Project: LS1 Chevette

[Diamond Dave]

I hear ya, I work at a good speed as well. No point in jerkin it when ya got shizz to do.

My hands show the results as well.

[Halgar]

No point in jerkin it when ya got shizz to do.

My hands show the results as well.

There is so much wrong with this post . . .

[Diamond Dave]

That is funny as heck! Did not realize it was going to "sound" that way. Sure didn't when I was typing it.

Leave it to Halgar to point that out... Thanks man. The hands get beat up when turning wrenches.

Never sliced the noggin like that though.

[romulus22]

Nothing fancy. Just went for a drive and realized I was the only one on the road so I stopped for a quickie. Didn't realize the road was going to get choppy or I would've stayed in it a little longer. And I've got a loose wire somewhere for my brakes. I was feathering the brakes the whole way but they were not working very well apparently.

And it seems I might need someone to check out my trans. It holds out first too long.

[R Cane]

Now that's what a Chevette is SUPPOSED to sound like!

[DaveM]

Sweet!

I had to watch it several times.

[RC10th]

Looking good, wheel hop issues are gone.

What type of diff did you go with, truetrac, posi, locker or spool ?

[romulus22]

I can't really say I'm impressed with the sound right now. It's not bad it's just not good either. After a new cam and some heads that raise the compression it might sound good to me.

It has a spool in the rear. Simple, strong, lightweight. The only conclusion I can come up with as to why the drivers side leaves a much darker line is that side is being pushed down much harder than the right side. Especially when I'm brake torquing it. You can see the car torque to the passenger side when I first hit it.

[romulus22]

Well I wasn't looking forward to this less than 3 weeks before the track opens.






So my trans started shifting funny Tues. by time I got home I didn't have second gear. Let the car cool down and still no second. Only 1,3,4. Found a reputable guy to rubuild it for pretty cheap. Hoping for a quick turnaround and that the trans was just ready to go. I really wasn't hard on it except for the few times it wheel hopped really bad. The good news is I'm just gonna throw a mild stall in there since it's out.

Only took a couple hours to get out but man are there some tricky nuts and bolts to get to-to get the thing out.

[RC10th]

Your brave with those cinder blocks.

Good time to do a performance build on the tranny to cope with your future goals, do it once and do it right.

How much stall are you going with? The converter can really wake up a car Looking forward to seeing the progress on the car and some time slips. Getting the converter right can be tricky as well as it has to match both the cam and rear gear, get it wrong and it's a dog.

Out of curiosity what rear ratio did you go with? Being a 4 speed you can run some steep gears and still cruise the highway comfortably.

[romulus22]

Cinder blocks build buildings they should be fine

I'm not going crazy with the transmission yet. Just replacing the 1-2 servo and sunshell for now. At the advice of a friend. Getting it all redone for $450.

I'm going to call before I purchase a stall but I'm thinking in the 3-3500 range. A lot of LS guys DD with 4000's. I'm not going that high.

I have a 3.00 gear. Seems high but I'm also on 22.5" tall street tires. Slicks are 24". Still don't have a tach to know what I'm cruising at on the highways but it feels like it's about 2200 at 65-70

[jwscab]

The issue is that if you have a sharp edge or stone under one, they can crack and fail very dangerously. I have done this in the past and insulated the blocks with some pine boards as 'cushions' top and bottom.

[romulus22]

The issue is that if you have a sharp edge or stone under one, they can crack and fail very dangerously. I have done this in the past and insulated the blocks with some pine boards as 'cushions' top and bottom.

Yeah I know the inherent danger I was joking about the building comment. Although I'm not under there with a fine tooth comb I keep wherever I'm getting ready to work pretty clean. Mostly so my creeper rolls freely. You can see in some of my older post I had a board between my suspension parts and the blocks. Once I can get past this zoning problem in my city I'm hoping I'll have a lift to no longer worry about how I'm going to jack the car up and support it.

Dropped the trans off today. Parts should be in mid next week so it might be done by next weekend. Ended up going with a 3600 stall Yank torque converter. A little higher than I originally thought I'd go. But the rep said most all people come back for a higher stall and he'd recommend the 3600. Comes with a 3yr warranty and a 1yr free re-stall if I'm not happy. Just have to cover shipping.

[RC10th]

3600 is pretty high for a 3.0 gear car in 4th gear. Make sure you have a big trans cooler as your cruise RPM is a lot lower then your stall speed, which means at cruise the converter will be constantly slipping and building heat.

3 year warranty and free restall is a pretty good deal, lol

[romulus22]

The trans has a 4th gear lock up.