I'm thinking two weekends before the Memphis gathering. What do you all think?

Anyone have some speed parts to add? I should have my shortblock by then and could degree in the cam. I also have powdercoating equipment, transmission jack, and tools for doing a torque converter swap. Who has a TC to do?

I also have shop air for doing some die grinder work, or some rusty bolt removal. Anyone want to put in a new Spohn suspension?

Sorry, no welder yet... No rollcage installs.

What are you guy's ideas? Haslett is located near Okemos / East Lansing, 105 miles away from the US23 Michigan/Ohio border.

 

Well I would vote for the 8th, but as slow as my car is coming togethor I will probably have to push it to your place!

nick

 

Hey I'm game for whenever. Hopefully it won't be the weekend of my brothers wedding. I have no real mods to put on myself...but we can listen to some loud tunes!!! with my car on..

 

I think the 8th would be the best bet for a thirdgen Modfest.

Hey, I just installed the six transmission bolts tonight before coming online: Total time, 45 minutes. Now all I need to do is hook up the torque converter and drop in the axle & crossmember!

I might not have any mods for June, however, I do want to advance the cam a little from the current 104 degree intake centerline to 108 degrees to see what happens. So, I might spend the day doing a cam degree operation. Sound interesting?

 

Depending on what my money situation is like, I MIGHT put on a set of Spohn's sfc's..... Does that count as a mod?

 

Oh yeah, that's a mod! However, I dont have a welder. You bringing one?

 

What kind of welder are we talking about, Dan?

 

If you are installing subframe connectors, you'll need a MIG or TIG welder in order to stitch them to the subframe and the rocker panels. I have no present capability for doing that kind of work.

 

I just got a new miller MIG welder.. I could bring it. I need to do SFCs on mine too, so it might be good to help do it on someone else's first.

 

I've had the north bay poured perfectly flat so that I can do just these sorts of suspension projects. If you want to bring the welder, just let me know what type of outlet it needs so that I can get the proper one installed on my spare 240V circuit!

 

While we are at it if you don't mind I als0o have SFC, and would love to have them put on. I also was wondering about traction bars being installed. I don't know what is needed for them but they need to be put on. 8th is game for me.

 

If I am able to make it, the 8th of June would be the day for me, lol

 

Okay then, we'll make the 8th of June the "official" day for the 1st annual Michigan Third-gen Modfest!

Only thing is, installation of subframe connectors is contingent of Tim's willingness to bring along his MIG welder (along with his welding skills!)

I think it's about time for me to let Dirk know so that he can post this in a more mainstream board. We'll have to make sure to plan this out, because we obviously cannot install 12 sets of subframe connectors, 12 torque converters, 12 cams, and 12 sets of headers in the same day.

Though I must say, it would probably make the local paper if we did! :lala:

 

The 8th should work for me, too. I think I'll be in Dayton, OH from the 3rd thru the 7th for robot training, but I should get out early enough on Friday that waking up bright and early on Saturday should be no problem.

Anyone know of a good deal on a tow dolly? I had been planning on buying one anyway, and I'll surely need one for this trip since my car probably still won't have an engine or trans done by June!

Oh btw, my name is Kevin, not Tim The welder is a sure thing, but my welding skills leave something to be desired. Maybe somebody will attend that has a little more welding experience than I do!

 

I'll pencil the 8th in on my schedule too. Not sure what I would be modding though. I've got an order in with Steve Spohn for a LH front caliper bracket. If it arrives in time, maybe I could be the 1LE front brake install? I've also got a head swap planned, but that can't wait until June...

Jeff

 

Is anyone thats going to the modfest burning their own proms, I would like to start doing that on my car this summer. So it be really cool to watch someone else do it on their car first. Just to check out the equipment and cables. Spring cannot come fast enough!!!

nick

 

I have all of the equipment needed to read and re-burn PROMs except the definitions for your particular 1989 ECM. If you buy me a Tunercat definition (or I will do it for you if you send me a check first), you can use my stuff for your PROMs. Of course, we'll need to pick up a few chips for you beforehand as well.

