Ben280

I am looking into watercooled credit cards at the moment I scored one of the Tilton bellhousing/starter motors for a good price. It's designed to use the 110T 9" flywheel with a 7.25" clutch. Planning to get the flywheel and clutch new so I can spec the spring weights from Tilton, and not worry about the friction materials. Tore down the L33, nothing too surprising inside, so I'm calling the machine shop for some parts advice and then the rest. Also picked up a 3.54 R200 diff from @Willflow, need to do a bit of investigating but I'm planning to re-bearing it and then put my rebuilt ATS LSD and s13 stub axles inside. We'll see, could be interesting. Might need to press pause on the dry sump for now, (see water cooled credit card joke from earlier) but those links are super helpful!!! Side note, how to I get the little thumbs up button? I hear people talk about it but I don't see it.

@tube80z good intel! I'm not familiar with the Aussie CAT damper, (my google searches aren't turning much up), any more info on how that works? Looking at how much the good oil pans cost, I'm thinking dry sump might happen sooner rather than later. However, this is for sure a case of scope creep. I mentioned this a little bit, but my original off season plans included re-wiring most of the car, and I had already committed to a number of those purchases. At this point, not that i am trying to cheaply get the motor in the car, but a hundred bucks here or there is starting to look appealing for deals. I'll admit as well that I'm learning as I go, but trying to get a full picture of what's happening for the systems in the motor before I go too wild. NASCAR Ebay is for sure my favorite ebay, lots of good stuff to be had there! Planning on going with the quartermaster clutch kit, but I keep looking through Ebay and thinking I might try and piece something together. The price difference between Quartermaster and Tilton is eye opening, but I've had MUCH better luck with Tilton customer service thus far.

Thinking about the oiling system, not sure if I'll have the budget to go dry sump right away. Need to explore. 706 heads are a good tip, I think I'll wind up with a pretty agressive cam, and a fully redone valvetrain. Likely going to deck the 799 head to bump the compression. The 799 has better flow than the 706, but the lower factory compression combo is limiting! Fixing the trunnions is high on the to do list, but I think swapping in billet rockers might be the best route. Been enjoying Richard's videos, that's in part why I picked this motor!

I think annoying as it might be, the worm drive gear might be a wear item on the race engines, with hourly requirements on replacement. Certainly something to inspect with more frequency than I expected.

Now you're talkin'! New motor arrived home today. L33, but not the L33 you might be thinking! The truck oil pan and intake are HUGE, we will be replacing those, along with most of the other stuff. Nice to have a solid, running/driving baseline. The yard I got it from supplied hot compression numbers, (165psi) so the bottom end should be solid enough for now. I'll pop most of these accessories off, take a look at the heads, and probably send them out to be cleaned up. Still need to order the bellhousing kit, I'm getting a bit hung up on the reverse mount starter and getting enough trans tunnel clearance.

Haha! I'm all for a discussion about important race related matters such as oil pressure. I might be unhappy to be the catalyst for such discussions, but not disappointed to host them in my build thread. I've started working on the wiring harness. I have a friend who builds some really spectacular stuff for prototype cars, and offered to help me get a new engine and chassis harness sorted out for this car. We are trying to do it right, and he's managed to score some pretty serious hardware for me. We are using a Motec PDM32 which is all autosport connectors. One thing has lead to another, and he might be going a bit wild on the construction with the twisting and sheathing. This is all going to look hilarious next to my Megasquirt ECU (rebranded as a Notec from here on out!)

Latest and greatest update. Moving on from the Koni/GC combo finally. I worked with Jonathan at Shaftworks to build some custom dimensioned struts for the car. The fronts have S13 mounting dimensions (which I built my front uprights to accept) and the rear are 2002-2005 WRX. I'll probably have to put some serious work into the rear T3 knuckles to accept that fit, but we'll see.

