GOLDCYLON
10-09-2012, 11:51 AM
As I pencil these notes together I am still working with Dominic (Xfirez51) on the fine tuning. For those who want to venture forward here is my story on my 380. I’ve learned a lot along the way as well as had a lot of hands on with my own car. I enjoy working on my own car but I could have gone nowhere fast without the registry. The car is strong running.
It all started in my quest for parts (Shocker right?). Kevin (Polo-1) was having a fire sale in Jan 2011 and it all started with a simple question, “How much do you want for that crank?” Kevin was planning on keeping it for a short block build and that’s how it happened. A lot of the registry members became involved from that day on.
Having put 60K miles on my car since purchasing it I figured it was time to start discussing the enviable motor exchange, hell I was fast approaching 118K miles. My car was using a lot of oil and filming out the back side via the exhaust. I knew from experience that either the Rings were going or the valve stem seals and hell perhaps both. All I know was the old girl and my daily driver was spending a lot of time at Bill Boudreau’s garage (ZR51 Performance).
Polo-1 and I agreed on a price, options. My target was 450 HP to the rear. We both agreed that would be an easy target to hit since I had already had the top end ported by (Jeff) PNWZR-1 and was running Jeal longtubes and a few other mods. The build would start as I bought his bare block and crank from the fire sale and Kevin was kind enough to allow me to pay about $500 or so every other week. I just wanted to be in C5/C6 territory so the ole C4 would have some respect. Kevin and I agreed a 379 was the best bang for the buck budget stroker motor that Hib has recently been talking about. 368 was been there and done that.. 379 was the way to go and as BIG as you could go without getting into serious cash.
Halfway through settling up for the price of the build. My first roadblock struck!!!!
My daily driver went down hard in MAY of 2011. I rapidly paid Kevin to finish the build while ZR51 Performance figured out had gone wrong. I figured well now was the time. Bill agreed to do the install the plans were set for a Sept 2011 Install. The problem was the butterfly’s screws and attached rods for the secondary system went into the #1 and #3 piston area and wedged a couple of valves open. As incredible as this sounds the same thing happened 6 months ago on the other side. A decision was made to pull the secondary’s immediately. A lot of members have already done this. I had to have heads to work on plus more cams. Cliff (Dynomite) hooked me up there by agreeing to sell me back the original heads and cams that came of my current motor from Polo-1s original fire sale. You can see all that damage here and where the screw hit the top and gnarled the piston and the broken secondary butterfly rod piece.
http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l498/goldcylon/DSC_0748-1.jpg
http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l498/goldcylon/DSC_0754-1.jpg
Communication is key!!!!
Bill was supposed to work on the Heads but he ran into time crunches so my son had just did some LS1 motor and head work done with his LS1 Camaro. He had a couple of friends at a local machine shop so the decision was made to move the heads to that shop. Unknown to me Bill instructed the shop to port the heads to match the Injector housings (All that was supposed to happen was a rebuild and welding over of the secondary system holes). The heads had already started to be ported before I knew it and I went down to see the work and all I could see was aluminum shavings. The shop was wow these are some really big damn heads and this is a lot of work it’s going to take a lot longer. I immediately offered to pay twice the amount I offered. The only thing it really cost me was TIME. In the end I’m doing this again to my own set of heads that are currently on the garage floor. However what was planed for Sept 2011 turned into April 2012
David calls me (ZZZZZR1) and asks me what I am doing about the cams? The plan was nothing until he explained hey about four of us lol well now five have gone with Petes intake cams. So the decision was made to get Petes intake cams only. Pete’s exchange cams were returned for his next shelf customer. All we had to do was wait for the engine to show up and now the heads to be finished.
Greek Tragedy!!!!
ZR51 Performance starts the install in April 2012 and after 15 mins of strong running a thunk is heard and the oil pressure immediately drops. After trouble shooting the oil pump, the oil filter housing, the oil pressure gauge the oil pan is dropped to reveal the horror. My crank had dropped an expansion plug and caused some minor damage to the underside of my new JE Pistons on the back end underside. On the tear down another plug was also partly starting to unseat. Polo-1 asks for the Block back to get the repair done and get all the expansion plugs welded in position like he had done in his last 402 build. Jerry (A26B) sells me his last 91 Oil pump to make sure I have no future problems.
It’s decided to drive the car up to Washington State. ZR51 Performance mated my all new top end to my old bottom end to make the journey. It took me two days to get there with a night stay in Elko Nevada and the night I arrived after dinner we had the engine out in less than 3.5 hrs. We took the time to do a few wire repairs, Add a few mods and started the engine install process a few days later. Everything was back together. Dominic recommended using an Ostrich II Prom emulator until we could get the tuning close. The install was done by Jeff, Kevin, Sam, Peter and his son and I.
Success !!!!
What did I learn along the way? A few hard lessons but more importantly how important the friendships I have built along the way in this club are simply priceless. GC
http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l498/goldcylon/IMG_0691.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y292/kpie/IMG_2750.jpg
LT5 Porn!!!!
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y292/kpie/IMG_2746.jpg
Kevin (Polo-1) with his build 380ci LT5 11.75:1 add another .4 due to Marc Haibecks Cometic Head Gaskets so 12:15:1 ish? I have a theory that maybe that much compression had a play in the crank plug the first time around??? Whos knows lessons learned weld everything in the crank area !!!
