Project "independence day"IRS and 3500 swap

[Driver_10]

Anyway, back to the story...

There was a third roommate that I forgot to mention. He was a guy named Ron whom I helped to get a job and helped him to move in. The big money had dried up for a short time being after his move in (AKA I helped to pay for him to move because Im a good guy), so I focused on and I started working on the smaller details. I began modifications to my M.S.II stand-alone as well as the supplementary electronics.

This MS board has been modified for on-board boost control, E85 control via fuel sensor input, launch control, flat-shift and boost anti-lag.


I also ordered and assembled 2, 4-channel, "peak-hold" injector driver boards to allow me to use low resistance injectors. The motor will use 75lb injectors, so tight fuel control is an absolute.











I also completed the distribution box to help reduce the underhood wiring. It connects by a single harness. Real slick!



With the money crisis receding, I was ready to locate a few more items for the build. There was a swap-meet coming to town so I decided to save a nice lump of cash and search for gold. On a bit of luck, I came across a vendor selling classic car AC retrofit kits and took a chance on a buying a KIT for $400 that looked promising. I also came across a couple of nice Kirkey racing seats and jewed the guy down to taking $100 for the pair.



Heres the AC being test fitted it under the dash. The three vents obove are defrost and the two hoses are the face vents. It comes with a foot-warmer too.
It fit completely flush to the cowl. Total luck of the draw.

It comes with electronic mixer doors, electronic water valve and a basic TXV valve all built into one unit!





Fabbed up some brackets to give AC unit sturdy mounting on the firewall and ensure good clearance for the ducting.







continued below...

[Driver_10]

The dana 44 was secured, and I spent some time handling some other parts of the projects. Early last year, the 3500 engine block, rotating assemble, aluminum flywheel and "stock" balancer was sent off to the machine shop for additional work and final balance.







I got a bit carried away with prepping the crank for the shop and they had to weld extra material to the counterweight for a proper balance. It was cheaper than using mallory inserts.





The forged steel crank had 2.250 crank-pins from the factory (about the same size as 4.3l rods) and were turned down to 1.99 to accommodate the modified Eagle "327" h-beam rods. orange paint that you see on the block in the cam valley is actually an oil-sheering coating that will aid in fast oil-return. (should have bought a dremel and removed more of the casting flash though)

[Driver_10]

Ive had this post up at FTV6 for a bit now. Sorry for taking so long to share it over here.

I set out with the goal of creating a track built yet street legal turbo v6 F-body. I had seen some builds on FRRAX.com that had me stunned. Seeing what was possible, I first set myself about the goal of making a shop that would enable me to build such a machine.

The first mission was to find a suitable house with a garage... (OR just move into a garage) and to start hording tools. I completely halted all work on the car and pulled my money together. I got a good tax return and started out by buying a Plasma torch, a Miller TIG and a decent Hobart MIG machine. I then started making plans to move to a new house.

A full year passed and I got in touch with my old roommate from college and we decided to take on the mission together since he too wanted to ressurect his car. I luckily stumbled across a house in the suburbs with a detatched 2 car garage, but the HOA were a bunch of Nazi's so still the project waited. In the meantime I managed to slowly keep gathering tools. (this was around the time that I got in shape for anyone who remembers)

After a 1 year wait with no progress on the car and I was fed up. The HOA sucked ass here as well and I was scared of getting my garage broken into, so I made the next move.

By the blessings of God, I finally found the perfect home. It sat on a one acre lot with no neighbors and a detatched 3-car garage for 1400pr/month.



I made the move and soon began setting up shop. By this time, what started out as few welding machines had grown into a formitable work-shop. I had metal brakes, sheers, rollers, bead roller, cutters, slicers and dicers. I also 3-phase electrical system in the garage with over 100 amps to run everything.

and it soon became quite messy too!




The stage was now set. With a new, fully functioning shop, tools and materials at my disposal, I made my plans and began work. The first big change I decided to make was to the suspension. The old K-members were "drag-race" PA k-members. They were not up to the task of my new "track handling" build so they were replaced with a set of LS1 style, "road-race" reinforced BMR K's. I figured if I killed this next V6. I was going to use an LS1 the next time around anyway, so it was the logical step.





The tubular lower a-arms had become a bit weathered and had suffered some mild bending at the shock-perches. After a bit of welding and reinforcement work I sand-blasted and re-coated them for longevity.











With the front end assembled and somewhat happy, I went after the task of implementing the most fundamental change to the car.

The Moser 12-bolt that I had put in the car prior was too heavy for my new "handling" build ideology, so I pulled it out and sold it to my roommate to buy this instead...



I managed to snag a C4 dana 44 IRS with 3.54 gears and a pristine limited slip diff. It was perfect.