The Z (with higher RPM) would just hit 130 on the front straight. The video I posted is WOT until the 2 cone marker, and just hitting that marker. With more power and less gear, I'd probably be pinging rev limiter until the brakezone. Most modern high performance cars cars are getting 140-150. The 800hp Viper that holds the production record there tagged 171 on the front straight, and camero ZL1-1LE's will get to about 150. No interest in Pacific, but the COTNW in Bremerton looks really interesting! I like the idea of running dual sensors @tube80z, you'll hear a lot of radio chatter about failing out sensors. It's also just good practice to get good sensors, and keep tabs on em! Intermittent electrical issues are the worst! With the swap, I'm going to be re-wiring the front half of the car. Prior to my motor exploding, I'd gotten my hands on a Motec C125 dash and a PDM30. Need some other accessories, but this seems like a real good time to get them installed!

DM'd.

I have a long nose 3.90 in the car, and a 1:1 4th in the Jerico. That pegs top speed at 126 with an assumed 6500rpm rev limiter. I might start hunting for a 3.54 short nose diff, since that would bring my top speed up 13mph, and I could likely widen up my ratios. First gear is pretty tall on account of the L having a narrow powerband, and trying to keep the drop small from 3rd to 4th. @clarkspeedInteresting idea. Maybe it develops internal weakness that come out at high RPMs? I tried to be pretty nice about getting the car hot before hitting the track, but maybe I missed the mark a few times. Tough to say, and it wasn't something that I thought to keep an eye on. When I had the motor apart last year, I didn't notice anything weird about that area.

Hey! That bodes well for the resale value of my Hoke trigger kit then! There's a fair bit of play in mine. I wasn't doing anything fancy with the shaft placement, apart from using the later KA truck oil pump for a bit more oiling. As far as I've been able to tell, they are essentially the same casting, just different springs. It would be interesting to know, although I think I've since binned the pump. Worm drive, sprocket and camshaft are going on the altar to the Gods of Speed in the new shop.

Particularly good shot of the car climbing the hill into T11 at the Ridge at GTA '22

I don't really know what caused the oil pump gear to fail here. I was using the correct crank snout gear, or so I thought, but clearly that still failed. My one thought is that because I'm using a Hoke crank trigger kit, that somehow the shaft was able to shift laterally on the snout gear? There is a bit of movement there, but I assume the distributor would hold it more or less in place. Clearly with a distributor, once this drive gear failed, the motor would shut off on account of erratic spark. With the crank trigger kit, it was all too happy to keep running. Shame on me for not wiring the pressure switch into the ECU with a safety strategy. @tube80z, Didn't really look into the v6 stuff. My goal was to keep it straightforward and easy, so the LS family ticks that box for sure. The L33 is all aluminum, so it should serve to keep the weight down a bit. Drop in ready for a lot of my existing parts, or easy to get parts as well. Now to decide what to do with all my L series parts. Sit on 'em or sell?

@clarkspeedAsk and you shall receive! I'm still not very good at taking photos as I go. Dirty hands and not wanting to touch the phone I suppose. We're going back to June 2021 here. Pic of the car after it chucked a rocker at ORP. Where'd the rocker go? Not that much carnage all things considered. Just a little peck on the cheek Back together, placed 3rd in Unlimited at GTA at the Ridge. (1:52.8) 2022 season prep starts with needing to get engine temps under control. Howe racing radiator and Setrab oil cooler should do something cool. Apex Engineered sent me a strut bar to chop up, since theirs didn't work with camber plates. New radiator means I can get rid of the inner fender wells and lean the radiator down at a pretty good angle. Helps with airflow, and eventually I'll duct it out the hood. Starting to plan for mounting a fairly massive splitter on the front of the car Big rear wing to match. Zebulon MSC design 14" chord. Splitter mounted, need to duct air into the radiator somehow. After watching a few cars burn down at events in early '22, I decided to invest in a suppression system This is a 2.25kg Novec system. GTA 2022 went well until it didn't. Coasted in on a cooldown lap after seeing a goose egg for oil PSI. Got home and parts were still hot after sitting for 6 hours... That Cam looks pretty dry. I think that piece should still be attached! The culprit!

I figure with the dogbox, a button clutch should make for an excellent experience. I do need to upgrade my winch with this plan, but I think the performance might be worth it. Looking at the quartermaster 7.5" for now, but also considering a 10" for more "drivability".