I thought best to document my simple build here rather than scatter everything around the forum. I'll take all the important stuff and stick it in the 1st 5 posts, Hopefully I can get some help and give some help to the next guy. Target is 400hp increase, 780-820rwhp for $10,000 excluding non-performance related items such as wheels, gauges, etc...

Build is:
ECS 1500SL kit
10% overdrive HB
Hormilla Flip Drive
ECS Big Blower Cam, BTR spring/retainer/pushrod kit
Stage 1 fuel system (Internally regulated, non return)
Dual nozzle meth injection

Already install is an Alkycontrol pump and ID1000 injectors. I'm old and slow and this is a part time project.

First step, Just rip everything out so you can get at the motor. I took took my fenders and fascia off, took < 3 hours, eliminates scratching up the car and easy access to the front of the motor. Lower the cradle and take the rack out. Lots of posts on how to do this. I pulled mine all the way out but recommend you just slide it out the passenger side wheel opening.







Pre-fit flip drive:
Mount Lower Flip drive pully assy, cut off old idler mount from your alternator backet using your weapon of choice, then check for clearance. NOTE: I'm just mocking this up for now to figure out belting/brackets before final install after the cam. Once your happy everything fits, do the final mounting of the alternator bracket, alternator, new top tensioner and lower pulley assy. On my setup, the bolt shown in the pic circled in red is shorter than the others so watch when you pull stuff apart. The right side of the motor is done







Take some time to move the ABS harness away from the flip drive pully assy. I just made up a bracket to lower the clamp holding the harness to the block, also moved the ground lug to the corner oil pan bolt since the new pulley assy. uses that bolt hole. OEM Cam sensor bracket gets trashed and I lengthened the wires about 6" and routed them away from the belts, attaching the new wires to the lower screw where the OEM bracket went







Below is probably the most difficult part of drive. The Heavy duty SC tensioner is piggy backed off the existing OEM 4 rib tensioner and it's tricky. Probably spent an entire day on this because I didn't understand what was going on at first and screwed a few things up. The mounting plate shown on the left attaches to the timing cover with 2 "custom" allen caps to the timing cover (Circled in Yellow). Not sure why custom bolts are used but looks like the head thickness of the cap screws were cut down to clear something so the depth of wrench going into the screw is minimal. The screws are soft, doubt even a grade 8. Why it's hex and not torx, why they are such thin heads and why so soft is a mystery. There is also a set screw on the bracket to act as a jack screw against the block to "tweek" the bracket square so be careful of that. The main blower drive tensioner piggybacks off this same bracket so this mount takes a lot of load and has to be right.

The HD SC tensioner bracket then gets mounted to that timing cover bracket. In order to install/change the 4 rib belt, the bolt (Circled in RED) had to be removed but the pressed in nut holding that bolt was just spinning in the timing bracket (Yellow arrow) so it had to come apart and those mounting bolts were stripped.




After drilling the heads off the screws I did a ghetto mod on the nut and reinstalled the timing cover bracket with some Grade 10 8mm x 1.25 35mm screws. Cranked in the jack screw, mounted the bracket, adjusted the jack screw to hit the block and locked it down. If you get an ECS kit, check this pressed in nut before it's installed. PS: Metal nut (not PEM type with knurls), aluminum bracket. In short, make sure the nut doesn't spin and use standard grade 10, 8x 1.25m x 35mm bolts







The flip drive is not only stronger but simplifies belting and eliminates the 90" blower belt driving 4 devices, riding on 6 different pulleys and idlers. Now there is one dedicated 54" belt driving the blower from balancer. I've changed the blower belt in less than 10 mins and didn't have to worry about tracking. On the HB is also a 4 rib belt driving the A/C and the 4-6 rib conversion pulley which is patented by Hormilla. The 6 rib side of the conversion pulley drives the power steering pump and alternator. No belt is longer than about 60".

