FastZinTennessee

After a few months of bolting things together, checking, rechecking and changing things I started my car today! I'll get to a complete mod list at the end. Also, someone there had a video camera, I can probably get the video up sometime tomorow if I can find some webspace- so keep checking back!

The Good
So far it seems like all the wiring is away from the exhaust, nothing got burned. When I got the battery issue resolved (see below) it turned over once and immediately caught and ran. No seals or anything leaked. Oil pressure was great, about 70 psi at cold idle-1200 rpm. No oily blue or dark smoke out of the exhaust at all. The tune I got from madz28.com was great, idle was fine, no check engine light, etc. The LT4 starter sounds GREAT, sounds a lot meaner than the stock starter.

The Bad
The LT1 cooling system is a real pain in the ***, and since I've had so many cooling system problems I am really cautious when the temps come up. Having to start with an empty radiator and block was quite a bit different than just topping off the motor like I had done before. The temps got too high for my comfort level quicker than we could add coolant(still, the temp only got to 210*). The front brakes still need to be bled, since they were disconnected when I dropped the subframe. I relocated my battery to where the passenger side rear seat is, and either my battery is really bad, or I need bigger than 4 gauge wire(had to jump the car off). I noticed some light colored smoke after it had been running for about 10 minutes, and upon inspection noticed that it was coming from the passenger side header only. There was also a small splash of liquid on the ground behind the collector. I'm really not sure what this is, I'm hoping that it's not coolant, but just some condensation. I just started it up again and it threw out even more liquid from that bank, so I guess I'll just have to do some investigating.

Ported LT1 heads, Mahle forged pistons, Eagle H-beams, Eagle forged crank, splayed 4 bolt conversion, ARP main hardware, ARP head studs, ARP cam bolts, ARP flexplate bolts, Custom Comp 236/248 .608/.578 111 LSA, LT4 ED timing set, Canton road race oil pan, Melling standard oil pump,Hooker LT's(open for now), Meziere waterpump, ATI super damper, TCI flexplate, all Fel Pro gaskets, Energy Suspension poly motor mounts and a few other things I'm sure are being forgotten.

SVThuh

Sounds like a mean motor you got there. I too am building a 355 (http://64.81.235.236/motor) and I am also thinking about a cam of a similar size. I hope your able to get a video up soon! If you dont have anywhere to host it, let me know and I can host it for you..

MEAN LT1

Good job on the install. What color is the liquid that dripping?

FastZinTennessee

The liquid is clear. The only distinct smell that it has is a burned smell. Kind of like if you were to stand near a bonfire or something, how your clothes would smell afterwords. I thought I smelled a whiff of coolant in it before, but now all I can make out is the burned smell. It's really starting to concern me since it's very evident on the passenger side, and nothing at all on the driver's. Enough of it came out that you can see it splattered on the crossmember that is behind the transmission.

I'm going to change the oil and see if anything separates out, then I'l have a better idea of what I need to do.

cmking26

Make sure the coolant crossover tube isnt leaking.

MEAN LT1

Hmm, passenger side k-member and the liquid id clear. Did you put starit water in the cooling system or did you use coolant?. If you did use just water and its leaking towards the back of the passenger side. I would make sure the hard line connection in back of the head isnt leaking.

FastZinTennessee

I put coolant in first (green Prestone), then finished the fill with water. I will check the rear coolant line, but I'm almost 100% sure the liquid is coming out of the header. The coolant crossover lines from the back of the heads are kind of a one off design that I came up with. I used a 90* fitting on the back of each head, one side has 1/2" threads and screws into the back of the head, the other side is a barb fitting for a hose. Each head has it's own individual 11/32" hose that runs to the front of the motor, where it comes to a brass T fitting and then to the radiator in the factory location. The threads were real tight, and I sealed them up thoroughly, so I don't think they are leaking. I will check today though.

