Almost ready to fire up maybe later tonight. Also got my tune scheduled for the 20th and waiting on a pst driveshaft to ship not sure what the hold up is on that.

 

Dyno day today hope it goes well Be nice to have some good luck for a change lol. PST shaft fit great other then that had a bad crank sensor right out of the box for first start up wth.

 

Ok time to hang it up for awhile set a new record for the lowest hp built ls7.

 

Uh oh. How does it drive though?

 

Drives great sounds insane. Just stupid low hp and tq numbers only made a little bit more then my 6.0

 

Break down your specs again for me. Remember a dyno is just a tool.

 

Stock ls7 crank and rods with Mahle forged pistons 11.7:1 b3 cam, ls7 heads ported by Texas speed no milling just clean up pass with stock head gaskets, ported ls7 intake with 92mm t/b 60lb injectors, Blackheart 1 7/8 headers

 

Hmm, that should be a 550+ combo. However, take it to the track if you can and get a MPH. If you run 10's, who cares 😀

 

It don’t feel any faster then my old 6.0 but have to wait and see. Even if it had a stock cam it should be 520+ With every pull I could see the tuner wasn’t sure why the power was so low.

 

Who ported the LS7 intake? That intake becomes very restrictive at those power levels. Also, i assume the 92mm throttle body is a cable driven unit? Couple more questions and sorry if they are in this thread already.

What trans?
Rear end and gear?
Exhaust post headers?
Air intake?

Stock cam won't see 500 at all without dyno trickery. Have you overlaid your old power curve to this one? Same dyno?

 

Horsepower looks like it hit a wall.

What engine controller are you using? And what is the flow rate limit in the software before you have to start playing number games with the tune? Just kind of fishy that it tops out around 255 lb/hr, which is one of the flow rate limits.

 

Intake was done by ragin racin so the sell said someone was in there for sure though. Magnum f t56. Rear is 8.8 with 3.73 exhaust is Blackheart duals into borla atak cans No cats shop said the exhaust isn’t the issue lol.

 

Holley hp efi. Tuner said fuel was perfect and I asked about a air flow restriction and he said everything was good to go there. He was on the phone with Fran from RPM they both seem to agree there is a valve train issue somewhere cause of that flatline up top but the power is down on the hole curve.

 

My buddy got some dyno vids I will try and get them

 

You'll get it figured out.

 

If you are running dual 2.5's via blackheart, you are choking that motor. I would add some cutouts post header. Toddkey from hooker says this system becomes restrictive around 450rwhp or so. 2.2cfm per HP.

 

Pulled all the plugs and did a compression test everything was good so pulled valve covers and everything looks good. Tuner says it’s pushrod length that’s wrong so I pull the rockers and measure and they come up good so now I’m thinking it’s all in the tune cause before I took it in for the tune the car would easily blow the tires off in second gear under a nice part throttle rollin and now it won’t?

 

Did you actually remeasure for pushrod length? What did the tuner say that lead them to believe pushrods were the wrong length?

 

Yes I measured with a comp cam pr checker. The pushrods are btr 7.8 stock length

He said the way the hp flatlined up top made him think it was a pr length issue.

 

As it looks right now I got a crap tune cause I made up a new base start-up tune and the car is faster with it. Did a stop watch test pull from 60-120 his was 8.0 mine was 7.25 seconds.

QwkTrip could you post up a picture of your base timing table for me on here? Please..

 

Tune is attached. It is in V4, hopefully you can open it.

One thing you'll probably want to snag from my tune is the 2D custom tables for IEA Low and High. It will build torque off idle to 3000 rpm. Disable the Holley Injector End Angle table and set IEA to 0 degrees in the ECM Parameters.

 

Yep I got it to open. Wow you got some wild stuff going on going to have to take my time and look over all that. Take a look at some of this he setup cause I’m at a loss why would he even enable the timing retard function?

 

I can't see a reason to use the timing retard. May have never been a factor if he didn't have a way to trigger it. I guess you could use a clutch switch to cut timing so you can do no-lift shifts.