--Hope this helps,

--Dan

 

Is anyone interested in my hiring someone local with MIG experience for putting in subframe connectors? We'd have to supply the welder though, and put the SFC's in place, but I know someone who can draw a pretty good bead...

 

The welder will be there.. don't have to worry about that. How many of us will have work for the guy? That would probably determine how much each of us will have to pay. I could probably FIND some other stuff for him to do (my quarters have some holes to fix, battery tray in the wheelwell, etc.) that would help make it worth his while.

Anyway, before saying for sure that we should hire the guy, I'd like a ballpark est. of what he's gonna charge..

 

I'm sure that i can have things to do too. Wheather anyone considers them mods or not, just trying to get this thing up do a decent level of working order.

 

I'm going to ask Dirk to put a little announcement together for the main board as well.

***, I hope we dont get swamped! 'Course, there could be worse things that could happen... Maybe we'll have to stretch this into a two-day happening!

Volunteers will be needed so visit the thread soon.

 

Hey 89blueta I burn my own proms and am planing on attending. but i dont have a computer to burn with there because my laptop is only 33mhz (diacom only) + even if we did get a computer you need a hypertech chip or you will need to solder a ZIF socket to a spare memcal. Read Traxion's article for more info. Hey guys I just ordered a wide band 02 with ego output. This sounds like a fun chance to use it!!!!! What are the the cops like up there. I mean are they gonna go nuts if they hear a moded 383 at wot from 2 miles away or are they ok.

 

Hey 383GTA,

I think I have seen your car around before, my freind lives in the bedford temperance area. And I go to Ida all the time.

I am going to try to get the materials needed for prom burning around in the next couple months. She is running alright at WOT, but very lean everywhere else, seems like a vacuum leak. But I cannot find anything.


nick

 

My GTA is flame red metalic with 4th gen spoiler and ramair hood with 2 Black Stripes trailing from my ramair nostrils. I drive through Tecumseh Every other weekend during the summer with it to get to my Girlfriends cottage at sand lake. My car mostly stays around the toledo area with all the defcon (a store and kind of a club in Toledo) imports to beat up on why go anywhere else LOL. They are all hot heads too it would be funny if one of them read this.

 

383,

There is definitly nothing wrong with beating on imports. I do not get down to Toledo very often, but some friends and I are going out to milan for a test and tune on april 6th, if you want to come out and get some times for your car.

nick

 

Maybe but not sure i want to try to do some more tunning im afraid to take it for a whole quarter because my knock sensor keeps on comming on when i get into those high rpms. But im going to do some tuning this weekend with my new wide band 02 and see if i cant get rid of it so we'll see.

 

Hey 89blueta whats up too bad we didnt get to hang out a bit more. Well anyway I just got back from the Track and im kind of dissapointed but not too bad Best run of 14.03 but i only got two runs and this is my first time draggin. I was loosing traction really bad guess its time to get rid of the junk rubber 14.03 at 103 mph stupid tires. But man did you miss the craziest thing this purple vette with a blower out his hood and drag radials on it just went sideways and flipped over right on top. Blewout every window and flew off the track into the dirt and spun around a few more times. I Knew the track was way slippery but that was crazy. Driver was able to walk to the ambulance though. Man I keep seeing the whole thing in my head and its all in like slow motion. I dont think i will ever forget seeing a thing like that in person right in front of me. By the way what was your best time and MPH

 

Well atleast you got some numbers on your car to work with, I wish I could have stayed longer to see you run. But my son was getting very tired. Put some of the numbers up from your run like 60' ft and 1/8 mile time and mph. I was really suprised the track hooked as good as it did, I was expecting a lot worse!

here is my best run:

1.995 -- 60ft
8.743 -- 1/8 mile
79.23 -- 1/8 mph
13.682 -- 1/4
99.81 -- mph

On my last run I tried to go all out on the launch, but the tires would not hold, here is that run:

2.317 -- 60 ft
9.078 -- 1/8
79.06 -- mph
14.016 --1/4
100.25 -- mph

I think with some more tuning I can get it a little faster, the 02 was only reading in the low 700's, so I think it may be running a little lean. I have some 24# svo injectors I am going to put in to see if it helps, if not I can just take them back out. My fuel pressure was at 50 psi.


nick

 

Well looks like its time for Subframe and lca's heres my second run.

