I had an ARP LS1 head stud kit (234-4317) and the smaller studs (closest to intake) were all too short for the Mamo 265 heads. ARP didn't have a full kit that would work for me so had to custom order individual studs (part number AFG2-725-2LGB) from their factory. Not available from outside vendors. Trick Flow gave me wrong info too, by the way.

I think you have a 6-bolt block so you might be able to buy a full fit that works right out of the box.

 

You're right. It's a 6 bolt block. The ARP 234-4341 works right out of the box. That part didn't involve any issues except a minor clearance thing with the 1/2 inch header flange.
The header bolts, gaskets, and steam port fittings came today, as well as the starter. Still waiting on the 12 inch caliper and the MSD fuel rail kit. Must be coming by mule train.

Hunting more stuff. Radiators, coolers, transmission, and everything else.
Happy Saturday,
F.

 

It appears we're going with the Holley 302-3 pan with the 3/4 length GM windage tray. The windage tray will be modded/cut to fit, and installed with the HPR spacers/standoffs. The Holley 302-1 ran afoul of the middle link. It cleared, (barely), the stock K member, but came too far forward, so notching the K member wouldn't help. We thought of shims, dropped middle link, and I exercised my military vocabulary to no avail. For a street car, I think we'll be okay.

I will keep the Holley 302-1 pan and the full length windage tray from Improved Racing. It will probably work with a truck LS swap just fine. It was odd that the Improved Racing folks have other solutions I found on their site, but never mentioned them when we talked.

The MSD fuel rails should come today. Summit loves me. I ordered a DBW pedal, knock sensors, a crank position sensor, oil pressure sensor, and coolant temp sensor. All 58X Gen 4 stuff.

Coil harness, coils, coil brackets, (coil location undetermined as yet), 4L80e harness, and injector harness, (GM to EV1 style injectors), are all on deck. I looked at the Motion Raceworks steering column, but they show it as out of stock. I'm on their email list for notification. The stock wobbly column is somehow going. I've had it redone and It just doesn't feel solid/safe. The Detroit Speed steering shaft kit should be on the way soon. I ordered it a couple of days ago. The steam line fittings are here and they will work. Many thanks to the guy with the thread on here that posted the part number.

Not much new to look at, but the workplace has turned out fine. Not completely organized, but much better.

 

Isn't that weird how every car is different? I have lots of clearance to the steering links. I have the Hotchkis steering link kit.

 

Lol! Yup, weird is my middle name. Just an small update:

One of the HPR end spacers wouldn't let the Holley pan seat, so it was massaged a bit. The windage tray is now modded also, and it all fits now. The MSD fuel rails are here. I got the engine paint from Eastwood some time ago, and the block is being painted Buick red. Who knows how that will look, but it was very red online.

I ordered more stuff. The ProEFI guys have an update for DBW that didn't exist when I bought the system, so they said, "send it back and we'll update it". Very cool. I ordered more pieces from them, and have their complete system now. Hopefully that's all of it I need. I got the impression the suits at Citibank peed their pants over what I spent. My C.O. had to sort them out. Lol! I was looking at injectors, but I think I'll wait and give the bankers heart rate a chance to subside.
Reply
I ordered Corbeau RRX seats with the Wedge rails, and Schroth 16102 harnesses. The Schroth product is DOT approved.

Thanks to All,
Frank

 

Im going to get jealous and order some Corbeaus after I see how yours fit with the rails... I just know it...

 

Reply
I ordered Corbeau RRX seats with the Wedge rails, and Schroth 16102 harnesses. The Schroth product is DOT approved.

Thanks to All,
Frank[/QUOTE]
Are they 5-point? If they are DOT approved, I can delete my factory 3-point harnesses and run those instead. As long as I can prove they are DOT approved, I can get away with it in AZ. Other states are more picky about it, I know, but we don't have"Inspection" per se, just emissions, and having classic car insurance will get us out of that.
DR.K.

 

Are they 5-point? If they are DOT approved, I can delete my factory 3-point harnesses and run those instead. As long as I can prove they are DOT approved, I can get away with it in AZ. Other states are more picky about it, I know, but we don't have"Inspection" per se, just emissions, and having classic car insurance will get us out of that.
DR.K.[/QUOTE]

The Schroth site says they're DOT approved. 4 point. Wittman huh? I grew up in Phoenix. They finally closed the dragstrip out there. I used to go there when I was in high school.
F.

 

Well, I've searched, and am still scratching my head about cooling this animal. I want to run a Meziere electric pump, but am undecided as to which one, remote mount, radiator mount, or just stick it on the front of the motor. That begs the question of the radiator placement, size, rows, and tubes. Dewitt's is a popular choice on here, and I've seen C&R mentioned also. I've decided to run a separate tranny cooler. So, that makes three coolers up front, i.e. radiator, tranny cooler and A/A IC. Looks like I'll be modding the entire configuration.
TIA.
F.

 

The sensors and seats are here.

 

The Buick red on the block came out really nice. Thank you Alex again! The pictures from the 'puter don't do it justice. It's a deep blood red, and makes me want to paint the rocker covers too. Toolbox red rocker covers do not match.

 

Those seats are very nice and the engine is really looking good.

 

Thank you. The credit for this build belongs to my friend Alex Bautista. He laughed when I said, "I'm pointing my finger at you, and throwing you under the bus when people want to know who did this", but that's true. It's turned out great.
F.

