• Got the Contributing Memberships stuff finally worked out and made up a thread as a sort of "How-To" to help people figure out how to participate. So if you need help figuring it out, here's the thread you need to take a look at -> http://www.corvetteflorida.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3581 Thank you, everyone! Rich Z.

427 engine (part 2) - RHS block

Log - Monday, 05/17/2010

Chris was over at the shop pretty much by himself today. Except for me being there, of course. And he got a lot done on the engine. Put on the flywheel and clutch, mounted the torque tube, put on the steering rack and pump (w/ pulley), mounted the balancer, and got the headers hooked up. Had to put the old headers on, as the new 1 7/8 inch SSW headers haven't shown up yet. He's figuring on maybe in a couple of days being able to mate the drivetrain and suspension back to the body and frame. Then it will start looking like a CAR again..... :thumbsup:
 
Finally some real progress that you can see. Have you gotten the recommended break in specs for the engine? I can't recall for sure but on my 502 the builder started the engine and ran it at about 2500 RPM for a few hours I think. Then of course no full throttle until I had maybe 500 miles on it.
 
Chris will find out from Bryan about the break-in procedure and then relay that info to me. I believe Chris is going to set the rev limiter to 3500 rpm for the first 500 miles or so.

I'm guessing the engine will get it's first start up next week sometime.
 
Log - Tuesday, 05/18/2010

Got kind of a late start on my car today. Chris spent the morning trying to round up all his tools scattered all over the shop. He just got tired of spending so much time trying to locate the tool he needed every 10 minutes. So the time spent now would save a LOT of time later on...

The water pump went on, but not without a minor struggle. The cam sensor has been relocated on this block and it's right behind the water pump and needed to be ground a bit to clear the water pump. One section of the pump housing was also infringing on the driver's side head gasket and also needed to be ground away to clear. The intake manifold BARELY cleared the water pump, so Chris clearance the wp a bit so it wasn't such a tight fit.

All the accessories and and pulleys were put on and the serpentine belt put on to check for alignment. Then Chris started moving various sensors from the LS6 to the new block and was working on doing some rewiring of those sensors when I decided to head on home around 4pm.

Still got an issue with the new throttle body being paid for by Chris and shipped from RevXtreme. Chris put a smaller 92mm throttle body on the engine, but the new one will be 101mm.

Also awaiting the Stainless Steel Works 1 7/8 headers to be delivered as well. They are being ceramic coated, and not sure of the ETA for them. But Chris wants to get the car back together again, so it's quite likely that the throttle body and new headers will have to be put on at a later date after they show up.

Maybe on Wednesday the transmission and differential will be put onto the torque tube..... :thumbsup:
 
Log - Wednesday, 05/19/2010

I got an email from Chris saying that he had to do some work on another car at the shop in the morning, so he wouldn't getting to mine till the afternoon. Since he was only going to be doing some minor stuff mounting suspension parts and working on the new fuel pump, he didn't feel he would be doing anything "video worthy" today. So I stayed home.

I had brought home the AC/heater control unit to work on, so that's what I did today. I had re-soldered the surface mount resistors on the control board a week or so ago, and figured I might as well replace all the light bulbs in the unit, since I already had them here. If you have a display on your unit that flickers and goes dim, you probably need your surface mount resistors re-soldered as well. This is a known problem with those units. Wasn't too tough to do, but I have done a LOT of soldering and de-soldering in my younger days. Hopefully everything. The resistors were pretty easy, as I merely applied solder to both ends and tried to keep them from moving around. Several did move, so obviously one end of them had broken through the solder and were making intermittent contact with the circuitry.

Here's a thread about this fix, if anyone is interested...

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-tech/1583758-c5-climate-control-dim-dark-display-fix.html

The display bulbs were kind of tedious since I had to desolder the connections to remove the old bulbs. Not really hard work, but those small circuits aren't as easy for my eyes to see as they used to be.

Hopefully the unit will work OK when the car goes all back together...
 
