sluggy

Been collecting a few bits. Another radiator for the supercharger water/air intercooler, water pump and reservoir. Plus just chucking the acc drive on and getting a length on the blower belt... Waiting for trans. And to add a spanner into the works, looking for another warehouse for work, so this may have to wait until after the move to do the swap... Anyway, shiny bits photos

Ill be pulling out the Motor/Box late this month. Any interest please contact me, it is on retard me, I will do a better deal for someone from here. Selling the complete LS3 ecu Trans pedal package. Pretty much a straight bolt in if you have a small block chev based car/boat/van/truck/camper/plane/chainsaw. Have bought another box with fancy stuff in it that is good for 800hp/lotta torque, still a 6l80 but better. Photos to follow when I go dig out the new engine from hidey hole that missus doesnt know about... shhhh Its kinda a little bit tempting to overdrive the boost a bit to make the most of the gearbox. Im unsure as to how much the driveshaft/12 bolt will live with, so will probably leave it alone at this stage.

This thing is running sweet now. No good. This years plans are, just got a new windscreen washer, multi speed wiper motor (fast slow and delay) to modern it a bit. Need to get some bodywork, rust repair done and seal it up as it spends too much time uncovered. Last but not least, accidentally bought a crate lsa motor have acc drive and loom/ecu/tcm on the way. Will use existing box/diff. Should be another 100hp or so but mega more torque for sideways/circle work and 12s. So I'll be selling the ls3 with loom,ecu,tcm, pedal, power steering, alt, ac compressor... or buying a jetboat. I hate boats but I like fast. Also planning on getting back into the beetle this winter, need to get this at least running

@cletus Just a quick question, do you know of any IFS for trucks of my era (60 - 66) that have been previously used here and Oked / passed cert ? Just generally looking around. Obviously fatman stuff is out, I was looking at jim meyer racing - http://www.jimmeyerracing.com/products/ifs_55-62_chevy_truck_heavy_duty_weld_in.shtml - probably wont do anything but just interested... vaguely

Ill second that, I love the deloomed engine bay, and the airbox set up is just so mint...

Front roll bar in, rear to do. Wicked cornering coming up.

4000ks on it over the last 4 months. Box just works. I have been mucking around with shift speeds and getting rid of low speed torque converter lock up, gm do this to save gas but makes it feel sluggish at low speed. Still needs a bit of tooling round.

Finally got round to making sure the tune was ok in the pig. Done 4000 ks in it so far hassle free, touch wood, did a bolt check and threw a bit of grease around. Made 353 hp at the rears (263.6 kw). Need to get the filter out of the engine bay, apart from sorting out some spark tables, it was knocking and reverting to low octane fuel tables because of inlet air temps. So theres 15 free (ish) hp available just by using a holesaw and a bit of panel steel... I havent got the tutd working as yet, wired up, but in the comadore it runs through the bcm (body control module) which I dont have in the chev, So I need to keep playing with that to get it working. Also discussed superchargers with the dyno operator. We both think its a great idea.

Maiden Voyage was - Auckland, New Plymouth, Wanganui, Palmy, Kapiti, Wellington, Upper Hutt, Masterton, Hastings, Napier, Taupo, Auckland. Went sweet apart from a wee drip from the gas tank, tried to tighten the offending cap and sheared it off in a rest stop, managed to bung up the hole and repair properly in another rest stop. Did some 0 - 60 times and 1/8 mile stuff on the OBD app thing. 4.9 second 0-60 and the 1/8th mile time translated to about a 13.9 second 1/4 (was 130 ish at 1/8 so pulled the pin), so pretty rapid for a 2.5 tonne pig, and 11.5l/100ks on the trip, with some looseness thrown in along the way. Been looking at Magnuson supercharger set ups...

It felt like an adventure, its been a long time since I have done miles in an old car and I really loved it. Bench seat cornering, no anti roll bars, no grab handles, the fear of a door springing open at every turn..... god I have missed you all.

Drove it to Russell a couple of days ago, not that it really matters, but 13.75l per 100kms. Im pretty happy with that number... zero break downs or issues. Big Tick from me !

I have put the retro sound head unit in it so it looks old school, it is bluetooth and phone sorted, Im just really over the wiring on this thing now....