Might be better to start with my tune and tailor things from there. It looks like I have AC in the tune but I don't. I had to re-assign the AC Compressor +12V relay output to the Boost-A-Pump, but all the other supporting inputs for AC are still there.

 

I also use NGK TR6 spark plugs. A hopped up LS7 is too hot for TR55 plugs.

 

Yep I got TR6 plugs in there.

 

Hood project is just about complete hood pins should be here in a few days then I can get it on the car. And yes I know it’s not perfect by a long shot.

 

WOW that looks awesome.

 

Did you hydro dip the hood? If so that is impressive. Large parts like that are hard to dip.

 

No dip its real I laid the carbon fiber myself.

 

Dang, dude, you're the man! That's impressive.

 

That looks great! Are those Trackspec vents? If so, what part number? Is that hand laid carbon fiber? You gotta show us how it's done. Really phenomenal! Wonder how those vents would look on a birds 4-vent hood, though there is a bodyline right in the middle...
DR.K.

 

Composite Envisions this the only company I could find that sells it in the 60” width which is just big enough to cover these huge hoods.

 

This is how I got it with a hole cut out to fit a Holley high ram intake. It’s just a single layer of plain weave carbon fiber with a gel coat super light but to flimsy for my liking so I first added a small piece on the underside for strength.

 

You made that hood? Wow. I've seen cool stuff on this site, but this might take the cake.

 

I watched every YouTube vid on carbon fiber I could but only found one hood video of a few guys doing exactly what I wanted to do which helped a lot. Fingers crossed racing is there YouTube carbon fiber restoration is the video. Not a crazy amount of cash for materials but so much sanding but my original idea was to get a factory 83 fiberglass z28 hood and do something similar with it. This pic is after the top layer is hardened up and edges still need trimmed

 

Then after much wet sanding and clear coat.

 

Quick test fit and looks like it might just work.

 

Started digging back into the motor again and found a few bent pushrods as in all of them.

 

Wow. Both intake and exhaust?

 

Yep all 16 now im not talk bent like a cheese curl just enough that when you roll them you can see and hear it. There BTR pushrods so idk what to think the tuner did spin the tiress hard in 4th the first pull maybe a over rev? But this does explain why car felt slower after the tune.

 

That hood is nice! I've had dreams of making one for the GTA with some sort of effective heat extraction vents, looks like you did it. Personally, I might have put the vents farther forward (basically right behind the radiator), but what you've done will certainly get a bunch of heat out. It would be interesting to see where the strongest low pressure point is above our hoods is, and if it would be the same for the Firebirds and Camaros.

 

Thanks for the nice words on the hood guys but after a few drives it looks like I’m going to have to add two more hood pins to the front middle section. The hood is so light and the other pins are to far out to the sides it just bounces around and looks like it’s going to fly off once the car hits about 60mph.

 

Tore back in this thing again should be up and running soon hope to have better news.

 

A few pics from the past UMI event right after I got the car running.

 

Still chasing my tail on this build nothing seems to help. New pushrods didn’t do anything so I ordered a new B3 cam and put that in and made no change to the power. Next up is a valve spring change and if that don’t work then time to pull a head and see if the cylinders are glazed. Picked up this tool from Lingenfelter it is the only one I found that works on all LS heads.

 

I did check to make sure TSP shimmed the valve springs looks like they did going to be throwing in BTR .685 springs soon as they show up.

 

New springs are in but no test drive yet. While it was apart I weighted the springs and retainers and the new BTR .685 are 3 grams lighter per spring then the TSP .660 set. The spring tool worked great for removal but install was slow and painful.

 

Not sure why, but finding spring compressor tools for LS7 heads is not easy. Glad to see another option available. I used a goofy little tool made by somebody on LS1tech. Although it looks like yours requires one hand to be busy with the ratchet, leaving only one hand for placing the keepers. I have both hands free with my tool which is nice.

 

I could have used a extra pair of hands thats for sure.

 

So got a small drive in and I didnt notice any change in power. At this point im just going to drive the car some while the weather is good cause im pretty sure the motor is going to have to come back out. Found a few people that have had sealing issues with the same piston and ring kits from Mahle that I used one being a Katech built street attack LS7.