Rich Z said:
I had brought home the AC/heater control unit to work on, so that's what I did today. I had re-soldered the surface mount resistors on the control board a week or so ago, and figured I might as well replace all the light bulbs in the unit, since I already had them here. If you have a display on your unit that flickers and goes dim, you probably need your surface mount resistors re-soldered as well. This is a known problem with those units. Wasn't too tough to do, but I have done a LOT of soldering and de-soldering in my younger days. Hopefully everything. The resistors were pretty easy, as I merely applied solder to both ends and tried to keep them from moving around. Several did move, so obviously one end of them had broken through the solder and were making intermittent contact with the circuitry.
Click to expand...

I had the same problem but GM does not repair these. They replaced mine with a new one. 400 and some bucks. Still under warranty so I didn't care. No wonder they went broke.
 
Bob K said:
I had the same problem but GM does not repair these. They replaced mine with a new one. 400 and some bucks. Still under warranty so I didn't care. No wonder they went broke.
Click to expand...

Heck, all total I guess the entire job (with the unit out of the car) might have taken me a half hour or so. The replacement bulbs were about $30 (http://www.corvetteradios.com/corvetteradios_013.htm).

But heck, there is a guy on Ebay who will fix your unit for you for only $60 -> http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/97-9...ptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

So that might actually be the best way for someone not fluent with using a soldering iron to get this done.
 
It's absolutely crazy Rich. My EBCM went bad and there's a guy on line that fixes these for $150. GM replaced my unit at about $4500.
 
Captain's Log - Stardate Thursday, 05/20/2010

Chris emailed me early this morning to tell me he had some errands to run in the morning and would call me when he was heading over to the shop. I called him around 11 or so, but didn't get an answer, so at around 12:15 I headed over to the shop anyway, figuring he would be there after lunch time.

Which proved to be accurate, as he was there when I showed up a bit after 1pm.

The fuel pump had been mounted and the floor section glued and sealed. Chris was putting the suspension back together and also putting the shifter onto the housing on the torque tube. When I left, he was putting the brake rotors and hubs onto the control arms.

It's possible that he may be mating the drivetrain to the frame and body tomorrow sometime, but I may not be able to get out there as I am expecting a delivery. So it depends on when Sears shows up here. I left one of the camcorders with Chris so he can set it up and capture anything he feels that is video worthy.

Oh yeah, Chris finally got the payment issue straightened out with RevXtreme, so my 101mm throttle body is now on order. I was told it will take two weeks to build it.

Still haven't heard anything about the SSW headers' ETA, however....
 
Captain's Log - Stardate Friday, 05/21/2010

Chris called me this morning (Friday) and said he had an appointment that would require him leaving the shop around 3:30 to 4:00. Sears made the delivery around 12:30 so there really wasn't much sense of me running out to Blountstown. Not sure what Chris got done today, but he said he was working on putting the suspension together so he could mate the drivetrain with the body. Not sure if he put the transmission and diff onto the torque tube.

I guess I'll just have to see what progress has been made when I run out there on Monday.

Oh, about the Sears delivery. I had ordered a work bench and a tool chest. I figure I'll be doing more work over in the garage then in my workroom, so I wanted to have a work area there and a place to put some tools. Anyway, they show up here and tell me that they don't have the workbench on the truck. They called the office, and apparently it was at the warehouse but for some reason didn't get onto the truck. So I guess I have to waste a day waiting for another delivery truck to show up. I was surprised to see that the tool chest didn't have any liners in it, so last night Connie and I ran out to Sears to buy some. Well, they have an advertisement that the liners are 50 percent off when you buy a tool chest from them. Come to find out that this only applies if you get the chest and the liners on the same ticket. This wouldn't piss me off too much except for the fact that we ran out there a couple of weeks ago, planning to buy this stuff there, but the guy who "helped" us would have struggled pretty hard to be any less helpful. I'm sure you've seen the type: walks, shuffling their feet, like they have 50 lb anchors attached to their ankles. He finally comes back from the back room and mumbles that he couldn't find the items there, but it would probably be best to order them online anyway. :rolleyes: I swear, I believe some people believe that having a job only means that they have to show up there every day, and they don't really have to DO anything while there....
 
Captain's Log - Stardate Monday, 05/24/2010

Yesterday (Monday) I got a phone call early from Chris whereby he told me he had a family emergency come up and wasn't sure what time he would be getting out to the shop. Since the morning was going to be pretty much shot, I emailed Chris and told him that Connie and I were going to be running some errands in town and I wouldn't be running out there. I also asked him about the status of those new headers and an itinerary for this week. As of this morning at 10:15 am, I have not heard back from him.

