• 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.

C5 427 forged motor?

:banghead::banghead::banghead:

Well, I was finally able to get to the shop today, and Chris was there, although obviously feeling pretty ragged from everything that has been going on....

I had high hopes of a lot getting accomplished today, and getting some juicy video of perhaps the drivetrain being snapped together. But hit a snag, putting it mildly. I show up this morning and right away Chris shows me that there is an issue with that FAST intake manifold bolting up to the heads. The mounting bolts for the intake are about a quarter inch off. In other words, if the bolts on one side line up properly, the bolts on the other side are a good quarter inch wide of lining up with the holes. It's not the FAST, as he tried a stock LS7 intake and the same issue was there.

WTF? It's not like I'm the first in my block to ever get a Warhawk LS7X now is it? Why doesn't the intake manifold line up? Anyone got any ideas?

Chris has calls in to both World Products and LME (who built the motor) to try to figure out what is going on. But I'll be honest, this really doesn't give me a nice warm fuzzy feeling at all............ The only options we can see is that it either has to be the heads, or the block itself. Neither of which are something that just waving a magic wand is going to fix.

Chris is going to get to the bottom of this and let me know. No real sense to me running out there again until this gets resolved, as the engine certainly can't be finished up and the drivetrain bolted together until then.

Oh yeah....... :banghead:
 
Deep Breaths, Rich........Deep Breaths. My neighbor is puting a 4 speed into a 71 automatic
Chevelle, and he just told me that it has been the worst experience of his automobile
life. He said that anything and everything that could go wrong.....did! He said that it
fought him at every turn, and wouldn't let up. He's done many of these swaps,
as well as body work, customizing, painting, engine rebuilding, and if he says that
this one was the worst, it must have been a doozy! So, don't feel like you're in that boat
alone, Rich. Things could always be worse. Hell, you could live up here, and
once your C5Z is back together, you would have to wait till spring before you could
take it out! It MAY look, and feel like a bummer, but you've got some quality people
doing this for you, and they want it to be right! Couple of snags right now just
might prevent a catastrophe later on down the road. Chill out for a spell, and remember
your mantra......NOOOOOOOOORUSHINGGGGGGGG.
Hi to you and Connie from Dotty and me.
Andy
 
Heck, I know Chris will stand by me and get the issues resolved, but it's just aggravating. For Chris as well as me. He's busy enough without having goofy off the wall problems thrown at him that just shouldn't be there. I mean, who would have thought that the intake manifold wouldn't line up? It's an LS7 Warhawk block, LS7 Warhawk heads, and LS7 FAST intake manifold. :shrug01: It's not like these are bargain basement prototypes that no one has ever worked with before.

But what really worries me is that this is just the beginning of putting things together again. If this is a harbinger of things to come, I won't expect to see my car sitting in my garage until March. :eek:
 
Rich Z said:
Heck, I know Chris will stand by me and get the issues resolved, but it's just aggravating. For Chris as well as me. He's busy enough without having goofy off the wall problems thrown at him that just shouldn't be there. I mean, who would have thought that the intake manifold wouldn't line up? It's an LS7 Warhawk block, LS7 Warhawk heads, and LS7 FAST intake manifold. :shrug01: It's not like these are bargain basement prototypes that no one has ever worked with before.

But what really worries me is that this is just the beginning of putting things together again. If this is a harbinger of things to come, I won't expect to see my car sitting in my garage until March. :eek:
Click to expand...



Hell to the NO it WONT be until March..I can PROMISE you that..I'll get on the phone and talk to whoever I need to talk to to get whatever needs to be done,DONE !!!! TRUST ME ON THAT ONE!!!
So Chris is thinking they got machined wrong??? I have not talked to him yet, he was finishing some fiberglass stuff last I spoke about 1.5 hours ago so I dont know whats going on with all this....

We have a CURSE over us for some reason....I am hoping when it ends I'll WIN THE POWERBALL...lol...then you'll see me on that show "the lottery cursed my life" !!!! :crazy03:

Luck is NOT on our side lately !!! :eek:
 
navy2kcoupe said:
Deep Breaths, Rich........Deep Breaths. My neighbor is puting a 4 speed into a 71 automatic
Chevelle, and he just told me that it has been the worst experience of his automobile
life. He said that anything and everything that could go wrong.....did! He said that it
fought him at every turn, and wouldn't let up. He's done many of these swaps,
as well as body work, customizing, painting, engine rebuilding, and if he says that
this one was the worst, it must have been a doozy! So, don't feel like you're in that boat
alone, Rich. Things could always be worse. Hell, you could live up here, and
once your C5Z is back together, you would have to wait till spring before you could
take it out! It MAY look, and feel like a bummer, but you've got some quality people
doing this for you, and they want it to be right! Couple of snags right now just
might prevent a catastrophe later on down the road. Chill out for a spell, and remember
your mantra......NOOOOOOOOORUSHINGGGGGGGG.
Hi to you and Connie from Dotty and me.
Andy
Click to expand...



