• 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?

For the record, no, I am not real happy with the job that World Products did with those intake manifold holes on the heads. But Bryan at LME looked over the work and says they will hold. He also port matched the intake manifold to the heads for me to make sure they were matched up properly Billy Mitchell Jr. at World Products stated that he will guarantee them for life. Ultimately LME is on the line guaranteeing their product, so I have to assume that if Bryan would have had doubts about the work, he would have vetoed that repair himself rather than have his name associated with it.

Take a look at the short video I just did and then compare the heads and the rocker arm assemblies with a stock LS7 head. There was a LOT of machining done just to put those rocker arm assemblies in place. If I were to be the pain in the ass I really SHOULD be and insist on new heads, all of that machining would have to be done all over again on the new heads. Yeah, I could say "tough noogies" and tell them that's what I want, but do I REALLY want to have to wait three to four more WEEKS (or more) while this is all being done?

Quite frankly, NO, I don't. I believe Chris would back me up 100 percent on whatever I want done, but at this point, I am just going to trust everyone along the line that the heads are OK, and I can run with what I've got.

Now if some other major road block crops up with that engine, well now we have a whole new kettle of fish. And quite honestly, if the engine would have to go back to LME, then quite likely I would just want a new engine completely and one that is NOT a Warhawk. But at this point, I am just hoping for the best with what I've got. A LOT of people have said that when this is all over with, I will soon forget all the headache I went through getting there. I am simply putting my faith into hoping they are correct.

I just REALLY want my car back, and this is the quickest and most logical path to take to get to that goal.

Chris has been great putting up with me "mother henning" this build and I'm trying real hard to not be a major pain in the ass to him about it. Yeah, I'm asking him questions all of the time, because there is a lot about this I just don't know anything about. But so far he hasn't cussed me out even once or thrown me out of the building, so I haven't worn out my welcome quite yet... :hehehe:

Anyway, today the engine was put into the front cradle and the torque tube mounted so Chris could check the new driveshaft for excessive wobble. We're hoping that by the end of the week the drivetrain and body can be "sandwiched" back together and it will start looking like a whole car again. I REALLY want to get excited about all this again... Looking at the engine sitting on that cradle, I did feel that emotion stir just a little bit....
 
Bob K said:
I also hope you didn't mis-undestand my posts. I don't know you from Adam and at no time was it my intention to infer you didn't do quality work. The folks that did those heads on the other hand is a different issue.

I have seen Tracy at RevXtreme running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. In fact Sat about 3:30 he was in there yet his Sat hrs are until noon. I can only imagine what you guys go through. Nothing but respect for you on this side of the keyboard. :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

thanks Bob! anyone in this business knows how it works and sometimes it isnt all fun...we have had a ton of support from all kinds of people and vendors on this site and others and it is all greatly appreciated! The finished product should do all the talking! thanks again !!!
 
xtrememotorsports said:
thanks Bob! anyone in this business knows how it works and sometimes it isnt all fun...we have had a ton of support from all kinds of people and vendors on this site and others and it is all greatly appreciated! The finished product should do all the talking! thanks again !!!
Click to expand...

Just wanted to make sure we were good Chris. Like I said, nothing but respect from this end. :thumbsup:
 
Wow, finally got around to watching that video. Man do those rockers look TOUGH. And how big is the hole going into the intake...looks like i could stick my big ole foot through there.
 
Both the intake and exhaust ports are HUGE. Chris measured the exhaust ports and they are a good 2 inches in diameter. The thinking we are kicking around right now (with a lot of input from Tracy) is whether or not the 1 3/4 primaries on my LGM Pro headers are going to work well with those exhaust ports. :shrug01:
 
Do they make a 2" primary that downsizes to 1 7/8 or 1 3/4??
or just run 1 7/8 headers and match to heads as much as possible??
 
Rich Z said:
Both the intake and exhaust ports are HUGE. Chris measured the exhaust ports and they are a good 2 inches in diameter. The thinking we are kicking around right now (with a lot of input from Tracy) is whether or not the 1 3/4 primaries on my LGM Pro headers are going to work well with those exhaust ports. :shrug01:
Click to expand...

I would have to say absolutely not. 1 7/8 would be the bare minimum for your setup IMO. You are going to be shooting for how much again? Your going to be choking the exhaust side of the house :(

Some shiny new 1 7/8s never hurt anyone :thumbsup:

A 2" stepped header that goes to a 1 7/8 would be VERY nice IMO.
 
I guess I need to keep a log of what is going on with my build, and this is probably as good a place as any. As long as this has been dragging out, I need to be able to keep my thoughts straight as to the daily events involved. Probably will be interesting for others to see how builds of this nature can go sometimes...

So let me back up a bit..

