In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :
Thanks. I forgot about the diff sensor, I have that one in my diff so that is a option as well. I was just hoping to use a ABS sensor so I could avoid a long wire run to the back of the car. I'm going over to the car in a few minutes and will check out the sensor.
Just in case anyone is wondering the reason for the VSS is because the GM PCM's need some sort of signal to indicate vehicle movement with manuals and non-electric automatics (like my TH400) for some of the fuel tables and there are usually idle/stalling issues without one. On my Toyota Land Cruiser (also 5.3 swapped) I use a ABS sensor just hooked up straight to the GM PCM and it works great. Doesn't seem to matter what the tooth/pulse count is, just need something. Not sure whether I'll have issues with this car or not but the plan is there in case we do.
In reply to cruisermatt :
you seem to have enough experience that i don't need to ask this, but i'll ask anyway. what are you doing for vertical support of radiator, aside from that diving board bit on the drivers side?
In reply to cruisermatt :
I took from their having switched to using the ABS sensor that it would work for you in this case as well, but having options is good!
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
Good question, there’s a screw going through the core support tapped into one of the alignment pegs on top of the radiator. It’s pretty minimal, might need to weld another tab to the other side. We’ll see. That tab I welded on was the first piece of aluminum I grabbed out of the scrap bin, I didn’t even cut it to that size lol
In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :
The issue is that I need a 2-wire sensor, not sure what the stuff on the car is. Like an idiot I forgot to check earlier of course
In reply to cruisermatt :
Rad is pretty important part, I'd want to see it mounted in a way that doesn't suspend it from top or sides. Fatigue life of aluminum is no bueno. I'd be looking to support its weight from below, and only rely on top and sides for alignment.
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
This radiator is the size of a 3-ring binder and weighs about as much as a empty one. It’ll be Ok, like I said if I have to I’ll add another tab to the top, there’s nothing underneath to attach to.
For anyone on the edge of their seat about Hall/Vr sensors, it looks like BMW wheel sensor is 2-wire so I should be good to go! They also run a separate ground from the body to the spindle, not sure what that’s about. Also still not sure which which wire is which on the BMW sensor, or if it even matters. One is brown and the other is brown/red, guessing the brown is ground and the brown/red is signal. I’ll hook it up like that and give it a shot when we’re ready to drive.
I saw this on the sloppy FB group and figured it looked like a challenge build. Great progress. Best of luck!
I forgot to put the first-start video up. It's got a misfire and didn't really want to stay idling but I had the fuel/ign wiring vice griped to the battery post so we'll see how it does with legitimate wiring and the VSS hooked up.
Well after a lot of work the past few days the car is driving and ready to hit the track for testing. Assuming everything goes well it is pretty much finished. We were hoping to go today but unfortunately the local test and tune was rained out. Hopefully Wednesday is dry.
Also I the E36 master cyl. minus booster was a fail. Barely any stopping power. Swapped to a Honda Civic 3/4" bore and brakes are working good. Just had to re-drill one hole, longer pushrod, and play around with the brake lines a bit.
Just read from start to finish. Incredible progress in such a short time! Love all the sloppy hacks and Calvin's "Terminator X" lol. Let me know how that driveshaft performs. I've always been afraid to do that job myself.
In reply to maschinenbau (I live here) :
Thanks man. Just looked back and saw we haven't even had the car for four months yet! Definitely a quick and dirty build. I might take all year to do the next one and make it actually nice fit/finish wise.
As for the driveshaft, so far it cruises 50-60 without issue so far. I've done a lot of homebrew driveshafts for my Land Cruiser projects successfully but this will be the highest speed one of them will go for sure. I think it will be ok, it's pretty heavy (and has a weird old-school hard rubber lining on the inside that I've never seen before) so I hope that dampens any high speed deceleration vibration that may want to occur.
Well the last two weeks have been kinda hectic with getting the car ready, we made it to the local track, locked up the motor, I managed to get another crankshaft swapped in only two days just in time to get the track the last day it was open for open test/tune last Friday. We are having some tuning issues that are out of our control to resolve so just going to send it in Gainesville. Looking forwards to meeting everyone.
Good work, Have fun, good luck.
Did you make it to the challenge? I'm excited to hear how it's running!
They made it. Nice group of guys. I think they ran high 12s?
Yes, we made it there and had a blast. Thank you for the silverware Stampie. Thank you for the cooler water PimpM3, and thanks for the tires HobieRcr.
As for the cars performance it was not stellar. I put on the worst old, dry, hard street tires imaginable for Auto-X and springed the gate to about 16lbs and the thing was just a absolute burnout machine around the course. Then when we went drag racing and on top of tune issues I think the transmission is completely shot now. Still managed to crank out a 13.0 leaving off idle, 2.5 second 60 ft, bouncing limiter in 1st and then not shifting out of 2nd, basically a complete fail of a pass, so lots of potential.
For the minimal time and effort we have in this heap we are pretty happy for now.
Now that we've learned the event the car is going to get some tweaks and changes and hopefully be a lot more competitive next year, in all events.
It was nice meeting you guys.
Next year you need to make sure you incorporate some subaru floor mats and two hammers in the build. I hear they really help in the drags...
Next year I am going to have some more appropirately sized rear tires so I don't need hammer-bumpstops :)
We ended up not running again since we heard a slight rod knock and didn't feel like scattering a good motor when it was most likely not going to gain us 2-seconds.
In reply to cruisermatt :
Nice! Good idea hopefully the motor is salvageable.
In reply to pimpm3 (Forum Supporter) :
earlier this month it spun every. single. rod bearing, I assume it never had oil pressure since my shortened oil pickup tube was too close to the bottom of the pan, I changed that and hoped fixed was fixed... Going to work on the transmission first and then when that's fixed will turn attention back to the motor and see what we did to it. Regardless this car is going to sit for awhile as my DD/Main Squeeze Land Cruiser needs a new NV4500 and I have a ton of customer work lined up for the next few months that take priority.
Part of the 2021 strategy is to actually start tuning and datalogging so maybe I'll actually look at vitals for once.
I should mention the only gauges this car has had are a boost gauge and a tach (only to use the shift light to trigger a 2-step that the car hasn't actually been able to use yet)
I want to mention that every time I saw this team they were smiling (with mask you could tell). I even got to witness a little Challenge strategy of them pumping another team for info then walking away discussing that info among themselves to decide what to do. I was impressed with them. Plus they didn't blink twice when I turned around and handed them 60 plastic forks, spoons, and knifes each and said Merry Christmas.
great to meet you guys, you should build the dragster.
This was one of my favorite cars at the challenge. That huge turbo hanging off the front of the LS and the way it looked with those giant drag slicks on the back was just great. It has a ton of potential and I think spending a year tuning it and tweaking it you can have a serious contender!
