Chevelle Projects 2014

Update your progress on your various car projects.

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TireSmoker
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Re: Chevelle Projects 2014

Post by TireSmoker »

Since the car has been running so well this summer, I have finally started getting to a few other items. I picked up a set of Scat Procar-90 bucket seats at Summit last Thursday. They only had the driver's seat at Tallmadge, passenger seat would have to be shipped. I went out on Saturday morning and about 10 minutes after I got the driver's seat installed, the FedEx guy rolled up with my passenger seat! The timing couldn't have been more perfect.

I've had new black carpet for many months, but was waiting till I got new seats installed. I wasn't looking forward to the seat installation, as I seem to remember a bunch of work when we had to re-fit the racing seat in the Saturn back in 2011. Scat made adapter brackets for mounting their seats in a factory-bench seat car, just needing to drill two holes for the in-board side of each seat. Very easy! Driver's seat seems to sit a little higher, even on the lowest setting, but my point of reference is a 45 year old bench seat. But now all you giants can ride shotgun comfortably.. :-)

I also picked up a B&M Quicksilver shifter and a repro SS 3-spoke steering wheel. The shifter looks like it'll require a little creativity to mount, but shouldn't be difficult after that.

Finally, I bought an intake elbow so that I can make a cold-air intake. I removed the windshield-washer bottle on the driver's side so that I'll have room for a filter over there. I just need to find someone to bend a short piece of 3.5" pipe for me. Worst case, I buy a couple of short straight pieces of pipe and a 45* silicone coupler.

Pics to follow soon..

-Dave
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Basement Paul
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Re: Chevelle Projects 2014

Post by Basement Paul »

I'm pretty sure Paul Carson can bend 3.5" now. Might be worth a call.

-BP
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Re: Chevelle Projects 2014

Post by TireSmoker »

I never posted pics of the new stuff in the interior. I *really* like the new seats and steering wheel!

ImageImage
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Shifter still isn't installed because I'm not sure how I'm going to do it. The floor isn't very flat in the area that I want it, so I guess I'm going to make a baseplate of some sort, and am not sure if I'm going to bolt that to the floor or weld it. I just want to make sure I don't make life difficult for when I go to put the carpet in, which is really the next step.


Wednesday, 9/23/2015 was the last Wednesday of the season for TRP. I had assumed they would be running on Wed 9/30 as well and figured I would go out the final 2 Wed nights with the Chevelle. When I got there, I found out 9/23 was the last. Good thing I made it! My previous outing had been on Aug 2nd for the Ford/GM/Chrysler outing when I chose to forfeit after tossing my belt twice. After fixing the broken motor mount, it didn't seem to be acting up. There were a ton of cars again and I only got 1 time run, but I made it count. I had a 1.70 60ft and ran a 12.58 @ 105 first pass. That was only .09 off my best of the season. I dialed in at 12.48 for the first few rounds, so that I could just run it out on top, and if I broke out, I'd have a new personal best. First two guys should've beat me easy, as my number was way off but they broke out. All they had to do was lift or hit the brakes. After that, I dialed up a bit to stay competitive. In Round 3, I cut a .0003 green. :-) I backed off a bit after that. In reviewing my timeslips, the first 4 rounds ALL broke-out against me. I made it to the final round in Stock (6th round), but redlighted away the win with a -.0875 and would've broken out anyway, running 12.56 @107 on a 12.63 dial. 2nd year in a row where I made the final round on the final Wednesday of the season. Last year, I won it driving Tony's car.

Final Round Matchup.............My Reward
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It wasn't all quite fun-n-games, though. Driver's side header gasket started leaking, and by the time I got home, the car sounded TERRIBLE from the leak. I pulled the header out on that side so I could make sure the flange was flat, because this was the 2nd gasket this season. I pulled the spark plugs to remove the header and found something odd. Check out this spark plug.

ImageImage

The porcelain was cracked up inside the threaded area and it slid down till it hit the ground strap! You can move it with your finger. While I never felt like it wasn't firing on all cylinders, that has to be less than optimal. I chose to replace just the 1 plug for now, since the other 7 have barely a season on them. Upon firing the car back up, Tony and I both noticed it idling smoother. When we went for a test drive, it felt stronger too. I'm sure part of it was the colder October air, but its definitely running better than it was.

I'm planning on heading out to TRP this weekend for some final Test-N-Tune. I'd really like to crack 110 MPH. I have a few 107 passes and one 108. Another guy on Chevelles.com went 11.80s @ 110 with this engine, and Hot Rod recently did a test and their car went 11.70s @ 111 with their ZZ383, but I know the Hot Rod car is at least 150-200lbs lighter than mine.