I'm leaning more towards the ARP head studs not sealing. This is a problem that has come up a lot in a few searches I've just done. If they are indeed leaking, I was thinking about just swapping for bolts. I'm really not sure what to do at this point since I need to get in there and look first. I'm just happy that everything I did with the install is ok, opti lined up, wiring harness plugged in and routed ok, rockers adjusted correctly, no seal leaks, plug wires on in the right order, etc. Honestly, the install of the motor/trans/subframe from the bottom was the easy part, routing things in the engine bay and cleaning the install up. I would lean towards just dropping the motor again as opposed to replacing headgaskets in the car.

The other really pressing thing right now is to fix my dipstick. It's bent at such an angle in the pan that it's not reading any oil. This also presents a problem because since it is bent, I don't think I can just yank it out. I might have to drop the oil pan, bend the tube by hand and then remove the tube (I do want to replace it).

So, I may end up dropping the motor again, to reseal the head gaskets and fix the dipstick problem. No biggie at this point since when I installed the motor/trans/subframe that was the first attempt at it, and it only took a few hours. I'll try and get the idle video up today, and keep updating on progress.

MEAN LT1

oh ok, Maybee I missed it but are you running open headers right now?. If so then I can understand some water condensation coming from them. They say a little condensation out of the exaust is a sign of good combustion. But for your sake I hope its not coming from the heads threm selves. Good work man. Get that video up.

FastZinTennessee

Yes, open headers now, that's why it's so easy to determine what bank it's coming from. If it is condensation, it's quite a bit, and only coming from the passenger side. Would be nice if it turned out to be nothing, but I always fear for the worst with this car

Still working on the video, my friend who has it on his camera is at work until mid afternoon........

Loadre

Here's how I've always filled my cooling system up with an electric waterpump. Take off cap, fill to brim and let settle enough to put the cap on, put on cap then let the EWP run for about 10 seconds. Repeat until the fluid level no longer goes down. Then bleed the system once the motor gets a little bit warm.

You need 0 gauge running from the battery.

If the exhaust doesn't smell sweet then the liquid is just condensation.

Wanna sell your heads to a fellow TN member?

FastZinTennessee

I'm gonna try a few more things first before I buy and run the 0 gauge. Going to upgrade my engine and battery to chassis ground. I also have a summit battery disconnect switch, and I have a suspicion that it's creating some sort of bottleneck in the main cable going to the front (it's only rated for 20 amps continuous). If jumping the cable straight to a fully charged batter and upgrading the grounds doesn't do the trick, I will upgrade the wire.

I really hope it is just condensation. It's just confusing how the passenger side only was doing it, not the driver's side. And there was a lot of steam and liquid, enough to splash out of the collector and have droplets on the crossmember behind the trans, and make an oval wet spot on the ground about a foot wide by 2.5 feet long.

I do have an extra set of heads laying around. I have already started porting them, so you would want to take a look at them first before buying them. I'll have a look tonight and see how far along they are.

Video still in the works, I will have it on my computer tomorow, then upload it somewhere!!

Loadre

Do a search on everybody that did a battery relocation. They all had starting problems until they switched to 0 gauge. Hopefully yours is something cheaper, though.

Like I said just smell the exhaust next time you fire it up and see if it smells sweet. If it's coming from one side that's even better. Compare the smells from the passenger and drivers side.

Hope all goes well, cause if it was my car it would have already blown a headgasket and spun a bearing.

97SprChrgd383

sweet.

FastZinTennessee

If the headgasket isn't sealing I can deal with that. If a bearing spins I'm going to cry

I used to work at a car stereo shop, so I had a bunch of good quality 4 gauge sitting around. I also tried to make the length of the cable as short as possible because that makes a difference as well. So if this attempt didn't work, at least it didn't cost me anything!

FastZinTennessee

Just pulled the plugs on the passenger side. The #6 plug has water droplets on it- not good. The #2 one looked to be soaked with gas, and the other two looked good. Looks as though I have a headgasket sealing issue or <gasp> a crack somewhere I think I'll pull that head off and have it checked, check the headgasket with a dial caliper to see if anything is screwy with it, then try it a second time. Any problems re-using the headstuds after I remove and replace the head?? They seriously have about 10 minutes of run time on them......

BTW, trying to get the video tonight. I have reminded the guy who has it on his camera 3 times to bring it already. I hate relying on other people for stuff. Stay tuned in, this video is a must see