L67 F-bird

[bison]

Looks similar to a 26120 valve spring. I've ran those in the past and never had a failure.


BPE2013@hotmail.com

 

[KrisW]

Seems like your Buick rejected the "designed for Chevy" parts...

Even though lots of the LS stuff was engineered from 3800 technology, I guess its not all backwards compatible, or maybe you just got a bad one. Stuff happens.

Maybe older Buick Turbo parts are a better fit? Let us know what you use. I am still messing with my older rear drive Buick stuff, and haven't made the jump to using 3800 parts on the road...yet.

 

[MNcarbturbo]

Just got a bad spring.

Got new LS6's. head studs, and gaskets going in. S1x cam just tapped the valve seals so my machine shop is going to cut a bit off the stem and move the seal out. I think the tolerances stacked up and just maxed the travel out. Its a .526 lift and rumored to max movement out at .530ish.

Hopefully the fed-up truck drops my parts off tomorrow and the machine shop gets the stems cut a bit.

 

[jdredd]

S1X cam was originally sold as stock valve train safe.. but I found out that it wasn't. All my exhaust valves seals where crushed.

I got it not long after they came out and reported it... they were to change the wording on the site to mention the possibly issue.

 

[MNcarbturbo]

Yep, my machinist measured them and the heads maxed out at .510. .526 will definitly cause killed seals. I just checked and intense still advertises it as stock head safe.

But speaking of, I love my machinist (in a business way, haha). Got him the pass head tuesday to look at the valve to make sure it was still straight. He saw the seals were beat up all across and wanted to see the drivers head. Got it to him wednesday after work, springs showed up Thursday and got them to him after work. Dropped the valve seals off today after work and he was working on them. Said they will be ready Saturday morning. 3 day turnaround with all his other projects he has laying around and being one guy, couldnt be happier. Ill probably only get like a $100 bill for a complete disasemble, knock the seal down and re assemble.

Heads should go on sunday. Just waiting on my blower gasket and I need to run to the gm dealer and get more blower oil since my rotors have to get swapped. All the teflon flaked off the rotors.

 

[MNcarbturbo]

Cars back up and running, just in time for college beater duty! Haha! Wont be winter bombing it this winter since I picked up an LS rainier and undid what the deer did to the nose. So instead of driving an entirely too low car with studded snow tires im driving a 300hp AWD black buick. Probably be a lot better.

 

[liquidh8]

Just seeing this thread, nice work. Any more progress on it?

 

[MNcarbturbo]

Nothing besides its been working well. I was going to get the walbro 255 i have laying around in and switch to e85 with a 2.8" pulley and run it at the track but I'm out of town working all summer so that's not happening until august. Basically was just a reliable daily.

 

[liquidh8]

That's an accomplishment though isn't it, having a "reliable" daily.

 

[MNcarbturbo]

Knocking down over 20MPG, starting every day, with cold AC isnt anything to complain about. I also switched the steel 2 piece driveshaft out with an aluminum 1 piece. Dropped like 40lbs out probably.

Its funny, I kinda consider it a "rough" car since the chassis is starting to rust and the interior had a lot of smoke smell when I bought it. Paint on the nose doesnt really match the doors back, and the suspension was lowered (i think) at some point and is punishing on rough roads.

But wouldnt you know I get compliments about it often.

I almost bought a decent 76 astre to put the drivetrain into. Had like sub 60K miles if i remember right and was affordable. Problem was the rear control arm mounts were rusted and it would have had to been a big repair project.

Picked up a $200 6.0 and traded a G body front suspension for a 5.3. Also picked up a GT500 m122 blower. Next project is a blown 6.0 swapped C4 probably. Backed by either a zf6, t56, or rebuild the 200r4 i have laying around.

I sometimes look at my pictures of the astre and wonder what could have been. Then I look at my bank account and feel a bit better.

 

[MNcarbturbo]

Put 800 miles on the car this weekend and it worked great. Put 10 hours on the car Sunday and it was real nice. Comfortable, AC worked good, quite a bit more tame in the sound department.

