Looks good. Keep it comin'



BTW, looks like you need some glavanizing paint on those SFC welds... the nearest weld is looking a bit brown.

 

Ok, I don't really know anything about the welds or I would be welding this crap in myself. Anyway, a guy at a local shop did finished the BMR trak-pack and cross-member for the tranny. He said the welds on the SFC looked ok. I guess the paint would be to stop rust? They were done at a local muffler shop and cost like $30 so I couldn't expect much. Atleast I made sure the car was at ride height and level before they were welded. I will try to get some more pics tomorrow with it on the lift (depending if he gets it off the lift before I get there). The tranny will be done tomorrow and the converter will ship from ProTorque by Friday.

 

yeah, the welds look fine, but I'd slap some zinc-paint on there to stop it from rusting off.

When we did mine I thought I got all of the welds (double-diamond set up), but one rocker panel I checked the next morning already had a small rust spot on it. One rattle-can from Walmart later... no problems.

 

Ok, thanx man.

 

Pretty interesting stuff bro. Hey, you HAVE been busy I see....
Yea, it's me, the chevelle guy, I can't wait to see your car run again after all this work. It's gonna be in the "sick" catagory.
Hopefully my velle will be ready to run soon also...

keep up the good work....

Heavy

 

Thanks man. I am hoping to get there this Friday if the torque converter gets here in time. If not next Wednesday. I will have to make a trip to Atco since you go there more.

Ok, the crossmember is done (except painting) and the torque arm is in. Here are pics of the crossmember. I will take some more of it out of the vehicle tonight when i start painting it.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/orionspl/crossmem2.jpg

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/orionspl/crossmem3.jpg

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/orionspl/crossmem4.jpg

 

Wow. Nice work on the cross-brace. Looks sweet.

Is it fairly solid? No problems with flexing or bolt sheer? (I imagine those are at least grade 8 bolts).

very slick fabrication... almost a shame to have it hidden under the car.

 

The crossmember was made from some type of chromoly. I forget what he said it was equal to in mild steel but it was an overkill for stength which suites me just fine. It is also fairly light. Since the empty shell 4L80E is up there he just threw in whatever bolts he had laying around. I used allen bolts for my oil pan so I will probably get some for this also. They are strong as hell. I was worrying about the bend and the contact point being so far back. I was told with the torque arm not being bolted to the tranny I am taking a considerable amount of load from it and that the crossmember will be more then adequate. Now it's just a matter of getting the damn converter. I will start bugging Pro-Torque tomorrow.

 

Ok, the transmission is in. I will get some more pics as soon as I can. I am having problems with the linkage. You have to keep moving it in and out of gear to get it into the correct gear. When I figure this out I will post some info. Atleast I got it moving. I have to bring it to the builders (Del-Trans) to make sure the pressures are ok. One thing that has to be done is I had to cut a bigger hole in the tunnel for the plug. You are not getting the plug in without cutting that. Here's the pic:

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/orionspl/plughole1.jpg

I will post more soon.

 

Still looking good. Shoot me an email when you go to the track whether it's Atco or Cecil...

I am still in the process of swapping cams.
I am anxiously awaiting my next set of track runs!

 

Ok, here are some pics of the finished product:

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/orionspl/trans1.jpg

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/orionspl/trans2.jpg

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/orionspl/transmount1.jpg

The cable linkage mount had to be replaced with something they had. They just did some tweaking and it works great. Above have more pics of the mount and everything. TCI includes a base for a 4L80E with their software and I am using it and it shifts fine and feels good. I don't really like how low the BMR trak-pack is. As you can see it has already hit something after about 20 miles of driving. I think in my application I could have went with a bar without a bend.

Another project down and now to the next project! I was 2 miles from the track and my car started running like crap. I think it is the opti. Dear god getting to it behind the supercharger and all is going to be a pain! I am looking at DelTeq to do one of their coil conversions. As you can see I started posting questions about alternatives to the dreaded opti in this forum. If anyone has any questions about the 4L80E swap let me know. My email is OrionSPL@comcast.net

 

This is a good tech write-up. I'm glad to hear that you're happy with the TCU. Have you ran your car with the 4L80E yet? How did your time compare to that of the 4L60E?
TIA,
Kevin Winstead
TCI Automotive

 

I installed the supercharger around christmas and never got to run it with the 4L60E. I recently ran it with 4L80E and it's going 11.2@120 was my best. I need more tire. Here's a video of one run...

http://members.aol.com/jaka55/jakass1.wmv

http://members.aol.com/jaka55/

 

Was that controller required? I had a 4L60E originally....could the computer in my car not control a 4L80E? I saw the tci controller appears to control both.

Joe

 

The stock PCMs from Camaro/Firebirds cannot control the 4L80E. You will need an aftermarket unit. Unless you want to go full manual with it.