Project: LS1 Chevette

[romulus22]

You don't approve of my cinder block counter weight?

[Diamond Dave]

It is the overall size, did not notice the cinder block at first. Amazed that you are able to shoe horn that into a chevette.

[romulus22]

It's a little bit of a tight squeeze. But if fits.

Here's a preview of the new exhaust before I pull it to finish welding. And a couple of the old setup.

[romulus22]

I've had things wrapped up for a few days. Just rolled the car out to do some cleaning. Just waiting for the tuner now. Here's the new look inside and out.

[jwscab]

Looks good!

[romulus22]

Finally running, well enough to drive it. Has just enough time to keep it idling and keep the AFR at a safe level. Still really rich in a lot of spots. Going to try and put some miles on it through the week and hopefully finish the tune this weekend.

Here's a short start-up idle video of the new setup.

[romulus22]

Still working on the tune and drivability. Wants to stall out at an idle now after some of the WOT tuning. I have another major hurdle to face, more on that later. But for now. This is how you are suppose to merge onto a highway.

[romulus22]

A little foreclosure on that video. I did not cut the guy off in the left lane. He's the idiot going straight in a left turn only lane.

[SFC K]

Wow! That thing hauls booty!

[RC10th]

Thats awesome, little brown car leaving lines

[romulus22]

So during my tuning I found out that my camshaft does not like restrictive exhaust, at all!! So out came the old exhaust. After staring at what I had to work with there was just no way I was going to build a capable header that would fit, and be able to slide in after the engine was installed. Or not block the engine mount bolts by installing the engine and headers at the same time. So on went a set of engine plate mounts. After doing lots of reading I had to just go with the several testimonials that running just front plates and trans mounts is ok. Then I had to pull the engine to remove the old mounts I had added. And finally engine went back in and so did tubing. So after a weekends work I now have the drivers side primaries fully welded. I'm going to grind them and finish assembly of the header tomorrow. So far so good. Just hope the passenger side goes as well. These should definitely flow as good as an off the shelf full length header. They are now 1.875" into 3" collectors.

[romulus22]

Well what a pain in the butt that was. In order to get the headers on the car. The engine/trans has to be pulled. Pretty much zero access to the starter now. And with the tubes as close as they are to the starter I'm not sure how long it will live. So when the time comes that the starter fails I'm going turbo and running forward facing headers and dumping the downpipe out the fender. I'm over this exhaust troubles. Now that it's all back together I'll have to get it re-tuned for some final numbers. Might take a few weeks to get it on the dyno though. Anyways here's some pictures and a new idle clip.

[RC10th]

Sounds pretty cammy, surely the noise it makes would intrigue many a person.

[scr8p]

Sounds nice!

[Halgar]

Well what a pain in the butt that was. In order to get the headers on the car.

You know, I watch a LOT of car shows, and they never have any of these issues. They stab in the new gear and light it off trouble free. What gives?