Car's loud noise really started to bug me. I rarely went over 2 hours in the car at a time. Last fall I took it on a 6 hour round trip at interstate speeds and had a headache after the trip. The car droned so bad at 70-75 MPH. It was quieter going 80. When the car was on stock cam and manifolds it wasn't too bad but the headers really made it worse. I ended up buying a 3" vibrant resonator and putting it on right after the muffler.

Turns out it cut out all the rasp and really quieted it down during interstate speeds. Only thing the car needs now is some new front struts. The thing rides like (actually worse) than a covered wagon on bumps. Its got all of maybe an inch of suspension travel in the front. Previous owner lowered the car I think and that just compounds the problem.

 

[Brad Zeidler]

Is that Astre still around?

 

[MNcarbturbo]

Had a walbro 255 laying around and the car had the stock pump in that couldnt keep up so I cut a hole.

And filled it!


Keeps 45 PSI great now! Fuel level sendor reads full all the time.

I have been running a 3.4" pulley with 6PSI on 87 for the last year with no KR.

Got a 2.8" pulley and took for a quick drive. Hits 10PSI super fast but I dont have the octane for the boost. Getting 2-3 degrees of KR on light roll in. Going to run the 87 out and splash in some E50, add timing and take it to the track. Turns out I can run 7-8 PSI on 87 with no KR so its a great street tune car, runs 13's on cheap gas!

 

[usetaboost]

you don't have premium fuel?

 

[MNcarbturbo]

For like $1.50 more a gallon, yeah. I remember when 87 was base, 89 was 10 cents more, 91 was 20 cents more. Now its like 87 is the base, 89 is 10-30 cents more, and 91 is dependent on how many daughters the gas station owner needs to put through college.

So E50 it is. Ive already got the pump and injector so its a no brainer.

 

[usetaboost]

Yeah, premium is about a dollar more. So glad my 455 car doesn't have to run on it. That thing will be running on cheapest gas it can.

 

[charlief1]

That thing will be running on cheapest gas it can.

You mean you're going to fart in the tank Jesse? I'm surprised you guys haven't invested in a still to run the car on. You are in porn...ur...um...corn country after all.

 

[usetaboost]

Not worth running e85 in the current setup. My we4 may see a change next fall if we get a track.

 

[MNcarbturbo]

E50 was $2.19! Much better than the $3.70 or whatever 91 is.

Ran the tank out all of the 87 and swapped to E50 today. Tune needs work but it makes 12PSI on 15 degrees timing with no knock. Going to dial in the AFR and throw another 5 degrees into it hopefully. Picked up about 90 ftlbs according to hptuners going from 6 to 12 PSI. Seems a bit optimistic. According to my rough calcs it picked up 40 HP also. Moving like 45lbs/min of air where it was moving 40 before. (using questionably calibrated sensors with a data sampling rate equal to an arthritic man with a pen and paper).

If I can run a 12.99 and be okay with throwing the studded snows on it in the winter and ramming it through snow drifts this winter I'll be happy!

Thats a huge bitch! Full interior, exhaust, iron head and block, and AC add up!

 

[MNcarbturbo]

Ran a 13.26 at 101 with a 1.75 60ft today. It was like 80-85 out with a pretty high dew point. By the time I got the tire pressure set in my DR's and got the launch set good the coolant was 210 degrees, IAT's were 110 so there was nothing really to be gained. I was flowing about 5 lb/min on the MAF less and made 2 PSI less than last week when it was 60 out and I was testing it. The heat killed it. I also was not getting the timing commanded by the ECM. ECM commands 10 degrees in the spark table and it was getting 15 at WOT. I bumped the timing up to 18 and it still recorded 15. I gotta see if theres a table screwed up or something or someway to get the timing bumped up to 20 degrees. Just adjusting the high octane table isnt doing it.

Last race is early october so hopefully I can show up with more timing and better weather not heat soaked and shoot for my 12.99.