Do yourself a favor and don't use that minivan intake. According to the guys at 60degreev6.com, right inside the mouth there is a hump or protrusion of some sort that is only present on van intakes that hinders airflow by a non-trivial amount. Get a 2000+ upper intake from a Grand Am/Alero or Impala/Monte Carlo. It will mount exactly the same, but offer better flow.
It also wouldn't be a bad idea to poke about a bit at the 60v6 forum, since lots of folks have trod this path in Camaros.
In reply to Left Ventricle:
Thanks for the advice!
For now, the rules for Chump don't really allow me to mix and match. I'm stuck with what I have for now.
The engine is back out of the car and is sitting on the engine stand. I need to get a clutch master cylinder / adapter AND I need to get the bottom of the engine back together (oil pan / starter / timing cover).
Once those items are complete, I can put the engine back in permanently.
Next steps:
Button up engine
Run new Clutch hydraulics
Put engine back in car
Mount accessories
Measure and get driveshaft made (thought I was good on this earlier. Didn't measure correctly).
Figure out radiator plumbing.
Plumb rest of engine
Wire.
Start.
wvumtnbkr wrote: For now, the rules for Chump don't really allow me to mix and match. I'm stuck with what I have for now.
Can you elaborate on this? I am not familiar with Chump Car rules. The 2000+ car intake is visually different from the van intake, but unless the judges are knowledgeable about 60 degree V6s, it should pass muster.
While I obviously don't know much to actually help, if you need a hand holding things or wrestling stuff into place, give me a call or shoot me a text.
Left Ventricle wrote:wvumtnbkr wrote: For now, the rules for Chump don't really allow me to mix and match. I'm stuck with what I have for now.Can you elaborate on this? I am not familiar with Chump Car rules. The 2000+ car intake is visually different from the van intake, but unless the judges are knowledgeable about 60 degree V6s, it should pass muster.
The judge's are everybody else at the race. It would suck to get bumped from the podium because of a few hp. There are several teams running 60 v6s.
An intake change is big points.
We did a thing! The motor is in for the last time.
Also checked off the list:
Clutch master installed and bled
Clutch function verified
Starter is on
Driveshaft measuring completed.... Which brings us to a question on acceptable differences between the angle of the front and rear U-joint angles. The transmission output is at 89 degrees and the rear end sits at 86 even after playing with the subframe. Is a 3 degree difference going to cause issues? Research says 1 degree is acceptable but what is the GRM opinion?
Moar updates...
I am going to try to move the rear diff so the angle is closer to perfect. I hope to get it within 1.5 degrees.
I have parts coming in for an alternative serpentine belt routing (no power steering or AC on this engine).
A new fuel pressure regulator and fuel line O-rings have been ordered.
The ECU is getting sent off today to the tuning person.
The only major issues that don't have an attack plan are the exhaust and wiring.
My coworkers are coming over on Tuesday to help fabricate headers (we will see how this goes...).
Last night after bike shopping we pulled out the subframe and rear end. Adding pictures for Rob to explain the plan...
And Rob's new ride:
New bike, rear end of car out. Not a bad weeknight.
We are gonna get the rearend angle as close as possible.
I have an angle grinder and a welder. I can move metal....
The rearend is in and at 89.7 degrees. The Trans is at 89.3 degrees.
Good to go!
I am having a couple of tech people I work with over tomorrow night. We are going to get the exhaust created and tacked. I may need to do the finish welding myself.
ECU is off to the tuner. I Should get it back late this week or early next week.
I MAY be able to try to start the car next weekend.
Now for all the little items that take up ALL of the time...
Last night's exhaust work went well. We decided to order some new collectors but the bulk of the header work is done. One cut on the driver's side and two on the passenger side.
The driver's side clears the starter by close to 1/2" and is shaped the way it is to clear the oil filter and adapter for the oil cooler.
We didn't even get into some of the tubing Rob ordered, and the scrap pile wasn't very large at all.
Thanks for posting those pics Bryan!
The ECU is out getting tuned right now!
Once the collectors get here, we can finish welding the exhaust!
I can't wait to try to start this thing. Only about 2 solid weeks of work left to start it.
Hopefully it doesn't blow up immediately!
wvumtnbkr wrote: Hopefully it doesn't blow up immediately!
Hopefully it doesn't blow up at all!!!