 

Prep the water pump for clearance of the HD blower belt tensioner by cutting off the 3 bosses, not sure what they were for but check nothing is mounted to these on your car before cutting them back. I used a hobby dremel tool and 3 cutoff wheels to get through it. I believe these bosses only need trimming back on some 2010 or later C6s





Also trim this boss off which is not shown on the instructions:








The hi pressure line on the power steering pump gets replaced with an 8an hose. The nut on the flared fitting can NOT be turned unless the pulley is removed or at least pulled off the shaft 1/4". Tighten the crap out of it and make sure the flats of the flare fitting are parallel to the pulley face. The other end of the hose attaches to another 8an fitting on the rack

 

DIY Stage II Fuel system. Decided to do my own, IMO cheaper and better. Focus on safety, stock look, cost, no BAP overdrives, no push-ons, etc.. Good to 1000hp? Who knows








ENGINE BAY

Pic comments:
PIC A/B: Get rid of push-ons. Swagelok makes these nice stainless adapters. Expensive but worth it. Just put them over the OEM tubing, no need to cut anything, just tighten the crap out of them

PIC C: Wanted the Y adapter hidden and safely away from heat. Plan was to mount the Y using the same bolt as the washer fluid tank but the hoses were about 2" too long and didn't want to cut them again so drilled and mounted to the frame. Lengths shown below on the callout pic are correct length for mounting to the washer tank bolt. Rubber isolated clamps available at Lowes or Home Depot

PIC D: Final assembly. Stock covers fit right on, looks pretty clean. Note Fuel pump running at idle pushed pressures close to 100psi so I'll be adding a return line and regulator at the end of the rail which is shown later on.






REAR PUMP/TANK:










Regulator/ Return line

 

Cam Install:
There are many LS3 DIY cam swaps posted on the forums so i won't bore you with mine but basically:

Take this out:



Put this in:



Do some of this:


And some of that (new springs kit):


And you're done

 

Performance and 1320 results.

First start and Idle:

Done, gotta love the sucking sound at the front of the car.
It's official, this car blows and also farts at the end of the video.

 

Placeholder interruption

 

im putting a t-trim on my c6 with a 10% iw balancer and A&A secondary drive and this is the 3 belts they told me to get

blower belt 8 rib k080550HD you can also have a k080545hd which is a bit tighter
ac 4 rib k040476
alternator 6 rib k060370

you can find their sizes in inches on gates website but i dont think any of them are as long as the one u have

 

Go Phil go!!

 

<snicker> Any idea what's going on with that Gates K060891 belt? Seems a little long unless I run another alternator on the left side of the engine.

 

Buzz kill

Thought this was the easy and fun but please tell me I don't have to lower the oil pan to get the pickup tube out.

 

You don't just be careful. I put rags behind it so as not to drop the bolt.

 

I was pretty cautious about not dropping the bolts. Thanks for the reminder.

ITS A BOY


Unfortunately I loosened the 4 bolts holding the pump onto the block. I'm thinking some locktite then snug them while turning the crank to not introduce any runout

 

You're going to want to center the pump on the crank using some feeler gauges if you loosened it. I think 3 .002" gauges were the size I used around the outer pump ring to center the pump case.

 

Below are the 4 bolts I loosened. Saw a video of a complete pump assembly and it was pretty important to get clearances right but thought that was on the internal star gear, housing, etc.. I'll do some investigating tonight. Now it's clean the shop, paint a few brackets and get re-organized for another round tomorrow.

 

Those four bolts are the ones that place the pump around the crank, so those are the ones that you tighten with the feeler gauges around the ring gear to center the case. Look up ls oil pump alignment. I'm on mobile with poor internet or I'd link you something but maybe someone on here can help out with this part as well sorry.

 

Correct, don't have to remove oil pan or mess with it at all. Just be careful obviously.... but it'll come out with oil pan in place.

Yeah there's a Melling video that shows how to install the pump. Basically disassemble it and re-assemble it piece by piece on to the crank while using shims (feeler gauges) to center each piece so that it's not rubbing on one side and lose on the other. That way it's perfectly centered when it's all said and done.

I did do mine that way--PITA but made me feel better.

 

Never messed with flip drive but 891 is a common belt size for non flip drive setups. I think that's too long.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ch-blower.html

 

Not saying its textbook, but I did as you mentioned. Snugged it a little and rotated the crank to get it centered. Then tightened it up. Never had an issue with that.

 

Lots of people get by without aligning it, but I had the sets of feeler gauges already so it only added a few minutes of work.

On the plus side it's way easier to get the oil pump back into the pickup tube when it is disassembled and you can see down the pickup hole.
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Watched that Mellings video and he just slaps the thing on and centers it but the "better" way is disassemble the pump, set clearance between crank drive and rotor and rotor and mount before tightening the pump down. I'm not one for taking shortcuts but don't think that's necessary and will rotate the crank while bolts are snug then lock it down.

Admittedly there was a little drool going down my chin when I say those high flow/volume pumps but this motor is still new and tight and should be fine.

Kinda dead in the water until I get the HB, hoping ECS has one and I can drive down there tomorrow and pick one up along with the right size belt