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Just starting my ls1/t56 build!


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Ok so today was a BIG day!! First my dumbass didn't tighten down my passenger header all the way and that + unwelded exhaust caused popping... welded up exhaust yesterday and tightened up my header today... totally sounds better! No more popping and sounds much deeper and throatier! Got my front air dam back on and steering wheel reattached and rear tires filled back up... went to take her out of the garage and no brakes... ****!! Just bled them too! possible bubble? 

 

Either looked up and found that I had no check valve on my booster... trip to autozone and bought a 6 dollar universal check valve and that helped some.. but still takes pushing to the bottom of the floor to get any real pressure. Not sure if it's because i'm using the original early Z booster which is a 6 or 8in booster? or the ls1 just isn't putting enough vacuum... or my booster is shot? Either way brakes are really shitty!!! Will rebleed them this weekend to figure out what's wrong and also bleed the MC itself to make sure no bubbles!

 

Either way with the check valve I had enough brakes to actually drive just had to be careful.... F'IN WOW! That engine has some f'in power behind it in that little z! Learned the hard way that my suspension sucks. Every rev twist the entire body. Every take off makes the back in squat like no other. And apparently not having any sway bars makes for taking corners bad... So I think next is a pair of sway bars and then upgrade my suspension to be a bit more stiff.

Have another video will post shortly as soon as it's done uploading to youtube.

 

EDIT!!!

 

also forgot to say... used a temp probe and it got to 230 then finally fans came on.. and holy crap is it loud! So radiator fans work and everything works... just not use to an engine getting that hot. I guess ls1's like being hot.

Edited by CableSrv
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I've been eye'ing the BC coilovers... they look sexy as hell! But.. need stuff probably in this order..

 

  1. ss brake lines + wilwood 1in and 280z booster?
  2. sway bars
  3. gauges
  4. new springs
  5. new shocks
  6. poly bushings?
  7. strut braces
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Congrats. Jealous am I.

 

By the time you buy new springs and shocks, you wouldn't be far from the cost of coilovers. And you have the fab skills, so it's not like you have pay someone too weld it up for you.

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I would recommend a different order.

1. Gauges while you are at it, to get the engine swap truly "done."

2. Keep stock brakes with rubber lines (the SS lines are a gimmick and don't do a damn thing for performance). What is "feel" anyway?

3. Drive it some to enjoy your work until winter, unless you are in California where it is never winter.

4. BC coilovers

5. AZC brake kit with whatever master and booster you want (it work fine with any booster or master).

 

Low pedal is not booster-that's air until proven otherwise, then it is STILL air. A bad booster causes a hard pedal. You don't need a rear sway. A stock front sway will be fine if you just get stiffer springs. Bushings would be very last in my list because they give very little improvement. Sounds to me like you just need stiffer springs to settle the car down. Coilovers are to your suspension what a V8 is to your engine bay. They are worth saving up for and doing once and doing right. The BC package looks ok. Only problem I see with them is possibly that you can't service (replace) the shocks once they are installed??? I don't know this for sure. I have the old Ground Control "do it yourself" kit and that gives the mechanic the most flexibility for subsequent upgrades and changes. I have run 225/250 F/R springs for about 15 years and love them as a compromise for just about anything. They are soft enough not to break the car, but stiff enough to be decent for autocross, track day and drag racing. Yet they are nice in they street too, except when drinking coffee from a coffee cup. Coke from a can or a water bottle still do fine. For all-out racing with a cage and some chassis bracing, 400 range is likely better, and I will experiment with that some in the future. But if you are still stock now, Id aim for that 200-250 range. Debate exists about whether to go stiffer in front or rear-I don't have an intelligent or experienced answer for that. I have run stock shock with cut springs and I can't recommend that. I have run tokico illuminas and they were better than stock. I'm now on the yellow single adjustable konis and they are noticeably better than the Illuminas. I can actually I interpret the change in car behavior (at least at the drag strip) as it relates to the adjustments I make. Don't really understand how I should adjust them for road course yet, still a noob there. That's my version of Suspension 101. Oh yeah, to get car to autocross well, you need 1-degree more negative camber in the front than in the rear. So, if your rear is at 1-degree negative, you need 2-degrees up front. If you have 2-degrees in rear, you need 3-degrees in front. Dreco has achieved this with the BC package. Otherwise a Z pushes (under steers) on static turns. With a V8 it is easy to get it to power oversteer, but this requires that you enter corners slower than you otherwise could. For drag only cars, the stock suspension is actually pretty good. It allows weight to transfer well. I know a lot if guys going very fast on stock suspension. The stock Z with slicks hooks great. I bet it takes some balls at the fast end of the track!