R/T 1.2 Yuk Guess it should be expected considering it was my first time

60ft -- 2.643
330 -- 6.445
1/8 -- 9.289
1/8 -- MPH? Wierd it isnt on my slip wonder why
1/4 -- ET 14.03

Really funny times for a tpi 383 that is suposed to make all of its power down low. I probobly just wasnt experienced enough. what tires are you running man? I think I remember you saying Goodrich drag radials. My friends are all saying nittos but if your goodrich are working pretty good for you maybe ill just go with those. I still cant get over that vette

 

Stanton got snowed on at first, then after they cleaned up the track, it started to rain! Everyone got a 'rain check' but still, I ended up blowing my whole day to just stand around in the freezing cold. 32 to 34 degrees in Stanton, MI this afternoon. At least the Trans Am was up to the trip, though I really wonder if it's any faster with the change in the cam timing. I advanced it a few degrees to try to boost the bottom end.

 

It was a very nice day at milan, 40 deg and sunshine, I wish I could get rid of some of my low end power.

383

I would not even worry about reaction time for know, just concentrate on the car and your launch, making a mental note of everything you do. So you can compare between rounds.

I am running the BFG drag radials and I was very happy with them yesterday. With a green track and cold weather they hooked very well. Everyone I have heard from says the nitto's last longer, but I do not drive very many miles so I am not concerned about it.

With any amount of hook you could run low 13's easy, let me know when you are going to go out to the track again. I think I will try to go out again in about a month, they have a friday night street race that is usually a good time.

nick

 

Well i was so upset about it today I tore off my whole intake and Did the "madmax" thing. I just went off with the grinder. Have you have seen the tests with grinding down the intake manifold. I decided to try it and just started grinding away. I got it all tore apart and made it about 1 1/2 Inches down today And ill probobly take out another 1 1/2 tommorow. Im just trying to trade off a bit of Tq for a bit of hp. Also I ordered LCA relocation brackets today so i can pray for a bit more traction next time. Also im thinking of picking up some rims at the junk yard and throwing some bfg drags on them just for the track. And im switching to the arap bin to see if if there is any gain to be made there. I just changed my sig how do you like it? BTW do you have any new plans to drop that e/t besides the injectors?

 

Yeah I like the sig., the only thing I have planned after the injectors is to start burning proms for it. But I have not gotten anything around for that yet, i have just been too busy.I really think with some tuning it should go low 13's, hopefully!


nick

Have you looked into the adjustable torque arms? I seem to remember a test of those helping out quite a bit. I too need to start making some suspension mods, I would like a 1.8 60'.

 

I thought about porting my intake madmax style when I had mine apart, but I could not find any information from any one that had realized any real gains from it. So I will be very interested to see some results on your car. It sure makes a lot of sense, also I might add the SLP runners to my car this summer.

nick

 

1.8 I wish with that kind of launch i dont think that 12's would be too far away for me. we'll see what happens with the porting and I figure hey if it doesn't work then ill be forced to go out and get the lt1 intake LOL. I was also thinking about grinding off the walls in the plenum and grinding down the runners just a little bit but doing all of this at once sound pretty scary!! but could hold some nice solid gains for me. Man I was looking down at my motor today and now im just thinking about tearing the whole thing out and dropping a diff cam in. My car just idles way too well with my new chip. Its the summit tpi cam i got a good deal on it but man it is just too mild. Did you pull your motor or just pull the radiator for your cam swap? I have heared of people just pulling everything out from in front of the car but im not sure if that includes the front clip if so it would probobly be easier to pull the motor right now.

 

it is very easy to swap the cam with the engine in the car, I had a blown head gasket. So I just had to pull the radiator and the center support and pop the cam in. I had thought about just pulling the engine, but I am glad I just left it in, it was a lot easier.
And if you need a hand on it just let me know, I will come down and help.