The last few weeks have been busy trying to get things done, and not a lot of time was spent taking pictures. The headers are welded and we're trying to decide how to mount flanges and get the Y pipe built. The existing exhaust will be reused from about mid car to the back, so a couple more cuts and a few welds and this will be buttoned up. Like everything else it should take 40x longer than expected.....
We also have been working on driving the alternator and water pump. The kit intended for the 3.4L is NOT a direct swap for the 3400, but we've been able to modify things and are getting close to mounting the alternator and getting a belt in. Maybe this weekend? The remainder of the power wiring is in, battery mounted in it's box and the starter all wired up.
That last shot also shows the beginnings of the lower radiator plumbing. It's not yet clamped up, we finished last night and decided to sleep on it. The plan is to cut some hose to protect the aluminum piping where it is resting on the fan to prevent any issues from the contact. It would be great to find a radiator that has an outlet on the driver's side but this one fits the chassis well and should do a fine job of keeping temps under control.
While we were playing with silicone and aluminum we threw together the upper hose and intake. A bracket will be made to support the tubing for the intake and possibly some sort of airbox if there is time left to get it in the car before the 24th. Again, nothing clamped up yet while we think things through.
A few other things on the list have been checked off as well. The T5 shifter was threaded and an adapter was added to make it a bit taller. The tunnel was sealed back up with a cover plate, fireproof expanding foam, and a new boot.
Rob also fabbed up a new gauge cluster. Tach, oil temp, oil pressure, water temp, and AFR. Most everyone that has been in the car can see everything through the wheel, so the layout seems to be pretty spot on.
A couple last things that have been finished for a while but not uploaded are the throttle cable and clutch master cyl. The throttle was quite a bit more work than it appears and we are still waiting on a Miata cable to show up to verify it actually works but hopefully this weekend...
2 weeks left and we still have most of a whiteboard to mark off. This will be a busy weekend...
The weekend went well, exhaust is fully installed, intake complete, radiator plumbing complete, wipers verified to be functioning, power mirrors hooked back up, ignition switch and starter button wired in, various items secured away from moving parts, etc. Our biggest challenge left aside from the water pump gasket that failed a pressure test and was reinstlled last night was the ECU harness. Maybe 30% actually gets hooked back up as a stand alone unit, but we don't want to cut anything off until the engine fires without those plugs in something. That leaves us with this mess.....
Tonight we hope to pressure test the cooling system, fill the trans with new fluid, flip the correct switches and fire this thing up for the first time. We still have several work days to go, lots of brackets to build to support things like the coils and ECU. I need to get the extra wiring clipped down and build a loom for the harness once the ECU has a home. The hood needs to be modified to make room in the duct for the radiator to allow the intake to pass through. A few wires and hoses need to be protected from the new headers. The throttle cable order was canceled and a new cable ordered. The Accusump isn't here yet and we aren't quite sure where it will live yet.... I'm sure I'm missing things but we're still making progress.
bbaker480 wrote: The weekend went well, exhaust is fully installed, intake complete, radiator plumbing complete, wipers verified to be functioning, power mirrors hooked back up, ignition switch and starter button wired in, various items secured away from moving parts, etc. Our biggest challenge left aside from the water pump gasket that failed a pressure test and was reinstlled last night was the ECU harness. Maybe 30% actually gets hooked back up as a stand alone unit, but we don't want to cut anything off until the engine fires without those plugs in something. That leaves us with this mess.....
Thanks Bryan!
That summed it up nicely!
Throttle cable should be here tomorrow according to the USPS.
We might be able to drive this thing around this weekend! Fingers crossed.
Items I am worried about:
1) Do we have the wiring hooked up correctly
2) Will the tune on the PCM work?
3) Should we hook up a OBD2 port to check codes?
4) WIll it blow up immediately?
5) Will it blow up 1 hour into the race on the 24th?
gah.....
wvumtnbkr wrote: Items I am worried about: 1) Do we have the wiring hooked up correctly 2) Will the tune on the PCM work? 3) Should we hook up a OBD2 port to check codes? 4) WIll it blow up immediately? 5) Will it blow up 1 hour into the race on the 24th? gah.....