I now have a working electric handbrake, aircon that blows cold - had to do a bit of a rewire of the fan... a gas gauge that reads right, and Ive worked out the WOT dead zone issue with the thing. Also resealed all the doors / windows / rattle free !! Washed original blanket and reinstalled. The WOT bit is due to a stupid gas tank that has a pick up at the front and no tube internally to the rear of the tank, so I will make up an adaptor fitting and see if that works, or do some kind of surge tank set up to alleviate the issue for ever. To do list is little - Rear deck (full day job Im thinking), sort out fuel issue... The End. Also need to install speakers on stereo and probably alarm it. Anyone on here do this ? Im seriously unmotivated towards the stereo. And the speedo stopped working just after the gas gauge started working. Its a sign I think.

Couple more photos of engine bay and interior.

And we are rolling, needs to go upwards 1/2” in the front (joys of torsion bars) and an alignment, stereo, handbrake and work out why the fan isnt flicking on. Wheels feel good, power steering way to light so have a shim kit on the way to sort this. Merry Christmas to me. Hoping Santa installs rear tray and the bajillion nuts and bolts that hold it down.

Exhaust sorted, brakes need some love, bit more wiring, electric handbrake sort out, door seals and stereo and probably more.. hopefully get wheels back soon...

Drove it tonight, exhaust tomorrow. driving there with open headers and excessive traction issues. borrowed wheels...

Yeah I was thinking that, 24 kgs a rim plus tyres.... Will see how it rolls, I have found someone to redrill them thanks to Stu, so will see how it works out !! No deafening exhaust here though. Im going for quiet as a mouse status.

Monumental Fuck Up 101 - when ordering wheels, make sure PCD is correct... I screwed the pooch on this one, and now have a set of steel wheels that are 5 / 4.75 (and 5/4.5) instead of 5 / 5.00". These are std chev passenger fitment, detroit steel wheels, 20x8 and 20 x 9. 1/4" of doom... So options are find someone to sort this for me, or sell them and regroup.... Any suggestions welcome. Im pretty confident there is enough meat to weld / redrill - just finding the right person to do it. Pic is of the front of wheel, dimpled stud holes are the 4.75" ones.

It Lives ! After a week of thinking and fucking around with wires, it starts. VATS hadnt been turned off in the ecu, so no sparky and no fuel. have a problem with the pedal not moving the throttle body, and TPS errors, will try another throttle body next week and see if that solves it, its a drive by wire deal. Wheels arrive in the country monday, working on timber decking in the tray this weekend. Spindle swap and disc brakes are on the front end. Used CPP C20 to C10 conversion spindles so was an easy swap. To do - radiator and hoses, power steering, re attach front end properly, tray and the back end, wheels, rear brakes, handbrake (keep forgetting to do something about this), exhaust... Maf sensor wasnt in front of throttle body hence death.

Seat is sorted !! Big thanks to Midnight Upholstery, awesome work !! Been trying to start it, radiator is in, condensor for air con and the tranny fluid cooler. Had to strip and clean starter solenoid, turns over but no bang bang. Experiencing voltage drop killing ecu and fuel pump during cranking, will sort next week with help from Stu the electrical guru. To be fair the wiring has gotten a bit gnarly, loom, then ecu, then air con, cruise control, tranny shifter etc etc... not happy with my work... This weekend I will finish off brake lines, change front spindles and get discs on the front end. Got some closed foam underlay to whack over the top of the dynamat and carpet on the way.... closing in on it !!

Dynamat or one of its variants would be great on the floor of a car I used to draw as a 3 year old. Basically a shoebox. 1) wear gloves (i got a bazillion little cuts on the end of my fingers because tough guy) 2) get a decent roller - the long socket I used was cheap but tough work. 3) pay some other dweeb to do it. I have some closed cell foam coming to go over this then carpet. Hopefully is quiet like a tiger.

been "smashing" wiring. I hate it with a passion... ECU all done, front end all rewired, motor sorted, speedo digi to analog thing done... still to finish off the a/c, cruise control, shifter stuff, and the rear end - fuel pump, lights etc... Room is an issue under the dash... I went a bit loose with the shifter, its a pcs electronic deal. Still have no idea on where to mount it, was thinking of an art deco style goose neck attached to the dash, space odyssey kinda deal. Dog looks on with interest

Been a good week, cleaned up the floor on the interior, painted it, dynamat (hate you). Then did final install on the engine, inlet manifold and wiring and the up high alt, and ac compressor brackets, just waiting on the power steering pump. My boy cleaned up the interior panels on the front end and resprayed them, and the front end is sitting back where it needs to be.... AC is halfway done, wiring is started, fuel lines 90%. Power on for the next three days and hopefully have most electrical stuff and some other rats and mice done.