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Chief Wanabee · 09-20-2012, 02:56 PM

How's the itch, Stobin?

Karch · 09-20-2012, 05:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chief Wanabee

How's the itch, Stobin?

Costco has the deluxe family size of Vagisil, if the itch gets to be too much.

stobin · 09-20-2012, 05:58 PM

Ha ha ha....that's a good way of describing it. Progress is on hold due to a change in equipment. Had to change cylinder head manufacturers. I had to wait for my new Brodix LS7 heads while they were on backorder for six weeks. They are being CNC ported now, and then back to Dr. J's Performance for the finish porting and valve job. But the wait will be worth it since they are the six bolt castings. The engine needs to be complete before I can go forward with the plan to put the body back on the chassis. I hope to have that done in October.

stobin · 10-24-2012, 03:04 PM

I thought it was time to throw some new information on the project. I have not been able to move forward for a few months due to some problems that I ran into with the cylinder heads. Long story short....I moved away from the Procomp castings in favor of the Brodix BR7 castings for the LS7 build. The Brodix castings were backordered for quite some time, but I now have them at Dr. J's Performance for the finish porting and machine work. I am having them finished at 68cc. This will give me 11.3:1 CR. The castings are the six bolt versions, and Made In The USA...even better!! I am nearing the point where the body will be reinstalled so I have been keeping busy on the engine mock up. I have a junk engine installed until the LS7 is ready to be installed. The headers are full length Hedman 1 7/8". They fit perfectly. As I stated in previous postings, my goal for this car was about 600 flywheel HP but it needed to be clean. So as promised I am installing dual 3" Magnaflow catalytic converters. I have had lots of musclecars before, and was tired of the smell. I conceived this entire build and parts selection based on the fact that cats would be used. The cam was specifically designed by Geoff at EPS with this in mind. With all the technology the LS motors have, I couldn't see me going overboard "again" and overcamming this car. See pictures.

stobin · 10-24-2012, 03:09 PM

I wanted to post some pictures of the engine pieces I had painted. I wanted to paint the engine components the correct Pontiac Blue metallic to keep the Pontiac vibe under the hood without going overboard. I did have the covers sprayed in two-tone with the grey that I had my frame, firewall, and inner fenders powdercoated. I like the way the grey and blue compliment each other. It's hard to see in the pictures, but there is a fine black detail line seperating the two colors on the covers. I have seen a few intakes painted, so I decided to go for it. The intake really pops. This is all just sitting on the junk longblock for pictures. I hope to have the LS7 finished in a few weeks, and will post the real pictures then. Hope you like it.

77 Canamman · 10-24-2012, 09:21 PM

As usual, superb!

Alvin · 10-30-2012, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stobin

I wanted to post some pictures of the engine pieces I had painted. I wanted to paint the engine components the correct Pontiac Blue metallic to keep the Pontiac vibe under the hood without going overboard. I did have the covers sprayed in two-tone with the grey that I had my frame, firewall, and inner fenders powdercoated. I like the way the grey and blue compliment each other. It's hard to see in the pictures, but there is a fine black detail line seperating the two colors on the covers. I have seen a few intakes painted, so I decided to go for it. The intake really pops. This is all just sitting on the junk longblock for pictures. I hope to have the LS7 finished in a few weeks, and will post the real pictures then. Hope you like it.

I enjoyed watching your driveway chassis YouTube video. Any more videos that you've posted?

stobin · 10-30-2012, 06:51 PM

Thanks. No, don't have any other videos yet. I will most likely make another one after the engine and trans are in the car.

Formulabruce · 10-30-2012, 10:21 PM

Wow!

krisr · 11-01-2012, 12:32 AM

Stobin, have you worked out what you're going to do with regards to engine managment?

If you haven't, i'll just put this here.....

http://www.atomicefi.com/Atomic_LS_I...ion_Video.aspx

stobin · 11-01-2012, 07:08 PM

I have already purchased a complete harness and factory E-38 Z06 computer from Speartech. I learned a valuble lesson last time with aftermarket stuff. Everything that can be factory GM on this build is.

krisr · 11-01-2012, 07:32 PM

Ahh yep, you cannot go wrong with the factory ECU - You going to tune it yourself?

That MSD setup does look quite interesting though and because can be used of either 58x or 24x reluctors is pretty cool. I'd be keen to see how well it survives after some harsh street miles/heat cycles after say a year or 2. I personally think they should have used 2 x wideband sensors but meh, i'm sure they know what they are doing...

stobin · 11-01-2012, 08:37 PM

Only one O2 sensor...that makes no sense. I just drilled my headers and installed O2 sensor bungs in each collector. You may not have seen in the thread, but I am running dual 3" hi-flow catalytic convertors. I will have some more pictures to share this weekend.

stobin · 11-01-2012, 09:18 PM

I had Speartech put a tune in the ECU based on the cam, CR, etc. so that it will run decent until I get the car to the chassis dyno.

Sean

stobin · 11-05-2012, 05:27 PM

I was able to get the headers and cats welded up and fitted into the chassis. The flanges on the cats are 3" stainless three bolts from Pypes. These things are very nice, very high quality. If your looking for flanges, I highly recommend these. They are tig welded on the inside, so no welds are visible. I also welded the O2 bungs into the collectors. I will be using factory GM LS7 sensors. Next up, the existing exhaust needs to be modified to meet up with the new pipes.

stobin · 11-05-2012, 05:29 PM

Here are some pictures of the new transmission crossmember that was required after boxing the frame. It will be a modular piece.The center section will unbolt from the rail mounted pedastals. The cross bar will be 2" square tube, with flat stock running up and over the exhaust. The flat stock is needed because the headers are much closer to the floor on the LS motor, than they were on the Pontiac 455. If you notice there are some small holes drilled into the section that runs over the catalytic convertors. This will allow me to mount heat shields in order to keep the floor from getting cooked by the cats. I have not decided if I want to box the area over the exhaust, or leave it open. If I box it, it will require me to unbolt the rear exhaust section if I need to remove the crossmember. It would be stronger though.

Alvin · 11-05-2012, 06:12 PM

Hey! That's NOT OEM!!!

LOL JK Looking good. Thanks for keeping us posted

Silver Judge · 11-13-2012, 06:34 PM

Boy, you sure have worked hard on this and it shows. Nice work here Stobin

That Grand Am is going to be a beast and for those that don't like LS motor swaps, to heck with 'em.

This sort of reminds me of a Nascar ride, but even better (from the days when Nascar mattered of course)

stobin · 11-18-2012, 08:17 AM

Thanks guys for the positive comments. I am trying to keep up on the postings and always look forward getting feedback positive or not. I am just waiting now to drop the body back on the frame. Looks like the first or second week of December. I will be shooting some video of that to make it more interesting.

stobin · 12-17-2012, 11:57 PM

After a few delays, I was able to remove the old frame, and install the new frame under the Grand Am. I was fortunate enough to bribe eight of my friends and neighbors with free beer and Subway for lunch. It went off without any issues. I had some concerns that the crossmember mounts that are built into the boxed frame area would interfere with the body, but they just cleared enough. Here are some pictures of the frame being removed.

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