Rebuilding Dad's Panoz; LS1 swap

[NZGTRA17]

Originally Posted by Cobra4B

It has Liberty's synchro package and the optional .82 5th gear. QuickTime has a good reputation and for the price of that bellhousing I sure hope it's square and oriented correctly. Any tips on how to measure this stuff? Are you looking for flatness of the rear of the bellhousing, or parallelism between the engine face and rear of the housing, or both? How do you go about checking to verify everything is centered up perfectly?

Brian, with engine on floor on blocks;

1. Fit and torque flywheel and bellhousing,
2. Use magnetic based DTI and attach to flywheel inner circumference,
3. Set up DTI so that it is reaching back out through trans mounting hole in bellhousing onto trans mount face,
4. Zero DTI and then rotate engine 90 degs to check parallelism of back face of bellhousing to back face of block, repeat until you have readings every 90 degs (min), you should have prefereably only around .002" out and less than .005" max,
5. Set up DTI so that you can run it around the inside diameter of the trans location hole in the bellhousing, zero DTI,
6. Again rotate engine and get readings every 90 degs to check concentricity with crank centerline, same limits.

If you are outside .005", parallelism can be adjusted by shimming or machining. Concentricity with offset dowel pins or remachining dowel holes.

To give you an idea, my Ford Racing bellhousing is within .002" in parallelism and just inside .005" cocentricity. I check this everytime I have the engine out of the car prior to fitting the trans as it is really critical with likes of tripple plate clutches.

Hope that helps, Kel.

[Cobra4B]

Makes complete sense... looks like I have a new tool to buy I found a pretty good write-up online as well.

[Cobra4B]

Started learning how to weld... filling up all the holes in the thing. Using a Hobart 187 mig borrowed from a buddy. Hope to have it all ready for powdercoat in the next couple of weeks.

[Cobra4B]

Been doing lots of welding getting it ready for powdercoat. Lots of old rivet holes... about 2/3rds done. Plus more parts have come in.



Fortes plugs for the speedometer sensors. The driver's side is the mechanical gauge port and the passenger side is for electronic (If you haven't figured it out... not running a speedometer).



Powermaster 1-wire mini racing alternator with mount kit for a Ford 9"... still have to work on pulley alignment.


Kevko trap-door road race pan

[Cobra4B]

Replaced the LS1 springs with GMPP LS6/2/3 springs and installed Smith Brothers restricted flow pushrods... shiny new stuff...

[eric1h]

Looking good! Get those motor mounts yet?

[Cobra4B]

Yup... also ordered some Prothane 4.6 mounts as well. I'll have to move them about 1" forward relative to the "standard" spot they go in on the LS1 block to make it all work using the stock trans mount location. Your chassis has the engine mount pedestals farther back than mine... yours are just behind the lower square tube cross-bar thing vs. ours that come directly up off of it.

[Cobra4B]

Took a break from welding and got a fair amount done on the engine. Time to take a break and tear into the Z06 to replace the cam/lifters in prep for October's VIR event.

Horsefly that flew into one of the oil returns in the head when doing the springs. Found dead on top of the windage tray.


Later LS1 blocks are apparently drilled for LS2 chain dampers. Amazingly the local Chevy dealer had one in stock so I could move forward putting stuff back together.


Custom pickup that comes with the new pan hooked up to a LS4 high volume oil pump.


Kevko pan installed.


Timing cover and ATI damper hub installed.


Hub pinned.


Water pump heater core/pressure tank ports threaded and plugged.


Drilled and tapped the Edelbrock valley cover for another crankcase vent port (comes with a boss for doing this). Still have to get a 1/4 NPT to 3/8 hose barb to thread into the elbow.


Starting to look like an engine again.

[Cobra4B]

Dug into my Z06 to deal with the failed lifters and found out just how much metal went through the motor. Pulled the motor for rebuild and am now back to work on the Panoz.





Katech manual tensioner added. Not much to the front end of the motor.... KISS


Coilpacks bolted up and C5 shorty header being test fit.


New 22 gallon ATL cell

[NZGTRA17]

Originally Posted by Cobra4B

Dug into my Z06 to deal with the failed lifters and found out just how much metal went through the motor. Pulled the motor for rebuild and am now back to work on the Panoz.

Brian, what did the cam lobes look like? Seen lots of LS engines over here with cam/lifter issues where the cam lobe hardening wears off and rapid wear occurs.

I treat lifters and springs as the 2 shortest life components in the engine. Approx 15 - 25 hours for solid roller lifters (25+ if they are pressure oiled roller pin style) and around 10 - 15 hours for valve springs (check these with a Moroso spring tester after race during lashing).

Kel.

[Cobra4B]

Originally Posted by NZGTRA17

Brian, what did the cam lobes look like? Seen lots of LS engines over here with cam/lifter issues where the cam lobe hardening wears off and rapid wear occurs.

I treat lifters and springs as the 2 shortest life components in the engine. Approx 15 - 25 hours for solid roller lifters (25+ if they are pressure oiled roller pin style) and around 10 - 15 hours for valve springs (check these with a Moroso spring tester after race during lashing).

Kel.

The #7 exhaust lobe was chewed up pretty bad, but the intake lobe wasn't bad at all. "Funny" thing is that I had new lifters waiting to go in it this off-season along with another fresh set of springs and another new timing chain. It's a pretty large job (heads have to come off) to swap lifters on a LSX so I didn't do it in 2010 when I initially prepped the car. Engine looked great overall other than the lifter debris going all over. Who knows how many more years I could have gotten out of her.

Cam


Bits of metal fused to the bottom 1/2 of the oil pan


Nicks on the crank from bits of lifter falling onto it at RPM. Now that I have the engine out and pan off I can see where the bottom of the two rear pisons have nicks in them too.

[Cobra4B]

The tedious hole filling and steet metal repair is done. Anything shiny is filled hole. Getting it back to a clean slate before powdercoat.

[Cobra4B]

Putting my broken LS6 to good use test fitting the engine/trans.


Need to fab mounts. Going make an adapter plate and use a Jeep CJ7 poly mount.



Removed the old riveted heat shielding from the trans tunnel and welded all the holes up.

[NZGTRA17]

Originally Posted by Cobra4B

Putting my broken LS6 to good use test fitting the engine/trans.


Need to fab mounts. Going make an adapter plate and use a Jeep CJ7 poly mount.



Removed the old riveted heat shielding from the trans tunnel and welded all the holes up.

Brian, if you are looking to save weight look, at replacing the tunnel with a folded aluminium one. I am looking at using dzus fasteners to hold the tunnel in place. As discussed if the trans gets stuck between gears with the tunnel dzus'ed in place it is a quick fix. Otherwise its and hour or so minimum.........

Kel.

[Cobra4B]

Originally Posted by NZGTRA17

Brian, if you are looking to save weight look, at replacing the tunnel with a folded aluminium one. I am looking at using dzus fasteners to hold the tunnel in place. As discussed if the trans gets stuck between gears with the tunnel dzus'ed in place it is a quick fix. Otherwise its and hour or so minimum.........

Kel.

Does anyone make the piece in aluminum? I don't have access to the tools needed to fabricate one and don't really want to pay someone local to do it. Not sure what holds your trans tunnel in place now, but this one is just four bolts. There are nut-serts in the chassis. The car won't have anything on the tunnel (no switch panel) so it will just be a matter of removing four bolts to pull it.