  • Sunday (01/24) - Chris wanted to get out to the shop to try to catch up a little bit from being out with kidney stone problems the last few days. This was late in the afternoon and he said that Justin and himself were planning to spend the night there to get a lot done on my car. I got out around 4pm to find that the power was out. After about an our and a half, I left, since things hadn't changed any. Chris said he hung around for 2 more hours and the power never came back on before he left for home.
  • Monday (01/25) - Chris called me in the morning from the shop and said the power was partially restored. The single phase power was working, but the three phase power was not. He said that the lift, compressor, and welder are on three phase, so with my car being on the lift things were at a standstill till that power was restored. I decided to run out there anyway in the afternoon and got there around 2:30 or so. He was in his office talking to his landlord, so I walked back into the shop. Chris soon came on back into the shop and I asked him if the three phase power had been restored yet. He said yes, and went to the breaker box and flipped on a few breakers. He said he had shut them off while repairs were taking place. Justin wasn't there, but he got the engine onto the front cradle and checked runout on the new driveshaft before calling it a day. Fatbum's engine showed up and he had to run out to pick that up and bring it into the shop. He uncrated the engine and put it on the engine cart. Apparently what was enough for the day so we left at 5pm.
  • Tuesday (01/26) - I had the guys who put up my garage call at 8 am to tell me they were going to be in the area and could stop by to correct a few minor problems left on the garage. While they were here they also replaced some dry rotted and leaking boots around pipes on the roofs of my house and former reptile building. In the meantime, Chris had called me and after I told him the situation, he asked if it would be OK if he spent a couple of hours working on Fatbum's engine so he could get the oilpan on and ready to be placed in his car. I told him that would be fine with me, as it would likely be a couple of hours before I could get out there anyway. This was around 11am. I didn't get out of here till around 1pm, so I was over at Chris's shop around 2pm. He was still working on Fatbum's engine at that time, and by 3:30pm when Chris ran out to get some parts, I figured there was no sense in my remaining there, so I headed back on home. With only an hour and a half before their closing time, I figured nothing would really get done on my car anyway by that time. Chris called me around 6:15 that evening and asked why I left the shop as he was planning on jumping right on my car. I told him that I just decided to head on home and spend some time with Connie (she had been feeling sick before I left to run out there), since nothing was apparently going to be done to my car. No big deal. I guess I just slipped down on the priority list at the shop when I had something else take priority (the garage) here... It happens... He said he would call me in the am when leaving for the shop to work on my car.
  • Wednesday (01/27) - Chris called this morning at 9:25 to tell me he had to run some sort of service call for Jordan's car and would call me when he was finished with that and heading to the shop. ** to be continued **
 
:ack2: Rich, somewhere in this post I thought you were pushing a little harder than necessary.
I stand corrected, you have the patience of the Pope, probably more.
 
Well how many omens do you think I need to get before I just have to accept the fact that this just was NOT a good idea?


exhaust_crack_01.jpg


exhaust_crack_02.jpg
 
I was literally eating when I got this pic sent to me and almost choked...all I have to say is:


iSeriously WTF ubig8&T^&*tYIUHOHY^RE^&FIU)I_(IU(HGIYF^SD*&Y)OHBUD^%RYTCD^$DYHGBOJOIJ)U)*JPO(IU(*&TR%E$W#RDFYHBJY*IPOLKNGU&R%$EDIUJLKNHGTFR^%DTGUIHNJKHI*U(KOIJOKIJUO*JP

we couldnt have written a book and it come out like this.......
 
That's a real shame Rich. No one deserves all this. Wrap it up, send it back, demand a full refund and get something else. It's time in my opinion.
 
Bob K said:
That's a real shame Rich. No one deserves all this. Wrap it up, send it back, demand a full refund and get something else. It's time in my opinion.
Click to expand...

Chris and I have already dicussed this. I think if I wound up going through having this Warhawk engine put into my car now, after these problems, I would literally puke every time I popped the hood and saw it. So much for this being a retirement present for myself. :banghead:

I guess we have to see what LME says about it. Ultimately they are the ones who sold this engine to Chris for my car. So I guess their's is the desk this buck is going to stop at.

In the meantime, the LS6 is going back into the car. No way I want that car hogging up space in Chris's shop any longer while the wrangling (you KNOW this is not going to go smoothly nor easily) takes place.

I'll have get with Chris to see how much of the remaining parts for this build will make sense to go ahead and install in my car regardless of the engine. The carbon fiber driveshaft is already in there, and I might as well replace the flywheel and clutch.

Hell, I know I'm going to wake up tonight screaming from nightmares.....
 
Bob K said:
That's a real shame Rich. No one deserves all this. Wrap it up, send it back, demand a full refund and get something else. It's time in my opinion.
Click to expand...


That is EXACTLY what I told Rich needed to happen there are too many red flags going up we need to send it back and go a different route.

Neither of us are comfortable and EVERYTHING happens for a reason

the timing of this engine being completed (that some would say was taking to long )obviously happened this way so that this would be found.:banghead:
 
BTW, SOMEONE is definitely looking over my should on this one. That pic of the valve guide was strictly a random shot I took of just ONE of those areas. I did not see that crack before the photo was taken. And the photos were taken a few days ago, and it was only now, right before Chris was going to be installing the headers, that I decided to download the images from the camera to my computer.

Then when I had them downloaded, I just picked one photo at random to make certain that the images were downloaded corrected before deleting them from the camera. And THIS was the photo I chose to enlarge.

Fate? Yeah man, something seriously bad (like this isn't bad enough!) was going to happen if this engine got installed in my car and started up.

Yeah, so OK, I HEAR you. This is done....... I just hope I don't wind up losing my money for that engine. This could very well wind up in court and take a few years to resolve that way if LME and/or World Products try to leave me holding the bag. Not to mention all of the labor that Chris has already put into this.

NOT good............ :nonod:
 
:rolleyes:


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xtrememotorsports said:
That is EXACTLY what I told Rich needed to happen there are too many red flags going up we need to send it back and go a different route.

Neither of us are comfortable and EVERYTHING happens for a reason

the timing of this engine being completed (that some would say was taking to long )obviously happened this way so that this would be found.:banghead:
Click to expand...

That has got to be so frustrating for both of you. I would have sent the whole thing back when I got the heads first time but I understand you guys trying to make this work.

Let us know if you need email support to get a refund. You know what I mean. :reddevil: We can spread this around the world in a heart beat and make them regret their reluctance to refund if it comes to that.
 
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