sooooooooooo

how does it run and drive?
do you like it?
was it worth it?
whats the next plans?

 

It's kind of hard to compare how the car used to be to how it is now. It used to have a V6 that made maybe 100 hp on a good day, now it's got 150+ extra hp. The TH700 transmission was starting to slip with the V6, now it's got a 4L60E with optimized clearances and modifications.
I completely rebuilt the front suspension with an upgraded sway bar,and steering brace ("wonderbar") and put on BFG Comp 2 tires (245/50R16), so it handles much better than it ever did with 15" tires and the shitty thin sway bar.

It's faster than my modded 305 Firebird, and I used to do some really stupid stuff in that car.

LS1 big brake upgrade, and 4th Gen rear disc brakes. Torsen rear differential, and 3.42 gears.

I have all the parts ready, I just need to get the car back on the road for awhile.

Maybe subframe connectors.

Hell yeah it was worth it! It took longer than I thought, because I was doing this for the first time, and I was being really cautious.

Remember the first post in this thread:

THIS IS MY WIFE'S CAR. I have to turn it back over to her, and everything has to be perfect.

 

Hey guys, I finally got the heater hooked up.
I modified the V6 heater lines by brazing some extensions on them (using electrical conduit) and cutting them to fit.
The circled areas are what I had to remove.

I used some leftover molded hoses to get everything to line up; the truck AC compressor suction line is right in the way of the pipe I brazed on, and I was lucky that I had a hose that could easily bend around it. The only other way would be to route the hose near the exhaust manifold, and I'm not doing that.



These next hoses were a pain in the @ss. I had to remove the passenger side exhaust manifold to get all of this in place, and the hoses had to be EXACT to get everything to bolt together.
But in the end, you can't even see them unless you're looking for them, which is what I was going for.


Bottom line: no leaks, the heater is hot, the AC is cold. Mission accomplished.

I want to thank everyone who helped me along the way.

 

HA!
That is actually funny, My father would have definitely also found that funny!

 

Wow!
I'm Impressed!!!

I can tell that you have soldering experience... just not PCB soldering experience.
But you still did really well!!!


Most people will end up burning through part of the Board or damaging other Surface Mount Devices/ Components, but you actually made it work!
I think that's incredible!

Somethings that most people do not know...
-Solder will not/ hates to bond to corrosion (even corrosion that you can not see by eye) or to anything un-clean.
-Heat penetration is required in order to create a bond with the Solder.
However, the PCB will usually have several layers of Wire Traces and Fiber Glass sandwiched together over and over again...
This makes the PCB act like a giant Heat-Sync... thus inhibiting heat penetration and making it very difficult to solder to.

So if you ever have to do this again, or if anyone else needs to do this by following your work; there are a few things that can be done to make the process go more easily.
You're going to need some 91% Isopropyl Alcohol, and a bunch of Flux, preferably in a large syringe.

Use the alcohol with a clean tooth brush (or any lint free implement) on the PCB and any of the SMD components in the area that you're working in...
Clean everything several times! Having clean surfaces with the least amount of surface oxidation is the Goal!

Next you are going to make a pool of Flux over the Component that you wish to either remove or add to the PCB.



This helps everything stay clean, un-oxidized, helps the solder flow, and also helps manage the heat that you are putting into the PCB.
Now try to unsolder the component while it's in the pool of Flux...
This will allow everything to separate much more easily.

Here is a 10-second Video-Short of a typical SMD component replacement:
A hot air station with tweezers is often prefered for PCB re-work/ repair... but a soldering Iron also works.




Make certain the Tip of the Iron is very clean, covered in solder and is small enough to make good contact in the small areas that you are going to be soldering.

 

I've only done plumbing soldering before. I was surprised when it worked. Thanks for the kind words, Chello!

 

I thought I'd give an update on this build: I decided to convert to cable throttle.

Long story short, the DBW system had been problematic from the start; every couple months, some new gremlin would pop up, disabling the throttle body.
For the past month or so, the car had been running worse and worse, especially at startup; it would misfire terribly, and sounded like it was cammed.
Many times, it would start, then stall.
The misfires were almost all coming from bank two, and the engine was running very rich on that side. Fuel trims showed the PCM was pulling a lot of fuel on that bank. The plugs were black, but there was no evidence of vacuum or fuel leaks on that side (or bank one, for that matter).
There was a continual MAF code, even though it was functional.

The final straw was a no-start/ stall condition one day, and a code for TCM to PCM communication.

I had all of the parts to do the conversion, and I was able to reuse the DBW throttle wiring on the IAC and TPS sensor, so I didn't have to tear into the harness. I soldered the proper connectors onto the engine side, and repinned the PCM side.



This thing runs SO MUCH better with the cable throttle. It idled too low with the DBW setup, and it always felt like it was about to stall whenever the AC clutch would engage. My wife really hated that. Throttle response was never what I would consider "good," merely "acceptable."
Best of all, the misfiring and weird fuel trims are gone. I don't know if that was a problem with the tune or the hardware, but it was really getting on my last nerve.

In the end, just like my attempt at making my own y-Pipe, doing a DBW swap was a colossal waste of time, and not a small amount of money. Never again.

 

thanks for the update.
sucks you had such issues.
i only try to do DBW because when tuned correclty its the best thing since sliced bread..

 

You know, I don't really believe that.

Can you please elaborate on that? I know that IAC valves can be problematic to tune on an engine with a big cam, but for the majority of builds, I don't see any advantage to DBW.