Since we are not running AC this year, I cut the AC lines short up against the fire wall, plugged them and reinstalled them. This will keep debris and contaminants from getting into the evaporator.
Then we unboxed and test fit the new manual steering rack.
It fits really well with no problems. I was actually surprised when I opened the box. The rack, tie rods, boots and everything comes completely assembled and lubed. All you have to do is bolt it in and set the toe.
Yesterday we did a "Test Fit" of the engine in the engine bay. There is still a small list of tasks that need to be accomplished before we can bolt it in permanently. This is just to see if there are any major fitment problems.
As always, getting the front of the car high enough to slide the engine under it is a little dangerous. This time we used a 4x4 to span the frame rails right in front of the jack stands. The 4x4 was plenty strong enough. The only real threat is when you get the jack up near the top of it's travel, the car is at a steep upward angle and the 4x4 wants to "Roll" out to the front.
We did run into one serious problem that kept us from bolting it in. The V8 adapter kit comes with spacers to go between the cross member and the frame rail. It also comes with longer bolts to thread into the frame rail. The bolts that came with my kit are the right length, but the wrong thread!
So the engine is back out again. This week we should be able to get new bolts, finish up the engine bay prep, get the flywheel and clutch permanently mounted and get the bell housing and throw out bearing mounted.
Most of these are now complete. One item that I didn't even think about was engine to bellhousing dowel pins. This engine didn't have any. Luckily I remembered that they should be on there and ordered a set from Summit.
So, now we are at a near stand still. Renegade Hybrids is working with me to figure this out. So far we have determined that the clutch and bellhousing are correct.
The crank face that the flywheel bolts to on this engine is not flush and sticks out about 5/16" from the back of the block. The current thinking is that we can compensate for this with a flywheel with the correct offset.
That would be the easy solution Paul. Has anyone explained why this is happening? I assume you will have the flywheel machined to fit over the protrusion.....will this weaken the flywheel?
That would be the easy solution Paul. Has anyone explained why this is happening? I assume you will have the flywheel machined to fit over the protrusion.....will this weaken the flywheel?
Kevin
Milling close to half an inch out of the flywheel is not a good way to fix this, it will make the flywheel very thin. Finding the correct offset flywheel has been difficult because all of the teck support people I have talked to don't even know that there are different offsets.
The reason this is happening is the rear block face to the crank face distance has changed over the years. The original Renegade Hybrids kit was designed to work with the 2000 to 2004 LS1 engine. On the LS1 the rear block face to crank face is 0.00". On my 6.0 engine it is .3125".
This problem is partly my fault because I didn't buy the flywheel that comes with the Renegade Hybrids kit. So, the most likely cause is that the flywheel I have has somewhere between .312" and .460" to much rearward offset.
That led to emailing pictures and measurments back and forth and we are still trying to figure it out.
Renegade Hybrids wanted to know how I was doing my measurements so I decided to do a video of the process. They will get back at it on Monday morning. I am very confident that they will figure this out and we will move forward soon.
Here are the measurements made in the video.
I was going to say create a shim for the bell housing but I recall the pilot bushing was a little short before this event.....Hope you don't have to take the crank out and have the end machined back.....
Hope you don't have to take the crank out and have the end machined back.....
That right there was my biggest fear!
Not to worry, we will get it figured out this week. Most likely it will just be a matter of figuring out what flywheel to get and returning this flywheel.
The guys at Renegade Hybrids figured out the problem. After going over my measurements and their measurements on a mock up engine, they determined that the pressure plate is the problem.
They contacted their clutch vendor and found out that they had recently improved the clamping force of the clutch. This redesign makes the pressure plate a little bigger. Great for everyone else, not so good for anyone using a Corvette bellhousing.
They are sending me an upgraded clutch from their other vendor at no charge. It will likely take a week or so to get here. The cat had to inspect it to be sure it wasn't my fault!
In the mean time we will be working on the more mundane parts of the project. Shocks, struts, swaybars, brake pads and turn signal switch all need a little love.
Then we ran into a little problem. The new torsion bars are a LOT stiffer than the originals. Right now we don't have enough weight in the car to compress the suspension enough to get the bottom bolt in.
The temporary solution is to use the rear suspension ride height adjustment to get the bolt to line up. This worked but then we ran into the same problem when we tried to adjust the ride height back to normal. It literally lifts the car up off 2 jack-stands (front and rear). Pretty dangerous stuff!
Many months ago now we had a need to start this engine to verify that it was good before the warranty ran out. The original wiring, E38 computer and throttle by wire set up made doing a first start in the time we needed impossible.
At that time we decided to go with a carburetor and MSD ignition controller. The intent was to do a first start, install the engine and get it running in the car to sort the car out before converting to injection later on.
Well I thought that "later on" would be a month or so, but now it's been 6 months! In the mean time I was still searching for a reasonably priced (CHEAP) fuel injection solution. So before I ever even get to drive the car I found the newly discontinued (and CHEAP) MSD Atomic EFI.
This system is super easy to install and set up in any older car. This system is discontinued but still supported by MSD and, at this time, you can still find vendors that have them sitting on the shelf at deep discounts.
Here are some pics of my mock up. I wanted to verify that everything connects as it should. It looks pretty good!
There are a few problems. This kit is actually for an LS7 which has a slightly different intake manifold. The brackets that hold the fuel rails on are therefore different. I'm going to call MSD to see if I can still get the correct brackets. If not, we will make something.
The only other thing I found was the alternator connector is different. Not a big deal, it's just 1 wire so I will use the existing connector. Also the oil pressure sender connector is different, I think you might not need it though.
Looks like a slick setup. Why did they discontinue it?
It probably just reached the end of it's marketing life cycle. They came out with this in 2012. Also, MSD is now owned by Holley, and Holley has their own EFI systems to sell you.
The Atomic EFI was originally designed as a conversion with a 4 barrel throttle body so it could bolt right onto any square bore intake manifold. I would imagine that is more popular with hot rodders than the port injection system like this one. It was also a lot cheaper than the port injection.