Thanks Andy !! :dancer01: We need that every now and then :D
 
My guess would be that one of the heads isn't for your application, or maybe both, but Chris will get it sorted out. And I agree with all of your concerns! I would probably be going postal right about now. Hope that there's a quick resolution for all the "goofy off the wall problems". Keep us posted Rich, I'm REALLY curious to find out what the problem with the heads/intake turns out to be.
Andy
Gettin' chilly up here. high 20's at night...........
 
MRS. XTREME said:
Thanks Andy !! :dancer01: We need that every now and then :D
Click to expand...
Hey, do businesses heve biorythms :shrug01:? Maybe Xtreme is down in the valley on all of the measurment scales, and will start on the upturn quickly.
Whatever........you guys will keep on it till it gets fixed!:yesnod:
Andy
 
Well, I've been burning up Google checking things out, and best I can come up with is that I don't have a clue what is wrong. There are people out there with the same combo and no issues mounting an LS7 intake manifold to the heads. So it's not like this is some oddball thing we are doing.

I guess we'll have to see what Chris can come up with when he talks to World Products. Luckily they are located in New York, so they are on Eastern time and will be there to answer the phone earlier than if they were out in California. I'm guessingthat possibly they'll have Chris do measurements to see if those heads were just machined incorrectly. Of course, if that is the case, I'm not sure what the procedure will be, since LME actually bought the block and heads and set it all up for us. But if it all has to go back to LME to get straightened out, then that's just what it will have to be.... I just want that sucker to be RIGHT before it goes into my car!

I guess I need to check on the squatter laws here in Florida. I might be on that lift long enough that I'll be able to claim ownership. :hehehe: It's a pretty nice one, so I wouldn't mind having it in my own garage.
 
Rent-To-Own is the only way to go. By the time the C5Z comes off of the lift, you'll own it. Then all ya hafta do is move it to Crawfordville and into that nice new LARGE garage. My money is still on you getting one wrong head or something like that.
Andy
 
navy2kcoupe said:
Rent-To-Own is the only way to go. By the time the C5Z comes off of the lift, you'll own it. Then all ya hafta do is move it to Crawfordville and into that nice new LARGE garage. My money is still on you getting one wrong head or something like that.
Andy
Click to expand...

Well, since LME put this engine together, I would think that if one or both heads are wrong for this block (outside of just the intake manifold mounting holes being wrong), they would have noticed it. At least I would hope so. I would think completely wrong heads would manifest themselves in more ways then just the intake manifold mounting holes.
 
problems.jpg
 
Rich, good things come to those who wait. Ive been in your shoes, trust me when its done...all that time youve spent waiting will seem like a week. Youll just really hate the following week breaking the motor in, knowing you will have all that power and cant use it. :thumbsup:
 
Well, here's a pic of one of the heads. About the only thing that I can see that still makes my eyes go all squinty are those rocker arms apparently pointing in all sorts of directions. Just doesn't seem natural to me, but that seems to be the way they should be. It still bothers me though.... Just seems darn weird....

rockers01.jpg
 
They looked that way on my "porcupine head" SS-396 Chevelle, except yours are
WAY nicer looking. My 396 just had the stamped rockers.
Sure wouldn't mind having that bad boy back again! Be definitely worth more
than the $2900.00 I paid for it used in December of 1969! Still like the looks
of that Warhawk setup though.................:thumbsup:
Andy :wavey:
 
Yeah, and look at the size of those exhaust ports! I probably need 2.5 inch PRIMARIES on my headers to match up with them. :ack2: This thing is going to move a LOT of air. I just hope that with having the air intake in the back with the STS setup that those intakes don't suck down my taillights when I crank down on the accelerator. Might also take down everything in my trunk as well. :eek:
 
Maybe it'll help to keep the dirt off of the back end!
And you're right, those ports are big. You're gonna have
some SERIOUS air flow there!!!!!
Andy
 
While I was out at the shop yesterday, Chris asked me to take some pics of the misalignment problem between the intake manifold and the heads. Here's what we are looking at....

intake_01.jpg


intake_left.jpg


intake_right.jpg


As you can clearly see, if one side of the intake manifold lines up with the mounting holes on one side, the other side is a good quarter inch off.
 
WHOA! THAT'S not good. It almost looks like the angle of the intake where it meets the head is not the same as the angle of the head, but pictures can fib a little I guess.
Andy
 
It almost looks like the deck of the block is too short. I know there are two different warhawk block deck options and I don't understand how they can both use the same heads and intakes. Are the LS7 heads only supposed to be installed on the tall deck block?
 
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