Regardless, it's been a GREAT year (18 months) with this car. I got over a bunch of long-standing hurdles with a good running motor and finally getting a chance to prove how good the EFI is, utilizing the 700r4 for awesome launches, it's not rusty anymore, my friends can ride along more comfortably, and I even brought home a trophy with it. I think I'm gonna head out to the garage and fire it up. Just because I can. :-)

-Dave
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Re: Chevelle Projects 2014

Post by MostMint »

Fred32v had a set of Accel plugs that were bad straight out of the box - they made a light show under the hood - but I have not seen anything like that.

Seats look good. Now paint the floor blue and put in some floor mats. Who needs to car all that carpet weight anyway :)
[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
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Re: Chevelle Projects 2014

Post by TireSmoker »

Well with the new plug, open headers, and some really good traction, I was able to muscle this thing down to a 12.25 @ 108, with 60ft times ranging from 1.63 to 1.66. 12.25 is the best ET I've ever had with any setup, in fact all 4 runs were better than any previous best. It was also really consistent over 4 passes -- 12.29, 12.27, 12.25, 12.26 in that order. I probably should've stuck around for the gamblers race with RTs that were .10, .05, -.03, .01, but I didnt want to be there all day.

This is probably my final outing of the season and it surely ended on a good note.

-Dave
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ttamrettus
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Re: Chevelle Projects 2014

Post by ttamrettus »

dude. NICE passes. Good way to end the season. A trophy earlier in the week and record settng passes the next outing.
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Re: Chevelle Projects 2014

Post by ttamrettus »

Dave, I was looking for the posts were you did your A Arms but I couldn't find it. What did you do to the front & rear suspension? I am looking at Detroit Speed for the GN.
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Re: Chevelle Projects 2014

Post by TireSmoker »

The a-arms and suspension stuff was pre-Tiresmoke, back between 99-01. I bought Hotchikis upper a-arms, Hotchkis springs (all 4), disc brake spindles from a 77-96 B-Body, 12" brake rotors from a 90 1LE camaro (12" rotor with correct 5 x 4.75" bolt pattern), and I forget if I used B or F-body calipers.. might not matter, and Hotchkis tie-rod adjusting sleeves. Not sure I really needed those, but... I used stock a-body lower a-arms with poly bushings. And finally, a big fat 1.25" front sway bar from a 2nd-gen F-body. The last mod I want to make is to swap the steering box for a 90s Jeep Grand Cherokee box which is supposed to offer a faster ratio and better feel. Direct bolt-in.

Rear suspension is basically stock except for poly bushings and Hotchikis springs.

-Dave
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Re: Chevelle Projects 2014

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Image


In action!

-BP
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Re: Chevelle Projects 2014

Post by TireSmoker »

Edited to include pic of my timeslips above.

-Dave
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Re: Chevelle Projects 2014

Post by Basement Paul »

You need an update on the quickest cars list...

-BP
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Re: Chevelle Projects 2014

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So after a successful season, with many miles of street driving and my best ETs ever, it's time to get the interior back together. I did install a couple new seats and new steering wheel which made a really nice improvement. But, a wise man once said "A man's got to know his limitations" and I know mine -- when it comes to making things look "good", I struggle.

My friend Rich who did the body work also does interiors, so we struck a deal and I took my car over to his house a few days ago. I had purchased black carpet a while back for it, the new seats are black, the steering wheel is black, so now the whole interior is going black. And once you go black, you don't go back. I didn't really intend to go this way in the beginning, and maybe would've preferred to keep it the original blue, but black always looks good. He painted the existing dash and it's looking pretty sweet so far. He also welded in the shifter for me, as welding is a technology I still don't possess. I did the wiring for the reverse lights and neutral safety switch a few weeks back, so tonight we connected the shifter cable to the trans and verified gears, lights, etc.

I can't wait to drive it with an interior again... and I really wanna row the new shifter at the track!

-Dave
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Re: Chevelle Projects 2014

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Looking good! It will be sweet with it all together for sure.

-BP
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Re: Chevelle Projects 2014

Post by TireSmoker »

Most of the heavy lifting is done. Took these pics in low-light with my phone, so they don't look the greatest. But it's a huge improvement. The material for re-covering the back seat and the new rear panels wont arrive till tomorrow and Rich will need a couple days to get the back seat done.

-Dave
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Re: Chevelle Projects 2014

Post by GMJohnny »

Dave.... The interior looks Sweet!!! Nice upgrade!!!

GM
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