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y292/kpie/IMG_2868.jpg
It all started in my quest for parts (Shocker right?). Kevin (Polo-1) was having a fire sale in Jan 2011 and it all started with a simple question, “How much do you want for that crank?” Kevin was planning on keeping it for a short block build and that’s how it happened. A lot of the registry members became involved from that day on.
Having put 60K miles on my car since purchasing it I figured it was time to start discussing the enviable motor exchange, hell I was fast approaching 118K miles. My car was using a lot of oil and filming out the back side via the exhaust. I knew from experience that either the Rings were going or the valve stem seals and hell perhaps both. All I know was the old girl and my daily driver was spending a lot of time at Bill Boudreau’s garage (ZR51 Performance).
Polo-1 and I agreed on a price, options. My target was 450 HP to the rear. We both agreed that would be an easy target to hit since I had already had the top end ported by (Jeff) PNWZR-1 and was running Jeal longtubes and a few other mods. The build would start as I bought his bare block and crank from the fire sale and Kevin was kind enough to allow me to pay about $500 or so every other week. I just wanted to be in C5/C6 territory so the ole C4 would have some respect. Kevin and I agreed a 379 was the best bang for the buck budget stroker motor that Hib has recently been talking about. 368 was been there and done that.. 379 was the way to go and as BIG as you could go without getting into serious cash.
Halfway through settling up for the price of the build. My first roadblock struck!!!!
My daily driver went down hard in MAY of 2011. I rapidly paid Kevin to finish the build while ZR51 Performance figured out had gone wrong. I figured well now was the time. Bill agreed to do the install the plans were set for a Sept 2011 Install. The problem was the butterfly’s screws and attached rods for the secondary system went into the #1 and #3 piston area and wedged a couple of valves open. As incredible as this sounds the same thing happened 6 months ago on the other side. A decision was made to pull the secondary’s immediately. A lot of members have already done this. I had to have heads to work on plus more cams. Cliff (Dynomite) hooked me up there by agreeing to sell me back the original heads and cams that came of my current motor from Polo-1s original fire sale. You can see all that damage here and where the screw hit the top and gnarled the piston and the broken secondary butterfly rod piece.
http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l498/goldcylon/DSC_0748-1.jpg
http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l498/goldcylon/DSC_0754-1.jpg
Communication is key!!!!
Bill was supposed to work on the Heads but he ran into time crunches so my son had just did some LS1 motor and head work done with his LS1 Camaro. He had a couple of friends at a local machine shop so the decision was made to move the heads to that shop. Unknown to me Bill instructed the shop to port the heads to match the Injector housings (All that was supposed to happen was a rebuild and welding over of the secondary system holes). The heads had already started to be ported before I knew it and I went down to see the work and all I could see was aluminum shavings. The shop was wow these are some really big damn heads and this is a lot of work it’s going to take a lot longer. I immediately offered to pay twice the amount I offered. The only thing it really cost me was TIME. In the end I’m doing this again to my own set of heads that are currently on the garage floor. However what was planed for Sept 2011 turned into April 2012
David calls me (ZZZZZR1) and asks me what I am doing about the cams? The plan was nothing until he explained hey about four of us lol well now five have gone with Petes intake cams. So the decision was made to get Petes intake cams only. Pete’s exchange cams were returned for his next shelf customer. All we had to do was wait for the engine to show up and now the heads to be finished.
Greek Tragedy!!!!
ZR51 Performance starts the install in April 2012 and after 15 mins of strong running a thunk is heard and the oil pressure immediately drops. After trouble shooting the oil pump, the oil filter housing, the oil pressure gauge the oil pan is dropped to reveal the horror. My crank had dropped an expansion plug and caused some minor damage to the underside of my new JE Pistons on the back end underside. On the tear down another plug was also partly starting to unseat. Polo-1 asks for the Block back to get the repair done and get all the expansion plugs welded in position like he had done in his last 402 build. Jerry (A26B) sells me his last 91 Oil pump to make sure I have no future problems.
It’s decided to drive the car up to Washington State. ZR51 Performance mated my all new top end to my old bottom end to make the journey. It took me two days to get there with a night stay in Elko Nevada and the night I arrived after dinner we had the engine out in less than 3.5 hrs. We took the time to do a few wire repairs, Add a few mods and started the engine install process a few days later. Everything was back together. Dominic recommended using an Ostrich II Prom emulator until we could get the tuning close. The install was done by Jeff, Kevin, Sam, Peter and his son and I.
Success !!!!
What did I learn along the way? A few hard lessons but more importantly how important the friendships I have built along the way in this club are simply priceless. GC
http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l498/goldcylon/IMG_0691.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y292/kpie/IMG_2750.jpg
LT5 Porn!!!!
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y292/kpie/IMG_2746.jpg
Kevin (Polo-1) with his build 380ci LT5 11.75:1 add another .4 due to Marc Haibecks Cometic Head Gaskets so 12:15:1 ish? I have a theory that maybe that much compression had a play in the crank plug the first time around??? Whos knows lessons learned weld everything in the crank area !!!
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y292/kpie/IMG_2868.jpg