Been to probably a hundred car shows and cruise nights over the last few years.

This past weekend drove the Vette almost 2 hours to Island Dragway for their fall Nostalgia Classic drag racing event. It's a huge bracket race.
Got to hang out with a bunch of other Vettes who ran in various classes. I ran in the 11.0 to 12.99 class. I tuned the power down to the 11s since Island does not allow me to go in the 10s without a rear power shutoff and engine diaper.




Since I turned the power down, this was the first time actually running the footbrake launch method in a race, instead of the launch button on the steering wheel. It worked great and I was able to tune my reaction time with each time trial run down to a .018. Unfortunately, I got knocked out early. Dial in was 11.75.

Bruce, in the burgundy 77 vette made it 5 rounds.

 

So after a year of an intermittent electrical gremlin that looked like a starter problem I finally found it.

I've been having trouble with the starter. It felt like it came on and off in the middle of cranking the engine. First I thought it was the battery, changed that, no difference. Then I changed the starter which made it slightly better but the problem came back. Then I started looking at all the chassis grounds, but they looked ok. Then I changed the relay that controls the started and it looked better, but not solved.

So today, I went to a cars and coffee. Normal weird starting, but I got used to that. Drove to the event and just as I;m entering the event with everyone there watching, the car stalls. I start it back up, park, and enjoy the cars and coffee. Then on the way out, I try to start the car and the annoying problem is worse than ever. I try to roll down the power window and my electric headlamp servos start closing the headlamps. I hit the brake pedal and the headlamps also begin to close. WTF?

Then it hit me. The headlamp servos are run by a relay. When the relay gets no power it automatically begins to lower the headlamps. So it wasn't a ground problem, but somewhere I was losing 12V intermittently. The same 12V that was powering the starter solenoid relay which is why the starter seemed to act weird.

So I started looking at the 12V feed to my electronics. I have a fresh battery, cleaned the terminals, checked the battery cutoff switch and it was good. I have a 0 gauge wire from the cut off switch to the front of the car that goes to a common point in the front of the car. It's a big bolt where all the 12V stuff is common.




Apparently the rubber carpet got in between some of the terminals and caused an intermittent connection to the feed that supplies power to the cabin. Pulled the carpet out, tightened down the nut and now I can start growing the hair back that I've been pulling for over a year.

 

dang that sucks. Glad you finally found it! I had a similar issues in my turbo firebird. The walbro 450 started not priming but would run fine and then no start one day at work. I thought it was the relay so I swapped it out and it started and I got home. I decided to inspect the wiring to redo it with some 10 gauge and found that under the carpet the wire at a spade Connector got hot and melted the plastic spade and heated enough to get melted into the rubber carpet undercoating. Lucky it didn’t start a fire. It gave no smell or any other warnings. Now it’s a straight shot of 10 gauge right to the pump and a big 120amp relay.

 

I avoid spade connectors and crimp connectors whenever possible.
I'd rather solder it and throw shrink tubing over the joint. My car single-handedly supported the shrink tube industry for a while.

I'm glad I had the headlamp buckets open or I wouldn't have noticed the loss of voltage. That's one of the drawbacks of digital gauges. If it was an old school analog voltmeter, I probably would have noticed a momentary drop in voltage. If I had looked at my logs, of when the car was not running, I would have noticed the voltage drops, but I only look at the logs when I'm racing. Come to think of it, I remember I noticed a voltage change when I raced a few times ago, but assumed it was the alternator not liking the high RPM. I took the alternator apart and doubled the springs that hold the brushes to the slip rings. Hmmm. I'll have to check that next time I race.

 

Carl-Carl-Carl-

Man- I hate the idea of you eating stale bread because you ran out of zip ties-

I will be glad to donate a few from my collection!!!

Oh- saw that build the other day- and thought of you!!!

 

ROFL. I added that bread tie like a fisherman adds bait, to see if you were still kicking. Nice to hear for you again.

Actually, when I first built the harness, they were all bread ties cause it's easier to add and subtract wires while things are still in flux.

 

What vacuum pump did you use for your power brakes?

 

In normal cruising, I don't use a vacuum pump. My Cam is stock one that came with the Silverado truck the engine came from. So I have plenty of vacuum. I use the vacuum pump when I'm at the track and building boost on the start. Then there is no vacuum, but boost instead, so the vacuum pump helps keep the brakes holding at the start light. I don't have a transbrake.

There are two check valves. One from the manifold and one for the vacuum pump. Because in turbo cars, the manifold can have vacuum as well as pressure.



I got mine on Ebay, new. Something like this.

 

I installed a smaller steering wheel with some buttons on it.



Button on the left is the front line lock. Don't need to reach all the way to the panel now for burnouts.
Button on the right is a launch button. The launch can be programmed through the touch screen to any of these modes.
a) launch by brake pedal. When brake pressure is less that the set point, the car launches.
b) launch by steering wheel button. When the button is released, it launches.
c) launch can be set to various launch styles..... 1st gear, 2nd gear, sloppy third, sloppy second, and a few more modes I don't use.

I like sloppy third off the launch button when I'm trying to run a good number. I like first gear launch off the brake pedal when bracket racing.