If you got some good gains from the madmax porting, I would pull my manifold when I put those injectors in. Since I have to pull everything but the lower manifold anyway. I was really hoping to lose some low end power with the cam I chose and runnign no exhaust. but if anything it has more.

nick

 

Well Here it is my new cam. What do ya think

Compu cam CCA-12-268-4

* Advertised duration: 268 intake/280 exhaust
* Duration at .050 in. cam lift: 224 intake/230 exhaust
* Gross valve lift: .479 in. intake/.480 in. exhaust
* Lobe separation: 114 degrees
* RPM range: 1,800 to 5,800

 

I think that 383 is going to gobble up that duration and purr like a baby at idle.


--Dan

BTW, I am not much of a fan of the "Madmax" plenum gutting project. You cannot simply assume that torque will move up the RPM band. You are essentially de-tuning the TPI, nor retuning it. The Hemholtz theorem, which is what the concept of tuned passages is based upon, assumes that your passages stay separate and then open up into a common plenum. Once you deviate from this design, you blow the theorem up into hoards of non-linear variables. What you end up with in terms of peak torque is a crapshoot that can only be answered on a dyno.

 

Glad you like the cam. If the porting thing doesn't workout then it just gives me an excuse to go buy a lt1 intake. Maybe we could throw that on at the modfest.

 

Glad you decided to put a cam in that thing, I have never picked a cam for a nitrous application, but the lift seems kinda low on that one. Are you going to be running 1.6 RR?

nick

 

Yep going with the 1.6 which i believe should bring me a bit over .500 lift on both sides. Any tips on the Install? I have never done springs either before how hard are they? I have heard the rope trick and the aircompressor trick. The air compressor sounds better. I should probobly see what my chiltons says

 

Heh. Little do they know: I INVENTED the rope trick and unveiled it to the internet world in 1994!

So, you are going to set up your own springs, eh? Well, the trick is to get yourself a set of plastic calipers from the hardware store, and a steel scale (ruler). You need to remove the spring, then reinstall the retainer and the keepers.

Measure the retainer to valve stem seal distance. Subtract .025" to get your max lift before valve stem interference.

Now, pull up on the valve and measure the distance from the bottom of the valvespring pocket to the bottom of the retainer. This will be your installed height. Whatever is recommended for the springs as the installed height is the distance you are shooting for. Buy yourself a bag of assorted thickness valvespring shims, and stack the appropriate number onto the pocket. Now, re-measure. It shouls stack to the installed height.

Install the valvespring, and once again, remeasure the installed height. It's a little hard, so use the steel scale if necessary. Put a piece of tape on the scale representing the installed height that you get from the plastic calipers.

Is that clear enough?

--Cheers,
Daniel Burk

 

Got the old cam out tonight. Boy that was easy!! Everybody tod me it was a huge job but I think I could of had it out in 4 hrs if i didnt drink so much beer while i was doing it. HEH NO busted knuckles either If you cant tell im in a pretty good mood right now. Now the harder part. Operation "Put back together" Oh yea the lifters show no wear what so ever so im definetly going to reuse them.

woops this is 383GTABoy im just on my bros computer

 

Ok now the problems start I got the cam in and lined the dot up with the zero and now the motor wont turn all the way around its like the cam is running into something. Any Ideas? this really sux. I took it back apart and turned it to #1 TDC and reinstalled it so the cam sprocket dot was straight up and turned it and it ran into something again. Im all out of ideas. All the lifters are out so its not like im hitting the valves. What do i do?

 

You've got a stroker application so perhaps you are making contact with the rod bolts. Pull out the cam, shine a flashlight through the cam bearing, and rotate the engine through one revolution. See anything?

Best of luck,

Dan

 

Whats up? How is cam swap going, did you get it figured out this weekend?

nick

 

No I think its hitting the rods guess im going to have to order a small base cam but im going to have my builder come take a look tomorrow to get his opinion.

 

Ordered my new cam today again. Its a small base cam special grind but all i changes was the lobe seperation to 112. I left the lift alone because i figured my 1.6 rockers add about .03 to the lift already. New cam costed me $188 damn it oh well i can trade my old cam back in to summit towards some new shocks

 

Dont say old! Old means "used"! You are trading in the "other" new cam

Hey, $188 is pretty good. Is that a flat-tappet hydraulic for that price??

 

flat-tappet hydraulic