Edited by RebekahsZ
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Here's my take on brakes. For a street car or drag car, and even most autocross cars stock brakes are fine. These are short activities where the brakes don't get that hot. When you need bigger brakes is when you are doing repeated braking from like 100-plus to like 30mph over and over. Another thing that will require better brakes is wide sticky tires. What stops a car is the tires. Big brakes with small tires is silly, the tires will just lock up. But with big sticky tires, you will have the grip to start braking later and harder. And as big race rubber (Im talking road race), heats up, the traction goes up. So as the brakes are getting hotter, the tires are getting better. So the brake requirements go way up the longer you are on the track. And so does pad wear. The maxima and 280zx rear brake kits are all crap. Really just bling. I recommend staying totally stock on brakes (to not waste money on things that dont work) until you want to go road racing-then go straight to either AZC kit or Silvermine kit. Then you start learning about pad compounds.

Edited by RebekahsZ
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RebekahsZ, weird in almost all the cars I've worked on.. SS brake lines have definitely always changed the feel of how the pedal is. No more squishyness? I do agree that I need to rebleed them. I'm going give up on my mighty vac and try a reverse bleed technique using a syringe.. but only after I completely rebuild my MC... I think there is gunk and it just needs an overall cleaning. I also think my booster may not be fully setup right... as the PO before me already did so many shitty changes.. I wouldn't doubt that this is also one of those I don't know what I was doing things from him.

 

So stock brakes, but front sway.. K so I need to find a new front sway bar.. When I got the car, it was missing one of the mounts and hanging off.. I think I might have actually thrown that sway bar away.. I'll need to check.. if not then I'll see if I can just order a front swaybar.

and yea.. gauges.. man it would be nice to have actual gauges.

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So using the syringe method, I could reverse fill my brakes master cylinder... there were bubbles... and a lot of them. So MC was riddled with bubbles. After that I double checked my fronts and no bubbles there so decided to test it. With car on I can feel when the pedal causes the pads to engage and that push is pretty firm and quick which is good, however after the pads have engaged pedal pressure feels really squishy, this I have to attribute to 30+ year old brake hoses. I recently replaced pads and had my rotors turned so it can't be that part. So either SS lines or buying new factory hoses.

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Did you bleed the master using short hoses to recirculate the fluid back into the reservoirs? Sometimes it takes a lotta bleeding to get MC free of air. I ran for a couple years without my booster working back in the L6 days. Pedal was high and hard as a rock.

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RebekahsZ: Sure did!! man there was a lot of bubbles. Pedal definitely feels much better and brakes engage however after they engage you can tell they still have some give to them.. probably old worn out hoses. I think I also need to replace my rear shoes.

 

So found my old 18mm front sway bar however have no mounts at all for them so going to have to shop around to get those.

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http://lightningmotorsports.com/russell/russell-street-legal-brake-line-assembly/686550/i-103524.aspx

 

these are on sale for 58 bucks.. I could not pass that up as everything I'm finding was 80 bucks or more for SS.. and Russel is a damn good brand!

Suggest replacing rear brake drums, shoes and wheel cylinders.  Then adjust rear shoes.  Bleed plenty of fluid through the hard lines.  Replace all flexible lines with your Russell braided lines both front and rear.  Replace booster and master cylinder.  Replace front calipers also with GOOD pads.  Then bleed RR, LR, RF and LF brakes and you should be all done with good pedal.  Inspect steel hard line running from MC to rear "T" and rear hard lines for any deterioration.  Replace as necessary and re-bleed the system.

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