 

I've been looking at the crop of fiberglass dashboard replacements available. Does anyone have any experience with VFN, Glasstek, or Ed Quay? The Quay site is down for maintenance, so I emailed them. Nothing yet. The Glasstek offering looks okay, and the VFN folks have one too. After removing the stock one, I see quite a bit of space under there. I'd prefer to make this removal to get at stuff, instead of assuming the torture position. No decisions yet, just bench racing a bit. We did decide on 1/4 turn Deutsch bulkhead connectors for the firewall. Working with wiring is the easiest part for me after spending decades with the Bell System.

F.

 

Update on the build: No pics yet.

We test fit the Wedge brackets and both Corbeau seats yesterday. The brackets are specific to driver/passenger side, but the seats are not. Everything went together beautifully. We pulled everything out afterwards because we were simply checking to see if the curved side bars on the cage would interfere with the seat bolsters. Zero problems. For those wondering about the Wedge brackets, I can attest that mine fit really well. It takes the Wedge folks about two weeks for a build, but it was worth the wait.

We're having to piece out the 4 corner steam port setup because nobody we could find made a compatible kit for the 2701 MSD Atomic intake. I checked with Motion Raceworks and they said "nope", so it was the old research online time waster. The toughest part was locating a distribution block, primarily because I didn't know what the damn thing was called. Enter the nitrous guys and fuel system folks for a solution. Easy now.

The cage is being re-done. It's been a teeth grinder because of the original workmanship, but suffice to say Alex is fixing it. I got a Baileigh TN-250 from Trick Tools for notching tubes. Probably finished this week.

I bought bulkhead connectors and boots from Maven for the main harness. Really nice pieces. Crimpers, male and female pins, all the little stuff. The ATI balancer install/remove tool finally showed up. Manton pushrods from Tony Mamo are here, and the Cometic head gaskets are due tomorrow. All good. The harness is back from Pro-EFI in Phoenix after the DBW mod.

Alex scored some Gen VI Camaro SS front and rear calipers, (these are the same as the Z51 C7), and I ordered the front hubs and brackets from Scott at Big Brake Upgrade. Scott is great to work with. The rotors for this setup are like Frisbees compared to the stockers. Wilwood 260-14248 proportioning valve, and it's here.

Mighty Mouse supplied the timing pointer. We're using the small version because of the alternator being hung low on the driver's side. In case I didn't mention it, the alternator is a Mechman 250 amp unit, and it's nice. The Mechman folks are also great communicators.

The Ed Quay folks got back to me about a dashboard replacement. They don't make one. That leaves Glasstek or VFN. I'm still working on this, so no decision yet.

The big chunks left are turbos and a 4L80e to live behind this motor. Stay tuned,

Frank

 

Are you using the sliders or just the base plate from Wedge?

 

I have two complete double locking sliders and brackets. The part numbers are 22024L and 22024R brackets, and, (2) 22001DBL, double locking sliders. They came completely assembled.

Cheers,

F.

 

Long time no posts, but still at it. The plan is still to run a big motor on low boost, i.e. a 427 @15 lbs for a street car with maybe some track tuning until we get kicked off for going too fast. The turbo decision was changed to a single instead of twins, and we decide upon injectors for E85. I bought a new Garrett G42-1450, and the hot side is done. All fabricated from SS, and back purged by Alex. We went to No Corners Cut Fabrication, here in San Antonio for the custom aluminum intercooler and radiator. The hot side fabrication dictated some "other than stock" sizing on those two parts. It's not here yet, but I'm in the queue at NCC. They're busy guys. Basically, they're making the biggest size of both pieces that we can fit under there.

The zillion little pieces for a build like this that's all fab work is truly time consuming, but the only really big chunk left to source is the 4L80e. I'm looking. Let's see if I can remember how to stick some photos in here....

 

 

The front of the car has been modded, (think cut to remove stuff in the way), for the intercooler and radiator. The pics show the pie cuts tacked, but they're all done. The cage is finished too. Sorry about the time delay.
Cheers,
Frank

 

Wow, just finished going through this whole thread, nice work so far! I'm surprised i missed it until now.
I have some Corbeu CR-1 seats from ages ago and love them, except their lack of lumbar support (and a touch too tall). Do those seats you got have lumbar support? The pictures kinda looked like they did, my back is 20 years older than when I got them and let's me know on longer drives.

Also were you going to do any ceramic costing on the hot side to help with heat management? More heat to the turbo and less under hood and all that.

Keep up the good work!

 

Thanks Steve. It's a much bigger project than I anticipated.

The Corbeau seats have a squeeze bulb with a thumb release for lumbar support. Seems to work fine. The current plan is to wrap the plumbing for heat control, but that may change. I'll talk to Alex. He may have some reasons for wrap instead of coating. We're still waiting for the custom sized A/A IC and radiator, so we can complete the plumbing. Then it's fuel system and wiring completion, plus the 4L80e search. Reid has some pieces I am looking at, but it's still a research head scratcher for the moment. I want this thing to primarily live in traffic, but it will not be a DD. We'll see how it goes.

Merry Christmas to all. Thank you everyone for the help.

Frank

 

Well, it's been a long time since my last post. The project stalled during the COVID issue, my engine builder moved away, and everything stopped. Everything has been sitting in my climate controlled garage for over a year. I don't seem to be getting any younger, lol, so it may be time to let this one go. I have an enormous amount of brand new stuff sitting here.

If this continues, I will have to make some adjustments to the hot side merge pipe because it's too close to the block and accessory fitment becomes an issue. I think the solution is to move the turbo a bit and recreate the hot side a bit. The custom radiator and intercooler are here now, but not installed yet. Fuel lines, brake lines, (cupra-nickel), wiring, and the later model front suspension pieces are also not installed. These will require going to 18 inch wheels to clear the rotors, but that was the plan anyway.

It's a great rust free car. I want to thank everyone here again for all the help and input.

Frank

 

awesome build Frank, i'll be following along!