When any launch is triggered, It automatically stops the throttle plate two step and opens it to wherever my foot wants, (usually floored), opens up both line locks, and does the sloppy brake logic if called for.
All settings are through the touch screen and separate computer is not needed.

 

Nice to see you are still at this, thanks for posting the impressive thread over the years; a lot of gems hidden in there.

 

Hey,

I just placed an order for the Speedmaster intake, same one you have on this setup. I had so many issues with the LS6 dorman intake sealing around the injectors I decided for the 6.0 I'm gona put in to go this way given that I'm also turbo'd. Since Im turbo'd I care less about the TB size and flow rate and just want something that will seal up and not blow up with boost as I hear the dormans have a nasty habit of doing that. I see your running a DBW TB which doesn't help me as I'm going to use the stock 78mm 3bolt TB. What intake manifold gaskets did you go with? I hear the port alignment might not be great this the intake and the supplied gaskets are poop. I hear these are better but honestly I would love to use the stock truck style gaskets. https://www.jegs.com/i/Fel-Pro/375/1312-3/10002/-1 and this is the style I would like to run https://www.summitracing.com/parts/f...waAjWdEALw_wcB

Also how are you sealing the TB? why speedmaster doesn't machine a stock style TB seal is beyond me. Also the fuel rails are you running the supplied? I was going to reuse the LS1 style I have on my dorman but maybe a generic set might be better for adjustability. Did you need the low profile valley cover bolts are well? Did you run into anything else with the swap?

 

First of all, great to see another turbo Vette. The picture you showed had my original 4 bolt 90MM TB. The 4 bolt TB fit fine on this manifold. I later went to a 78MM TB from a GM V6 car, but I had to make an adapter plate. As you agree, the boosted flow through a small TB is not an issue. I have never tried to fit any of the 3 bolt TBs. If you were dirve by wire, the 4 bolt V6 TBs are very reasonable.




Port alignment was reasonable. I'm not positive, but I think I used the supplied manifold gaskets. My heads are cathedral ports. I have never had sealing problems of any kind with this intake. Not on the intakes, not at the injectors and not at the TB. Never had the intake off and it's been more than 6 years so far.




I'm running the supplied speedmaster fuel rails. No sealing issues. I don't think I had any clearance issues with the valley cover bolts. If I did it again, I would stuff insulation between the bottom of the intake and the valley cover for less heat soak. Also I would do all 4 steam vents this time like this:




I gotta say that the intake part was smooth sailing. I bought the metal intake because I wanted no problems with plasic manifolds craking under boost and possibly drilling and tapping holes for methanol injection in the future.

Also I would use the LS3 water pump next time. The pump outlet is on the other side of theTB, making for cleaner radiator hose setups like this:

 

It’s been fun to drive much faster than the 5.3 before the 7psi. With the 6.0 and a slightly bigger cam I’m expecting a bit more NA and then the boost.

I saw that you switched to the smaller 4boot TB. My termX doesn’t support DBW which is fine by me but I understand the allure of a DBW setup. The intake I purchased is the 85mm LS1 version which looks like it comes with a 102-85mm adapter plate that converts it from 4 bolt to 3bolt. I just don’t see any orings which is annoying. I’m not a huge fan of paper style gaskets. I wonder if there is a way for me to machine a channel in the adapter. I have a Warr 92mm TB on my 5.3 turbo firebird and the 78mm is much better at light throttle and throttle tip in.

that’s good to hear about the Intake not leaking. I have had enough issues with the injector orings. I’ve also had my intake off a few times in a few years so the paper gaskets aren’t appealing for reuse. I will take a look at my gaskets when the intake arrives. I don’t see it being an issue unless the thickness is too much for the supplied bolts.

I hate the speedmaster red/blue rails… which I think is all they come in. I guess it might not matter if I’m covering them up but still bugs me lol. I put some thin heat shielding under my Dorman LS6 intake for the same reason. I don’t think you have enough room under any of these intakes except the trucks for that style steam port. There is a lower profile one that isn’t OEM but idk how you would fit that as my LS6 intake basically rests on the shorter button head valley bolts. I plan to swap over my LS6 style front coolant crossover and and I’ve already swapped on a LS6 valley cover with the PCV nipple.

did you port or polish the intake at all? I would open mine up and clean it up, then seal that bottom plate real good otherwise more boost leaks.

im already running the LS3 Camaro water pump for that same reason. Actually my LS1 pump worked fine but the throttle TB lever would run the top of the pump as I have welded on a tab for the transmission TV cable. The LS3 pump provides more clearance but also moves the hose over as well. It also puts the heater core outlets in a different place compared to the LS1 pump and not in a good way. I have less clearance with the LS3 pump than the LS1 with the upper control arm.

im more worried about the TV cable clearing the intake as there is a block that sticks out for the LS2 style map location which my LS6 intake does not have.

 

Very minor only in areas where I was looking for better port / gasket matching. I did do a small bit in the head itself, around the valve guide and to remove some of the hump around a screw. Also, did valve and seat cleanup. I have those tools. BTW, I run stock LQ4 6.0 cam. Seems good so far.