I did call this morning (Tuesday) and left a voice mail message, as I had an air conditioning guy come over early AM. The freon in our unit was low, so apparently we have a leak somewhere. The unit is 20 years old, so we're going to be replacing the entire unit, since it seems we are having problems about every year with it. Just a matter of time before it goes kaput, so probably best to stop spending money on patching the old one up....

I'm hoping to hear from Chris so I can run out there this afternoon, so we'll just have to see...
 
Hope everything is alright with Chris and his family. Good luck with the A/C. There are some really nice units out there to choose from now.
 
vetteguy61 said:
Glad I read this before heading out to Blountstown. Hate making a wasted trip.
Click to expand...

Chris called me a little while ago and said he would be going out to the shop to finish up the wiring harness for the new fuel pump.

He's planning to be out there early tomorrow (Wednesday) to attach the transmission and diff to the torque tube. With any luck, he will begin to make the drivetrain and suspension to the body tomorrow as well.

I'm REALLY ready to get this DONE.......... Close to hitting the 7 month mark now...
 
Rich Z said:
Sheesh, I hope you aren't right about that. Connie is saying I won't have my car back till my birthday, which is July 21. Which will be 9 months.... :ack2:
Click to expand...

Man, I was totally meaning at 7 months everyone wants the pregnancy to be over with...didn't mean it would last 9 months for you. For your sake, I sure hope it's over soon for you and that devil is back on the road!
 
Captain's Log - Stardate Wednesday, 05/26/2010

Chris called this morning to tell me he would be delayed getting to the shop. Turned out to be just as well, because the guy who erected my garage called a few minutes later saying that his partner was heading out this way to fix one of the garage doors that has been tough to open and close.

So as it turned out, I didn't get out of here till around 12:30 to head over to Chris's.

The agenda for today (what was left of it) was to remove the gas tanks so they could be drained and cleaned out. Chris was afraid that putting that 7 month old stale gas through the new plumbing and engine might not be a good idea. He was probably right, as when he pulled out the fuel pump, there was a black crud dripping from the filter. So he ordered new filters for me and they will likely be showing up tomorrow. Doesn't sound like much, but it looked like a real pain in the butt getting those tanks out of there. Would have been much more of a BEAR of a job had the drivetrain and suspension been in there.

Oh yeah, Justin gave us a bit of a show by catching the field next to the shop on fire. His method of getting rid of that old gas needs some work, I'm afraid..... Chris had to call the fire department to put it out before it got out of control. Us trying to stomp out the fire wasn't working out too well..... :rolleyes:

Hopefully tomorrow the drivetrain will be put back together....
 
Captain's Log - Stardate Thursday, 05/27/2010

I talked to Chris in the morning and he said he was waiting to hear back from Champion Chevrolet about the filters being in. Later on, after some time had passed without hearing about them, I called Chris and suggested that the gas tanks could be put back into the car, and those filters put in later when they came in. In the meantime, with the tanks back in place, the drivetrain and suspension could be put back in the body to get this thing closer to completion.

I talked to Chris later in the evening and he told me he had the gas tanks back in the car, and put the transmission and differential onto the torque tube, with it almost ready to be put together with the body and frame. Hopefully that will take place tomorrow (Friday). Since Monday is a holiday, nothing after Friday will be done till Tuesday.

Chris said he painted the transmission and differential so they wouldn't look so drab against the polished rear cradle.

Still no word about those darn headers.

I'm only expecting to be out there until around noontime on Friday. Got a refrigerator due to be delivered at the house, and Chris said he has a couple of small jobs with other customers' cars he needs to do in the afternoon.
 
OK, had a major milestone reached today. The drivetrain and suspension are now mated up with the body and frame.... :dancer01:

Chris got things in position yesterday so when I showed up there today, he just needed my help manning the lift while he got underneath the car to massage everything into position.

But in any event, it's finally beginning to look like a CAR again, instead of something you may see at a scrap yard.

He had some other things to do today with some other customers, and I had to head back home anyway for a refrigerator delivery. But with the holiday weekend, that's pretty much it till Tuesday.

Oh, on another good note, Chris said my new headers were shipped out yesterday. So hopefully they will be in by next week.
 
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