Lowes Racing had M5x80-40 hardware, not black oxide too, so we can mount the coils to the brackets. I got wave lock washers too. I hope to have this thing up to temp before 7:30 tonight so we can shut it down, check for leaks, and catch the Pens game.... My playoff beard is growing as we speak.
Tonight we discovered that it runs! the wiring is still a cluster, brackets need made for things, and the water pump is coming back off again because is still leaks in exactly the same spot as it did over the weekend,but it's a lot closer to being on the track than it was at this time yesterday!
Soo, I figured out the no tach issue. There is another connection we can hook the tach up that should give the proper signal.
I am still worried about 1 issue....
The trans is very difficult to get into 5th gear with the engine running and the rear wheels in the air. If I push in the clutch, I have a hard time pushing the shifter into 5th gear. I am not sure if this is because the car is not actually moving.
I will check to see if I need to adjust the clutch actuation a bit...
Awesome! Congrats on the first start.
A final weekend of work done and almost the entire punch list checked off. We can do this!
The biggest item remaining on the list was the wiring. We managed to get everything plugged in and fired the car last week, but I couldn't start cutting things down until we had a mount built for the ECU. Rob took care of that Friday while I was stuck in the office and then I got started on cutting and soldering and heat shrinking and looming...... Had the car been 6" higher off the ground my back would have been happier but by Saturday night I created this:
Also of note is the valve covers came off yet again, this time to move the oil filler to the passenger side of the engine to allow the coil packs to mount on the intake bosses. Somehow even though the plug wires stick above both fenders and the intake manifold they still have about 1" before they hit the hood itself (the fiberglass is touching but it is insulation after all).
Speaking of the hood, we had to make some minor modifications to clear the intake. 
We would have checked 5th gear late Saturday night but unfortunately the tach is still not reading anything, and although we have oil pressure we can't really tell how much as the gauge seems to have failed. Hopefully we can figure these out early this week as racing a car with a different engine, no tach, and no oil pressure seems like a recipe for loading the trailer early. Everything fights.
Update and closure...
We got the car ready for the race at Mid Ohio earlier this year. We were using the race as a shakedown for the "real race" Watkins Glen over Memorial Day weekend.
Mid Ohio... The car was hella quick! I was surprised at how well it pulled!
After a few laps, two things became quite apparent. first... Fifth gear was not happy and we could NOT shift into 5th. 2nd thing was oil temps...
280+ oil temps after about 5 laps. No Bueno.
We all got to drive the car (5 laps at a time) and setup the suspension. Our tire temps and general handling of the car was AWESOME!
We get home and tear out the transmission. I took it to a local trans shop and they tore it down and inspected it. They said everything looked REALLY good. I put it back in the car.
Still no 5th gear. Yay.
I find a transmission local to us and go buy it and put it in the car. We have 5th Gear! Awesome!
We installed the stock oil cooler (by modifiying a knockoff filter adapter from Ebay) and making our own AN lines.
We also found out our oil temps were most likely sooo high due to overfilling the crankcase by 1.5 quarts!!!!
We were finally ready for Watkins Glen....
P.S. We fixed the tach by using the PCM tach output and using a pullup resistor to increase the voltage of the tach signal. Works great!
We had a TON of Fun at Watkins Glen.
On Friday Practice day, we had fuel issues. After about 10 minutes, the car would start to hesitate and buck. WE chased the issue and found we had a fuel pump going bad (fuel pressure would become erratic after a bit).
We changed out the fuel pump after practice and were ready for Saturday mornings race.
While in the pit road lined up to start rolling off, the car behind had some sort of fustercluck which caused them to hit us. Hard. Twice.
Awesome.
The car was okay, my team mates that were doing some final touched to the car (radios, cameras, etc...) had some scrapes and bruises but otherwise were okay.
We roll off about 15th. 3 laps in, the fuel pump dies. crap.
While waiting for another fuel pump to arrive, we noticed that the plug for the intank fuel pump was not connected. Well, crap.
We were not able to procure another feed pump. We replumbed the swirl pot, feed pump and ran off the intank fuel pump only. This worked for the rest of the day.
On Sunday, we started about 20th. We drove clean, had a GREAT strategy and finished 5th out of over 100+ cars.
Also, 5th gear would grind every shift. It was not awesome.
Now, I need to rebuild the transmission and redo the fuel system. We should be able to get the car back together for a couple of practice days before our race in October (Pitt Race).
Awesome build!
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