be a gap there, but with the heat shielding in the way, it's VERY hard to tell. However, it looks like the outer side of the manifold is still touching the tunnel too, though it could just be shield to shield contact because of how the slave line runs behind it pushing the tunnel shield out some.

Another though crossed my mind: The stock soft mounts were just allowing the motor to rock and transmitting the vibe through the car via the rocking. Would that be magnified by having everything bolted up and then be subdued when I had just the manifolds/turbo's on the car? Yet another thought: When bolting the front cradle up, is there ANY room for side to side movement??? I seem to remember the possibility existing, and it wouldn't ahve to be much given the tight clearances on the APS kit. Just 1/4-3/8" would probably have been enough to cause issues.

At the point where I am right now, I could easily have the car ready to fire later today. More to come, as my MIL has the kiddo, my wife is asleep, and I'm free to turn the wrenches.

 

All I know is that once my vette project is finished up, I'll never build a crazy car like this again. I may do one of those GTM kit cars but that's it. One toy is plenty for me.

Hope it all works.

 

I'm a glutton for punishment, what can I say?? One failed LT1 project done away with, one LT1 project that's far and beyond more involved than what I'm working on right now, and a tempermental Toyota Celica motor swap car that I'm always tweaking something minor on.

 

I was like your for years and have had numerous, Camaro's, Firebirds, Datsun 280Z, older C2 vette (67) and now with the bro (5) C5's in the last few years.

I don't mind the mechanical side of things, but I don't crap about how some of the stuff like (fuel, tunning) works in these vettes.

I can handle most of the mechanical and electrical mods, but I need to read up on the fuel system to see what is need to make some big power. I want an internal pump(s) but don't want to pay $3K for a ready made system, that's just over-priced in my opinion.

Tunning is farmed out but I would like to know the basics. One of these days I will sit down and read up on it while I'm on a flight somewhere and have a spare moment.

The last (5) years have been hectic with all of the car and part jocking and I'm relieved that it is coming to an end. I would rather go to some car shows and enjoy seeing some other modded cars than to be stuck wrenching and wiring all the time or chasing down parts.

It's been fun most of the time, but it's now time to close out this chapter of my life and have a little more time to relax and enjoy the fruits of my labor, than to keep modding all of the time.

 

Well, here's the update. Still vibrating!

















j/k.....haven't fired it yet. I'm optimistic actually. The H-Pipe is bolted up, and the manifolds are torqued down. I can actually see light between the T3 flange and the tranny tunnel on the drivers side, and passenger side is fine.

Good news is that the new motor mounts freed up a bunch of room so I should be able to slap a filter right down there under the manifolds for testing/break in at least (have some things planned for inlets down the road).

Battery is charging right now, and all I've got left to prepare for firing is to put the coil packs and plug wires back on the drivers side and put the shifter in, and bolt up the rear exhaust. Not going to put it ALL back together because if it's vibrating on the jackstands then it's going to vibrate elsewhere and it'll have to come apart and motor come out most likely. But I'm optimistic at this point.

Think I'm done for today though. We just got a gift from a co-worker, which means I need to run to the pet store (10 wk bloodhound pup) and get him settled.

 

Nothing like a puppy to brighten your day.

I'm glad the motor mounts fixed your clearance problems and hope there are no vibrations.

 

We'll know tomorrow. I'm not planning to get back under it tonight. I may though...... I've been on a tear and really been enjoying myself too.

 

I wish I was young again, but alas I'm not so I'll just work a couple of hours a day at it when I can.

 

I told you those mounts would make a little bit of difference. It was nice to finally meet you after we have p.m'd each other a few times over the last few months. If you ever need to compare things on the car or if you want to hang out and cruise just call me.

 

You can count on in Joel!! Thanks again for stopping by so I could take a peek. After the mounts got put in I have pretty much the same topside flange clearance as I was seeing on your car so I consider that a positive sign. Will surely keep you posted!

 

SAME GO**AMN VIBRATION!!!!!!!!!!!!



I have no idea what's going on at this point. I was paying VERY close attention and upon startup you can barely feel the vibe, then after running for 10-20 seconds it picks up and becomes MUCH more pronounced back to it's normal self. It's not O2's because (even though it misfires on occasion) it hasn't been run enough, long enough, with the battery left connected and charged to set and learn fuel trims for idle. I'm simply out of ideas at this point and am ready to just be done with it. I'm really getting frustrated because of all the time, effort, and money I've dropped on this thing and I have zero to show for it other than a vibrating motor and a turbo kit that's worth a bunch of pipes at this point with junk leaking turbo's.

Texas-Speed said they'd go through the motor if I think it's that, but if it's NOT then I'm footing the bill for the shipping, teardown, and reassembly, and I absolutely can't afford that right now. I have no idea what I'm going to do about this POS. I guess I'll put it back together for the time being and get it to PBJ for a look and just go from there.